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Lobotomized in Lubbock

Posted by Scipio Tex on March 2nd, 2008 under Basketball

I’m having a tough time getting that exercised about this loss in Lubbock.

Passive offense and an early lack of intensity on defense allowed the referees to participate in the Tech gutty-home-win narrative. A 43-13 free throw margin raises an eyebrow, but we’re as responsible for that fact as the zebra’s weird inconsistencies. The Mason technical was a good example of the absurdity of this game. The more we fell for the fool’s gold of a bricked three pointer without running some semblance of offense, the more the referees began to consider it a right for a Tech player to grab Augustin to slow up a fast break or for Tech defenders to undercut rebounders and shooters when they leave their feet. Play like chumps, be treated like chumps. Happens all of the time. When you play dumb basketball on the road, you open up the possibility for the referees to create their own game. The mirror is always the best place for assigning blame.

Reporter
Somewhere, Bob Knight was displeased with the officiating. In principle.

Tech’s Martin Zeno had a Scottie Pippen stat sheet: 15 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists. His play was crucial for opening up the game for some of Tech’s more marginal contributors. Voskuil, voted Most Likely To Join A West Texas Boy Band, Gentlest Eyelashes, and Most Likely To Wear a Pooka Shell Necklace, by his high school senior class, hit the crucial free throws down the stretch. Hey, here’s an idea: deny that guy the entry pass off of the inbounds and make one of the kids who keeps bricking shoot the freebies. I’m no coach though. Just sayin’…

Reporter
And I swear, on the moon and the sun and the stars: This game sucked.

Actually, I’d cut Barnes a break. There appeared to be several instances in the game where guys didn’t translate specific Barnes instructions to action. See Gary Johnson. Oh, Gary. Why?

Justin Mason turned in a nice effort, but the rest of the team was largely AWOL. I’m convinced that Atchley’s recent proclivity for early fouls and a seat on the bench is screwing our defense and taking away all of our high screen and pop game on offense. If he comes in cold thereafter, we’ve lost a key ingredient. No big deal if Abrams is making his shots. When he’s not (5 of 17), it’s the DJ Augustin show and though I appreciate 30 points on his statline, I’d rather see 12 assists. We had a lowly nine as a team.

Damion James, who deserves to be lauded for his improvement from last year and for his manly effort on the offensive boards, is also good for two low basketball IQ plays per game. He just has a tough time reading game context, particularly when we’re struggling.

JD Lewis will go back to “providing depth” when we play NU and OSU.

All in all, this game is best summed up by the knowledge that life is full of imperfection and bad things happen to good teams. In short:

We’ll refocus and get our work done against Nebraska. We’d better. Aleks Maric is gangsta!

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18 Responses

  1. TripsWrong said:

    March 2nd, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    “Oh, Gary. Why?”

    Have you been watching SpongeBob? [Ms. Puff]Oh, Spongebob. Why?[/Ms. Puff]

  2. Unbiased Horn said:

    March 2nd, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    I feel really really dirty for not feeling bad about this loss. I think God will punish me and this team within the next few weeks for this.

  3. Kafka said:

    March 2nd, 2008 at 8:43 pm

    The horns showed a lot of heart against Tech and refused to give up. Very impressive.

    Reasons for the huge difference in the number of free throws:
    * The normal Big 12 refereeing screw job for the road team
    * Tech’s offense was more efficient at getting shots inside
    * UT had to intentionally foul like crazy at the end of the game

    The horns have been settling for 3’s all year. When they are not hitting them, it can get ugly. I am finally starting to give up on Barnes running a normal offense. He is a great defensive coach but his offense looks overly reliant on guys making one on one plays (i.e. it does not produce a lot of easy looks). I am guessing it has something to do with practise time management and that stressing a one on one approach is more fun for the players and lets them focus on developing their individual skills (so they are more motivated to practise). Maybe it also helps in recruiting.

    It is extremely frustrating to see so few assists by Augustin. He has demonstrated (about 4 or 5 games ago) that he can be a brilliant passer when he wants to do so.

    The horns have difficulty executing a full court press effectively with Augustin and Abrams on the floor because they are too small to trap effectively and because they do it so infrequently.

    The horns did not change their offense much when they got way behind and time became a factor. Instead of going to a fast breaking, up tempo offense, they just stayed in their same half court offense. The horns’ offense is Augustin and Augustin is not a fast breaking guy. He prefers to attack from the half court offense. So, even though the horns have a ton of speed at every other position (besides Augustin), they seldom fast break. The horns have full court pressed rarely this season so it is not surprising that they were completely ineffective at getting the ball out of Voskul’s hands.

    It would be a great idea to give Augustin some rest. He played 40 minutes against Tech. He did great scoring but there was little in the gas tank on the defensive side by the end of the game.

    Justin Mason was impressive. He looked great at the point at the end of the game. Besides giving Augustin a little rest (relatively speaking), playing Mason at point puts another 3 point shooter (Augustin) on the perimeter away from the ball and also forces the D to pay a lot of attention to Mason. Mason is usually guarded by a small forward and he can penetrate pretty well on those guys.

    The offense needs to generate a lot more close shots for Damion.

    I thought the game demonstrated that the horns are not very proficient at playing up tempo, fast breaking, full court pressing basketball. This makes sense when you consider that Augustin and Abrams are playing nearly 40 minutes every game (barring foul trouble).

  4. RansomStoddard said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 5:19 am

    When our offense degenerates into DJ doing his Meadowlark Lemon impersonation, and everyone else standing around; or when AJ shoots more than ten times, we will lose. Mark it down.

  5. ChrisApplewhite said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 5:27 am

    Pssh. Everyone knows All-4-One sang “I swear.” Come on, dude.

  6. ChicagoTTU said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 7:37 am

    The UT win keeps our NIT prayers alive.

  7. South '06 said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 8:56 am

    The wild inconsistency of the Big XII this season gives me tired head.

    Oh well, you’ll still be dancing away while we are trying not to look too lethargic losing in the first round of the NIT.

  8. McLovin said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Tech fan using an alias. Great.

  9. Scipio Tex said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm

    He go bye-bye now. No one is allowed to pick on South ‘06 except me.

  10. Scipio Tex said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    I want it on the record that Chris Applewhite was able to identify The Back Street Boys on sight and was also aware of the identity of All-4-One as the actual singers of “I Swear.”

    I am troubled.

  11. ChrisApplewhite said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm

    I was in middle school once. All-4-One was the first CD I ever owned.

    Now I mostly listen to Leif Garrett. You know, classic rock.

  12. Doperbo said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    You weren’t as upset when you got nailed on Love Hurts/Cheap Trick for some reason.

    I’m just saying.

  13. Scipio Tex said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm

    True. Don’t ever question me on Bell Biv Devoe knowledge though.

  14. AustinYankee said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike,
    If I like the girl,
    Who cares who you like?

    Before there was BBD, there was New Edition, and all was good.

  15. Scipio Tex said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 8:15 pm

    Tech put up quite an effort. Gadzooks.

  16. srr50 said:

    March 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 pm

    I will give up my Survivor album when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

  17. echeese said:

    March 4th, 2008 at 5:14 am

    Bell Biv Devoe
    Girl now you know

    BBD videos rocked – always in the hot tub and stuff – not bad for the three nerds from New Edition

  18. South '06 said:

    March 4th, 2008 at 6:21 am

    “No one is allowed to pick on South ‘06 except me.”

    At least you are clever about it. Getting made fun of by and idiot is just… insulting.

    “Now I mostly listen to Leif Garrett. You know, classic rock.”

    Those tears in his “Behind the Music” episode… those were REAL, man.

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