Texas vs Navy Hoops Open Thread

Navy is an uptempo offense. Should make for a fun, full court game.
 
Barnes will try a bunch of line-up combinations and see what works.
 
Very eager to see Cory Joseph and the newly svelte J’Covan Brown.
 
Will Hamilton have had an attitude adjustment?
 
I’m still not sure how we defend anyone in the half court this year. We’re short and not particularly quick in the front court.

I am certain that this team will not be as disappointing as the football team. There’s your ringing endorsement, eh?

Here’s hoping that CJ drops 12 dimes tonight and our PG problems have been solved!

We aren’t going to do it, but we should be running uber uptempo on both ends with this roster. Everyone has the green light from everywhere and either create a turnover or give up a layup on defense.

This is still a very talented team. Much more so than some of Barnes’ earlier teams.

Hell I just hope they’re fun to watch. It’s been awhile.

TJ Ford had 13 assists in his first game. That’s the standard and it’s perfectly reasonable to expect Joseph to best that.

We’re Texas.

But, are we going to attack sideline to sideline to wear out our opponent?

TJ had 13 assists, bounced six balls off of unsuspecting guys faces and another five gimmes blown. Love that guy.

Yes, T.J. is in my all-time Longhorn top-five, no doubt.

And in case anyone is curious, it’s him, Donovan Forbes, and some other guys.

TJ used to always hit Jason Klotz in the face. Klotz had to leave a game with a bloody nose after a nice (blown) dime once, I forget who it was against.

If Joseph drops 6 dimes I’ll be happy.

6 minutes still to go in the Pitt game. I will be shocked by anything less than three overtimes.

TV channel?

ESPN U HD

Channel 497 on Time Warner in NYC. Let’s do it.

ESPNU

KVET has the radio stream of the game up on their site, if you don’t wanna have to listen to the ESPNU guys.

At least we know it’s not Pam Ward.

So I’m sitting too far back from the small screen and I read Scipio’s “bunch of line-up combinations” as “bunch of line-up comedians.”

I can’t believe that I’m actually fired up for this because I’m mentally out of football season.

Hey look. Our starting shooting guard can’t shoot.

Think we’ll hit 1,000 replies?

Nevermind. Dogus is running the point instead of Joseph.

Balbay looks slower on the defensive end.

I’m loving the jerseys.

We have got to start knocking down those outside shots.

It is only three minutes in, but already time to stop settling for jumpers.

Front of jerseys are awesome but do the backs have a white on white graphic?? Nike is funny when it happens to Oregon but sucks when it happens to you

Oh man I wish we still had Sexy Dexy down low with Joseph running the show…I want to see J’covan and Joseph out there at the same time.

Is there a graphic? Ive been waiting for a close up of the back but still haven’t seen one.

That is attacking the basket! We need to take advantage of our size in games where that is an advantage for us.

I have a feeling I’m going to be a huge corey joseph fan. tristian needs to start taking care of the ball a little better.

JH looks so comfortable out there. Not forcing anything….looks like a different guy..Gives me a lot of hope for him. Joseph is very smooth…

How bad is Navy? Is this a team we should beat by 40?

The jerseys:

http://fantake.com/forums/topic.php?id=740

Navy was under .500 last season, we should run them out of the gym.

I’m not a huge basketball fan but i need this with the current state of the football team.

Hamilton is still a liability as a ball handler. Dribbles the ball way too high.

When was the last time a Texas team led 14-7?

Thompson has great body control for a Frosh

I don’t know how I feel about the graphic. I’m leaning against at the moment.

Good footwork by Tristan down low.

I have a good feeling about this new ESPN contract and the amount of basketball games I am going to get down here in Fort Lauderdale.

I’m already in a bad mood just seeing jai lucas

Our guys need to recognize the double team and come to the ball.

I think Rick Barnes is turning the offense over to Greg Davis when we play against pressure D.

Gary Johnson is a baller.

As a bonus whenever I’m at a game with a girl they always ask “Is his name Hairy Johnson?”

The first J’turnover of the season. Brown to the bench.

On the bright side, we’ve improved to a 50% free throw shooting team.

Nice sequence for Hamilton there, pulled the board, brought the ball up the floor, penetrated and found Johnson with good position in the post who drew the foul.

Tristan Thompson is a horrible free throw shooter….

And back to sub 50%. My mistake.

Hamilton has 8 boards with 4 minutes to go in the half.

Is Navy’s Head Coach Craig Way’s brother?

Dogus taking a 3 pointer=fail.

1-9 shooting threes. Navy is daring us to shoot and we are obliging. Really time to start seeing what is available off of penetration.

Jai Lucas and the free throw monster have reared their ugly heads. Here comes another stellar season…

3 point shooting is going to be an issue this year if Hamilton isn’t shooting well…..

Matt Hill has clearly improved. Lottery pick, imo.

Christ. More of the same. Is it football season yet?

J’Covan can shoot threes for us too.

Jai Lucas would get beat in 1 on 1 against Blake Gideon.

I like both the freshmen, they seem like they’ll be fun to watch and have plenty of potential for improvement.

Good news is drawing up last second plays is a big strength of Rick Barnes…expect a layup or open 3 here.

J’Covan can be big for us this year if he can keep his head straight. He set up shop in the corner, drew the defense who has to respect his shot, and found Tristan down low.

This end of half shot will be interesting.

Are Matt Hill’s legs tied together?

Dang, did not expect an attempted alley-oop from midcourt turned turnover to end the half off a timeout.

Serious question: is there nobody on the staff Rick Barnes could appoint as the official draw up plays for the end of halves coach?

I’m pleased with the defense, which is something I could rarely say about the team last season.

As long as we play defense and control the boards, Barnes will give more leeway to his players on the offensive end.

Brown has missed 2 FTs already.

I like how Hamilton and J Brown look physically. Also, like T Thompsons body control and the way he can torque his upper body to get his shot off.

that dunk was nasty from jham

Much better second half on offense, only one three pointer.

Nice. When is the last time we had consecutive finishes at the basket while pushing the ball up the court?

3 assists in the first half, 4 in the first 8 minutes of the second half. Most of those have been right at the basket too.

I don’t remember any dunks from Hamilton last year. But that’s 2 nasty ones already. Also, liking his pull up game.

Err…5 in the first 8 minutes

Hamilton is getting his buckets within the flow of the offense too. We can bang with Johnson and Thompson and that gives Hamilton plenty of space to work.

Love that dime from Hamilton out to J Brown for the 3. He could have put up a bad shot a couple times.

Good patience against the zone looking for the open man, I’m liking this.

Brown is a turnover waiting to happen. Maddening.

Elbow jumper for Wangmene?

I’ve seen it all.

I think you have to live with it because he sees the court better than anyone else.

J’Covan’s line right now is 7 points, 6 assists, 5 turnovers and 3 boards. He certainly can be maddening.

no crap about Wangmene. A jumper. It didn’t look too ugly either. I think the sheer white knee pads have given him a new identity.

"I’m pleased with the defense, which is something I could rarely say about the team last season. "

I was thinking this too, then reminded myself that it was against Navy.

and Navy is running a new offense on top of it

Stop pissing on my dreamwagon. We are going to get an actual W tonight and I will take it. I don’t care who it is against.

26 points and 10 rebounds for Jordan.

J’Covan seemed way more passing oriented than last season, with 6 assists. Maybe the horns are going to try to redshirt Chapman?

1-0. Undefeated, baby!

Well, I watched in tape delay, but have greatly appreciated the comments and humor above – great stuff.

As I’m sure you’ve all been waiting, here are my thoughts on the game in a way-too-early-to-tell-and-probably-way-off-base-mode (but fuck off, I made the seventh grade basketball team at Clifton middle school and I could probably dunk on Trips Right).

-This team will go as far as Hamilton and Brown take them.
- The two freshman will certainly help, and could/should end up being pretty darn good.
- Johnson had 17 points and 10 boards, and I rarely noticed him. Damion James always seemed to have the same affect on me as I’d look up and notice he was at 20/10. Also, wasn’t it weird to not see Damion out there tonight?
- The starting five should be Thompson, Johnson, Hamilton, Brown, Joseph by the time conference play starts, which means it will likely be Wangmene, Hill, Johnson, Balbay, and Joseph to set the defensive tone early.
- Announcers mentioned we had little flow in the first half, gee – seemed to coincide with heavy minutes at the point by Balbay…I was shocked they weren’t guarding him at the perimeter.
- Balbay should be a situational player only as he forces the other four Longhorns to play four on five in the half court. He will be great as a stopper and as a means to speed up the game to limit our four-on-five-ness at the offensive end.
- Jai Lucas, meh. The announcers credited our second half surge to him. It was Navy.
- Brown is quite possibly my favorite player to watch on this team. I’d expect to see most of the shit he tries in a pickup game at Gregory, and his stat line will always include his share of turnovers, but damn, I love me some ‘spectacular turnovers.’
- Hamilton is in a contract year, so it would behoove him to play some defense so Rick Barnes lets him stay on the court.
- This is more fun to watch than football.

Brown is a very talented guy. Some of those turnovers are actually pretty decent passes but the recipient wasn’t up to catching it. You gotta know your target. If you throw a wicked pass to Jordan, he is probably going to snag it. Wangmene, maybe not.

Wangmene looked better than I expected (albeit against Navy).

Much apprec. Final Score?

83 to 52.

The horns guards scored 20 points and the big men scored 63 points. The horns ended up shooting a little over 50% from the field and had 19 more rebounds than navy. The horns had 16 assists, which is pretty good for a first game of a team dominated by frosh and sophomores.

Brown had a couple of very cool assists to Jordan that led to spectacular dunks.

A couple of floor level observations:

This is a small, athletic team that showed signs of being in great early season shape. The refs swallowed their whistles and we went with almost 8 straight minutes of action to start the game and no one was grabbing their shorts and gasping for air.

Thompson is quicker up and down the floor than I imagined, and has a sweet drop shot. Alexi was the only big man who showed any real desire to work for the ball down low. J’Covan is is so much better shape than last year it is amazing.

I also liked the body language from this team. Barnes played Captain Hook several times when he saw an errant pass or lazy defense, but nobody took great offense to it — not even J’Covan.

In fact I kinda liked how when he got a quick hook and a tongue lashing he didn’t sulk, he just took it in stride, sat on the bench, and what do you know, Barnes put him back in the game in short order.

I really liked how Cory Joseph handled getting marching orders from Barnes, who likes to bark at players through his PG when they are at the other end of the floor. Several times Barnes called Joseph over, and gave him some intense instructions meant for him and someone else, and Joseph would smile and walk over to the offending party and give the message.

I know its early but it was nice to see players not having to look over their shoulders every time down the floor. There were no hesitant steps out of fear of getting pulled. I thought it was an encouraging opening game.

Yeah, I wish Barnes could figure out that every communication doesn’t have to be barked. It just doesn’t work after a while because the players start tuning you out. Maybe the reason they are not looking over their shoulder yet is because it is the first game and Barnes has not yet ground them down.

Wangmene had 8 points in only 13 minutes. I would much rather watch Wangmene play than Hill because Wangmene has some skills (OTOH, Hill is a few inches taller).

I don’t have a problem with Matt Hill playing based on his performance tonight as he understands his role and plays to it nicely. We have players that need the ball on the offensive end and Matt Hill certainly can compliment that situation. He seemed to hold his own defensively, rebound when the ball was in his area, and compliment the skill players around him nicely. I would prefer Hamilton/Joseph/Brown/Thompson taking shots over both Hill and Wangmene, so an 0 for 1 night is acceptable so long as he does the other things well.

The problem with Matt on O is that Barnes does nothing to hide Matt’s lack of skills and even has Matt clogging up the paint on O. A good D will sag off of Matt and make it tough for the rest of the horns to score in the paint.

If Barnes was sending Matt around the floor setting screens for the skilled players, Matt would be doing something useful on O and also would not be clogging the lane. That probably is not going to happen because Barnes does not like motion O’s.

Navy did not have any awesome post players so it is hard to know how well these guys will defend a good big man. Most likely they are both 5 fouls to give type defenders against a good offensive big man. Presumably you will have more ability to switch screens with Wangmene than Hill since Wangmene is more agile/quick.

It isn’t clear that Hill is a much better defender/rebounder than Wangmene but it is clear that Wangmene is a better offensive player than Hill.

It will be interesting to see a plus/minus analysis to see how well the horns did in the minutes these guys played.

I guess I’ll take Wingman over Hill after just one game, but who knows. The question for me remains how Barnes will get decent offense against a team with a pulse with Dogus in the game. I realize I’m a moron but indulge my thought for a moment if you will. Why not put Dogus in the post with either Hill or Wangmene and try to run screens for each other or a double screen for Gary with Dogus then working off the center’s screen. Anybody in uniform has to be guarded in the paint. Even Dogus can hit a 6 footer. I definitely think up tempo is preferred, but you have to be able to run a set piece and Dogus with the ball in his hands at the 3-point line is a non-threat. Dogus within 10 feet without the ball is a threat.

Just a quick overview.
I heard a lot of good things about Hamilton’s work in the offseason and we saw the fruits of his labor in the opener. 17 shots and while he might have settled for 1 or 2 too many 3s, I didn’t see one bad shot or one not within the flow of the offense. He looks to be in much better game shape. Very outstanding first night.
Thompson and Joseph had solid starts, particularly Thompson. I knew he had good hands and he showed them. CoJo’s a better 3-pt shooter than he showed. Honestly, I have no real concerns about him. He’ll be just fine.
The good news is that Brown’s attitude seemed better. Bad news is that he still thinks every pass has to be a highlight.
Good minutes from Wangmene and he showed a very nice jumper. Overall I was pretty pleased. Liked the effort and cohesion.