Longhorns Advance to Finals of CBE Classic

is why we’re going to be damn good in the tournament. Fatigue will NEVER be an issue with this team because of how deep we are. We can handle playing games on consecutive days.

1. Nice to see Jordan Hamilton not only get going from behind the arc, which wasn’t a surprise, but also make some nice passes — a bounce pass to James that he couldn’t finish in the first half, the look to James in transition in the second, another feed off the bounce. The behind-the-back pass was dumb, but Hamilton clearly sees the court well and is willing to distribute the ball. He’ll force shots at times, but he’s not selfish.

2. J’Covan Brown isn’t selfish either and he’s a willing passer. The wraparound to Pittman in the lane was really nice. The long-range shot wasn’t quite there today and he airballed one late that was surprising, but he has a pure stroke — it will come around. He also looked extremely smooth with the ball and finished well at the rim, with an early basket particularly impressive as he leaned into a defender and finished with his right hand. It’s clear that he’s a bit rusty still, particularly with his decision making with the ball, but he’ll probably be the best passer on the team by later in the season.

3. Justin Mason provides absolutely nothing that other players like Avery Bradley and Varez Ward don’t. It’s tough to say, but he just shouldn’t be out there much.

4. Dexy. Feed. him. the. ball. Seriously. The younger players have to look for him more often, particularly Hamilton, who doesn’t even seem to know when Pittman is in the game with him. This is getting frustrating and at some point it comes back on the coaching staff for not pounding it into the players’ heads and pulling them when they either don’t notice or don’t make the effort to work the ball inside.

5. The recognition defensively is a work in progress and it’s frustrating. Iowa came back in the game by knocking down threes because Longhorn defenders didn’t know their scouting reports well enough and though they challenged quite a few of the shots, that isn’t good enough. Run the shooters off the line. Period.

6. Early in the game, Texas switched every screen and didn’t get into too much trouble, but then they stopped switching some of the screens set by the bigs, but it didn’t look like there was proper communication or understanding of what they were doing, which led to some breakdowns and easy baskets. One such breakdown led to Pittman being benched. The team probably just needs more time together to facilitate better communication, but they need to get on the same page.

7. The on-ball defense is generally good, with some exceptions — Jordan Hamilton struggles with his lateral quickness, particularly against smaller players and needs to do a better job of sinking into his defensive stance and James still has the same problem. Hamilton is working hard defensively, but some of it is physical limitations and some of it is just poor technique. Where the Longhorns could really improve is by denying the next pass better — even though it could result in some back-door cuts, that falls on the rotations to clean up and it’s a way for Texas to get into transition more often where they are most effective.

I watched too much VY to weigh in much more on this, but you and TCB and GOBR have touched on the few points I was gonna add.

La Salle & Mihm?

isn’t a one-half team like FB was. I can’t handle anymore. I needed to sleep last night, but a tie at the half ruined that.

Was very impressed with how nasty the defense was in the 2nd. That was fun to watch.

I got to watch the horns play bball. I was very impressed with Hamilton offensively. Defensively I would argue it is all technique. Get low son.

We are still learning to play as a team. Looking forward to seeing the horns up against Pitt tonight.

Good write up awiggo.

Hook ’em