Some thoughts on Tulane

I came away much more impressed with Balbay. Hopefully we can chalk up the WTF? shots around the rim to nerves.

He needs to stop picking up his dribble 25 feet from the bucket though.

I like alot of things I saw with Balbay, but I don’t think he is better than AJ at this point as the lead guard. His finishing at the rim problems looked like rust and trying to do too much at the same time to me.

While Texas in the Barnes Era has been its best with a dominant point guard (DJ and TJ), I think the ball handling depth we have this year is going to be a big factor in our productivity at the position. Mason, AJ, and Doge can all do it and they can split the pressure of the position between them.

I too came away with a more positive outlook on Balbay. Yes,he needs to finish at the rim, but I was impressed with the lack of indecision in his passing. He was confident and precise.

I also thought his defensive fundamentals were better than I expected. He does need to stop picking up his dribble and he needs to get stronger, but I still see an upside that should get better by Big 12 play.

I agree you with on Balbay. I’ll start with the positives I saw from him:

1. He was very good as an on-ball defender.

2. He is a clever passer who can dish it with either hand and enter the ball into the post.

3. He doesn’t feel the need to dominate the ball for the majority of our offensive possessions.

However, it looks like he simply can’t penetrate in a halfcourt set, which is very bad news considering that he has no jumpshot and our entire offense is based around the pick and pop freeing up penetration for the PG. His propensity to pick up his dribble when faced with pressure was also disconcerting.

Also, those reports of his hops and ability to dunk in traffic seem highly questionable. Highly, highly questionable.

Balbay will definitely have a role on the team this year due to his defense, and he will probably be a steady backup on offense, too. He just does not look like a playmaker who should be taking over as our main PG, though. Right now I would say I like Mason most at PG, but I do agree that AJ is looking adequate thus far.

So Balbay is Blake Gideon playing the point?

Maybe, but there is no Christian Scott.

I agree with matt… Balbay wasn’t able to beat anyone off the dribble. I was surprised to see him pick up the dribble when he did… hopefully that will happen less often.

We didn’t see how bad the jumper was because, IIRC, he didn’t take it.

He showed a lot on the defensive end, and since it was his first game in a while, I’m going to cut him slack offensively.

If Balbay is in running the point, we will see less half court stuff I think. We will be causing a lot of missed shots and TOs so the opportunity to run will be there a lot. He’ll get better too. I was dissapointed to see Varez on the bench, I was looking forward to seeing him in action.

I was very happy with the horns’ performance (until garbage time). The D looks awesome. I was surprised to see the horns pressing effectively with Dex in the game.

I continue to advocate that the horns press and fast break as much as possible this year. This strategy exploits Barnes’ strength as a D coach and masks his (relative) weakness as an O coach. It also takes advantage of one of teams’ greatest strengths: depth.

There is very little synchronization between Dex getting post position and the team passing it into the post. When Dex does get the ball, he is likely to be double and triple teamed (after he has scored a few buckets) so he needs to learn how to pass the ball out of the double team. That was a very sweet give and go pass from Connor to Dex to Connor.

Balbay is a much better defender than I had anticipated. He does not look ready to be the main PG but let’s see how he looks after a few games.

Mason is definitely preferable to Abrams (or anybody else, so far) at PG. He has the requisite “pass first” attitude".

Abrams handles the ball well and can relieve the pressure bringing the ball up court. He has all the tools to be a fine PG. His problem is that he is a “shoot first” player and probably always will be. This means that Abrams should not be the PG.

Watching Tech on Monday night and then Texas last night was…sobering. It’s all good and well that Pat wants to play exciting, up-tempo basketball, but when you get out-rebounded by Sam Houston State, the future starts looking pretty bleak.

Watched some of OU as well. The Griffin brothers are tough, but UT personnel is just better. Guard play is questionable as well.

I guess I need to watch Baylor and Kansas, but to me the Big XII is down this year, and I don’t expect UT to lose a conference game.

I’ve been to the last two Tech-thumpings here in Austin. Think I’m gonna pass this year. I’ll try my luck up in Lubbock against KU. Those have been fun trips in ’05 and ’07.

“That opportunity was available all game long last night mainly because of Tulane’s inept ability to handle any sort of pressure.”

That was true, but I was sitting high enough last night to watch the helps and traps. The top eight last night seem understand quite well when to come (that is, not too late), and where to recover, if they didn’t stay with the double. Atchley understands this better than most.

My daughter kept commenting on Pittman trying to draw charges (how she found it hard to believe they actually knocked him over (grin))… he was a half-step late on the three fouls. I felt bad for him… but this shows that he is fully integrated to the defense.

Barnes is pretty good at finding a way to cover up what he does not have. Last year we did not have a post game and he created a post game by having DJ drive the lane. This year we don’t have a “true” point guard and I think we will cover up the following ways. First we will pressure the ball and create turnovers where we have the personal to finish the fast break. Second, we will set up AJ and Conner in a variety of ways to shoot the three. Third we will find some simple way to get to Dexter and Johnson. As we get later into the season Dexter won’t pick up as many fouls and can simply power to the basket. Johnson has a nice jumper from just inside the free through line. Fourth we will almost never have less than four good ball handlers on the floor at any one time. So if the defense brings pressure on the PG we will pass out of it. That happened with Balbay last night when he was pressured.
(Bob in Houston – Next time you are at a game stop by and see Hardwood in Section 35)

I’ll do it. From where I was sitting I could see dots in that section.

“That was true, but I was sitting high enough last night to watch the helps and traps. The top eight last night seem understand quite well when to come (that is, not too late), and where to recover, if they didn’t stay with the double. Atchley understands this better than most.”

I agree. Our defensive rotation is fantastic, and Atchley may be our best team defender.

I may be making this up drink befouled mind, but Atchley seems quietly confident this year as opposed to quietly trying to leave the building.