Morning Coffee
by Peter Bean on Mar 25, 2007 8:17 PM CDT
in Texas Longhorns Basketball
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Let's start with the NCAA tournament, where we finally got an exciting regional final in the fourth and final game of the weekend. Georgetown closed the game with a 31-9 run (including overtime), erasing a 10 point deficit and holding the Tar Heels to just two made field goals in their final 23 attempts. What changed? Three things, really. First, Georgetown started guarding star forward Tyler Hansbrough with Big East Player of the Year Jeff Green. A tremendous athlete and supremely controlled defender, Green held his ground against Hasbrough, didn't allow him to make any double moves, and forced him to operate farther from the basket. Second, after Hansbrough's production slowed, the Tar Heels inexplicably started launching a steady stream of deep shots. In doing so, they went away from the interior-oriented attack that had built their ten point lead in the first place. And third, the Hoyas started controlling the defensive boards, limiting UNC to one-and-done possessions. Add it all up, and Roy Williams must be kicking himself for not getting his team to refocus their attack on the interior. It likely cost the Tar Heels the game. Big congratulations to all my Hoya friends. See you in Atlanta?
Turning now to the baseball diamond, where Texas took two out of three from Kansas State over the weekend to improve their record to 22-8 overall and 5-1 in Big 12 play. On Friday, Texas banged out 10 runs on 12 hits - including home runs from Bradley Suttle, Kyle Russell, and Preston Clark - to beat the Wildcats 10-3. Big lefty James Russell continued to pitch outstandingly for the 'Horns, picking up the win with eight strong innings of pitching. On Saturday, Texas erupted for season highs in hits (17) and runs (14) - including Kyle Russell's 15th bomb of the season - to blow out Kansas State 14-3. Adrian Alaniz improved to 7-1 with seven impressive shut out innings. On Sunday, Texas' bullpen stumbled, with Randy Boone allowing five runs and taking the loss, helping Kansas State avoid the sweep with a 11-9 victory. The 'Horns will play Rice on Tuesday night at 6:05 p.m.
If you're not attending next Saturday's spring football scrimmage, may I encourage you to join the Gregory Gazelles at Zilker Park for their intra-squad round robin doubles tournament on the sand volleyball courts? From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., tall college girls in bikinis will entertain the masses. Should be fun times.
The lead from this story got my attention:
For one thing, that's bad news for Tarell Brown, who was arrested last Thursday for the second time in seven months on marijuana possession. Brown reportedly ran a 40 in the 4.3s during UT's pro timing day last week, so he'll still get drafted, but two arrests in a calendar year will scare off a number of potential suitors. Just dumb.
Goodell's decision to prioritize players who get in trouble with the law probably shouldn't surprise us, and I'd guess that Goodell likely will push a "clean up the league's image" campaign much the same way David Stern has for the last two years. Players would be wise to take note.
--PB--
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Did anyone see the Roy Williams press conference?
He was sobbing and crying about how he'd love for his guys to be the ones cutting down the nets, just like the Gtown guys (or something like that). He blubbered on for a few minutes with his lip quivering -- and talked about the disappointment of losing.
Roy looked like one of those kids in the little league world series after a loss, with tears streaming down their face, while searching for the comforting arms of mom.
I know he's an emotional dude and all, but how embarrassing for UNC fans.
The game was incredible. UNC blew it by jacking up all those 3's. I'm not saying that if they fed their big men it would have won, but by not trying to get the ball down low they took thmmelves completely out of the game.
Roy deserves a little of that blame, but he DID just win an NC two years ago.
williams is a great coach, but...
he deserves a lot of the blame for this loss. UNC dominated most of the game (with an assist from the officials).
But when georgetown went on that massive run, UNC stopped feeding Hansbrough, who was getting to the free throw line every time anyone breathed on him, and started jacking up 3's. Part of it may have been a good adjustment on JT3's part, putting Jeff Green on Hansbrough when Hibbert and Ewing got in foul trouble. Green only had 1 foul so he could be more aggressive in denying Hansbrough the ball in the first place, but you have to slow down the pace in that situation and pound the ball inside if you're UNC.
I don't know whether Roy Williams was telling the team to do that or not, but they sure weren't doing it.
Appropriate criticism
If you were the Sports Guy, you could just throw Williams under the bus and call him a professional choke artist who's stifling the potential of his future NBAers.
In fact, I fully expect to see that in his next hoops blog entry. If I bother to read it.
Crucial Week for Baseball
They take on arch-rival Rice, which somehow is still ranked one slot ahead of Texas on the new Baseball America poll http://www.baseballamerica.com/today... in spite of losing to the Aggies and one of three to Southern Miss. I guess if we had swept the Wildcats we would have gotten enough votes to displace Rice, but now we have a chance to prove we're the better team.
Then on the weekend there's a critical matchup at the Disch when the #17 Sooners come to town. The Sooners just took 2 of 3 from the Aggies in Norman.
Texas leads the Big XII at 5-1, though OU, OSU and Mizzou all have only played one weekend series and all have 2-1 records. The Aggies and Huskers are in the middle of the pack at 3-3 and 2-4, respectively. Texas can put an early stranglehold on the conference race with a sweep of the Sooners, given that aTm and NU are looking mortal, leaving the only real challenging road test in Stillwater.
by patienthornsfan on Mar 26, 2007 2:51 PM CDT reply actions
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