The slow, pudgy kid tipped us off. Rick Barnes is known for his grueling practices, but despite giving his team an unusual day off two weeks ago because he sensed his players were tired, Chip Brown writes that the 'Horns still might have been sluggish on Saturday. So says Missouri, anyway.

The walk-on from St. Louis would be Ian Mooney, who played 6 minutes for the 'Horns, all in the second half.

Though there may be some truth to the suggestion that Texas was tired, I thought Mooney's continued presence in the game was more a sign of Barnes' disgust with how the game had unfolded - especially the second half. It's also a sign of how lost Jay Mason has become on offense; Rick simply had no confidence in Mason contributing anything worthwhile on the offensive end, and the Longhorn offense was sputtering.

Even though Barnes was probably right, the answer to this problem lies in fixing Mason, not playing Mooney. As paper thin as the Longhorns are at guard, you can put this team six feet under if Ian Mooney is going to be getting crunch time minutes during conference play.

Duane Akina may disagree. New defensive coordinator Will Muschamp's first visit with the press produced some memorable quotes, including the following anti-Akinaism:

Can Texas fans be hopeful that the elusive happy middle ground between Gene "Hold Your Ground" Chizik and Duane "Blitzkrieg" Akina has been found? Muschamp disciples will tell you as much; the defensive coordinator has developed a reputation for tailoring his defensive gameplan to the circumstances. As mundane as this sounds, after two more dogmatic coordinators who were married to (arguably extremist) philosophies, it would represent a welcome change.

Lighten up, jackass. Did I really just write the last sentence in the preceding note? The grad student in me is perhaps becoming all-encompassing.

Under the knife. More on the Brown-Muschamp presser in a post this afternoon, but briefly, a note from on the Longhorns who will miss spring practice to injury:

Spring practice begins February 22nd and concludes with the annual spring scrimmage at DKR on March 29th.

Give her time. Gail Goestenkors was hired to rescue the Lady Longhorns from their slip during Jody Conradt's final years as head coach, but she's off to a bit of a rough start of her own, as Texas dropped an overtime game to K State to fall to 0-2 in Big 12 play. Though I won't pretend to be any kind of expert on women's hoops, I do know that anyone and everyone who follows the sport thinks the world of Goestenkors. She, and the team, will be just fine. Despite the rough start to conference play, the 'Horns are 12-4 overall.

--PB--