Tigers and Longhorns at the Erwin Center

by awiggo on Dec 16, 2008 8:30 AM CST in Texas Longhorns Basketball

The newly minted #5 Texas Longhorns (8-1) host Texas Southern (0-8), their weakest opponent of the season, tonight at the Drum. This will be the ‘Horns' second straight game against a grossly inferior opponent before they return to facing tougher competition in Big 10 foes, Michigan State and Wisconsin. The tip time is 7 pm and the game will be televised in Austin, San Antonio, and areas west of those two markets by Fox Sports Southwest as well as by ESPN Full Court. With finals concluding today and just a few holiday shopping days left, the Erwin Center will painfully quiet.

Texas and Texas Southern have met in each of the last two seasons with the Longhorns prevailing by 37 points last season and by 40 points in 2006. Texas is 5-0 all time against members of the SWAC. While filler games are necessary, this one definitely hurts the RPI and strength of schedule significantly.

Longhorns on the Season

The ‘Horns are currently riding a five game winning streak and are now ranked in the top five by the AP and ESPN/USA Today for the first time this season.

Tigers on the Season

The beginning of this season has not been pretty for first year coach, Tony Harvey. The Tigers are winless and have yet to play a game at home. Texas Southern is 0-6 in true road games and 0-2 on neutral courts. Of 344 Division I teams, Ken Pomeroy's ratings have Texas Southern as the 318^th best team in the country.

Texas Southern Key Contributors

The Tigers go eight deep and have two players averaging in double figures. Deandre Hall, a 6-6 junior guard, leads the team at 14.4 points per game (ppg) and is joined by 6-3 senior guard, Matthew Miller, in the backcourt. Miller averages 11.6 ppg and leads the team in assists with 4.8 per contest. Junior forward, Ricky Boyles, is leading the team in rebounding at 6.5 boards per game. The Tigers have one player who is listed at 6-8 and two others who stand 6-7 in their regular rotation. After being outrebounded by Texas State on Saturday, Texas should have no trouble controlling the glass against the smaller Tigers.

Ken Pomeroy Stats

Pomeroy's advanced metric statistics reveal Texas Southern to be a very bad ball club. Texas Southern is ranked 292^nd in adjusted offensive efficiency and 308^th in adjusted defensive efficiency. The Tigers have had trouble knocking down three-pointers and holding onto the basketball. They are also ranked dead last in Division I from the free throw line at 51.4%. And we thought the ‘Horns were tough to watch at the stripe?

Defensively, the Tigers are even worse. They rank in the bottom five of Division I in defensive rebounding and near the bottom in field goal percentage defense. If this doesn't set up for an offensive explosion, I don't know what would.

Keys to the Game

1) Play like a Top Five Team. In my review of the Texas State game, I stated that I wouldn't read too much into the Longhorns' flat performance. However, two off games in a row and I'll start to worry a little. Texas should be able to create turnovers, score at will on fast breaks and in the paint, and control the boards on both ends. This game should be over by halftime.

2) Get Connor Involved. There is no question that DJ Augustin's departure hurt the team as a whole. However, no one is suffering more from the lack of play making, three-point shooting point guard than Connor. Atchley was rewarded with three to four wide-open looks from three and an easy basket or two as his defender helped with dribble penetration in just about every game last season. This year, the Texas offense has revolved around AJ Abrams off the catch, Damion James around the rim, and Gary Johnson and Dexter Pittman on the block. Connor is an incredible help defender and an above average rebounder, but he is also an offensive player who needs to be in the right spots to score with consistency. So far, he's been lost on offense. Tonight would be a great opportunity for Connor to regain some confidence. If I'm Barnes, I'd try to hit Atchley on the low block a couple of times for a hook shot and also get AJ and Connor together for some high pick-and-roll offense. This is a very good Texas team, but to reach its potential, Connor Atchley must become more involved offensively.

3) Knock Down Free Throws. This isn't a key for this game so much as it is a key to the rest of the season. Texas is currently shooting 60.6% as a team. The Longhorns will not be able to leave four-five points a game on the line against stronger competition.

TexasSports.com Preview

Tweet Comment 13 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

i've always thought

strength of schedule, particularly in college basketball, should be on some sort of a cumulative point system, rather than an average of opponent ranks. take the rank of your opponents, assign a point value and just add them up (without dividing by the total number of games). that way playing creampuffs doesn’t hurt you, it just doesn’t help you at all. it’s silly to be penalized for playing poor teams if you’re also working to schedule powerhouse schools like UCLA and Michigan State. Texas will be no worse of a team after tonight, but in the RPI system they will be. that’s just silly.

by littlevisigoth on Dec 16, 2008 9:19 AM CST reply actions

Game day

Number five? Are you serious? Yes, we have three good players and play killer D, but it’s hard to think this is a truly elite team. Do something about opponents offensive rebounds, hit some free throws, and develop the inside game and we’ll be there. But now all I can figure is that everyone else has problems worse than ours.

As to Connor, I’m sure he misses DJ, but that does not explain what happened to his hook shot and why he gets pushed around on defense. It looks to me like a lack of determination.

And, littlevisigoth, they do add up the opponent rankings like you say — and then they divide by the number of games. When you play poor schools your average goes down.

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.

by Caradoc on Dec 16, 2008 9:57 AM CST reply actions

Obviously

but in college basketball, not all teams play the same amount of games in a season. at the end of the year, why should a team be penalized for throwing in a couple extra in-state directional schools when if you were to take their exact same schedule and drop a game or two, all of the sudden they’d have a stronger schedule playing in less games? in football, maybe it’s a little different, because everybody plays the same amount of games. seems to me, you should be judged based more solely on the marquee matchups you’ve played rather than whether or not one or two of your fluff games was more or less of a joke than somebody else’s. maybe there’s not a way to do that that makes sense, and maybe it’s moot, since college basketball has a selection committee that sorts through all of those details, but it just seems silly to me that even for an instant, Texas should be harshly judged for having a Texas Southern thrown in amongst their schedule of formidable opponents.

i apologize that this rant is probably not worth the words put into it, but i don’t feel like erasing it at this point.

by littlevisigoth on Dec 16, 2008 12:39 PM CST up reply actions

OK

Schedule strength is just one factor, but having just been bit by it in football I can sure understand your complaint. I don’t really know how opponent strengths are rated, probably not just by averaging as I suggested. (I think Barnes has been really crafty about mixing in some sure wins with the high profile games, and in scheduling most of the tough games on the road or at neutral courts where a loss might be more easily forgiven. ) The problem is that if wins and loses are also going to be a factor, you have to take into account the quality of the opponent. Maybe you should be able to designate some games as ‘exhibitions’ and not count them for schedule strength or won/loss record.

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.

by Caradoc on Dec 16, 2008 4:06 PM CST up reply actions

So, you are angry that Texas is ranked #5?

You do realize basketball rankings in December are as valuable as sunscreen. Think seeds, not ranks.

Perhaps the most recognizable mascot in sports, and certainly the toughest looking, Bevo is a fixture

by run Bevo run on Dec 16, 2008 1:09 PM CST up reply actions

Not angry

But are you saying that rankings don’t affect seeding?

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.

by Caradoc on Dec 16, 2008 4:08 PM CST up reply actions

Not this time of year.

Perhaps the most recognizable mascot in sports, and certainly the toughest looking, Bevo is a fixture

by run Bevo run on Dec 16, 2008 4:36 PM CST up reply actions

I'd be willing to say that rankings don't affect seedings, ever.

The committee starts from scratch in analyzing these teams and how they should be ranked. It’s more of an parallel, alternative ranking system to the polls, but which analyzes far more information about every single team than any AP pollster does. I highly doubt that the committee really cares about the rankings by a bunch of people who are not the committee and who don’t have time to analyze the same information that the committee does.

The only thing the college basketball polls do is direct a little bit more attention to your team when it’s ranked highly. Does that affect how the committee sees your team? I’d say probably not because they seem to do a good job of only looking at results in the brief journalistic glimpses we’ve been given into the room. Essentially what I’m saying is that, while your ranking can drive the narrative of the season, the committee has proven itself quite good at ignoring that narrative when it comes down to seeding teams.

by billyzane on Dec 16, 2008 5:02 PM CST up reply actions

"...Erwin Center will be painfully quiet."

No doubt, but unfortunately the silence of the drum is usually painful. I wish UT fans around Austin would appreciate the ‘hardwood horns’ a bit more. What I wouldn’t give to be able to attend games regularly again (bit of a commute from Maine).

FYI—the game is also listed for ESPN360 for on-line viewing, though it might be PPV. Sometimes even the PPV 360 games are free if you get that service with your internet provider.

Hook'em!!

by ArcticLonghorn on Dec 16, 2008 10:20 AM CST reply actions

I would say that Texas had better

rebound well against this team. Along with the lack of depth that you have mentioned AW, another developing trend this season has been an inability to rebound the basketball consistently. It’s not something is especially worrisome right now, like the free throw shooting, but it’s something worth following. Preseason, the expectation was more two-guard lineups, with Damion at the three. Instead, it’s still been a lot of three-guard lineups with Damion making a fourth player on the perimeter. Neither Atchley nor Chapman rebound well outside of their area, meaning there is only one player, usually Gary Johnson or Dexter Pittman fighting for the ball inside. That’s one thought, but perhaps not the root cause.

by Wescott Eberts (GoBR) on Dec 16, 2008 12:11 PM CST reply actions