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My Pal Vitale Ranks Texas 5

Posted by Trips Right on September 9th, 2008 under Basketball

So he’s a loud, glad handing, bald guy with one good eye…who really likes Texas. Evidently. He’s got the Horns ranked number 5 behind powerhouses UNC, Louisville, UCONN, and UCLA. Problem is, if you’ve watched enough Sesame Street, it’s easy to notice when one of these things is not like the other one. If you guessed guard play, and specifically lead guard play, you graduate to Letter People. With Law, Price, Sosa, and Collison, these four teams got it, and Texas doesn’t.

Little
“L” is for lilliputian.

Sure, the good news is that Balbay will only miss one game due to suspension, the bad news is Dogus’ presence almost assuredly means James and Atchley will have to be on the floor for the majority of minutes Balbay is running the show unless the young Turk can extend his range to be a threat from deep. If not, Texas will see a ton of zone, and it’ll be effective if Texas can’t deploy 3 legit deep shooters. And that’s worse news for budding star big men Gary Johnson, Dexter Pittman, Chapman, and Wangmane. The X-factor maybe Justin Mason becoming a threat from deep which would allow Barnes to keep James at the 3, Connor at the 4, and attack the pivot with a talented back to the basket big while Dogus runs the show.

No mention of AJ Abrams, you ask? Well, I was kind of hoping he’d change his mind about playing for the Chihuahua Toros. An ideal compromise would be AJ accepting a role of zone buster off the bench. That’s about as likely as AJ growing 4 inches this fall, or his dad not yelling for Abrams to pull from 30 ft. Unpack your own adjectives.

AJ
Blackhole. Magic trick. Ballhog.

Thoughts?

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18 Responses

  1. Scipio Tex said:

    September 9th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

    I think we’ll be really good and probably win the whole league, but I share your concerns. If Atchley and James can shoot lights out at 3 and 4, I think we may be able to get away with playing Dogus Gottleib with Mason.

  2. TWC said:

    September 9th, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    Curious to see if Clint Chapman has improved enough to make a difference, and how useful he is on the perimeter.

  3. Facebook User said:

    September 9th, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    Will Rick Barnes let Dex be a double/double guy this year? I suspect it is also tied to that whole Ataturk from deep thing too.

    I think Chapman’s going to be really good with hiss back to the basket. Showed some late season flashes. The face up stuff is jury out.

  4. Nordberg said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 5:13 am

    Balbay
    Abrams
    Mason
    James
    Atchley.

    Just you watch (unfortunately).

  5. dick said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 5:17 am

    Is Dogus as bad as Gottlieb at FTs? I have a lot of faith in Mason and our younger big men, Barnes always seems to develop a player or two way beyond what I thought their potential was (Klotz, Connor, etc). I can see that in Chapman this year.

    The ranking is probably more to do with the weak ass Big 12 and really the rest of college bball. Memphis will be better than what he has them at.

  6. Trips Right said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 5:34 am

    Gottlieb is the perfect over the top reference for Balbay. Scip could have gone Bruce Dalrymple to AJ Abram’s Mark Price, but he realized we’re a football school with football fans.

  7. BatesHorn said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 7:03 am

    Is there anyway we can wait until at least October before I’m forced to acknowledge Basketball’s existence.

  8. kevwun said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 8:17 am

    Why? If you don’t care about basketball ignore it. Those of use who follow the team won’t miss you.

  9. BatesHorn said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 8:49 am

    That’s the nice thing about basketball, I don’t have to pay an ounce of attention to it until March.

  10. Bartoncreek said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 9:03 am

    Thanks for posting Trips. 5 is a bit high, but we are going to be very solid.

    I think we start out with Mason/Abrams at the 1/2 and Dogus Cota coming off the bench to spell both. We just don’t have any depth at guard with J’Covan not making it in. No way we start the 3 of them. Too much talent/depth on the frontlines and James showed how dominant he can be from the 3 at times last year.

    Biggest keys to me are Mason developing a better outside stroke and AJ developing better ball skills. That along with some better post/entry passing will make us a tough matchup for a lot of teams. Not counting on any of that coming to fruition, but if it did we would be a legit top 10 team.

  11. Vasherized said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 9:22 am

    James has to improve his ability to put the ball on the deck and get to the rim. In talking to a local scout for the Sixers that lives near Austin, they love everything about him but his handles. His consistency from the perimeter will continue to improve.

    D-Balb will shred Big 12 yes!

  12. Statalyzer said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 10:32 am

    “If not, Texas will see a ton of zone, and it’ll be effective if Texas can’t deploy 3 legit deep shooters.”

    Abrams, Mason, Atchley – we can still play another big man.

  13. Scipio Tex said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 11:10 am

    Mason isn’t a pure point and Abrams is a big defensive liability to carry for 30 minutes.

  14. Bob in Houston said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 11:40 am

    Scipio: Mason may not be a pure PG, but he can pass for one — his A/TO was NCAA ranked, and better than DJ’s. But it appears to be true that Balbay will be invited to put it up.

    RB has to find a way to go 2-3, outside to in.

  15. Trips Right said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    Mason was able to effectively run the point last year because he would always draw the opposing team’s third best perimeter defender. It was often a mismatched 3 when we had Abrams and Augustin on the floor. A backcourt of Abrams and Mason almost guarantees Mason sees the opposing teams best on ball defender. That would be nightmarish unless he’s been working his handles or channeling bob cousy with his ouija board.

  16. Bob in Houston said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Fair point… I just don’t foresee him being worse than Royal Ivey. Probably not better, but not worse.

  17. Bartoncreek said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

    Both have points, but you know how much I love Mason. He won’t be TJ or DJ, but he can be better than Paulino, Ivey and that tough high jumper whose name escapes me. Besides, if Balbay can play, Mason will probably have to only handle the point for 10-20 mins. a game. I am more than comfortable with that. If he is our only option and has to play point for 35 minutes a game then I would be more concerned. Dude could probably play center for 10 min. a game and do a passable job.

    You know he’s gonna D up, take care of the ball and get it to the scorers. My kind of player. Mason is the least of my worries.

  18. Scipio Tex said:

    September 10th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    Ivan Wagner is who you are thinking about. Ivan didn’t have great offensive skills, but he was a defensive menace.

    Mason isn’t a worry. It’s just that we’ll be the best team we can be if the Turk runs the point at 25+ mpg. In my ideal world, Justin would get 25-30 minutes a game – half of them at 1, half of them at 2.

    I’m kind of curious to see what Varez Ward is about too.

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