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1. Facebook User said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 9:48 am

2. Kafka said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 10:27 am

   Trips:

   Good to know that you are still writing basketball for BC.

   I am Dex’s biggest fan. BTW, look at the size of Dex’s hand relative to the ball in the picture above. The guy has amazing, world class hands.

   Dex has the following attributes that make him an efficient scorer:
   * ability to get whatever position he wants
   * ability to catch any ball that gets close to him
   * new speedy drop step move
   * new jump hook

   What holds Dex back (and has me starting to go from being seriously concerned to resigned) is that Dex can not get in really good basketball shape. Do you happen to know what the problem is? By now Dex should be in the 270s. If he could lose another 20 or 30 pounds, he would be so much more explosive and have much more stamina.

   Does Todd Wright think that Dex is going to improve his conditioning much more from the current level?

   I would also like to know if Barnes has a plan for dealing with how referees call fouls on Dex. On at least one drop step move against Stetson, Dex was improperly called for a charge. Dex drop stepped (very rapidly) into a space that the defender was trying to fill at the same time. The defender got blasted when he and Dex collided.

   The foul certainly should have been on the defender because he was not set before the collision.

   My guess is that Abrams, Mason, and Balbay are all going to play a bunch of minutes this season. I am afraid that we are going to see the horns deploy a lot of 3 guard sets this year.

   I fear a Catch 22 situation: Balbay is the only guy who can make a big guy based offense work well but if Balbay plays, one of the bigs has to sit (because Barnes will not sit Mason or Abrams).

   I am also the biggest fan of Damion. It would be so fantastic if the horns could run the ball through Damion a bunch. I don’t think it is going to happen but it would be amazing if it did. If Damion could handle the ball really well, there would certainly be no need for a 3 guard offense by the horns.

   I like your dream team of Dex, connor, Damion, Balbay, and Mason. The problem I see (beside Dex’s stamina) is the shooting of Mason and Balbay, they have to be able to hit the wide open 3. I am assuming that Barnes will be able to teach Balbay how to play D well this year.

   I would really like to see the guys (like Mason and Balbay) who are a bit marginal at the 3 to shoot a set shot rather than a jump shot. Those guys are not going to be challenged when they shoot a 3 (the D will give it to them) so there is no reason to shoot a jump shot.

   We all know that it is much easier to hit a set shot than a jump shot, right? That is why everybody shoots a set shot when shooting free throws (rather than a jump shot).

   Another cool thing about a set shot is that it is much easier to fake and then drive if the D challenges the 3 point shot at the last second.

3. UTtuck said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 11:38 am

   Kafka – I read that Dex is around 15% body fat now at 290, so I don’t know how much more you can ask a guy like that to lose. Just some insight (and I didn’t measure it, so it could be wrong)

4. Dr. Clarkus said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 11:57 am

   Refresh my memory, LSN is only in Austin right?

5. kevwun said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

   I believe I read in an interview that Todd Wright has convinced Barnes that Dex’s current weight is fine because of how low they have gotten his body fat%.

6. Kafka said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

   Kevwun: you don’t happen to remember where you saw that interview, do you?

   UTtuck: maybe Dex is at 15% body fat but it sure doesn’t look like it to me. I looked up an article on body fat which said that the low end of ideal body fat is 10%. To get a 6 pack, you have to get down to 8% or less.

   This implies that if Dex gets to 10% he would still be in the ideal range and would have lost another 15 pounds. That would make a big difference.

   If Dex were in good shape, he could run up and down the court for more than 5 minutes at a time. Something is not right.

   Maybe Dex has too much muscle but I don’t get that impression when he moves.

   Having said all that, my favorite part of the game is when Dex is playing and I think the guy has a world of talent.

7. kevwun said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

   I can’t remember for sure. I believe the article said Dex’s body fat is at 13% right now.

8. The General said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

   I read the same article as kevwun and I have an equal lack of knowledge as to where I read it.

   I think they just need to leave Dex in for as long as possible even if he fouls out. He will never be able to play long without playing long.

9. longhornmatt said:

   November 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

   Todd Wright can work with Dex day and night for the next 10 years, but it’s not going to make him super quick and fluid in his movements. He is what he is, and it’s not Dwight Howard or a young Shaq in a fatsuit. He is a big plodding guy who can be a very effective college player but who is always going to be big and plodding no matter how much time he spends on the stationary bike.

   I am taking a wait and see approach with Balbay. His international credentials are certainly promising, but the hype around him reminds me of the Matt Hill hype from a couple of years ago. There has to be a reason why Balbay was a lightly regarded recruit despite playing at a highly visible Northeastern prep power and why Barnes has consistently indicated that AJ will be our primary ball handler this year (AJ’s own delusions of grandeur about playing PG in the NBA aren’t reason enough.) If Balbay does turn out to be a legit difference-maker, though, this team could really go places.

   I would also add Gary Johnson’s play in the high post as another thing to watch for. He showed a much improved midrange jumper against Stetson, but he also showed a complete unwillingness to look inside to the low post when he caught the ball at the elbow. If we can get him to work with Pittman or one of our other bigs in a real high-low game, it would be huge for our offense. Just like last year when Damion and Connor would have to pass to each other for us to ever put the ball inside, I fear that we will again ignore the post far too often this year unless the big guys start feeding each other. Plus, the high low would get Pittman the ball right under the basket where he is a much better finisher than when he catches on the block.

   And while I am talking about the big men, someone needs to teach Chapman another post move to go along with the fadeaway jumper turning off his right shoulder. I think he has gone to that move every single time he has caught the ball with his back to the basket during his time at Texas. With his length and coordination he should not be a low percentage shooter, which he has been up to this point even though he rarely takes perimeter shots. He could be a real weapon in the post if he could just turn off either shoulder and develop a jump hook or drop step to go along with the turnaround jumper.

10. exuLt said:

    November 18th, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    Kafka et al-
    The article on Pittman was on the ESPN BB site from about 20 days ago.

    “Wright said Pittman’s body-fat percentage has dropped from 41 percent to 13 percent.”

11. exuLt said:

    November 18th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

    linky: The Worldwide Leader

    

12. dick said:

    November 18th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

    he looked like 13% to me today. but he still was not quick on the ups after a few minutes. Dex is still a work in progress but he’ll be able to contribute quite a bit this year.

    A bit sloppy today but can’t complain about too much in a blowout team. The defense will win us the conference. I loved the pressure we can put on people using our depth. We haven’t had that in years it seems.

13. Kafka said:

    November 18th, 2008 at 8:49 pm

    I was super impressed with the horns tonight until garbage time. Their D is so great.

    Barnes is taking advantage of his depth by pressing and fast breaking a bunch. Totally awesome! I really look forward to seeing how effective this D is against first rate teams in Hawaii.

    Balbay is a much better defender than I previously understood. I am pretty sure that Mason and Abrams will get the bulk of the minutes at guard but Balbay and Ward should be good substitutes.

    Connor’s old school hook is a thing of beauty. I wonder why he shoots that instead of the more flexible jump hook? Maybe because his body is not very wide. Connor really needs to work on improving his catching of the ball.

    I don’t understand why the horns use a stationary bike for aerobic exercise. Why not use an elliptical machine? You can burn a lot more calories with it in the same amount of time.

    Maybe Dex is slow because he never ran fast when he was young because he was so over weight. Maybe if he would practise running downhill some, he could get in the groove of moving more quickly. Maybe it is just a matter of muscle memory (or the current lack thereof).

14. The General said:

    November 19th, 2008 at 6:27 am

    Some thoughts from the game . . .

    Chapman should forfeit his minutes to Matt Hill until he grows a pair.

    Matt Hill needs to regrow the sideshow bob do. He has lost his mojo.

    Balbay is going to get serious minutes because of his defense, and he will mature into a good lead guard, but he couldn’t take Tulane’s guards off the dribble. I am calling him The Grand Doge of Austin.

    I have no problem with AJ at the point. I don’t think he is great, but he will be fine. If we get UNC in the Maui, that will be the ultimate test cause they will press the shit out of him. I think he will handle it fine because he can use Mason, Damian, and Atchley to beat the press with the pass.

    Our defense is unbelievable.

    Damian showed some good dribble drive, though he was beating a slow, no D 6′7″ white guy.

    Connor Atchley is really good.

    I loved seeing Dexter get the start.

    I like our depth, but I hope Barnes pairs down our rotation to Mason, AJ, Connor, Damian, Dexter, GJ, Balbay, and Ward.

    I can’t wait to see our defensive pressure against a good team that gets our adrenaline going.

    GJ and Connor both did an outstanding job defending the out of bounds play.

    We will lose three games solely because of free throws.

    Damian had 16 and he is completely out of rhythm offensively.

    The next big questions are who is our crunch time ball handler and who is taking the crunch time shots? I am afraid that it is AJ..

    They showed the West Virginia/Paulino three pointer a couple of times. It was AJ driving the length of the floor and dishing to Paulino.

    We forget that AJ was an effective point when he was a freshman, and he eventually stole crunch time minutes from Gibson at the point.

15. The General said:

    November 19th, 2008 at 6:32 am

    Also, Balbay is going to create buckets in the secondary break and transition if the bigs run the floor well (and they have done a great job of that)

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