Texas Overwhelms Western Carolina 73-41
by Peter Bean on Nov 19, 2009 12:20 AM CST
in Texas Longhorns Basketball
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PrintI have extensive player notes to post tomorrow, but non-sports life got in the way this evening and it's too late for me to get 'em all up now. For now: Another convincing win in which Texas just overwhelmed a vastly outmatched opponent -- tonight, Western Carolina, 73-41. A Cliff's Notes preview of tomorrow's discussion:
- We're really damn good right now, but what's most exciting is that this team is just scratching the surface. I'd take Texas -2 over Kansas right now, but given my impression of the two teams' ceilings, give me Texas -6 in March.*
- J'Covan Brown was calm, cool, and collected... And very, very impressive.
- We're going to see Brown's high-impact on this team before we see, in order, Bradley and Hamilton's. Avery will get there soon, Hamilton by year's end. When all three are no longer freshmen in February -- you won't want to play Texas.
- The halfcourt offense has a ways to go still. We utilized Big Sexy terribly tonight.
- You are seeing why I said in the preseason that, amidst all this talent, Dogus will surprise and will demand minutes. Especially as freshmen take some time to get going, he's an important player for us. He'll be a bit less so by March, but he's hugely valuable to us in several critical components of the game.
- The way we can just run swarms of subs, and mix-and-match lineups -- without dropping off in quality -- is going to allow us to just overwhelm every team but the top 20 or so in the country. Among the best, we'll win if we're on the right side of average, and even some nights when we're not.
More tomorrow. Hook 'em
* And yes, I hope Kansas fans see this, and react to this. Not because I want a chest-thumping war, but because I think this is our rival in basketball. Rick Barnes and Bill Self see it the same way, and I'm all for it. The Texas-Kansas back-and-forth over the last 6 years has been the best kept secret in college hoops, and I absolutely love that we have a powerhouse like Kansas to constantly measure ourselves against. They're smart fans: I think they see it, too. This should be the most fun season to date.
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I also believe that Texas-Kansas is one of the most underrated rivalries
But to make it bigger, as much as I hate saying it, we need to notch a few more key victories against them. In the last three years we had the one win in the 07-08 season, but the two big games that closed the ‘06 and ’08 regular season were games where we couldn’t close it out, and we can’t seem to put them away in the Big XII tourney either. They need to have more of a reason to hate us before the series gets respect on a national stage, and I sure as hell hope we give them one.
If you're so sure of what it ain't, how about telling us what it am!
Agreed
We’ve traded home-court during the regular seasons, but they’ve owned the Big 12 tourney. That’s one I want badly.
You ain't hurt.
We seem to get them at home when they're really good
and get them at our place in their rebuilding years. I don’t remember the last time (if ever) that we have won there.
It’s been gratifying to hear Jayhawk fans consider us rivals. I was at a conferencein Phoenix recently and the speaker identified herself as a KU grad. She was speaking to a room full of Texans and went out of her way to call us a rival. I shook her hand afterwards and thanked her for the respect.
Raw and Relentless
Absolutely right. There is not a team in the country that can keep up with the wave of talent AND I dont know why ESPN or whoever else cant come out and flat out state we have more Depth and Talent than any team in the country PERIOD!!!
however (areas for improvement)…
1) still very RAW on the execution end of things which of course shows up in the Halfcourt Offense, Chemistry (missed alley-oops/layups) and being overzealous at times on the Defensive side of the Ball.
2) stumbling around to find lineups and chemistry leaves us looking like we are driving without directions at times, especially Avery looks like he needs to SIMPLIFY his role on offense (slashing/midrange scorer) instead of being a passive passer… No doubt that will happen
3) apathy, albeit early, had flashes of low energy and lethargic play which has been a problem in the past again primarily in Half court offense. Which is why Dogus and Gary Johnson (who are awesome) should serve a Manu Ginobli/Marion Barber (circa 2 yrs ago) role of coming off the Bench to bring pace and intensity one for the backcourt and frontcourt.
4) overall I think this team come conference/tournament time will dumptruck people. I am nervous about some of our tough early games, but I hope we learn our lessons early so that we can ACE the finals during the Madness.
More on this tomorrow...
But in the meantime: good thoughts. Agree with your general assessments.
One thing to note: Rick said in the post-game that they were focused exclusively on defense for this one, and “it showed.”
You ain't hurt.
Great Game...
…and looking forward to the full recap tomorrow.
No one played 30 minutes.
Eight players played at least 17 minutes.
Ten players played at least 10 minutes.
Before we start smack-talking KU—which is fine—I dont want to look past our impending and back-to-back showdowns with UNC and Michigan State.
Just stoking the flames of what I hope is a blossoming rivalry
But yes, first things first
You ain't hurt.
With our depth, couldt we make for a great running team?
Short answer is no and the biggest reason (literally) is Sexy Dexy, but I wish we could run something like that to just fully unleash all the talent we have on this squad. With all the capable players we have I think we’d be able to make it work and wear opposing teams out nightly. Plus, imagine how fun it would be to watch these guys getting up and down the court running something like the 7 second D’Antoni offense. A girl can dream.
3/19/2009 - Dogus Balbay Made a Three-Pointer. Never Forget.
That was the first game I saw this season.
There is two teams worth of players! The announcers weren’t joking when they said it looked like a hockey rotation.
I caught both both Kansas and Michigan St. playing, Texas looked much better than those two. Texas did look like it needed more work than the other two at this point in the season so it seems like they have much more room to get better.
This team when it starts hitting on all cylinders it defense will smother opponents and with so many good players off the bench they can play like hockey, 5 minutes at 100% then send in the next wave. This team looks like it could hold all comers under 50.
If they play with the fury every night I don’t think there is going to be a better team in the country.
Impressive Second Game
Texas looked much better last night that they did on Sunday night. J’Covan really played in control and didn’t allow his emotions to get the best of him. Balbay and Johnson were awesome off the bench and brought the perfect amount of energy and disruptive defense.
As a team, I thought our help defense was much improved—dribble penetration was almost nonexistent and Texas was able to contest just about every jumper. The defensive pressure on the ball was also really, really impressive. Balbay, Ward, Bradley, and even Mason were outstanding and had to be really annoying to the Catamount guards.
Things to Work on:
Turnovers—some of this is becuase of our rotations, some of them were because of youth, and some were because we were trying to make the perfect play.
Feeding the Post—there are two areas which can impove. Texas guards fed the post like Texas guards typically do, and that is not well. Second, Sexy Dex has to learn how to keep smaller players on his back and not allow them to sneak around his frame and poke the ball loose. I don’t care how good our guards are, the Texas halfcourt offense needs to run through Dex and that isn’t going to happen unless we can successfully pass him the ball early in the shot clock.
Free Throw Shooting—our percentage ticked up at the end as Damion and Wingman made six straight. However, at one point late in the second half, Texas was shooting better from the floor than from the line. That is ridiculous. These misses aren’t going to matter against our cupcakes but they could very easily hurt against Mich State, UNC, Kansas, OU, etc.
Lots to love about this team, and as PB noted, we are nowhere near as good as we can be.
--AW--
Hard to tell much from the inferior competition
I agree that we have a very talented team. I’m not sure how much we as fans can pull from beat downs of these first few opponents. If we were playing Memphis like KU did then we’d have had to run a lot more half-court stuff and this team is not ready for that yet. I’m not saying we wouldn’t win, I’m just saying it wouldn’t look pretty. I know this team is going to be awesome by season end, but I think it’s a little early to be putting emphatic periods after anything about this team so far.
Opponents
Though they are far from elite, these tourney teams are much better than our usual early-season patsies. Western Carolina was a top team in its conference with lots of returning starters and a real prospect in Mutumbo. What we have not seen is good big men.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.
Free throws
Like I told a friend last night, our athletes do a lot of super things but free throws and covering kick offs are not two of them. There will be nights where Rick forgets to play someone because of the depth.
Didn't we shoot better from the field than from the line?
Maybe let someone put a hand in our face when we shoot.
This year, it's on Barnes.
This is going to be a tough coaching job for Rick Barnes. It will be tough not because we lack talent, but because there is so much of it and most of these guys have never played together. Finding the right chemistry, the right schemes for different personnel (sp?), keeping everyone happy with limited minutes, will be tough. BUT … with this much talent, this much depth, there is no excuse for this team not to make a deep run in the NCAAs. And by deep … I mean Final Four or bust!! Also, because there is no one star on this team, because we are not dependant on one guy (see Ford, T.J., Durant, Kevin) we are not susceptible to down nights because one guy isn’t on his game (though for the life of me I can’t remember that happening to the aforementioned studs). Anyway, I am excited, I can’t wait to see how this team develops. There is so much unknown about how it will all come together. I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!
Work in progress
It was still pretty chaotic last night, but it is still very early. The endless shuffling of personnel gave us a look at a lot of potential lineups. I particularly liked the “small” lineup with James and Johnson up front. I have great reservations about the one with Ward, Balbay, and Mason. With them in the backcourt, who’s going to shoot the damned ball?
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If they get mad, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.
I also have reservations about those three on the court together
but it could be very useful midway through games when we have a comfortable lead and want to give some other players a rest. They’re clearly out there for defense.
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