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Texas vs. Iowa Hoops Post-Mortem

Posted by Trips Right on November 24th, 2009 under Basketball

In my Iowa preview I posted that one of the keys to the game for the Horns, or at least something I’d like to see in a ballgame that was ostensibly going to be a blowout, was patience. Patience in running offense, patience against the zone, patience on defense in not gambling, and patience in general as a counteraction to the slower tempo the Hawks favored. As a fan, if you had the patience to wait around for a half, you, well saw the benefits of patience. We gambled too much on defense in the first half which allowed Iowa to find open shooters. Offensively, we lacked patience and it showed in our inability to get anything going other than offense that came off of offensive rebounding or indivual play.

In the second half, Texas played solid, help and recover man to man defense which enabled our athletic ability to simply take over because we were always in position to contest jumpshooters and Iowa’s shooting percentage went down accordingly. It ain’t complicated folks. On offense, the Horns played patiently by establishing the paint and running offense off of interior dominance. As Iowa fell further behind and became desperate, the feeding frenzy ensued. But it all started inside.

On to the player grades. I’ve italicized individual player keys pulled from the preview and used this as a context for their evaluations.

Damion James. Keep doing what you’re doing. Rebound, dunk, and hit spot up 3’s. This’ll be an easy game for Damion. He’ll be the biggest, most athletic player on the floor at all times. Don’t complicate things and fall down rabbit holes like leading the break and shooting midrange jumpers.

Ho hum double double for the senior, but these are the kind of games we need out of James in terms of efficiency. As the third or fourth option on the floor, Damion doesn’t need more than 10 shots a game unless they’re dunks or layups. His 4-8 is exactly what we need. Three of the four misses were spot up 3’s so Damion was 3-4 inside the arc. This is Damion’s wheelhouse. Perfect game for him.

Dexter Pittman. I expect continued domination whether it’s zone or man. The next step is passing out of double teams and dropping interior dimes to cutting players. That’s Big Man Zen.

We didn’t see any double team dimes from Pitt, but who cares sense Iowa didn’t have an answer defensively. A 7-9 performance, which should have been 8-9 had he made his dunk, is above reproach. Dex’s dominance kickstarted our second half run.

J’Covan Brown. Continue trending up as a lead guard. Which means knowing when to shelve the dribble and get the team into an offense and knowing when to create with it. An Iowa zone will be interesting as it relates to Brown’s maturation as a point guard because it really forces the young guard to grasp the nuances of the position. Shot selection, passing, tempo, decision making are all heightened against the zone. Other than that, the magic word for J’Covan is Poise. Continue to show it, and opponents are less likely to poke the bear.

I love what Barnes is doing with the young man. In one of our summer previews, I posited that Brown might be better served to play alongside Balbay or Lucas so that full blown point guard responsibilities wouldn’t be too much too soon. Barnes seems to agree as most of Brown’s minutes this game came alongside Balbay. The stat line raises an eyebrow considering J’Covan was 5-5 inside the arc and 0-5 from beyond, but none of his misses were blatant forces. The turnover number should come down as he gets more experience. As a scorer I love what he brings. His ability to create for teammates comes in flashes now, but you can definitely see the lead guard in Brown.

As for poise, the kid gets an A+. He didn’t pout or have bad body language coming off the bench and that says a bunch.

Avery Bradley. Take over the game for 3 or 4 possessions. You have built up that credibility. The last thing you have to worry about is being seen as selfish. A deep 3 or two would be a nice arrow to add to your quiver.

Still needs to be more aggressive but he’s trending upwards on this front. His two threes looked smooth and it was good to see him fire away. I need at least 10 shots from Bradley, because two of them will be breakaway layups. He’s too good a player to shoot it 6 times in 23 minutes especially when he’s only getting 2 dimes. He needs to stop deferring. On defense, he’s a game changer.

Jordan Hamilton. Let the game come to you. Patience shows maturity and earns you more minutes. Show more energy and effort on defense.

He was much more patient and the results were terrific. When he lets the game come to him, it comes to him in a big way. His stat line is nuts for just 20 minutes. 5-9, for 16 points, and five dimes. He was markedly more energetic on defense and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s the kind of cat that needs to see the ball go through the hoop a time or 2 to really be engaged on defense. I’d coach him accordingly. He’s certainly a special talent.

Varez Ward. Continue to guard like a beast. Offensively, find that happy medium between good shot selection and staying aggressive. You have skins on the wall.

The junkyard dog didn’t shoot it real well, so he adjusted his game and gave the team a lift by drawing contact and getting to the line. Just a real mature performance from Ward not to force the action. When we play our perimeter switching man to man defense, Ward’s ability to switch to forwards and guards is a huge bonus. It doesn’t matter who he’s guarding, he’s fearless.

Alexis Wangmene. Butter your bread as a weakside defending fly swatter and glasseater on both ends.

Ten solid and active defensive minutes out of Lexi. We still need more production on the glass out of the big man.

Shawn Williams. Continue to guard, but look to knock down a deep J or two. You can be THE pick and pop frontcourt guy if you can do both.

The deep 3 against the zone was nice to see. You have to tip your hat to the kid, when he plays his four minutes it’s balls to the wall on both ends.

Justin Mason. Take care of the basketball and show your worth as a steady ballhandler. On defense, do what you do.

Check and check. Justin’s role on this team is starting to emerge as we predicted. A ten minute, defender/energy guy.

Doge Balbay.

The guy is going to be Jordan Hamilton’s, and by default, Rick Barnes’ best friend since he’s coming in to get the shooters involved. It’s a symbiotic relationship, because Balbay needs to be surrounded by shooting threats to be at his best. When we play Balbay with Ward or Mason, we’re doing the young man and the team a disservice.

On defense there isn’t a better on ball defender anywhere in the nation. I’ve never seen a guard with the elite combo of being able to stay in front of virtually every player and still get to jumpshots and contest as effectively. Power slide, power slide, power slide, stay in front, you pull up, he blocks your shot. I’m not sure folks realize this, but Balbay has the holy grail combo of perimeter defense.

On offense, the release on his lone 3 looked great. He just needs to see the ball go in a couple times to get rolling.

Gary Johnson.

This game was perfect for Gary in that Iowa is tiny and unathletic. Let’s see what he does against Pitt tonight.

Coach Barnes. I’d love to see some continuity created with the youngsters by having them out there together for more than a handful of possessions. Brown, Bradley, Hamilton, with James and Pittman is our most talented lineup and we need to build some chemistry with this group. It’s counter productive to have the big 3 looking over their shoulder for a sub at every dead ball. It invites impatience, poor shot selection, and forced play.

A minus here for Barnes. He played Ward with Hamilton, Brown, Pitt, and James, and quite frankly, I don’t have the slightes problem with it especially when you’re looking for confident offense without compromising defensive ability. Perhaps this is our most talented lineup for the time being.

A good game, but keep a close eye on tonight’s Pitt game for validation.

P.S. If I’m Barnes I’m requesting different nets. The slow nets probably cost us 10 points by preventing us from having any kind of transition game after a make.

Thoughts?

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15 Responses

  1. Travis said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 11:24 am

    Trips- Great write up as usual, I was very impressed with the way we came out in the 2nd half , I would have loved to hear barnes in the locker room at the half…

    The early line is – 7.5 …. That seems like a perfect line to bet 2 units on , what do you think?

  2. Trips Right said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 11:35 am

    I’d be careful with short lines in Texas games until we prove we can shoot free throws. Big lines are a different story since fouling at the end and foul shooting itself isn’t factored in the spread.

  3. huge said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 11:38 am

    i noticed the nets too and wondered why iowa was allowed to supply them

  4. EggNog said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 11:41 am

    At one point last night Balbay was switched onto their five, he fronted the hell out of the guy as they tried to drop it into the post and was able to deny successfully. I was very impressed with that. Wangmene put up zeros across the stat sheet, he needs to be more aggressive even if it means knocking someone on their ass to get a foul for the stat sheet. I really appreciated Ward attacking straight into the collapsing zone defense. I’d like to see him hit FTs at a better %, but picking up those fouls does put us in the bonus much quicker.

    When Iowa went on their run they hit 6 of 8 threes during a stretch in which we had 6 turnovers. Most of those threes were wide open, but then again most teams don’t hit 6 of 8 wide open threes. They were about as hot as anyone could be, and we played about as poorly as we could during that stretch. To be able to finish up with an easy 25 point victory after that setback speaks volumes about what this team is capable of. When things are clicking we are absolutely dismantling teams. Doing that pretty much regardless of which 9 or 10 guys we are playing is so satisfying to watch, especially after last season.

  5. Bartoncreek said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    Anybody besides me think that Hamilton could play the 1? Love his vision and all around game. There is nothing that this can’t do on a basketball court. A true freak.

    Bradley’s elavation on his J is otherworldy. Brown’s ability to score off the dribble is DJesque and not something I was expecting. His floaters have been money thus far. He still gets sloppy with the ball, but hopefully that will improve. I am not so sure that Hamilton or Bradley don’t handle as well as Brown. Interesting to see him at the 2 for the most part last night.

    We still stagnate some when two of Mason, Balbay and Ward are on the floor. They just can’t shoot well enough to stretch the defense and open things up for Dex/James. Love their defense though. Lucas will definitely get to play more than I was thinking he would. Just can’t have Balbay or Ward/Mason at the point for too long of stretches without our O suffering. Hell of a problem to have, figuring out how to use all these guys.

  6. srr50 said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    Nice, Trips.

    A couple of general comments. We looked like a team with hotshot freshman in the first half. Getting out to the big lead let them believe they were still playing a bunch of jump-challenged High School Harry’s.

    We got lazy, on defense and on ball movement on offense, and here is where I fault the seniors a little bit. It is their job to remind the newbies that despite first impressions, at this level anyone can put together a run if you get lackidaisical.

    Dexter wasn’t as active down low, James stood around a little, and when someone got careless with the basketball, no one on the court showed any sense of urgency — until Barnes ripped them.

    The 17-0 run to start the 2nd half was nice, but even better was the run after Iowa made a little noise. That showed me that they got the lesson at halftime.

  7. sa said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    yeah…end of the first half was a bummer. but, I think in the long run it’s good for this team to have that happen at this point in the season. especially against a bunch of scrubs like Iowa. they made some dumb decisions offensively, let down on the defensive end, and all of a sudden a blow out was a tie game. hopefully it was a lesson learned.

    Agree on Dog and the defensive prowess. he’s coming along quite nicely. his intangibles are really off the charts. we saw this in spurts last year. honestly, his contributions will be immeasureable if he continues down this path.

    clearly, Hamilton is taking giant leaps at this point. crazy to think that Bradley will likely do the same thing soon.

    I’m about as even-keeled as they come. my life is a plateau — there are no peaks and valleys. that said, I’m about ready to drink the burnt orange kool aid for this squad.

  8. Fritz said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

    If I remember correctly, wasn’t there a time in the first half where Texas made a 3 and the ball stuck in the net? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before (heck, maybe I didn’t even see it this time).

  9. SkyMonkeyHorn said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    Trips, Again a well written article and you paid your homage to SW to keep the peace……

    The offensive spacing was bad and the motion were terrible to say the least.
    Damion played in spurts, solid inside the Arc. He is a large factor when he is working the inside first before moving outside.
    The guards needed to attack the zone more, Varez was the only one to do so. The kiddos that we have handling the rock should have destroyed the zone. Drive and dish was a late night snack at Taco Bell.
    Nice insight to Jordan Hamilton game, he is starting to settle in and will only get better.

    Balbay is still high on my list, have not seen the stats but I did see 3-4 gimme shots missed that did not show up on Dogs’ stat line as dimes.

    Iowa was running motion on both side of the lane with their bigs and we did not figure it out until the second half.. What was that about…
    A good learning tool for the team and the Players.

  10. uthookem said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    My wife was surprised to not see a burnt orange blur running back and forth across the baseline when we got into our offensive sets. I LOL’d!

  11. Texoz said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    In the first half there were a couple of non-calls on Iowa where their defender was dry humping Damion under the basket. I attribute some of Damion’s lack of offensive production in the first half to that. However, in the 2nd half UT got away with some physical play in the paint and that evened out the officiating.

    I’d like to see J’Covan get a lot of minutes before Jai joins the team. At this point, it’s pretty obvious that Mason will struggle to see minutes come January. Brown, Bradley, Balbay, Ward and Lucas are going to eat up a lot of guard time.

    However, there’s one caveat. Any more info on J’Covan’s ankle. He seemed to tweak it last night. Is it the one that has a screw in it? Which begs the question.

    Does J’Covan have a screw loose?

  12. SL Xpress said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 5:53 pm

    What I’ve been told is that J’Covan’s foot is going to give him some pain all year long until they can work on it after the season is over.

    It’s nothing to be concerned about as far as an injury is concerned, but his playing time is going to be dictated by pain tolerance to one degree or another.

  13. ipowers said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

    Let’s see what Hamilton does tonight before we anoint him. He was hot last night. Still haven’t seen him put the ball on the floor and get to the bucket in a halfcourt set once. I guarantee u he won’t do shit tonight.

  14. ipowers said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

    Still haven’t seen him do anything that my boy can’t do. I would like somebody to give me one skill that he has that #2 doesn’t have. Yes he hit 4 three’s last night. Shawn had 4 against Gonzaga. Jordan had 5 assists in 20 minutes, Shawn had 2 in 5 minutes, u do the math. Physically stronger ? No doubt. More skilled ? Hell naw.

  15. ipowers said:

    November 24th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

    U gotta be impressed with a kid who sat the whole game and stroked a long ball while really not being warm.

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