Post Game: Texas Survives Tech, 87-81

The two keys defensively are contesting shooters and limiting dribble penetration. For the ability that Texas possesses the play defense for 20-25 seconds, those last few are often a huge problem. Mason is limited right now because he keeps tweaking his ankle, hurting his lateral quickness and Balbay fouls on the perimeter and has lapses in awareness that are disconcerting.

To Tech’s credit, they have some effective players on their team. Voskuhl can knock down open looks — he got one off a curl that AJ took too round of a turn on and got another on a pull up after Abrams was too far behind again and had to close out too hard. Speaking of which, that’s a huge problem on the team right now and a lot of it falls into the recognition category. When a player like Okorie or Roberson get hot, you can’t let them stand still and shoot the ball. Yet Texas players allow that. After about three or four made threes, they start adjusting by closing out too hard, allowing dribble penetration.

The key is closing out hard to force them to dribble the ball, but not so hard that you fly by. It’s a delicate balance, but one that UT defenders have trouble with, particularly in regard to leaving their feet and giving up defensive positioning. When you are in position on an offensive player, why would you ever give that up? Yet Longhorn players do it consistently when someone raises their eyebrow at them. It’s not a coaching problem — it’s on the players to recognize.

The good news is that the light is starting to come on for Balbay and he is also finishing more with the right hand and off the glass, which will help him tremendously, as well as allowing the Longhorns easy opportunities early in the shot clock, crucial for a team that struggles in the half court. What I liked that I saw from Balbay tonight was the aggression, the knowledge that when you are in the open court and have a backpedaling defender in front of you, if you can turn that defender at all with a crossover or shoulder fake, then you will get a blow by and the defense won’t be in a position to stop it.

Balbay needs to work a little bit more on opening his hips because he gets into trouble when shadowing ball handlers down the court and getting that several degrees of turn that result in a lot of blown whistles. I think the fundamental realization that he needs to make is that he needs to beat the defender to the spot rather than shadow them with the ball, then turning the offensive player so they have to redirect.

All in all, a tougher win than should happen at home, but James Singletary, John Roberson, and Nick Okorie can ball. All three of those guys would figure prominently into a Texas rotation right now because of their ability to score, as would Voskuhl. That’s a high compliment to those team and any questions about Pat Knight being able to coach I think can be put to rest because that team plays hard. Kudos.

Tech runs a good offense and they were making shots last night, especially in the first half. They were definitely playing for Pat.

Damion James had a very impressive second half. DaMo started attacking the rim and getting to the free throw line, and then making free throws (aside from missing the front end of a one-and-one). I’ll take 12-15 at the line from James.

I think the game slows down more and more for Balbay each 40 minutes. He had one great looking fastbreak left-to-right crossover and finish where he single handedly beat Tech down the floor. The guy can fly with the ball and still remain in control. I love Eurotrash.

We have to win in Stillwater. We have a good chance of defending the home court against Baylor after that. @KU is hopeless. So we need to go 2 of 3 down the stretch. KSU might still get the better of us; they have home games vs. Nebraska and Colorado, and play @OSU. But our only hope of a tourney bye is to win on Saturday. I wish I felt optimistic.