UT Basketball Dominates Texas State 86-52

by Peter Bean on Dec 11, 2011 12:31 AM CST in Texas Longhorns Basketball

Texas had little trouble dominating Texas State on Saturday night, building a 19-point lead by halftime, before totally burying the Bobcats in the opening minutes of the second half en route to an 86-52 win. The Longhorns (7-2) built their first half cushion behind a 14-0 run, then exploded out of the gates in the second half, outscoring Texas State 25-7 over the first 5:45 to open up an enormous 63-26 advantage on the scoreboard.

Five Longhorns scored in double figures, led by Julien Lewis' 19 points on 5-8 shooting from downtown, while the Texas defense held the Bobcats to 15-58 shooting on the night (26%), including just 8-36 on two-point field goal attempts. When you limit an opponent to a 37.5 TS%, there's really not much else to say.

This was a beatdown, and while you don't want to read too much into a big win over a bad opponent, I will suggest that the ability to thoroughly crush an outmatched opponent is a good sign. It doesn't necessarily tell us anything about how we'll compete with the best squads we'll face this year, but dominating inferior teams is something that NCAA Tournament teams are able to do.

Our post-season fate will be determined by our performance in conference play, but for now it's good to see that this Texas team has developed into a squad capable of obliterating an outmatched squad as we did tonight. I'll check in with a much more in depth set of thoughts on the team in tomorrow's Texas Basketball Report.

Hook 'em

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Good win!

McClellan and Lewis are both stepping up and showing us that this team has more scorers outside JCB. The real test comes a week from now when we go up against a solid Temple squad at home. Hopefully, winning that game will be just the confidence we need to (maybe) pull off the upset against a UNC squad on the road.

Either way, glad to see this team finally DOMINATE another team. Especially a TX State squad averaging around 80 pts a game. Hook ’Em.

"If you want to surf, move to Hawaii. If you like to shop, move to New York. If you like acting and Hollywood, move to California. But if you like college football, move to Texas."
-- Ricky Williams

by BONation11 on Dec 11, 2011 12:39 AM CST reply actions

I was in from LA

What a treat? So glad the team didn’t mail it in. They came out with energy and passion and keep it up. Proud of the young horns.

by HornsUpInLA on Dec 11, 2011 7:29 AM CST via mobile reply actions

Solid Win

This one felt much better than the either of the last three home wins over Sam Houston St, North Texas, or UT Arlington.

While the three-ball helped put the game solidly away, it was the Texas defense, especially in the first half, that was the really shining aspect. Texas State couldn’t do anything on offense in the first 20 minutes and made just three shots from the floor. This was partly due to the fact that they aren’t very good and weren’t sending anyone to the offensive glass for put-backs, but it was also due to Texas’s defense.

Barnes was pleased with their body positioning and ability to contain dribble penetration. Against UT-Arlington, Texas had trouble containing the bounce and allowed guards to get into the paint too easily and completely break down the Horns’ defense. That wasn’t the case at all tonight. Texas State’s offense spent most of the night outside the three point arc dribbling or swinging the ball side to side. Texas gave the Bobcats almost no easy looks.

If Texas can replicate that kind of man-to-man defense against better competition, then we have a good chance to be a solid basketball team.

As PB mentioned, tonight was a good sign and good stepping stone for a young team, but their real work will be done in conference play.

I like the way Rick is bringing this team along. Lewis and McClellan are giving Texas the outside threat they need, Kabongo is learning how to play at the college level — when to push and when to slow it down — and Barnes is somehow stealing effective minutes from Wangmene and Chapman.

Texas should take care of Nicholls State and then defeat Temple next Saturday. They would be 9-2 at that point before traveling to Chapel Hill for the ultimate test.

--AW--

by awiggo on Dec 11, 2011 11:44 AM CST reply actions