Texas Hoops vs. Iowa State: Post-Mortem

For those of you that discount this Texas victory over Iowa State, you do so at your own peril. The Cyclones are a solid team that just knocked off a top 10 squad on their home floor. Yes, that’s right, ISU is coming off a convincing win in Manhattan, KS, against a veritable Big 12 juggernaut coached by the Jersey-est Shore mother-huncher in the Big 12.

The ~~Hawkeyes~~ Cyclones may not be a great team, but before tonight, they were only four victories away from being an NCAA tournament shop wrecker. That’s 10 straight wins away from a national championship if you’re scoring at home.

Why not? ISU, historically, has a solid basketball pedigree. Over the years they’ve featured great players including Jeff Hornacek, Fred Hoiberg, and Ashton Kutcher look-a-like Kyle Korver who now plays for the Jazz. Well not really, Kyle Korver played for Creighton, which is close to Ames, but keep in mind that I’m pretty sure Korver was recruited by Iowa State so that has to count for something.

The point stands that Iowa State is scrappy ballclub. They’re a solid squad and they usually have good, sometimes white players, that illustrate that fact. Forget that their best players over the years have been guys like Marcus Fizer, Jamaal Tinsley and Kelvin Cato, that’s not germane to their scrappiness. Neither is the fact that their most famous coach liked playing drinking games with 18 year old coeds. But then again, who doesn’t?

Focus people! Focus on the Cyclone scrappiness. We beat them today and a big reason for that was the fact that they played a really scrappy player in Scott Christopherson which afforded our own king of scrappiness Jai Lucas a suitable cover.

The Lucas vs. Christopherson battle was a huge development between an overachieving, scrappy jumpshooter and a ball-handling wizard garden gnome. Not because these two really played a big role in the outcome of the game, but because it allowed Texas to slide Avery Bradley on to Diante Garrett to stop the bleeding on defense.

You see, up until that defensive adjustment, Garrett was able to out-scrap Jai Lucas off the dribble and into the lane for easy layups and offensive board opportunities for the Cyclones. When Rick made the adjustment to slide Avery Bradley over to guard ISU’s less scrappy backcourt counterpart, Texas was able to hold ISU to zero field goals over a seven minute stretch in the second half.

That’s right, ISU went on a seven minute, nineteen second field goal drought when Avery Bradley was on the ball, which prevented the Cyclones from getting any easy offense, or difficult offense, nay scrappy offense, for a large portion of the second half. Tip your cap to coach Barnes for this huge in-game adjustment.

Offensively, your stars of the game are frontcourt players Dex Pittman, Gary Johnson, and scrapping warrior Damion James. The trio combined to go 23-38 from the field for 59 points and 31 rebounds. Pretty scrappy.

And that’s your ballgame. One defensive adjustment that allowed Jai Lucas to not only stay on the floor on defense, but spread the floor on offense to let GJ, Damion James, and Pittman work an undersized ISU frontcourt.

The win sets up a rematch against the Baylor Bears, and the Longhorns will be looking to avoid taking a size three collar against Scott Drew’s battling Baptists. They’re not the scrappy overachieving club that the Cyclones rolled out, but they’re very talented, and some segments of Longhorn fandom put a premium on beating talented vs. over-achieving teams.

Not me, I’m pretty stoked about beating an ISU club a mere 4 games away from the NCAA tournament. For those that aren’t pumped by the win, here’s a scrappy picture for you, courtesy of my two month old Raylee. Her scrappiness in this picture is palpable, and no, the pic is not staged. Like I said, she’s just scrappy.

raylee

Article Tags:

Big 12, College Basketball, Iowa, Iowa State Cyclones, Texas Longhorns

32 Responses

SkyMonkeyHorn said:

March 10th, 2010 at 11:35 pm

Great looking kid there she looks like she will break some hearts.

Oh ! You drink to much scotch whiskey and you get scrappy.
Baylor by 13 points, Acy only has 5-6 dunks before Hill puts him on his arse. Because he is scrappy.
The bus driver is getting scrappy with his defensive adjustment. Scrappy is Jai the garden gnome.
Trips Right said:

March 10th, 2010 at 11:40 pm

thanks, Sky. She rocks. With three big brothers, she’ll be the Brittney Griner of her squad, minus the Adam’s apple.

But if I was drinking Patron, I would put up pictures of Vasherized and HenryJames at the donkey show.
Nickel Rover said:

March 10th, 2010 at 11:54 pm

Congrats on a cute daughter, I wish I had read something in that post-mortem that would indicate a viable strategy for paying back those freaking Baylor Bears.
I don’t suppose Bradley could move over on Tweety Carter? J’Covan Brown should be well rested for this next game and Hamilton only played 22 minutes so we’d better see some improved defensive effort off the ball.
Put up any kind of defense on their back screens and that game becomes an actual contest.
Scipio Tex said:

March 11th, 2010 at 12:38 am

Cute little girl, man.

I really enjoyed the write-up too, even though I kept having mental images of Scrappy Doo by the fifth paragraph.
The General said:

March 11th, 2010 at 3:00 am

Did you just call HenryJames a donkey?
beowulf said:

March 11th, 2010 at 4:56 am

A scrappy win is better than a poke in the butt.
Groundhog Day said:

March 11th, 2010 at 5:59 am

Where do you find time to devote to college hoops and fading las vegas, Trips? Much respect, man.

Haven’t watched a whole lot of the last two games, but saw Brown only play 3 minutes. I’m assuming this is because of his pathetic d effort against Baylor and his unwillingness to hustle for a loose ball yesterday. I also read from the game thread that he once again appeared to be sulking on the sidelines. This team desperately needs a point guard and hopefully Barnes can find one next year so Hamilton and Bradley can flourish. Brown’s time appears to be limited in Austin unless he turns it around quickly.

Gary Johnson has come so far from his frosh and soph years. Very happy to see this after everything he has been through. James played like a man possessed. When Mason plays it’s the Balbay situation all over again; 4 vs. 5 when we are on offense.
Magnificent Bastard said:

March 11th, 2010 at 6:37 am

Scrappiness is the new witchiness. Was witchiness the new clutchiness?
srr50 said:

March 11th, 2010 at 7:17 am

J’Covan Brown is the anti-scrappy of this team
sa said:

March 11th, 2010 at 7:54 am

do you typically use the word “crafty” when describing left handed pitchers?

I would feel so much better about our squad if we beat BU tonight. would love to see a complete beat down, followed by a big Barnes “bow up” during the handshake…but, I’ll take a 83-82 victory.
Trips Right said:

March 11th, 2010 at 8:10 am

Nickel, thanks. I fear that Baylor is going to smoke us again. Unless Damion James goes nuts, which he may. We may have a hard time playing our big lineup of Bradley, Mason, James, Pittman, and Johnson, which is probably our best defensive lineup, but would struggle against their zone.

Sub Hamilton for Pittman, and then pray we can get a board.

But the key on defense is to have either Bradley or Mason on Carter all game. There are no covers for Jai or Brown on this Baylor team. Shorten your bench.
Bartoncreek said:

March 11th, 2010 at 8:13 am

There were a few things that impressed me last night. Damion looking comfortable handling the ball, Johnson passing out of double teams, Hamilton looking to drive and dish some, Bradley hunting some O. The team is looking much more unselfish as a whole.

We just kind of suck on defense, especially mentally. All of them do, only James seems to understand how to play defense. But, I can live with scrappy and stupid. It’s lazy and stupid that kills me.

When Ward went down, Barnes thought that Balbay could be our PG. He was wrong. Then when Balbay went down, we had nothing. JCB was never the answer at PG, he is just too careless with the ball and that was apparent from the start. It is too late now and it is why we have no chance to do much in the tourney despite our top 5 frontcourt and two very talented freshmen in Bradley and Hamilton.

If Travelocity can just protect the ball, he can suffice for now, I guess. He is never going to create or defend or score. But, if he can just shoot a 3 when he is wide open and get the ball to James, Bradley or Hamilton and just move away from the ball and be enough of a threat from 3 to make his defender go with him, it is at least something.
Trips Right said:

March 11th, 2010 at 8:17 am

The problem is that Travelocity (ha ha) has to be able to guard somebody. As bad as our team defense is, we can’t afford to have him on the floor unless there’s a small white kid like christopherson to guard. If Jai gets extended minutes against Carter, James and Pittman will have 3 fouls before you can say fire and brimstone.
nordberg said:

March 11th, 2010 at 8:19 am

“When Ward went down, Barnes thought that Balbay could be our PG.”

Didn’t JCB start the year at PG? If I’m remembering correctly, the opening day starting lineup was Brown, Ward, Mason, James, Pittman.
Trips Right said:

March 11th, 2010 at 8:27 am

Scipio, thanks. I think I was channeling your Corey Feldman, or Haim post.

General, no, but it’s always implied.

beowulf, we’re going to win the national championship just to spite you.

GD, thanks. I’m actually an algorithm two numerals away from being ipowers’ equation. Seriously, though, your assessment on Brown is right on. He’s done for this season I’m afraid. Or at least his minutes are limited.

As for Gary Johnson, it’s interesting that we ran offense through him last night when Pittman was on the floor. It’s similar to what UK’s been doing with Patterson and Cousins. Gary was able to face up or back down his defender depending on how big his defender was. Pittman had some easy looks from putbacks and dimes as a result.

MB, I was just trying to convey that ISU is a scrappy bunch.

srr50, he’s toast, imo.

sa, Ed McCaffery and Ricky Proehl were crafty and they weren’t lefties.

Barton, great points, especially on Hamilton. He did a lot of good things yesterday on a bad shooting night. I was also pleased when Barnes encouraged him after the air-ball because it was a good shot. JH played unselfish, patient basketball. I think the light is coming on for him as an all-around player.
Bartoncreek said:

March 11th, 2010 at 8:35 am

Trips, good point on Lucas’ defense causing a domino problem for a guy like Pittman. Unfortunately, you have to weigh that against playing 4 on 5 on offense with Mason at the point. JCB doesn’t defend either, so we have that going for us. There is no easy answer and it’s too late to try something different like having Bradley, Hamilton and James bring the ball up in tandem with very little dribbling until we get near the 3 point line and then packing in a zone on d with that ultra big lineup.

Nordberg, he did. But I think it became apparent to Barnes fairly quickly that JCB was not a true PG and was too turnover prone to log the bulk of minutes at the 1. Now he is just a Barnes basket case. For some reason Rick has a hard time identifying true ballhandlers in recruiting. TJ exlcuded. That was a no brainer. Even DGib wasn’t a true 1 or a great ballhandler. It’s strange really.
SkyMonkeyHorn said:

March 11th, 2010 at 8:59 am

Barton C,
“Rick has a hard time identifying true ballhandlers in recruiting. ”
Rick has a problem recruiting kids for his system. Appears to have problems just developing an Offense scheme and having players that have to be coaches up to FIT his phantom system.
Player development ,a compositional process that lacks the fundamentals process of building from a base you do not attack but reinforce the strengths and build to a stronger understanding of the subject matter.
Barnes has coached up some of his players but also failed some of his players.
But thats another long subject to discuss and too many fan issues to deal with.
Blueshorn said:

March 11th, 2010 at 9:02 am

I watched this game out of the corner of my eye and avoided live threads. I think I helped the team and my blood pressure. Thanks for re-capping the finer points I missed by letting go.
Groundhog Day said:

March 11th, 2010 at 9:14 am

Barton,

Did you forget about DJ Augustin? We have had two of the great point guards in college hoops over the last 10 years. Yes, bobbie was a spot up shooter trapped in a point guards body. He should thank his lucky stars that a man by the name of Lebron exists on this planet.
Bartoncreek said:

March 11th, 2010 at 9:24 am

GD, somehow I did. Watching the last two years teams has made that seem like decades ago.
Patrick Bateman said:

March 11th, 2010 at 10:06 am

“The problem is that Travelocity (ha ha) has to be able to guard somebody. As bad as our team defense is, we can’t afford to have him on the floor unless there’s a small white kid like christopherson to guard.”

When did Lucas pickup this nickname? I approve. This is the best point with Lucas. He’s too small and slow really to guard anyone and we don’t hide him in a zone. Be different if he was actually quick.

Rick actually thought JCB would eventually win the starting PG role. He said it a few weeks ago, but JCB could never give sustained effort on defense and was too careless on offense, although I do think he improved on this issue as the season went on. JCB has to be able to give effort for loose balls, in transition defense and on help D to secure his rotation spot. He’s been inconsistent on all of these especially in the stretch run. I’m really disappointed with how he’s handled things, he was queued up to be the starting PG once Balbay went down and he just went in fetal position. He had his issues coming in, so he may need a more time to mature.

Hamilton’s becoming fun to watch. You definitely can see the pilot light went on and he’s making sound and mature basketball decisions. Rip Rick all you want (he’s deserved it), but I think he’s really helped Hamilton this year. If he stays, he’ll be a stat stuffer next year in a lot of games.

If we can play a little defense, have DJ and Dex stay out of foul trouble and have JH and AB shoot well from outside, then we have a chance at Baylor. Did I just type that? How sad has this season been…..
Patrick Bateman said:

March 11th, 2010 at 10:06 am

BTW,

Cute kid, Trips. Takes after her mom apparently……
Monahorns said:

March 11th, 2010 at 10:35 am

What’s weird is that SLX had been gushing about JCB’s fearlessness and toughness before the season. I associate those qualities with defense, hussle, and going for steals and loose balls. Was that just my mistake? Or has something about his game fundamentally changed?
kafka said:

March 11th, 2010 at 12:23 pm

What a classic, hilarious picture! That pretty girl is feisty; at two months old she is already flipping the bird.

Playing Lucas long minutes is not going to end well. Zone D will partially compensate for the D deficiencies of Lucas. Zone will also be less tiring than man (important when playing on two straight nights).

Props to the horns for their clutch free throw shooting to secure the victory.
Patrick Bateman said:

March 11th, 2010 at 12:46 pm

Mona,

I think it’s just how each person defines that particular description. JCB is fearless in an aspect of his game. He’s, what I call, “not afraid of the moment”. He’s a guy that wants to take the last shot. That wants the ball in his hands as the shot clock is running down and we need a big basket. He can handle the emotional load if it doesn’t go in. That’s the type of fearlessness I see in JCB and trust me, not every basketball player has that, even very good ones.

He’s also a guy that will give as good as he gets on the court. He’ll come right at you if you score on him. He’ll jaw, he’ll get in your grill. There’s a certain toughness that guys like on the b-ball court. In organized basketball it doesn’t always translate without needing a bit of refining. I think this will serve JCB well going forward, but he has to mature a bit on and apparently off the court…..
justhookit said:

March 11th, 2010 at 1:04 pm

The only prayer we have the rest of the way is a Bradley, Hamilton, James, Johnson, Pittman lineup. Split about 20 minutes between Lexi, Hill, Chapman and maybe 10 with Mason and Travelocity if you have to sub for foul trouble.

Slow the game down, use ALL the timeouts, and pray we out talent the other team.
srr50 said:

March 11th, 2010 at 1:16 pm

Bateman:

It’s fine to want the ball at the end of the game, and to be “fearless” about it, but every (lazy) step he took last night, every body movement reminded one of a 5-year old who had been scolded and was going to “show” his parents that he didn’t care what they thought.

He’s not afraid of the moment, but he is terribly afraid of the work (earning the respect of his teammates and coaches) that go into getting to that moment.

He has a lot of growing up to do.
3_from_the_corner said:

March 11th, 2010 at 1:23 pm

Yes, zone could allow us to play Lucas, and zone would be a nice ‘break’ for what has to be an at-least somewhat tired squad. Maybe we should break it out on Saturday when their tongues will really be dragging. :-P

…But seriously, I still don’t think that you want to play big minutes of zone against Baylor. They’ll tear us up from outside which is what they want to do to begin with – especially with Travelocity in there. The Cyclone guards just rose up over Travelocity ( I like this name, too) like he wasn’t even there. How many 3′s did they hit from the 6 min mark of the second half on??? It was really not as close as the score leads you to believe. Just about anyone we’ve played recently that’s seen any amount of Travelocity has been doing that exact thing to him. I think that Lucas is a complete liability out there. The season has shown that he turns the ball over when trapped and can’t guard anyone. He missed his only shot, a wide-open 3. I really think that Barnes was playing with fire last night and have to think that he was trying to ‘steal’ minutes to save other guards for what awaits tonight.

I agree with Trips that we’re probably in for another spanking tonight. If we play zone, we’ll get lit from the outside. If we play man, we may see another dozen dunks. That’s Baylor this year. Bully for them as my mother-in-law would say. I’ll still hold out hope, because they put on their jockey strap on leg at a time just like we do (except for maybe Vasherized). I’ve seen crazier things than us winning this game tonight.

I’ll take any win, I don’t care how it looks – scrappy, or otherwise.

Also, big ups to Matt Hill. Where’s that been all season, son? You know something is wrong when Wagmeme is our emergency big man (does he know he’s playing basketball???). We need you (and Chapman) to play like you are capable. Keep it up.
Patrick Bateman said:

March 11th, 2010 at 1:36 pm

Srr50,

I don’t disagree with anything you typed. I was simply attempting to convey the definition that I took away from SLX’s description and it’s only been cemented by watching him this year. He is, however, a lazy player right now.

Look, if you’ve played enough basketball, you’ve played with or against a guy like JCB in organized or pickup. Doesn’t want to do the little things but enjoys being present in the big moments. That why I indicated that refining is needed for this type of player. Barnes has been killed for a lot of things this year (deservedly so in many cases), but JCB has a long way to go, attitude and work ethic wise, before I’m going to lay his ineffectiveness solely at the feet of the coaching staff.

Also, our expectations for JCB may have been misguided (I probably opened up a can of worms on that), but we’re talking about a player that really didn’t play a whole lot of organized basketball for two years besides AAU, which has it’s own problems teaching sound basketball principles. He’s a young pup and expecting him to step in and master the most important position in our offense this year is unfair. He doesn’t have the talent of a TJ or DJ. He’s a four year guy and with some patience, hard work, and vigilance on both his part and the coaches, he has the chance to be a fine contributor in his career.

BTW, setting unreasonable expectations is largely at the feet of Barnes, who got a bit too excited in pre-season and scrimmages on JCB. Let the kid grow up a bit and find his role, he’s got 3 years left……
SkyMonkeyHorn said:

March 11th, 2010 at 2:03 pm

Mona,
I wonder if that screw in his left foot has limited him in any way. I also know that the screw in his head is also loose.

JCB is almost 180 degrees from the player in his senior year, he played at a faster pace , handle was great , instincts on defense were very good, sneaky good.
SLX was not off on his evaluation on JCB he was spot on, I also noticed that he does not go to the rack with the same gusto and his J seems slower to me and his passing has been terrible but that is not the evaluation that JCB had before Texas just the opposite.

Barnes knew what he was getting in JCB and was a strong advocate to get him onto Texas which has been a life long dream of JCB.

Psychology also idicates that you do not whip up on a emotional 12 year old every day and JCB is an emotional mess and on a level less then his 19-20 years.
Yes he does need to grow up but also needs guidance to achieve that goal.
Bewildered said:

March 11th, 2010 at 4:10 pm

Justin Mason > Travelocity in every respect. offensively and defensively. Maybe Trave is a little better at banhandling.bu tnot much. We have to give Mason more minutes than either JCB or Travelocity. Mason can get the ball down the court with a little help from Bradley and Hamilton. Mason, Gary Johnson, Bradley, Hamilton, James and Dex have to be able to play a lot of minutes. If we can play those six people all together all the time, we will win. oh, wait…
Bob in Houston said:

March 11th, 2010 at 4:15 pm

SLX always praised JCB’s talent after warning about the high probability that he would not make it at Texas.

I don’t think he missed at all on the guy.

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32 Responses

SkyMonkeyHorn said:

Trips Right said:

Nickel Rover said:

Scipio Tex said:

The General said:

beowulf said:

Groundhog Day said:

Magnificent Bastard said:

srr50 said:

sa said:

Trips Right said:

Bartoncreek said:

Trips Right said:

nordberg said:

Trips Right said:

Bartoncreek said:

SkyMonkeyHorn said:

Blueshorn said:

Groundhog Day said:

Bartoncreek said:

Patrick Bateman said:

Patrick Bateman said:

Monahorns said:

kafka said:

Patrick Bateman said:

justhookit said:

srr50 said:

3_from_the_corner said:

Patrick Bateman said:

SkyMonkeyHorn said:

Bewildered said:

Bob in Houston said:

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