... Isn't scalping where you are charging MORE than face-value for the tickets? I always thought it was perfectly legal to sell tickets at face-value ... after all, you own them and can sell what you own.

If this is true, it's very disturbing.

Stadium thoughts:

1. The stadium is definitely a non-factor, but I think the crowd has to be somewhat accountable as well. I can remember only two instances of sizeable cheering in the first half: at the 4 min. TO and the wind down the half. There was numerous instances when Memphis fans, all 5% of them, were able to make quite a bit of noise in the first half. Also, I believe the crowd tried to start Texas Fight two or three times, but in ended up dying in sub-committee. That's unacceptable.

2. Luckily for me, my section had a few students in it. So we were pretty loud, I guess. I'm quite sure no one else could hear us, though.

3. I have no idea how they're going to open up the entire stadium by 2010/2011. Those end-zone seats are pretty damn far from the court.

4. $20 for parking at ANY lot? Ludicrous.

5. There was almost no one in the upper deck. The final attendance announced was ~32k. I wouldn't be surprised if there were less. The field level was pretty packed, but there were many noticeable empty seats in the club level. Somehow, Ford Field sold ~57k to their regional. I'm guessing trying to poach people out of 160 bucks for shit seats had something to do with it, Houston.

Game thoughts:

1. Great sub job by Barnes. He even gave Augustin and Abrams a minute break each in the first half, something we rarely see. I loved how he was going to all the bigs in the first half. Dex did ok, Wangmene and GJ were beyond mediocre, but Clint Chapman was a pleasant surprise. I actually thought Clint would've been a better option than GJ in the second half, but no problems either way.

2. It seemed like the bigs struggled mostly with intensity, especially trying to pull down rebounds on the defensive end. The Lopezes and even the Finger were beating all our bigs down low, although to our credit, we picked up the effort with a few key offensive boards (thank you, Chappy!). With the exception of Mason and James, we looked really, really sluggish on the defensive glass.

3. It's amazing how terrible we are at both a) feeding the entry pass, and b) denying the entry pass. Good thing Dex is as big as both Lopezes put together and Connor knows a thing or two about blocking shots.

4. The final 3-pt numbers suck, but I think we did a great job running them within our sets. A whole heck of a lot of them rimmed in and out, hitting the rim at least twice. So the shots and execution were good, but they just wouldn't go down the drain. That's good news, as long as they fall in tomorrow. I've got a feeling we're going to need it. One caveat: when you've got a 4 on 2 (or 3 on 2, can't remember), maybe going to a streaking Abrams on the wing isn't the best idea. An easy 2 is better than a  harder 3, boys.

5. DJ had a couple uncharacteristic TO's (and one shot that was blocked badly), but other than that he played a superb game. Having a great 1 is an amazing advantage over your opposition (see: Drew Neitzel).

6. Great game by everyone involved. Go Horns!

7. By the way, the Texas players came back out during the Memphis game and briefly chatted and signed autos with the people in the field level stands. They were pretty popular folks, I'll bet. The Texas band and cheerleaders also came back out to watch the 2nd game. Stanford's guys were nowhere to be found.

Quick Memphis thoughts:

1. The score was like 12-11 when my girlfriend said that both teams seemed evenly matched, and I said all I hoped for was a close game. The basketball gods weren't listening.

2. Drew Neitzel laid a bigger egg than Chris Lofton did on Thursday. I mean, he was freaking god-awful. Terrible way to end your career.

3. I wouldn't want to be on that plane-ride back with Tom Izzo in the morning.

4. Memphis looked like a completely different team without Derrick Rose on the court (see: point guard comment). Which is bad because his injury was just a cut, so he'll be ready to go (side note: AJ Abrams looked like he hurt his leg sliding into that foul. He was up sitting on the side, though, and I think he wanted to go back in, but obviously we had the game wrapped up. Augustin also slipped on some sweat, after a layup I believe, a few minutes before that. He came up a little gimpy but played it off. I expect both will be fine for tomorrow's action).

5. I loved the two-man game between Rose and CDR when Mich. St was attempting to play hack-a-Tiger late in the second half. Here's a thought: try fouling the bigs. That one Joey Dorsey FT was nearly as bad as Augustin's air ball.

6. Memphis has no one as good as Brook Lopez inside, but they've got the athletic bodies to give Texas fits inside. Which is bad, because Memphis has got the shooters that Stanford doesn't. And for the first time all year, Augustin might be going against someone with more pure talent than him. Buckle up, folks, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

the Astrodome jail in 1984 for the same reason. I took my parents to a 'stros game and had an extra ticket with a face value of $25. I sold it to a stranger for $20 and an undercover sheriff's deputy carted me off to the basement to write me up. I didn't get back to my seat until the third inning and my parents had no idea where I was. If I remember correctly, the charge was something like "vending on county property without a permit." I remember my attorney explaining that it had nothing to do with the value, that you could get picked up for selling a pack of gum as well. I am from Austin, and it was legal there at the time, so I had no idea about this until hauled away. There were scores of guys in there with me being "processed", hence the delay.

My attorney somehow got the charges dropped a few weeks later.

What a nice little souvenir for the visitors to our hell-hole of a city!

Harris County and HPD are notorious for their Gestapo tactics. Don't even get me started on license plate frames.

For the most part have this problem, so I'm not surprised anymore when the crowd is way too quiet than it should be. It was way too similar to the Erwin Center environment. There's just something about our fanbase. Just not enough rowdy people. Maybe too many adults that are either too subdued or don't even know what they're watching. Some football games are like this too. Maybe to them, being too rowdy would be considered immature or "not classy".

Houston fans in general are like this also, so it's no surprise that UT and Houston fans are similar in this manner, seeing that there are a whole bunch of Houstonian Longhorn fans.

When the Astros are playing well, it's loud as hell, but it's also due to the roof being closed. Rockets fans are pathetic. Electric atmosphere when we were on that crazy winning streak, but right when it ended, it went back to a library atmosphere in the following home games. Bunch of damn bandwagon fans.

I have to agree with those that are not blaming the stadium for this. If the stadium really did have this much of an impact, how do you explain that it actually DID get loud on TV on a number of occasions? This is on the fans.

However, I am optimistic that there will be more fans for this game. Don't have to worry about Mich. St./Stanford fans anymore. Plus this game is on the weekend. Expect the atmosphere to be improved, maybe by a lot.