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1. goosehorn said:

   January 6th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

   I live in Little Rock, so I guess I have a little more dog in the fight than a poster who might think this game won’t be relevant come March… Co-workers and friends are still blowing up my texts.

   Concerning the write up: I do think you could pin some of this on Barnes. I don’t think having A.J. jack up 3 bricks to end our game is the answer considering his off night. A two point shot in the paint with a chance at drawing a foul would have been my plan… but hey, I’m teaching in Little Rock and Rick Barnes is a HOF coach, so what do I know.

   Fortson is a terrible PG with a sweet pushback. He can D but he looks like a cross between a wanna-be TJ Ford and that dude in the youtube video that hits himself in the head with his nunchuks. WAAAY too out of control.

   Great write up, btw.

2. DBH said:

   January 6th, 2009 at 9:50 pm

   Thoughts? Excellent synopsis of why we folded. You do great work on hoops, Trips. Now that football is over, I look forward to following it more closely. Thanks…

3. bighornfan32 said:

   January 6th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

   Once again, we live and die by AJ. When hes on we can win, but when hes off, we’ll struggle. The problem is, he cant ensure that he wont struggle. His inability to create his own shot puts us in a place where he has to make his threes for us to win. That coupled with the ineptitude of the rest of the guards is why I dont have high hopes for this team.

4. Black Scholes said:

   January 7th, 2009 at 12:36 am

   Tonight was the night I threw in the towel on Balbay. Driving to the basket and either not being able to finish or more often intending to kick it out is offering us nothing. I also heard the very high opinions on this kid (difference maker? Are you kidding me?) and I have no idea what they were seeing. What a lot of drama for so little production.

5. No, the other guy said:

   January 7th, 2009 at 2:36 am

   DJ Augustin is not going to walk through that door. So what is the answer at PG? Should we just write off the team like bighornfan32? It’s time for Barnes to earn his 2 million and figure out how to make the offense run in crunch time.

6. Texoz said:

   January 7th, 2009 at 6:00 am

   Passing. If we do a lot more of it on offense, we probably win last night.

   Last night’s team looked like a 3 or 4 seed, and maybe Sweet 16. It’ll take Conner Atchley from last year and better guard play to get us a higher seed (I think #2 is our max now) and a possible trip to FF. As it stands now, good teams won’t respect our outside game and they’ll collapse on Dexter, thus mitigating our one strength on offense.

   That was a frustrating game to watch. I believe at one point AJ and Mason were 5 of 22 shooting. They finished 8 of 29. Include Ward and Balbay and those four were 8 of 34. Ouch.

7. Texoz said:

   January 7th, 2009 at 6:02 am

   One more thing. The team shot 34.8% We had a few dunks and a lot of close in put backs. I’d be curious to know what the shooting percentage was outside the paint. I’m guessing around 25% or less.

8. Massive Horn said:

   January 7th, 2009 at 6:27 am

   Personally, I thought James sucked tonight. He’s trying to prove he’s a three when he clearly isn’t. He can’t pass worth a shit, but then again he really isn’t too interested in that. He’s really a dumb basketball player. Him running out on a guy who’s hit one 3 the whole year only to watch the guy go pass him for a dunk, which he compunds by fouling so we can go down by 4 was classic.

9. jonestopten said:

   January 7th, 2009 at 7:18 am

   You are one hell of a basketball writer, Trips. Time to make your posts a daily coffee stop.

10. hiphopopotamus said:

    January 7th, 2009 at 7:41 am

    Great piece, as always. For a while now I’ve felt like the Horns have a rather limited ceiling due to lack of a PG and what little I saw last night (in addition to this write-up) completely confirmed that.

    We all know about Abrams, James & Mason. Johnson is a big surprise. And frankly, I never expected a Texas team to play defense like this. But you need a point guard to get to the Final Four and Texas doesn’t have one.

    Though they’re plenty different, I can’t help but feel like I’m watching the same team whenever I see either Texas or Lousiville play – athletes everywhere, good D, but not a PG in sight.

11. The Wood Shed said:

    January 7th, 2009 at 8:26 am

    This team, offensively, is a 12 v 5 or 13 v 4 March Madness upset waiting to happen. No PG and terrible free throw shooting leads to disaster in March. They will play good enough defense to be in it, but down the stretch they will get beat by a well coached mid-major.

12. Bob in Houston said:

    January 7th, 2009 at 9:17 am

    Trips, the only thing I can think of on Balbay’s lack of shooting is that the shot is so bad that Barnes has told him not to take a jumper.

    That would be a really bad jumper.

13. Vasherized said:

    January 7th, 2009 at 10:04 am

    From watching Balbay in practice I can tell you he definitely has an awkward motion to his jumpshot. He drops the ball way back behind his ear and has an elongated release with a lot of elbow motion that usually sends the ball right or left of the hoop.

    Anybody missing DJ Augustin right about now?

    That was a brutal game for the backcourt.

14. Bob in Houston said:

    January 7th, 2009 at 10:07 am

    Hopefully that’s rhetorical. With DJ, this team would be No. 1 or in the argument.

15. Kafka said:

    January 7th, 2009 at 11:03 am

    I agree about Balbay. I have always wondered why everybody was so excited by this guy. Ward impresses me more. I thought Ward did a better job of guarding Fortson last night and will certainly guard a shooting guard or small forward better than Balbay. Ward is my sub for Damion at small forward (so Mason can concentrate on point guard) and Mason at point guard.

    We are so used to dribble/drive/dish offenses that we forget that you don’t have to have a great penetrating point guard to run an offense. Wisconsin, for example, typically runs an offense without an awesome point guard and does pretty well.

    The first step is acceptance: UT does not have a great point guard this year. Mason is learning OJT and is doing better than could be expected. I think he is going to be OK as a driver/finisher/disher before the year is out but I have no expectation that his stop and pop game is going to be working well this year.

    Mason is more than willing to pass the ball but quite often lacks the confidence and experience to actually make the pass. He will get a lot better as the season progresses.

    When the clock is running down, it is best to get the ball to Abrams or Gary and let them go one on one.

    Normally, not late in the shot clock, run an offense that does things like screen and roll or give and go. If any of the bigs has an advantage inside, get the ball inside. Let the bigs participate in the passing by putting a bit man high and cutting off the big man.

    Using Abrams as a screener sometimes would be effective.

    The horns are going to improve a bunch. Mason has little experience as a point guard and is improving (eg: he is now penetrating and finishing). Damion has little experience as a small forward and will get better at small forward with more experience. Dex is improving every game. Connor is bound to start returning to his last year’s form sooner or later. Ward is a frosh and is sure to get better with more experience.

    IIRC, Abrams was 3 of 16 last night. Anytime Abrams goes 3 of 16, the horns are probably going to lose.

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