Texas Longhorns Basketball: Schedule Preview
by awiggo on Nov 7, 2010 10:58 AM CST
in Texas Longhorns Basketball
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PrintOn the eve of another college basketball season, the time is right to preview the schedule and briefly talk about team expectations. Look tomorrow for more thorough player breakdowns and our second annual Hoops Roundtable.
As during most seasons, Rick Barnes likes to test his teams' skills in an early season tournament, and this year is no different. The Texas Longhorns open their 2010-11 season on Monday night vs. Navy as part of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. After taking on Navy, the Longhorns will also host Louisiana Tech before advancing to Madison Square Garden for championship action on November 18 and 19. The four hosts schools, Texas, Illinois, Pittsburgh, and Maryland, will automatically advance to NYC. Texas will take on No. 13/16 Illinois in the semifinals.
After returning from New York, five of the next six games will be at home for the ‘Horns. Texas hosts Sam Houston State on 11/23, Rice on 11/27, and Lamar on 12/1. At this point, Longhorn fans should hope to see at least a 6-1 squad and one whose freshmen are gaining confidence.
The only road game in this six game stretch comes on 12/5 when Texas travels to Los Angeles for a Big 12 / Pac 10 Hardwood Series game with USC. The ‘Horns then return to the Drum for two more homes game vs. Texas State on 12/11 and North Florida on 12/14. Anything 8-2 or better would be an acceptable mark.
The next two games are monsters-vs. North Carolina in Greensboro on 12/18 and at Michigan State on 12/22. This two game stretch last season made believers out of many Longhorn fans and hoops fans across the country. Texas used a two game sweep of these perennial powers as high notes in a 17-0 song and a first ever No. 1 ranking. Given the make-up of this year's team, where these games are played, and significant improvement by both opponents since last December, a two game slide should be expected.
Carolina is pre-season top-10 and snagged the top high school senior in the country, 6-7 forward Harrison Barnes, as part of last year's recruiting class. There is no way this UNC team misses the NCAA tournament again.
If a "neutral" site game vs. North Carolina wasn't tough enough, Texas travels to East Lansing just four days later. The Michigan State Spartans are ranked No. 2 in both pre-season polls and have the talent for a return trip to the Final Four. Kalin Lucas, Korie Lucious, Draymond Green, and Durrell Summers are all back from a team that lost to Butler in the national semifinals last season. Look out ‘Horns fans, this one could get ugly.
Following some time off for Christmas, Texas plays three home games in nine days before beginning Big 12 play. The Longhorns host Coppin State on New Year's Eve, Arkansas on 1/4, and Connecticut on 1/8. Even though UConn took care of the ‘Horns last season, I expect Texas to enter Big 12 play on a three game winning streak and a record of 11-4.
One of the goals each season is to make the NCAA tournament. Texas has done this in each of Rick Barnes's 12 seasons at Texas. Extending that mark to 13 is a legitimate goal for this year's young and thin squad. History tells us that Big 12 teams that end the season with 9-7 league marks usually make the tournament but not always, but squads that reach 10-6 are almost a lock for NCAA tournament play. So, to me, ten conference wins is the goal. Glancing at the schedule, the opening and closing of Big 12 play appear to be tougher than the middle. Let's take a closer look.
Texas opens conference play on 1/11 with an improved and senior led Texas Tech team in Lubbock. Granted this isn't saying much but Coach Pat Knight called his 2010-11 team his best ever as the Red Raiders' head man. This is a toss-up game.
Texas returns to Austin for two home games on 1/15 vs. Oklahoma and 1/19 vs. Texas A&M. OU will be trying to replace much of their team after a particularly dysfunctional season last year. Gone are Tommy Mason-Griffin, Tiny Gallon, and Willie Warren. The Aggies have been a thorn in the side of Texas in recent years but have yet to break through in Austin. Getting to ten wins involves winning both of these.
Three of the next four are on the road, and all four will be difficult. A four game slide is not out of the question. Texas travels to face pre-season No. 7 Kansas, where the ‘Horns have never won, on 1/22. With or without freshman, Josh Shelby, this is a projected loss. Then, Texas has a mid-week game at Oklahoma State on 1/26. While the Cowboys look to be facing a down year, Stillwater makes this a toss-up game. On 1/29 Texas returns to Austin to host pre-season No. 15 Missouri. If freshman point guard, Phil Pressey, is as good as advertised and freshman Tony Mitchell becomes eligible for the spring semester, a W won't come easily. For now, let's put this one in the win column, though, as Michell's eligibility is questionable at best. The Longhorns close this four game stretch with a trip to Texas A&M, where Texas hasn't won since 2004. This is another projected road loss.
The next six games are where Texas needs to find its rhythm. Texas hosts Texas Tech on 2/5 for a projected win. The ‘Horns go to Oklahoma on 2/9. This will be a great opportunity to steal a road victory but for now, it is a toss-up. The Longhorns then return home to host pre-season No. 14/16 Baylor on 2/12 and Oklahoma State on 2/16. If Baylor is still without LaceDarius Dunn at this point in the season, protecting the Drum becomes a lot easier. Even with Dunn, Texas needs both of these home wins.
The final two in this six game stretch are at Nebraska on 2/19 and vs. Iowa State on 2/22. I'm sure the Huskers will be fired up and looking for redemption but this is another great opportunity for a victory away from Austin. Craig Brackins has departed Ames and the Cyclones were picked to finished last by every coach in the Big 12. Texas should be able to prevail.
The season hasn't tipped yet and I'm already worried about the final three conference games. If Texas doesn't have nine or ten wins by this point, Longhorn fans will be sweating on Selection Sunday. Texas closes this year at Colorado on 2/26, against conference favorite, pre-season No. 3 Kansas State on 2/28, and at Baylor on 3/5. The Buffaloes have a new coach but return two excellent guards, sophomore Alec Burks and senior Cory Higgins. This one goes in the toss-up column too.
Kansas State in Austin on the final day in February should produce the season's best atmosphere at the Erwin Center. An upset win here is not out of the question. However, K State will probably be fighting Kansas for a league title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Call me pessimistic, but this is a projected home loss.
The final game of the regular season is in Waco on 3/5. The Bears have the highest beta of any team in the Big 12. Dunn is currently practicing with the team and could be allowed to return at any point. If that happens plus AJ Walton and Nolan Dennis do an adequate job replacing Tweety Carter, and the Quincy Acy/Perry Jones/Anthony Jones frontline is as good as it could be, Scott Drew's club could make a run at Kansas and Kansas State atop the conference. However, if Dunn never returns and the guard play never develops, then Baylor could easily finish in the middle of the Big 12 pack. For now, let's assume that Dunn does return. Then, this is another projected road loss.
For those of you tallying along, I've got losses at Kansas, at A&M, vs. Kansas State, and at Baylor. Toss-ups would be at Texas Tech, at Oklahoma State, at OU, and at Colorado. If you assume that Texas takes two of their four toss-up games, that gives us the magical 10-6 mark, a probable third or fourth place finish in the Big 12, and an NCAA tournament bid.
Big 12 Pre-season Coaches Poll
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Barnes better get off to a Hot Start
With football slumping, even more eye will turn to the Basketball team early this year and the fan base is a little itchy for some Wins.
Hope CoJo and Double T can adjust quick.
Either way lot of potential with milder expectations this year.
Hook Em
Agree, but
I agree that there will be extra eyes earlier on bball than normal. However, it is not fair to expect basketball to reach football’s expectations. Football started as a pre-season No. 5. Basketball is unranked in one poll and No. 25 in another. They also lost, arguably, their five best players from a year ago—James, Pittman, Bradley, Ward, and Mason.
I hope Texas fans are realistic about what basketball can do by March and don’t start grumbling if we don’t quickly ride two starting freshman to early season success. I’m not saying that is what you expect, just hopefully helping all Texas fans recalibrate their expectations.
--AW--
I'll give you James, Bradley, and Ward
I know we lack size badly this year but Dexi couldn’t go more than 3-4 minutes effectively, he was pretty soft as the year progressed, and he would always make Damion clean up the glass. Mason was a nice utility guy, but his offense abitlity is similar to that of Balbay.
I’d take Gary Johnson and Jordan Hamilton over Dexi and Mason any day.
My expectations aren’t too high or too low, but it’ll be exciting to see how this team comes together.
Wiggo
There’s no way either Mason or Ward were among our top 5 players. Ward is mediocre at best and Mason is just a terrible basketball player. Pittman was horrible too…
Damion, Gary, AB, Jordan. Personally, I’d take JCB over Pittman. Pittman made the entire team worse with his attitude and inability to, well, move. I’m SO glad he’s gone.
WTF
Your take on Pittman is… well, disappointing, to put it mildly.
As for Ward, that’s just a lazy characterization of him and what he had to offer. Fantastic defender, with an interesting, growing offensive game, and a very helpful attitude in terms of getting to the rack and disrupting defenses.
You ain't hurt...
When you ask the team what happened last year
Most of what they’ll say is they think Ward was gonna be the man and they were very unfortunate to lose him. The whole team was excited about his progress and he was positioning himself to be the leader of the offense from the PG spot. “Ward is mediocre at best” is disappointing to hear from a “contributing author”. Pittman was and is an inspiration to many. A character young man. Great attitude. The above description of these 2 players should be ignored.
You're gonna strongly agree with some of what I say, and you'll strongly disagree with some of what I say. Either way, I don't give a d@#n. I'm just here to talk sports.
Ward
Dirty Work, wasn’t sure if you were referring to my post about being ignored or not. I never said anything negative about Ward in my entire post, i actually gave him credit. There’s a reason why JCB changed his number to 50 because Ward was such a leader and go-to-guy for all the young guys we had last year. There was a good qoute from Damion, don’t remember it exactly but it was about how important Ward was, almost like the glue of the team. But with that said, I won’t say Pittman was a top guy for us because as much as I liked him as a person, he underachieved his senior year.
Pittman was a big disappointment
Thus that take on him. The guy was a lazy player, fouled too often, added on weight throughout the entire season after losing all of it, and had no comprehension of how to have an offense run through him. When you literally do not understand the concept of passing the ball out a double team to get an open shot, you are simply not a very good player. I expected big things out of Dex after the way he dominated towards the end of the season two years ago: but after that UNC game he did absolutely nothing.
Ward…ugh. Peter, the guy had one good game his entire freshman season and lived off that, inexplicably, through a season in which he didn’t even play. He couldn’t shoot and couldn’t handle, so I don’t know what you liked or thought was interesting about his offensive game. He was athletic, but he almost never got to the rim because people were always sagging off him forcing him to shoot. He couldn’t pass, which combined with the lack of dribbling ability always made me wonder why people thought he was a point guard. He wasn’t. My characterization of him might have been lazy, but it’s not out of lack of understanding. I just didn’t think he helped the team. Just another Rick Barnes hustler who couldn’t shoot…
Ridiculous
Pittman is perhaps the least lazy Longhorn ever to grace the 40 Acres. That he struggled in Rick’s halfcourt offense said everything about Rick trying to coach a halfcourt offense and nothing about Pittman.
Moreover, he had his senior season jacked by two petulant freshmen who were literally uncoachable, selfish, and disruptive.
And you blame Pittman.
I’m sorry, but that’s flat out wrong. Factually wrong. And analytically wrong.
You ain't hurt...
How can you not blame Pittman at all?
Believe me, I don’t think Rick knows how to coach halfcourt offense. But there are things like fouling instead of playing defense, not passing out of double teams, and missing cupcake dunks and layups (usually multiple per game).
That's fine
That’s fine to point out Pittman’s limitations and mistakes, but I wanted to be clear about what actually happened last year.
And I don’t think Pittman deserves much of the blame. Last season was a trainwreck, for reasons that weren’t his fault. That he didn’t handle it well is diappointing, but entirely understandable. In my opinion anyway.
You ain't hurt...
More disappointing:
Last year’s basketball team or this year’s football team? In terms of how they turned out in relation to the apex of your expectations at any time point for the team.
I've got a question Peter
I just got a warning from BON. Now my guess is that some jackass on here didn’t agree with something I said and decided to flag my post. Problem there is, I haven’t used a single bit of profanity today, nor have I done anything other than disagree with something someone said. Why is it that I get a warning yet I’m not told what for? Why am I getting a warning??
I just want you to know that from now on I’m gonna be flagging every single post I see something bad in, because apparently that’s what SOME people are doing to me. I didn’t even know this was an option, but from now on I’m flagging everybody.
You're gonna strongly agree with some of what I say, and you'll strongly disagree with some of what I say. Either way, I don't give a d@#n. I'm just here to talk sports.
Flagging every post on the board
Is a great way to get banned. Just chill and be a respectful member of the community and you’ll be fine.
Thanks.
You ain't hurt...
People flag my posts and I get warnings, then when I want to flag posts I get threatened
Nice.
You're gonna strongly agree with some of what I say, and you'll strongly disagree with some of what I say. Either way, I don't give a d@#n. I'm just here to talk sports.
No worries
I’m gonna mostly agree with PB and myself here. Ward was the staring point guard for the first couple of games. I think if he’s stays healthy, Texas is a different team last year. We rely less on Balbay and Brown and develop a more cohesive unit on both ends. Ward was a better perimeter defender than everyone but Balbay and was a much better offensive threat that Dogus. I expect we would have seen Ward on the floor a lot, Balbay on the floor less, and Lucas on the floor not at all.
Pittman may have never reached his true potential at Texas but it wasn’t for lack of effort. He wrecked shop early in the year when teams defended Texas straight up and guarded to the three-point line. It wasn’t until later in the year that teams started sagging and Dexter stopped being productive.
Mason may not have been one of our top five players but coming into the year Pittman, James, Ward, and Bradley were the top four and they are all gone. The fifth best was Brown or Hamilton in some games, Johnson in others, and maybe even Mason in a few, depending on how you measure value.
My point was not to cause discussion about who was our best squad this year but was more to point out that we have a long way to go this year b/c we lost so much talent from a season ago.
--AW--
Hook 'em
You wouldn’t know it, because our athletics department puts literally zero effort into promoting the hoops team, but the season does in fact start Monday night. I, for one, am thrilled, and can’t wait to get to the Drum to check out CoJo and Thompson in person.
For hoops enthusiasts, our massive hoops roundtable is running in two parts on Monday.
Thanks for the schedule preview, AW.
You ain't hurt...
Thanks for the preview
I’m really looking forward to the Mizzou/Texas matchup in Austin. Should be really even if Texas has any kind of home advantage at all from the crowd. Pressey is really good, but he’s a little spazzy and doesn’t actually start. Hope Mitchell is good to go by next semester, but he’ll be at best our fourth big guy.
Baylor is really interesting, as is Kansas. Both are relying on some NCAA assistance to be solid teams. If KU doesn’t have Selby, they have no scoring ability at all other than Marcus Morris, who benefited greatly from…uhm…never being guarded last year due to having three other stars on the team.
Same goes with Baylor, who has no consistent perimeter scorers other than Lace. Walton will be good eventually, but I’m not sure if that is this year or next. The inside guys are all athletes, but none of them get their own shots and feast off dunking over opponents more worried about Carter, Dunn, and Udoh.
KU and Baylor both lost three very good players. They’re both relying on highly-recruited freshman to come in and help carry the team from day one. I could see both teams struggling big time even if Dunn and Selby are good to go. Losing that much star power is always going to be hard to replace…
Exodus of Talent
I forgot to add this to the post but you just touched on it. The Big 12 lost a tremendous amount of talent at the end of last year.
Off the top of my head:
Kansas: Aldrich and Collins
K State: Clemente
Baylor: Carter, Udoh, and possibly Dunn
Ok State: James Anderson
Iowa State: Craig Brakins
OU: Gallon, Warren, and TMG
Texas: James, Pittman, and Bradley
A&M: Donald Sloan and Bryan Davis
You could make an argument that other than Jacob Pullen, the top 15 players from a year ago are all gone to graduation or to the NBA. There are great opportunities in the Big 12 for new stars.
--AW--
Definitely
A huge loss of talent in the league. Mizzou is I think the only team that won’t be hurt by departed players (and Colorado keeps most of their top scorers as well). They return a lot of guys, but everybody probably knows Kim English (who should have been 1st team Preseason All Big 12) and should get to know Laurence Bowers. I expect both guys to have monster years.
CU returns the best perimeter tandem in the conference in Alec Burks and Cory Higgins, along with Marcus Relphorde.
Also, Xavier Henry for KU and Marquis Gilstrap for ISU were pretty good.
Again another similarity to Football
I expect to see a lot of Volatility as far as Wins and Losses, shake ups in the rankings and teams outside of the Big 6 conferences will take aim at the top 10.
Freshman will play a bigger roll once again across the country. Hope our attitude and tempo will go back to how it was at the start of 09. Nice to have so much length and athleticism.
Excited to see what the Horns can put forward. Looked like Todd Wright has them in great shape.
nice preview
I’m sure 95% of the student body is unaware the bball season starts monday. I haven’t checked my email today but I have yet to recieve my print-at-home tickets for the season and we have a game tomorrow. The ticket office is about as lazy as our athletic department is in promoting bball because I think I called/ went to the ticket office 15 times to find out about my UT-NU student football tickets and they kept saying completly different things such as we don’t have the tickets or you won’t know until the week before.
With all that complaining out of the way, I look for Jordan Hamilton to mature greatly and become more disciplined on the offense and defensive ends, the dude can flat out light it up when he’s hot.
...did u buy stampede?
This is the first year i didnt buy stampede. The tickets for non stampede are available on the site already (texasboxoffice)
stampede
Yeah, I bought stampede the first night they went on sale.
I haven’t recieved the email with the print out pdf files for all the games yet
that pretty much sums it up, I’m really pumped for basketball season but it’s about 24 hours until the first game and they have yet to get the students their tickets…
That is ridiculous...
Please post something when you actually get the PDF tickets…
Just unbelievable.
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