Morning Coffee Looks West
As Texas fans anxiously wait on the edge of their seats for Sunday night's 7:00 p.m. BCS Selection Show hardwood tipoff with UCLA, some good and bad news last night from Westwood. On the bright side, UCLA defeated George Washington 83-60, ensuring they'll still be ranked #1 when Texas visits this weekend. On the downside, point guard Darren Collison returned to the floor for UCLA, helping the Bruins put together what was easily their most impressive offensive effort of the season.
Without Collison, UCLA had labored through their schedule a bit, winning with suffocating defense and enough offense. With Collison, the Bruins can get transition buckets that help supplement Howland's underwhelming half court sets. That's a problem near and dear to Longhorn fans hearts, of course; if Rick Barnes has a weakness, it is teaching half court offense.
In some sense, then, this will be a battle of the point guards, with each team needing their floor leader to play well to keep the team in a scoring rhythm. The difference, though, is that if this game turns into any kind of a grinder, the advantages are all with the Bruins. They outsize Texas, inside and out. They play much better defense than Texas, inside and out.
AW says he's skeptical about the 'Horns chances in LA on Sunday. Truth be told, so am I. It's hard to picture Texas beating a team like UCLA right now, given their size, rebounding, and defense. Nonetheless, the two most important games on the Longhorns' schedule this year are this one and Michigan State, where Texas can face a big, physical team and learn how to deal with it. If Texas is going to make a March run this year, it will have to be better prepared for that kind of team.
Mentioned in a comment thread was this story from TexasSports, with details on the "Ticket Marketplace" for Longhorns hoops. Longhorn ticket holders who won't be able to attend games can now sell their tickets for up to face value in the online market. Sort of like StubHub, except without a profit.
This is great, of course, but I'm mystified that I'm just now learning about this on November 29th. This mirrors the Midnight Madness tipoff at Gregory Gym that AW and I learned about moments before it began. Memo to TexasSports PR: do a better job getting the word out. Students have complained to us that they didn't hear about the Stampede this year, didn't hear about the Midnight Madness, and didn't know about this online marketplace. It's great that Texas is doing a better job with new programs to promote attendance, but those do require, you know, promotion. If AW and I - who comb sites for this kind of stuff - are late to hear about it, you're not doing a very good job.
Mum's the word on any substantive changes to the football program, but the PR Machine stops for no one. Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra check in with a visit to Longhorn football practice.
Again, I hate to be so cynical, but my view on this is well known: there's no need for a full-fledged press conference, but some sort of update for fans would be a wise move. As is, the next time we hear from Mack Brown it will be next Monday morning as we accept our invitation to the Holiday Bowl.
Remember this? That will be our news story on Monday, subbing Holiday for Alamo.
--PB--
0 recs |
13 comments
Comments
AAAANNnnd Just Like That...
... we're a basketball school.
Damn.
by littlerearl on Nov 29, 2007 12:40 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
update
I'm not sure that there is anything to update ("Umm, we lost to A&M for the second straight year and are awaiting our bowl game"). There's not much else to say. Plus, any kind of staff shakeup would only happen after the bowl game anyway.
by Jason Mayer on Nov 29, 2007 2:34 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
Fan mentality
There's definitely little substantive to say. And I admit that I could be wrong about this, but I still think:
- The MB-TF website is an absolute machine during the season, especially during good times, pumping up the program, and so on.
- As it should be. Fans want immediate access, and MB-TF is smart to talk directly to them.
- It's odd, after a season ending loss, to have that reaching out dry up.
- It's helpful, if you're MB-TF, to think about what the fan perception right now is.
- Fan perception right now is: Mack Brown's weaknesses have hurt this team over the last two years.
- One of Mack's biggest weaknesses is an unwillingness to face the music and to insulate from criticism.
Given 1-6, why not get out there and say something? Will it be truly substantive/meaningful? Not really. Would it be helpful? I'd argue that a properly crafted message would be.
Namely (short version): The results of this season were not up to the standards I expect, the players expect, and the fans expect. We did not do well enough in A, B, C (specifics). The staff will be working on addressing those for Texas' bowl game, and solutions for 2008 and beyond will be considered after that time."
That would, at the least, silence those who think Mack Brown insulates himself from criticism and wants to paint a too rosy picture of reality.
I might be wrong about this, and welcome rebuttals, but that's my thought process.
by Peter Bean on Nov 29, 2007 3:41 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
what you say is
The season ending results are not what I want, what our players want, or what our fans want. We are going to continue working to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Right now, we're making preparations for bowl games, and working on recruiting and securing the future of our football program.
We look forward to the bowl game, and hope as many texas fans as possible will make the trip.
You can't expect for a coach to go into specifics about exactly what went wrong with a season or what coaching changes will be made (that won't happen until after the bowl game, btw). That stuff is best done behind closed doors.
by Beergut on Nov 30, 2007 4:23 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Sunday out west.
The question in my mind is can the horns play as well on the road at UCLA as they did in New Jersey against the Vols?
UCLA is a better team than Tennessee which the Horns beat by 19 points.
Just looking at Ken Pomeroy 's Efficiency stats you see Texas is #1 in offense and #64 in defense.
UCLA on the other hand is #64 in offense and #2 in defense. So it stacks up our best in the country Offense against their second best defense and on the other side of the ball our #64 defense against their #64 offense.
An interesting look at more Pomeroy stats shows that of the his top 20 teams 11 are in the top 20 in defense. Of the top 20 12 are in the top 20 in offense. What win games, good defense or good offense?
I am betting that in this situation of 2 balanced sides that what might be a deciding factor is point guard play. A good defense is most effective against an offense with out good ball handling. Having an excellent ball handling point guard negates some of the aspects that makes a good defense what it is.
Augustin's skill and confidence will be the facet of the game that will give the advantage to the horns
by Xerxes on Nov 29, 2007 3:59 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
My guess:
Whichever team scores the most points, wins.
by SelimSivad on Nov 29, 2007 5:41 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
You should have a little trumpet fanfare
embedded for that. heh
by whills on Nov 29, 2007 5:57 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Hey
John Madden, is that you?
by goingforthecorner on Nov 29, 2007 11:33 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Nomahhh
No PB, please be cynical because the timing of that article was worse than ridiculous, it was insulting...if Bill Little wasn't the Longhorn SID, he'd be a fluffer.
"Hey Longhorn SID, you've got 100,000 irate Texas fans and a coach that won't talk to the media about the colossal failure that was this season. What do you do, what do you do...
"You get Mia and Nomar to stop by and talk about how much they enjoyed the 2005 National Championship. Yea!"
I don’t know about you, but I feel better now...
At least Jerry Jones didn't hide behind some fluff piece when his team was losing in the late 90s, he simply said, "hey Cowboys fans, did you enjoy those 3 super bowls, I hope you enjoyed them very much."
Man, how bad is this off-season going to suck?
by 54b on Nov 30, 2007 10:07 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
Maybe we should be a basketball school
Swap with Kansas or something.
by Peter Bean on Nov 30, 2007 11:30 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Fran already tried to do this to us
force us into becoming a basketball school
Problem is, Fall comes around, and that prolate spheroid starts calling to you, it's calling to you, man.
by Beergut on Nov 30, 2007 4:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Rugby...
Rugby balls are prolate spheroids.
Footballs are a specific kind of oval of revolution, though even calling it an oval is sketchy, since being an oval requires no sharp points. I'd venture that the ideal football is rounded at the ends, though, which makes oval of revolution appropriate.
GLOIVEN GLooyven!
by Horn Brain on Dec 1, 2007 2:19 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
I think The Turtle
thinks he did his job when he wrote that little "Wow, it's been a crazy season, huh?" piece earlier this week.
That's all the explanation you texas fans get :0p
by Beergut on Nov 30, 2007 4:28 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs























