Final Texas-KU Thoughts
by Peter Bean on Feb 12, 2008 6:02 AM CST
in Texas Longhorns Basketball
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PrintNo time for Morning Coffee right now as I'm running late, but a few additional thoughts to AW's on last night's game.
- Gary Johnson is finally comfortable out there, and though he's only going to get better between now and the end of the season, he's already giving us the minutes WingMan and Chappy cannot. Especially in the first half, Johnson was critical in helping Texas survive Damion James' two early fouls.
- Augustin looked quick again last night. I'm not sure if he's been fatigued or just in a rut, but he was getting past his man once again. The difference between his first and second half, though? In the second half he quit trying to score in the paint and used the dribble drive to set up others. Outstanding.
- Connor Atchley is the best pure shot blocker I've ever seen at Texas. The only player I can think of who's even close would be Albert Burditt.
- Much, much better offensive performance from Texas tonight, Rick Barnes finally having his pick man on the top slash hard to the hoop. The development of our high post game, if we stick with it, makes us a dangerous, dangerous team. With the big men involved, the pressure on our guards isn't so severe.
- Before the game, AW and I were discussing what a tough matchup this was for us. The only optimistic nugget we could find? Texas seems to play to the level of its competition. That meant outstanding basketball last night.
- Txtwstr7 wondered where this ranks on the all-time wins at the Drum during the Rick Barnes era. I agree with him. Along with A&M 2007, Villanova 2006 and OU 2003, last night's was the nuts.
- Next up? A road trip to Baylor, which won't be easy. Our plans to attend the game fell through, but those lucky enough to be going should be in for a great game. Following up tonight's win with a road win in Waco would set us up perfectly for the stretch run.
--PB--
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Some nice coverage this morning
From Tim Cowlishaw in the Dallas Morning News:
It makes you wonder if the Longhorns, who lost in the second round with Durant, won't go deeper in the NCAA Tournament without him. They certainly look like they should, given the quality of wins on their résumé.
Then there's this from Dana O'Neil on ESPN.com, in an otherwise bullish column:
The simple truth is that Kansas is the best team in the Big 12 and is among the best in the country. Player for player for player for player on a squad that goes deeper than a Freud novel, the Jayhawks are loaded. But they haven't taken a lot of shots to the chin, blowing teams out of the water by a ridiculous 22-point average margin.
One question: Who knew Freud was a novelist?
Very funny...
Who knew Freud was a novelist?
Although, his cocaine-induced ramblings do often have the ring of fiction.
And still there's more!
Jason King on Yahoo!Sports also plays the Durant angle. But you gotta love this:
When it comes to resumes, no team in the country is as strong as Texas. The Longhorns boast victories over three of the top six teams in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll. Along with third-ranked Kansas, Texas has also defeated No. 4 Tennessee and No. 6 UCLA.
At 20-4, the Longhorns might not be the best team in the country, but they certainly snuck back into the discussion following Monday's win.
Still basking in the glow of that game last night. Say BONers, I'm in town for the o.u. game on 2/23. Where do we go to celebrate afterward?
Good win.
Good to see them come out and play solid after a few flat performances.
Burditt yes...
...but what about the oft forgotten Guillermo Myers from the BMW squads? I'll never forget the swat vs Purdue on the game's last possession to send us to the Elite 8.
Great win last night. The return of Damion James was the story IMO, but what a great team effort!
Others mentioned it but seeing Studdard and VY together, and Ross riding shotgun with Mack in rooting on our guys was great. Hook 'em!
I think you're overrating Atchley's shotblocking
ability
And I think Chris Mihm was a much better pure shotblocker than Atchley.
Mihm was just tall and long
He wasn't exceptional blocking shots, though. About what you'd expect from a 7-footer.
Best shot blocker?
Atchley is remarkable
I forgot about Owens, so he's in this conversation, too.
Owens was a far superior athlete, but Atchley's ability to get hand on ball are just uncanny. Incredible.
By the way
Atchley has 46 blocks on the season. Owens had 21 his senior season, which ended early due to injury at the halfway point. Atchley's ridiculous.
But his Junior Year
Owens was healthy and blocked 92 shots at a rate of 2.7 per game. And, I don't think that he played the kind of minutes Atchley is getting now. I can still remember seeing him send shots into the stands with his left hand, which I always thought was odd.
No, I'm old too.
I was going to mention him but haven't had a chance to look up his stats. The drum erupted when he blocked shots. The shooters withered in fear that he would harm them physically. Those were some fun games to attend.
Me too. Remember how Abe Lemons
would always shout "Lasalle, get somewhere!"
sad
What's sad is the Drum was so quiet you can still, all these years later, remember what Lemmons was saying over the faint buzz of the crowd.
by Michael Bean on Feb 12, 2008 2:42 PM CST up reply actions
I distinctly remember it being very loud
when Carlton Cooper would slam one. That guy had stellar vertical.
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!
The opponents thought we were booing. But, we would never do that!
Huge, huge win
This one brought the best out of everybody (except maybe DJ's shooting) and certainly seemed to be a team played up to its competition. Even if we can't win the rest of the conference regular season games (which would be a remarkable feat given the slate of our next five games), or win the conference tourney (which I agree would be great to finally do for a change), we can see this level of intensity and team effort come through in the tourney. Cause if we can play like this for six games in a row, I don't see any reason we couldn't be cutting down the nets in San Antonio come March.
by littlevisigoth on Feb 12, 2008 10:14 AM CST reply actions
Major difference imo...
I havent seen this team hustle like they did last night since UCLA.
Everyone was running all the time. I was real worried going into the second half that we would start to slack off due to being tired.
I think Barnes did a great job with his timeouts, and substitutions to keep the energy up on the floor.
This game had everything I thought we could do, and was just a pleasure to watch.
Kansas is also scary good, and Id rather someone else knock them off in the tourney so we dont have to see them again.
by BoddickerIsClutch on Feb 12, 2008 10:41 AM CST reply actions
My PTPer...
I'm going with Gary Johnson...IMO, AJ and DJ give us the points, Connor, James and Mason are terrific role players, but Gary is or will be the heart of this team (which is ironic considering that's the organ that kept him off the court for the first part of the season.)
True, he only scored seven points, his FT misses could have hurt us, and his nose is liability, but when he was on the court, I never saw KU get comfortable. He was just throwing his body all over the place and on defense, he had a great presence in the paint often messing with Kahn and other Jayhawk big men.
I still say
someone will swing at him by the end of the season, and to me that is a complement. His D is so intense. When someone can shut you down like that without fouling it is one of the most frustrating things in Basketball.
I predict
next monday against the Aggies, if GJ can play with that same intensity and frustrate the Ags, JoJo, Jordan, or Bryan Davis will want to knock him out. Plus, we've already seen that Jordan gets angry easily, as Wingman demonstrated.
Mason
He shall be known from here onward as the Flying Squirrel. Damn, that guy can time his jumps when going after a ball in the air.
re:
It says something when last night I was shocked when he (all 6'2" of him) didn't come down with the rebound over the bigs..great effort from Mason and crew
by vy til i die on Feb 12, 2008 11:30 AM CST up reply actions
PB, you'll love this...
A friend of mine just complained, "did you see all those KU players from Texas...Rick Barnes doesn't recruit in-state well enough."
Maybe Rick should take some lessons from Mack and vice-versa...
Honestly, they both do a hell of job and it's one thing to discuss philosophy (as you did), it's quite another to complain (as so many others do).
We have an embarrassment of riches plain and simple.
Never have I understood WHY?......
if the game is close toward the very end of a game (the last minute or so), everything related to the simple possession of the ball seems difficult.
- It is harder to get the ball inbounds.
- Harder to avoid getting trapped (i.e.: in the corner)
- More steals/turnovers
- Players get frantic and make bad decisions
Is this because: The team down who is trying to get the ball back at worst-fouls trying to get a steal?
Is too much energy exerted to play such pressing defense with such intensity on and off throughout the whole game? (meaning switching back and forth like zone defense v. man)
Explanations appreciated.
*The two things I think Texas needs to work on for the rest of the season is this:
- We do a great job of defending (zone usually) by getting the play clock down to say around 10 sec, then someone commits a foul 15 feet from the basket and the opposing team gets a new shot clock negating all the effort. I've seen this quite a bit this year.
- FREE THROWS- I have a feeling that we are going to inevitably have a game that comes down to a few missed free throws. So many games are decided by one possession yet even our starting PG has been missing a ton of FTs.
Thoughts?
Two reasons
- Defenders can get away with more because the reffs don't want to decide the game.
- If the defenders tried to do this all game it would result in lots of fouls/tiring out of your team/easy layups for the offense. Risks you are willing to take with 30 seconds left, but not earlier in the game when time is not as much of a factor.
Can I get an intentional foul?
It also seems like the refs wait until the team trying to foul absolutely hacks the shit of the team with the lead before calling a foul.
Poor AJ got the crap knocked out of him there in the last minute...that happens any other time but the last minute of the game and it's an intentional foul.
Don't know this, but I'd imagine Barnes teaches his players not to simply get the inbounds pass and expect to get fouled. While waiting for the ref to call a foul, seconds come off the clock (which helps when you have the lead), but you're in danger of a 10 second violation. Almost happened to us last night.
Just gotta tell your players to keep playing as if they weren't fouled.
Conversely, you probably saw the end of the Nova/Georgetown game...talk about refs not "wanting to decide teh game"...could have fooled me. I think ESPN was in that ref's ear piece saying, "get this game over, we got to get to KU/TX."
Not that I didn't want to get to our game too, but free throws with .1 second on the clock? I think Nova got jobbed.
As for the 2 things to work on
- Of course Rick is coaching them not to foul, but when it gets down to 10 seconds, the offense will try to force something, and this results in a higher chance of turnovers, but also fouls, just part of the game.
- Yes, games will come down to FT shooting, and yes it would be great for Texas to improve, but DJ has not been missing a ton of free throws. He was 8 for 10 last night, 6 for 6 at Iowa St, 5-5 at OU, 6-8 vs Baylor, did not shoot any with A&M, 4-4 vs Tech, overall for the year he is 126-157 (80%), and for the conference season he is 48-62 (77%).
my opinion
I think that when the time is winding down, the losing team always ups their intensity tenfold. Hands are flying everywhere trying to force turnovers and fouls, and in effect it alters the comfort level of the winning team. They feel an extra need, extra pressure, to hold on to the ball and to make good passes that it actually becomes more difficult to. All in all, it amounts to trying to do more in a smaller amount of time, as forced by the losing team.
I agree, but If this true...
then why not turn up the intensity every 5 minutes or so to see if you can get a turnover? I understand that teams will do a full court press in order to change the pace and try to get turnovers, BUT it is so more intense and so much more effort is given at the end of a close game.
Does it make sense what I am saying?
I guess I just don't understand what makes the end of a game so significantly different than any other part of the game.
- it is still 5 on 5
- the clock/shot clock/10 sec. violation etc. are still running.
- ETC.
Everything is the same EXCEPT the intensity of the team who is down and the nervousness of the team who is up.
Its the energy level
Say you have a 5 mile run ahead of you.
You might sprint that last 100 yards to finish, but you if you mixed in 50 yard sprints within the course of the entire run, youd be gassed by the end.
Pushing that hard on D is much the same way. Your players would be gassed at the end, unless you had a hugely deep team, which we certainly dont have.
by BoddickerIsClutch on Feb 12, 2008 2:08 PM CST up reply actions
Not to mention
the fouls and easy points you would give up if you tried to face guard the entire game.
im assuming you watch football
So let me ask you this:
Why don't teams just run the 2minute drill and try to score super quick the entire game. Usually works no?
It's just not sustainable to play that way. Good coaches will burn you if you're overplaying on defense for 40 minutes, not to mention we'd get too tired.
by Michael Bean on Feb 12, 2008 2:31 PM CST up reply actions
Blue team
Back in the olden days when UNC got all the good players than UCLA didn't, Dean Smith had what they called the "Blue Team". This team was made up of five players who were not starting or even the main subs. Once each half, he would put in the entire "Blue Team" and they would press like rabid wolverines. So not only did his starters get a rest, the "Blue Team" would wear out his opponents. The key, of course, was that they played as a unit and they played only one defense, the full court press.
Video
This was awesome....
I don't know how to hyperlink it and don't really care to be learned.....
N E W B S
http://youtube.com/watch?v=e1WSYo0kqfs
Greatness
Thanks for the memories...Gene Keady was so upset he sent his hair piece to the post game press conference.
I also remember the next game against Xavier as being a ton of fun too when Lance Blanks just went off lauching one riciculous 3 pointer after another.
Of course, then we lost the Razorbacks for the 4TH TIME THAT SEASON in the great 8.
Still, good times.
re:
That was a great clip, I've never seen it..my excuse was that I was 4 at the time..lol
I don't think Atchley is the best, but he is good at it, and we need more to keep up the same intensity we displayed last night
by vy til i die on Feb 12, 2008 3:50 PM CST up reply actions
The best part of that clip
is the YouTube commenter who insists that Tom Penders would have won the National Championship with KD last year. That's Aggie-level ignorance right there...
where are they now?
I liked seeing Jamie Campaglio and Vic Trilli in that Panama Myers clip. I know Trilli is the AD at Garden City CC (home town of Brandy Perryman), but anyone have any idea where Mr. "I took your meal money to pay for my multiple girlfriends" Campaglio is now?
by nvrforget63 on Feb 12, 2008 5:42 PM CST reply actions
lol
Ad at Garden City huh? Not bad I guess, but looks like his failed tenure at North Texas was his one shot.
Man, all the whiteboys in that clip are comical. How things have changed.
by Michael Bean on Feb 12, 2008 5:55 PM CST up reply actions
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