Gary Johnson Debuts Against TCU
by awiggo on Jan 1, 2008 10:26 PM CST
in Texas Longhorns Basketball
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PrintThe #14 Texas Longhorns (11-2) will look to steady the ship this afternoon as TCU (8-4) visit the Erwin Center for a 4 p.m tip. The game will be televised by Fox Sports Southwest in Texas only and is also available via ESPN Full Court.
After starting the season 11-0 and reaching #4 in the national polls, the Horns have dropped back to back contests against physical Big Ten opponents that forced Rick Barnes’ club into half-court affairs. It is unlikely that this afternoon’s game will look anything like the last two games with Michigan State and Wisconsin. The Horned Frogs have nine players averaging more than a dozen minutes per contest and have scored more than 75 point in each of their eight victories. This afternoon’s game should be played at an up tempo pace that will be ideal for the debut of freshman Gary Johnson.
TCU This Season
The Horned Frogs have played well at home but poorly on the road this season. For the year, they are 8-1 in Fort Worth and a winless 0-3 on the road. After starting the season with four straight wins (Angelo State, Rice, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Grambling State), TCU dropped three straight. TCU lost by 13 points at Texas Tech, by 24 points at home to Oklahoma, and by six points at SMU. The Frogs did rebound nicely to run off four straight over lesser competition before falling at Rice on December 29th. The Owls overcame a 15 point half time deficit to defeat the Horned Frogs in that one. Most shocking, Rice outrebounded TCU by 28! If Texas with the addition of Gary Johnson doesn’t dominate the boards this afternoon, I will be very disappointed.
Horned Frogs
The most consistent Horned Frog this season has been 6-4 junior guard Henry Salter. Salter has scored in double figures in every game but one and leads the team in scoring at 14.9 ppg and in rebounding at 6.1 rpg. He is a 49% three-point shooter and a 49% foul shooter. Odd. Salter will be a tough matchup for Damion James on the perimeter.
Kevin Langford, a 6-8 junior forward and brother of former Kansas Jayhawk Keith Langford, provides TCU with its best inside scoring threat. Langford is averaging 14.3 ppg and 5.1 rpg and has scored in double figures in each of the last nine games, including a season-high 31 points against Prairie View A&M two weeks ago.
The final Horned Frog averaging double figures in scoring is 6-2 guard Brent Hackett. Hackett is another threat to score from behind the arc and isn’t afraid to launch it. He has shot ten or more three-pointers five times already this season, yet is shooting only 30% on the year.
The last two TCU starters are 6-9 forward Alvarado Parker and 6-0 freshman point guard Mike Scott. As mentioned previously, TCU is a very deep team. No player averages more than 27 minutes. In contrast, all five Texas starters average more than 30 minutes per game.
Ken Pomeroy
TCU is an average offensive team and a pretty bad defensive team according to Pomeroy’s statistics. The Horned Frogs are not a good shooting team from inside or outside the arc and are terrible from the free throw line (61%). The one area that is impressive is their turnover percentage. TCU is coughing up the ball on only 18% of their possessions, good for a top-25 ranking nationally. If TCU is able to knock down some threes and hold on to the ball, they could keep things close for a half.
Predictably, the TCU defense has been decent in their wins and horrible in their losses. In each of their four losses they have allowed their opponents to score a point per possession or more. During their eight wins, that has happened just once. Conversely, Texas has scored more than a point per possession in every game this season and, despite recent offensive woes, still leads the country in adjusted offensive efficiency.
Keys to the Game:
(1) Get Gary Johnson Involved Early: While Johnson has been practicing with the team for months, this will mark his season debut in an actual game. It will be easy for AJ Abrams, DJ Augustin, and Damion James to forget about Johnson and continue their perimeter assault on the basket. Texas should try to feed the ball to Gary early and often. TCU is not going to beat Texas, so let’s see start to develop a low post scoring option from the opening tip.
(2) Quality Minutes from the Bench : Justin Mason will not start for the first time this afternoon and will be able to spell DJ, AJ, and Damion at any of the three backcourt positions. Playing all three of them for 35+ minutes every game will no longer be necessary. But the bigger need from the bench will be quality minutes from Alexis Wangmene, Clint Chapman, and Dexter Pittman. Connor Atchley has been playing a high number of minutes as well, and it is unreasonable to expect Johnson to play more than 25 minutes in his first game. Wangmene looks fine on defense but lost on offense, Chapman’s minutes have diminished because he is no longer rebounding effectively, and Dex is still hit or miss on both ends. The addition of Johnson makes the Horns a legit six deep, but Rick Barnes is surely hoping to be seven or eight deep during conference play and in March.
(3) Defend the Three-Pointer: Unless TCU gets hot from long range, this game will be over by halftime. Expect to see Texas play less zone and more man-to-man in this one. Man defense allows the Horns to defend the three-pointer easier and grab defensive rebounds, while also keeping the pace of the game quick.
After this game, the Horns play just one more non-conference game, against a very good St. Mary’s team, before opening conference play at Missouri on January 12th. While the last two losses were disappointing, neither was devastating. If the Horns can take care of their next two opponents, they will enter Big XII play with some regained confidence and an impressive 13-2 record.
--AW--
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Can't wait!
Unlike Wisconsin, TCU doesn't have any real threats as far as players we can't matchup with. I can see Langford having a good game against us, but he won't be able to score as easy as Butch did.
My eyes will basically be shadowing over Johnson 24/7, especially on the defensive end.
Like AW mentioned, we are still the #1 ranked efficient offense. Gary's defense and rebounding will be infinitely more important than anything he contributes on offense.
by goingforthecorner on Jan 1, 2008 10:36 PM CST reply actions
Thanks, AW.
For some reason I was thinking the game was at 5.
is the game gonna be rebroadcast at any time?
for the those not smart enough to set the dvr and are at work
Nice writeup
Rather then steadying the ship, Rick Barnes is rocking the boat with this huge change. The horns are likely to be a bit ragged in this game because they are going from a 3 guard lineup to a 2 guard lineup. If TCU is smart, they will try pressing and see if they can force the horns into some turnovers. The horns may look a bit experimental as they make a pretty major change in alignment.
With only 2 guards and a serious low post player, the horns are going to actually have to run an offense to get everybody involved and keep everybody in the right place.
I'm guessing that the fast pace of today's game is not going to be optimal for Gary Johnson (because of his conditioning) but we'll see.
It will be interesting to see how Gary Johnson does on offense. It has been a while since he has played in a real game so he may be a bit ragged this game.
I do agree that the horns should experiment with their new low post offense and see how well it works. It might be a huge change in the horns offense. One negative is that with Gary in the low post, it is going to be tougher for Augustin to penetrate to the bucket because it will be more clogged than usual.
I don't think it is vital to get Johnson involved early. He can focus on rebounding and D at first and just set some screens and get some offensive rebounds at first. Once he is in the flow of the game, then the horns can try running some plays for him.
The horns should be able to press more with the addition of Johnson and if Wangmene plays some. They can't really press effectively if Pittman or Chapman are in the game. Barnes might experiment with a lineup of Atchley, Damion, Gary, Wingman, and Mason to see if this group of tall athletes can apply major pressure on D and force some turnovers (leading to easy baskets while Augustin and Abrams are out). Fewer minutes for the starters should lead to mre intense defense all game by the horns. Wingman should be used primarily as a screener on offense. He should not post up but every now and then he can flash to the basket for a possible alley oop. A good half court offense can easily accomodate a primarily defensive/rebounding player such as wingman.
I would like to see the horns practise their matchup zone more. That is, by far, the easiest way to hide Augustin and Abrams on D. When the horns are playing man to man, it is like taking candy from a baby to post up Augustin and Abrams (unless the other horns are running like crazy to help out A and A on D). Playing zone poses major challenges for defending the 3 and rebounding but practise makes perfect.
Possibility for friction
Earlier in the season, Abrams proclaimed that horns are a guard oriented team. With the addition of Gary Johnson, the horns are much more big man oriented. Augustin and Abrams are going to have to change the way they play to accomodate this change.
Down the road, it will be much easier to use Mason as a 5th starter (rather than Abrams) given that the other 4 players on the court (Gary, Damion, Atchley, Augustin) are all heavy duty offensive threats. There is much less need with this lineup for a player such as Abrams who is almost strictly a shooter but who does not rebound or defend well. Mason will be a much better fit with the new lineup. His offensive problems are also likely to be ameliorated with the reduction in pressure to score. Replacing Abrams with mason would make the horns a much better defensive team and a bit better rebounding.
I dont see it
I think that AJ will continue to do what he is doing, running around picks and trying to get open for threes, but this way he will have an additional player to dump down to in the low post or get rebounds from his misses.
I think you are underestimating AJ's contribution on offense if you think switching AJ and Mason would be a net benefit.
Yeah, I don't think Rick will go that way
I would have agreed with you last year Kafka, but AJs game has really improved. If the 3 ball isn't there he is penetrating and getting to the basket or making jumpers. His defense is better as well, though still terrible at times.
Look at the Wisconsin game. Mason 0 pts. AJ ~20 pts. With Mason on the bench, we have 5 starters that are legitimate scoring threats as opposed to four.
Also, Mason may become a much better player as the first man off the bench. He is clearly feeling some pressure. He even told Rick he didn't think he should be starting a couple weeks ago.
Not right now
Mason does a lot of things well, but he is SO lost right now on offense. He needs to come off the bench until he gets his confidence and rhythm back.
Lord knows that Abrams frustrates me terribly at times, but Wells is right.
Mason vs AJ
If offense were the main concern right now AJ would be a better pick. But if your concern is defense and Barnes has stressed how inadequate he thinks it has been you might start AJ but bring in Mason in the first 5 minutes and give him more of the minutes because of his better defense. DJ, Atchley and James can pick up the scoring lost by having Mason on the floor over AJ. Having to 2 short guards and small guards on the floor at the same time is a real defensive disadvantage. Mason may only be 3 inches taller than AJ but he is 40+ pounds more muscle. That really helps on the defensive ends to fight through picks, for rebounds, etc.
With Johnson
They can go into a much more effective 2-3 zone with AJ and DJ at the top, reducing the effect of AJ's lack of defensive prowess. Johnson should also reduce the amount that the guards will be needed for rebounding.
On offense, AJ makes a huge difference, not only in his scoring, but also the fact that defenses are forced to match up with him way outside, expanding the court and making it easier for the other four players to score. With Mason playing the way he is, his defender can just drop off and double team down low or help when DJ drives.
Mason will be a good 6th man off the bench, and if his scoring improves will get plenty of minutes, but right now AJ is too valuable on offense to have sitting on the bench for too long.
what are the thoughts of those you watching now?
TCU has kept it closer than I thought it would be.
texas is favored by 20 in this game, let's see if they can pull it off.
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