More photos » by Rod Aydelotte - AP

The only reason this is even a question...

Browse more photos »

On Saturday night, Texas will try to win the South with a victory over Kansas. But before the Longhorns even kickoff, the Baylor Bears and Texas A&M Aggies will be battling for the right to be the worst in the conference. A month ago, Scipio Tex and I bet a bottle of whisky on who would emerge as the worse of the two, and for all intents and purposes, it comes down to this game.

My bottle of whisky is on the Bears. Who ya got?

Continue reading this post »

Continue reading this post »

Continue reading this post »

Thanks to The Elusive Shadow for the questions and Bring On The Cats' Tye Burger for the Kansas State analysis.

Continue reading this post »

Zac Robinson is a game time decision. For obvious reasons:

More photos » by Erich Schlegel - AP

Browse more photos »

Continuing with thoughts on Texas' 73-41 win over Western Carolina.

REVIEWING THE KEYS

1. Foul control. [Grade: A] Texas went inside to Pittman on its first two possessions, one resulting in a made basket, the other in a foul by Richie Gordon. By halftime, Gordon had picked up two more fouls, while Big Sexy had drawn just a single foul. Of course, by halftime it was also apparent it wouldn't have mattered much if it had been otherwise, but hey, it's good seeing Dexy play with good body control.
2. Guard composure. [Grade: C]  Texas' guards seemed to maintain a roughly 1:1 ratio of good to bad offensive possessions, finishing the night with 20 turnovers, struggling at times with the length of WCU's guards.
3. Don't settle. [Grade: B-]  Post entry remains an issue for most of the guards, although Rick said in the post-game that the team focused exclusively on defense after the UC-Irvine game, prompting him to say he wasn't surprised by the sloppy offensive showing.

Continue reading this post »

Continue reading this post »

More photos » by Erich Schlegel - AP

Browse more photos »

I have extensive player notes to post tomorrow, but non-sports life got in the way this evening and it's too late for me to get 'em all up now.  For now: Another convincing win in which Texas just overwhelmed a vastly outmatched opponent -- tonight, Western Carolina, 73-41. A Cliff's Notes preview of tomorrow's discussion:

1. We're really damn good right now, but what's most exciting is that this team is just scratching the surface. I'd take Texas -2 over Kansas right now, but given my impression of the two teams' ceilings, give me Texas -6 in March.*
   
2. J'Covan Brown was calm, cool, and collected... And very, very impressive.
   
3. We're going to see Brown's high-impact on this team before we see, in order, Bradley and Hamilton's. Avery will get there soon, Hamilton by year's end. When all three are no longer freshmen in February -- you won't want to play Texas.
4. The halfcourt offense has a ways to go still. We utilized Big Sexy terribly tonight.
5. You are seeing why I said in the preseason that, amidst all this talent, Dogus will surprise and will demand minutes. Especially as freshmen take some time to get going, he's an important player for us. He'll be a bit less so by March, but he's hugely valuable to us in several critical components of the game.
6. The way we can just run swarms of subs, and mix-and-match lineups -- without dropping off in quality -- is going to allow us to just overwhelm every team but the top 20 or so in the country. Among the best, we'll win if we're on the right side of average, and even some nights when we're not.

More tomorrow. Hook 'em

* And yes, I hope Kansas fans see this, and react to this. Not because I want a chest-thumping war, but because I think this is our rival in basketball. Rick Barnes and Bill Self see it the same way, and I'm all for it. The Texas-Kansas back-and-forth over the last 6 years has been the best kept secret in college hoops, and I absolutely love that we have a powerhouse like Kansas to constantly measure ourselves against. They're smart fans: I think they see it, too. This should be the most fun season to date.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Alabama
3	Texas
4	TCU
5	Cincinnati
6	Georgia Tech
7	Boise State
8	Pittsburgh
9	Ohio State	6
10	Iowa	1
11	Oregon
12	Oklahoma State	4
13	LSU
14	Penn State	3
15	Stanford
16	Rutgers
17	Virginia Tech	5
18	Miami (Florida)	8
19	Southern Cal	5
20	Wisconsin	1
21	Houston	9
22	Nebraska	3
23	Arizona	5
24	Brigham Young	1
25	Oregon State	1
Last week's ballot

Cry about it.

(I moved Arizona down, but I actually forgot to submit this until about 1 minute before the deadline, so I didn't have time to do anything else.  Can't think of what I would have done, actually.)