An electric first half made things interesting, but the mighty Horns asserted themselves in the second half.

First Half

(These were my thoughts during half-time.)

Lord, I haven’t seen us this hot since the UW game.  Pat played it as I predicted, using Lewandowski every time Dex was in the game, and playing small the rest of the way, kicking and scratching.  We sagged the perimeter defense lower than Dolly Parton’s headlights and forced the Longhorns to score with Justin Mason (13 points at halftime).

But the most exciting aspect so far has been our motion offense going Digital Underground and playing ‘Do Whatcha Like’ on the UT defense, man to man or zone.  We’ve been unbelievably hot from the field, but a good part of that is because they’ve been wide-open shots.  UT has allowed us to run our stuff, leaving the lane open for our little guys to make plays cutting to the basket.  It’s fun to watch.

Will it continue?  Hard to believe it will.  Now would be the time to start grinding out some 25-second possessions, attacking the basket and getting to FT line.  We’ll see how it goes, but right now I just want to say that I’m really proud of the energy and heart this team has brought to the floor tonight!

Second Half

Reality.  Talent Inertia.  Exhaustion.  On offense, we couldn’t finish.  On defense, we couldn’t rebound.  You can’t play the majority of the game with no one taller than 6’ 6” on the floor without eventually paying for it.  And Damion James definitely made us pay.  That one play where he tossed Jenkins aside at the block, caught the feed, then shot three times while getting two rebounds…that summed up the second half for me.

“For those of you on the floor at the end, I’m proud of you.  You played your guts out.”  If you don’t know that quote, then you didn’t sneak into your high school gym when it was dark and empty to shout, “HICKORY!”

My point is, we kept fighting, and I think we found out something about ourselves tonight.  We rolled with a seven-man rotation into Austin and battled the best we could.  It was a good showing.  We were tough, disciplined, and focused.  It just wasn’t enough.

MVP: John Roberson – Obviously.  Dude was nails against physical on-ball defense, and I don’t remember him forcing a single shot.  Everything came through the flow, and as a result you get 9-14 shooting and 27 points.

Mike Singletary – He had his usual problems on defense, even letting Justin Mason abuse him on the block, but he took care of the ball tonight, and his floor leadership makes a difference.  Mike, you’ve got one more shot to win in Austin.  Please help us end the streak.

Nick Okorie – It will be a shame if that ankle injury is serious.  Nick was actually finishing on the drive tonight, nearly avoided taking any bad shots, and made some good plays on defense.

Robert Lewandowski – Lew did his job, with the help of Pat’s super-sag defense.  I’m disappointed that he didn’t get a single rebound in 19 minutes, but if he was more focused on blocking out Dex, I’m fine with that.

Brad Reese – Good and bad here.  Reese was off from the outside, but he actually finished a few times going to the hole.  This surprised me.  He got tired in the second half and his defense really suffered, but we need to stick with this guy.

Theron Jenkins – Except for his lack of defense and rebounding, Jenkins showed some flashes of brilliance tonight.  I trust him to finish in transition more than anyone else.

David Tairu – Am I reading that right?  0-8 from the field?  Well, there was a reason for that.  UT wasn’t fooled by his pump fakes, and they did a good job forcing him to take shots other than his signature corner threes.  David still gets points for pulling down 8 boards.

 

Some Other Thoughts

The lack of shot blocking allowed previously inept offensive players like Balbay and Mason to drive on us with impunity.  It would have been nice to have a D’walyn Roberts nearby to swat that shit.

I thought it was interesting that Barnes went to zone at the end of the first half, and we still killed it.  Our zone offense has been really solid this year (against teams that don’t normally play zone.)

It was pretty funny when Pat tried to go zone in the second half.  We looked lost.  What I take from that is, when you’re team is exhausted and you can’t stop the other team, you might get desperate enough to try anything for a few possessions.  Pat just didn’t have any bullets left.

Hey, at least we got Trips Right scratching his head and wondering why all those AAU Blue Chips can’t play fundamental defense.

Right, so we’re 2-4 in conference now, so even though tonight was fun for a half, we need to take this and bring the same kind of energy to College Station on Saturday.  They’ll be pissed off after the loss to OSU tonight; nothing comes easy in this conference.