Just a day after dispatching the OSU Cowboys for the third time this season, Texas looks to finish off a six-game sweep of the state of Oklahoma when they face the Sooners in the Big 12 semifinals. While OU holds a 4-1 advantage in games against Texas that are played in the league tournament, the Longhorns have won five straight overall against their rivals.

The first two match-ups

When the teams first met in early February up in Norman, the Longhorns started out cold as ice. They shot only 25% in the first half and trailed by double-digits before turning up the defensive intensity in the second half and cruising to a 64-54 win. That game was played without Longar Longar down low for Oklahoma, which was a surprise for a Texas team that had game-planned to face him.

The second game was all about defense for Texas, as they absolutely shut down the Sooners en route to a 62-45 victory. Even with poor shooting crippling the usually efficient Longhorn offense, the excellent play on D kept Texas in control the entire way. The post defense was particularly solid, which is key against an OU team that excels down low. Alexis Wangemene played incredibly well against Longar Longar in that one, and Texas fans can expect to see quite a few minutes out of him again today if Gary Johnson isn’t playing.

What to look for

Fans who want to a refresher course on the Sooner players can revisit the game preview from the first match-up. The biggest difference today will be the availability and effectiveness of big man Blake Griffin, who is fighting through yet another injury.

The younger Griffin brother did not start in yesterday’s game — Cade Davis took his slot in the starting five — but he did play 15 minutes in the game. He struggled against a solid Colorado defense that would immediately swarm him with a double or triple-team as soon as he touched the ball, and he finished with only four points. He was still an absolute beast on the glass though, grabbing nine boards in his limited minutes.

If Griffin is playing that poorly today, it could be a very long afternoon for Oklahoma. Texas has a huge advantage at the guard position, so Coach Jeff Capel will have to hope that they can abuse the Longhorns inside. If they are relying mostly on Longar, Taylor Griffin, and Davis, they will find that much more difficult.

Yesterday’s post-game interviews on Kansas City sports radio revealed the Sooners to be resigned to the scoring threat of D.J. Augustin. Griffin said that they cannot stop him, only hope to contain him. He also added that the key for Oklahoma will be to ensure that Damion James, A.J. Abrams, and Connor Atchley don’t have big games while they are trying to limit Augustin.

A word for TV viewers

If you’re in a “Big 12 market,” finding today’s game could be confusing for you. The ESPN2 telecast is only being shown in the rest of the country, while those of us in the Big 12 area will have to find the game on ESPN Plus. While this is usually just the same channel you’ve watched when the Longhorns play teams like Iowa State and Colorado, you’ll want to check your local listings to make sure you’ve got the right one set on the DVR. For the rest of you burnt-orange faithful elsewhere in the nation, you can enjoy Ron Franklin, Fran Fraschilla, and Holly Rowe on the ESPN2 telecast.

In the two previous meetings this season, the Oklahoma State Cowboys took the Texas Longhorns to the wire. When they first met in Stillwater, it was only a 63-61 victory for the Longhorns, while the margin in Austin was a slightly more comfortable seven-point spread. So when the teams met in Kansas City yesterday, Sean Sutton’s team wasn’t daunted by the fact that they were only a 9-seed taking on the league champions. They knew they could hang with Texas, and it showed.

After the Longhorns sprinted out to a 9-3 lead, the Pokes went on a 10-0 run to jump on top and get the entire arena rooting for their upset bid. The rest of the first half was a repeat of the first few minutes, with Texas rebuilding a seven-point lead, yet finding itself down by a point at half following a Terrel Harris three with two seconds left.

The second half was a completely different story, though. The Texas defense — which seemed to confuse the hell out of OSU with a 2-3 zone — held the Pokes scoreless for nearly the first eight minutes of the half, by which point the Longhorns were already up by eleven.

But as had been the case all season for Rick Barnes and company, they could not shake Okie State. The Pokes clawed back over the final 8:02 of the game, chipping away at a 13-point advantage. After an Obi Muonelo layup with just two minutes left, OSU was down just five, and the late-arriving crowd of 19,000 was smelling Longhorn blood. But with Jayhawks, Wildcats, Aggies, Sooners, and even the Colorado band pulling for the Pokes, the Texas defense stiffened up and stopped the comeback short.

The stars of the game for Texas were most certainly D.J. Augustin and Damion James. At one point early in the second half, Texas led by a 37-33 count. Thirty of those points came from Augustin and James. On the day, the pair combined for 47, while James pulled down 11 boards and added a highlight-reel block.

While Connor Atchley had a really rough start to the day, his second-half contributions were huge. The junior’s shot was way off, and he even airballed a free throw. But his scrappy play inside led to some key putbacks in the second twenty, and his four blocks were integral to shutting down the Pokes. He even hustled on the loose balls, getting Texas an extra possession by reaching around an OSU player to throw it off of him along the sideline.

The negative from this win was the unfortunate injury to Gary Johnson in the first half, which initially looked like some kind of knee problem, but is apparently an ankle injury. After he headed to the locker room, he wasn’t seen again until second-half warm-ups, at which point he was walking around with a soft cast or brace wrapped around the ankle. Mark Rosner from the Austin-American Statesman reported in his blog yesterday afternoon that x-rays were negative, so Gary should be ready to go soon. But with the big tourney just a week away, I hope we keep the kid on the bench for the one or two games left and rest him up for the ones that truly matter.

The silver lining in Gary’s injury was a really solid day from Alexis Wangmene. Oklahoma State was absolutely abusing Texas on the offensive glass, grabbing nine rebounds off of their own misses in the first half. Coach Barnes went big in response, running only two guards out there to help fight off the Pokes. But without Johnson on the floor and Dexter Pittman getting yanked after about 0.004 seconds of play, the bulk of the load fell on Lex’s shoulders. And while he did pick up quite a few fouls, he ate up 14 minutes for Texas and added an inside hoop and pair of rebounds.

A win is really nothing more than stat padding at this point for the Horns, because it seems hard to believe that even a Big 12 Tournament title can get them a 1-seed in the NCAAs. The Selection Committee has made it painfully clear that they don’t pay attention to the B12 championship, and who can blame them when it ends just before the brackets are announced? Add that to the fact that UCLA, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Memphis are all winning the games they are supposed to in their own conference tourneys, and there doesn’t seem to be room for Texas or the Jayhawks to slide up a line.

Regardless, the Horns will march on and look for another confidence-boosting W today against the Oklahoma Sooners. Game preview will be coming your way shortly, as we’ve got to head out early in case the shuttle lines are lengthy. As was the case yesterday, enjoy the wall-to-wall hoops action, and check back here all afternoon as I’ve set the website to post some pre-written content throughout the day.

It’s quarterfinal Friday in the Big 12, so by the time you’re viewing this we’ll be knocking back drinks in the Power & Light District after what is hopefully a Longhorn victory. Today we bring you the seventh-most exciting buzzer beater in NCAA tournament history…or at least since the advent of television.

Number seven comes from the 1992 second-round game between 7-seed Georgia Tech and 2-seed Southern Cal. The Trojans led 78-76 with only 0.8 seconds standing between them and the Sweet 16. But the Yellow Jackets had one final play remaining, with the inbounds pass coming from nearly half-court…

The Yellow Jackets would go on to lose to Memphis State (now Memphis) in the following round, but James Forrest’s miracle three-pointer earned a place not only in Georgia Tech history, but March Madness lore.

Not a ton of time to preview this morning’s game, but considering this is the third time that Oklahoma State and Texas have tangled this season, that’s probably not a big deal. If you need a refresher on the Cowboy roster or the style of hoops that they employ, you can take a look back at the game preview from the first match-up.

As we pointed out in the preview of the second game just five days ago, the biggest cause for the resurgence of Sean Sutton’s team is the play of chubster point guard Byron Eaton. As he goes, so go the Cowboys, so the Longhorns must shut him down this morning.

I’m incredibly worried about this game, but not because it has any real implications on the tournament. It appears that Texas is pretty well locked into a 2-seed for the Big Dance, as it would be nearly impossible to work their way up to the 1-seed line, and their résumé is too good to drop to a 3-seed with one loss in the tournament.

But we’ve all heard the tired refrain of how hard it is to beat the same team three times in a year, and last season’s insane comeback against Baylor was proof enough of the validity of that aphorism. OSU has taken Texas to the wire twice this year, and today’s game will likely mimic a road atmosphere as everyone in the arena will be rooting for the top seed to fall. Add to that the fact that the Horns haven’t played very well in early games (see: Wisconsin Dec ’07, Baylor Jan ’07) and there’s cause for concern.

We’re going to prep the next buzzer-beater for the countdown so that it will post between the morning and evening sessions, but we’ll be in downtown KC until late tonight. So, post-game and notes from the tourney won’t come until the wee hours. In the meantime, enjoy the wall-to-wall hoops action.

Just forty-five minutes shy of midnight, we finally arrived in Kansas City — well, Leawood, Kansas, to be precise — ready for tomorrow’s games, but carrying heavy hearts. On Thursday, March 13th at roughly 12:30 P.M., the hardy and well-traveled Road-trip-mobile finally died.

I suppose technically it’s still alive. But after exiting the highway in Crandall, Texas, it refused to hit anything higher than 1000 RPM. The car lurched and groaned, protesting against the short quarter-mile I still needed it to travel. It sputtered down the tiny back-country road at a painful crawl that makes ghost riding the whip look like a high-speed chase. Inch by inch we trudged towards Austin’s house, fingers crossed that I wouldn’t have to push the heap the rest of the way. And by the time I finally coasted into the driveway, Suri Cruise was a legal adult.

But thankfully Grant had driven cross-state from Lubbock to meet me, and we switched cars for the rest of the journey. I’m not sure how we’ll get the thing back to Austin, or how I’ll get to work next week, or even how we’ll travel to the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. But I do know that there’s three days of exciting basketball ahead of us, and that’s what I’m looking forward to.

So let’s take a moment of silence for a good car. Whether the destination was Dallas, Austin, Spokane, Manhattan, Oklahoma City, Ames, Lawrence (twice), College Station (thrice), Atlanta (twice), Norman (thrice), Stillwater (four times), or just Hut’s Hamburgers down on West 6th, the Road-trip-mobile got the job done. And that’s more than I can say for Lindsay Lohan’s publicist.