Texas vs Baylor, Oklahoma St. GameFlow

Trying to get this in before the OU game.

Link to Baylor GameFlow

Do I really have to say something about this game? I'll just mention some very brief points that haven't already been discussed ad nauseam.

• +/- info: The lineup with Johnson being our biggest player worked out against Baylor. I'm surprised considering Baylor's wealth of big men. Our best rotation of +7 occurred with Johnson, James, Mason, Bradley, and Brown. Mason and Balbay were the only other players with a positive +/-. Despite that, it was definitely a winnable game had Balbay not played Tweety Carter too close at the end, leading to four free-throws, along with Baylor rebounding an airball to tie the game (reminiscent of the UH-NC State championship game classic). Pittman was able to score efficiently (7-10 from the field), but was he a net positive in this game? How much of this is on him and on the rotations he's on? You certainly can't blame him for being on the worst rotation (-7), as this was mainly due to Lucas' incredible level of suck.
• Hamilton only played 2 minutes in this game. Given the events of the subsequent game against OSU, this is rather... unfortunate. While he didn't play well in his limited time (a turnover, missed all 3 shots), there's no reason for Barnes to essentially wipe him out of the rotation. Brown on the other hand, played well and deserved his 30 minutes of action. While I don't have an issue with Mason starting, Brown should be getting more minutes than him and maybe even Balbay (though they'll be playing together at many points of the game). That's it, time to move on to the good news:

Link to OSU GameFlow

Notes on what was probably the turning point of the season:

• +/- info: Really a fan of how Barnes handled his rotation. First of all, Chapman can thank Hamilton's explosion for leading the team in +/-. He only registered a single rebound in the boxscore, but it's still good to say the team was very productive when he was on the court. Between the Chapman/Hill/Wangmene trio, I wanted Barnes to select one of these players and play him exclusively to backup Pittman. After Chapman's impressive performance against Kansas St, I believe Barnes made the right choice with Chaps.
• How about the rotation that accumulated the +10? Balbay, Brown, Hamilton, Johnson, and Chapman. You know your team is deep when that rotation doesn't include James, Pittman, or Bradley. Hamilton's explosion really warped the typical minute distribution. Bradley "only" played 22 minutes (consider he's 2nd on the team in minutes played, played 36 mins vs Arky, Colorado, 37 vs Iowa St. and 40 vs Baylor.) While 22 minutes is probably a tad smaller than it should be, I'm fine with it if Hamilton's the one taking his minutes away (meaning he's being productive). If this team wants to make a championship run, I believe Balbay, Brown, Bradley, and Hamilton should all be playing 20-30 minutes, with Mason playing 15-20.
• Final thought is on Balbay. He isn't just our great guard defender - he's the Shane Battier or Bruce Bowen of this team. He IS the defensive stopper against any perimeter player, regardless of size. He will be the player Barnes counts on to stop a blazing inferno (Anderson certainly was one in the 1st half). Can't put into words how impressive his defensive stand was against James Anderson. Keep this in mind: Balbay is 6'1", 175lbs, while Anderson is 6'6", 210lbs. Gandolf won't bow down to anyone. Balbay led the team in fouls again, but we'll have to accept that his tight pressure defense will lead to cheap fouls being called. If the refs are letting the players play, this heavily favors Texas.