Texas 85, Texas State 49

by awiggo on Dec 22, 2005 11:00 PM CST in News

Texas cruised to an 85-49 win over Texas State in front of 7,334 largely quiet and bored fans. Even without Brad Buckman, Mike Williams, and JD Lewis, the Bobcats were significantly overmatched. The Horns opened the game on a 13-0 run and never looked back.

Texas got back in the win column after two embarrassing losses over the last two weeks. Texas had been plagued by poor defense, turnovers, and inconsistency on offense in each of those two games. Rick Barnes' club looked much better on Thursday night, albeit against an inferior opponent. Texas held Texas State to just 27.8% shooting from the floor while shooting 48% themselves, including 60% in the second half. Texas controlled their turnovers better as well. The Longhorns coughed up the ball just seven times while forcing 15 Bobcat turnovers.

Texas was led by strong performances from Lamarcus Aldridge (21 points, 14 rebounds) and PJ Tucker (17 points, 9 rebounds). Daniel Gibson started the game hot by hitting his first two three pointers but finished with just 15 points on 4-15 shooting (just 3-13 from three). Gibson also had four assists and four turnovers. AJ Abrams got his first collegiate start at point guard. Abrams had a productive game with 11 points, five assists, and just two turnovers. I am still predicting Abrams will join the staring lineup permanently.

Next game: Prairie View A&M on Friday December 30th at 7 PM.

--AW--

Tweet Comment 6 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

13?

That's too many threes from Gibson.

His slow start to the year is most perplexing. What's going on, Wiggo? Is he struggling to find his role with this group?

by Peter Bean on Dec 22, 2005 11:02 PM CST reply actions

3 Balls

Texas State didn't have the size to control Aldridge or the strength to matchup with Tucker. So they played a very collapsed 2-3 zone for much of the game. It was difficult to feed the post. Aldridge was double and triple teamed most of the game. He wasn't too involved in the offense. I think LA took only three shots in the first half. The second reason why we took so many 3s was who we had on the floor. Without Buckman and Williams, we went to a three guard lineup: Abrams, Gibson, and Paulino. So, we have three guards who think they can shoot from 3 and a collapsed zone taking away our post players. We were impatient in the first half, and just jacked up three after three. We did a much better job getting the ball to LA in the second half.

Gibson was a scoring point guard in high school and was asked to score last year after Tucker and Aldridge went out. It is not that Gibson can't play a true point guard position (create and pass first, shoot second), but it will take time for him to become that type of guard if that is what Barnes wants. If he is asking Gibson to score, then put him at the shooting guard and let Abrams run the point.

So to answer your question, Gibson is struggling to find his role. And I still don't think that role is particularly clear.

Lucky for us this is basketball and the best team in December is not always the best team in March. I still have faith in Barnes and in Gibson.

--AW--

by awiggo on Dec 22, 2005 11:43 PM CST reply actions

Agree

I think that's right, Drew. I'm not going to buy into some crackpot theory that Gibson now sucks. I think he's clearly struggling to find his role within this new (Aldridge-centered) team.

I fault Barnes for not getting this rotation to understand how to play with one another, but part of it is simply a matter of an awkward situation. I'm sure we'll grow into our new roles with time, but I can't say that Barnes has done a particularly good job getting us from 'A' to 'B'.

We'll be fine by March, but this team still has a lot of work to do. Memphis looms large.

by Peter Bean on Dec 22, 2005 11:54 PM CST up reply actions

Umm, no offense, but ...

Wake me up in March when it's time to fill out my bracket

by FreedomDip on Dec 23, 2005 10:09 AM CST reply actions

very little disagreement from me

Shot selection has got to be the first thing on the mind of a Point guard. Get the ball to the player that can do the most with it. Gibson has loads of talent but he doesn't seem to be able to develop this kind of on court judgement.

Texas State was crap and Gibson played only a little better than he did against grest team like Duke.

Aldridge by comparison had a great game which you would expect against a team that lacks the skills like TS.

Tucker shot .666 and scored 16 points in 11 shots.

Aldridge shot .777 and scored 14 points on 9 shots.

Gibson shot .266 and scored 11 points on 15 shots.

Aldridge and Tucker shot those percentages even though TS had 3 of 4 players sagging in the middle.

Somebody, Oh Somebody! try to get the message through the guards heads that on offence jacking up a bunch of 3's is beyond stupid with the talent Texas has in the front Court.

xerxes

by Xerxes on Dec 23, 2005 1:06 PM CST reply actions

And...

Despite only having two players on thw bench, UT outscored TxSt's bench 30-12.

Abrahms and Aldridge played well. Tucker still plays like a 'tweener, unsure if he is a big man or a wing. Oh...and Atchley was actually cleaning some windows against TxSt, but also was shooting outside the perimeter too much