Grades Are In: Texas vs. Michigan State Post Mortem

That Michigan State team is all sorts of confused about who they are and what they’re doing. But regardless, very nice road win for the Horns…this is a sweet 16 team at the least and clearly the second best team in the big 12.

Nice Trips

I remember from Day One this season Barnes talking about getting Gary Johnson and Jordan Hamilton on the court at the same time on the wings — last night was exhibit A as to why he wants that established by Big 12 play.

Matt Hill has been the surprise of the year. Lexi too. I hope Chapman can come back and be a force next year too.

Fucking happy post mortems, how do they work?

Damn that Todd Wright

I disagree with you on Matt’s 15 foot jumper. He can hit it and he will get better at it with more attemps. If that 15 footer is not a threat he becomes another Balbay on the floor and his man can really shut down the lane.

The two best plays of the season for me so far:

The zero dribble, 3 pass fast break resulting in Hamiltons oop/dunk and foul.

The no look J’drop to Hill which also resulted in a bucket for Matt Hill and a foul. Bilas was on his soapbox and it wasn’t acknowledged by replay or commentary.

It’s refreshing to finish the year on a positive note. I can now drown myself in rum & eggnog and feel good about the future.

I am actually getting excited about a Longhorn athletic team again. Thanks for these write-ups!

Another thing: when the game got tight around the half, what would last year’s team have done? Get down on themselves, lose a bit of swagger and roll over. Different team, I know, but the takeaway for me from the past two games is that, excellent coaching aside, this team is more interested/able to dig down and come up with meaningful play when the going gets tough. I really applaud them for that.

Wangmene plays great against UNC and Hill is OK. Exact opposite last night. This feels like an early years Barnes team as far as getting maximum effort night in and out especialyy on D, but many of his teams that played that way did not have this level of talent, which has been a Bugaboo for him. Not so this year. Having a couple of Fish with history together, great talent and “just add water” chemistry in TT and CJ have beeen instrumental in re-establishing that blue collr style that was so absent last year and the year before. They clearly know each other and their bond is adding to the team attitude we are seeing this year, IMO.

Lots of dipshit comments from the after game ESPN crew about this being a game MSU lost through bad play instead of a game we won. I know this for a fact—-Izzo is one of the best if not the best in the game and he has had some teams better than this one and some worse than this one since December 2003, but no fucking body has beaten him on his home turf since then—-until last night.

Kudos all around for that achievement, too!

Great writeup as always Trips.

Out of all the positive elements last night, I think the poise and defensive ability demonstrated by CoJo was my favorite. Going in I though there was the potential for him to be worked a bit by a senior guard on the road, but he really answered the bell. I love Doge’s defensive intensity but if we’re able to play strong D with Joseph while keeping the potential for five scorers on the floor it will only pay dividends at tournament time.

Thanks for the pregame writeup as well – it gave me the confidence to make some money on Texas last night.

Heh – forgot to change my name back. TexasSID/AirCoryell imo.

Although I’m sure Gershwin would also approve.

Nice write up about the Horns & Hamilton.
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=AkWSDNg1gGa3vMzQBsRJtELevbYF?slug=jn-big12122310

What a great kid.

Hopeful that these victories will boost their chances of getting back DeAndre Daniels.

C&D – Agree about the WWL remarks. Bunch of wankers. Contrast that with Izzo’s post-game comment, “I think this is the most talented team we’ve played so far.” And that is saying something based on the lineup of non-con teams they have faced.

Trips – Gary is a baller. He’s good for about 6 hustle points each outing. His +/- is not chart worthy but it is the small things that contribute to the solid team chemistry. And Coach Barnes mentioned Hill’s calming presence in the huddle and bench leadership that help propel the team in last night’s win.

Gary seems to be the spine of the club when it comes to toughness. I think T2 has really benefited from playing with him.

Thanks, Trips. As always, the best Horns Hoops on the web. Proud to have it here.

The difference is that this year Barnes actually has a real offensive system. And it’s spectacular.

“Lots of dipshit comments from the after game ESPN crew about this being a game MSU lost through bad play instead of a game we won.”

There was a lot of that during the game as well. Bilas was driving me apeshit and normally he’s someone I really enjoy listening to.

I usually enjoy Bilas game coverage as well but he was way off his game last night. I remember last year that he thoroughly enjoyed the game in Austin which was closer than the final score. I think he let his disappointment that it wasn’t a close game at all get the better of him. I’d like to see him paired with Knight just for shits and grins.

Thanks Trips. Really enjoyed the win last night. Not surprising that as Co Jo matures so does the team.

T2? Really?

Sailor, I like the new BC enhancements. What is that on your Avatar? Looks like wine labels.

Nice post about a great win, Trips.

I really wonder why anyone would join a paysite for what passes for “insight” into Texas hoops when we have the most thorough, non-homer analysis of the team on the internet right here for by-God free?

Feliz Navidad!

I liked this line:

Going forward, Brown may be your ex-factor because his game compliments Cory Joseph and having that third deep shooter on the floor is considered the Holy Grail by most coaches.

Ex-factors are highly underrated.

As much as it seems to piss everyone off, we’re a Sweet Sixteen team with the troika you mention above. We are a possible Final Four team if J’Covan Brown can get his head on straight.

I am very, very impressed with this basketball team.

A lot of coaches like to play 3 guards because it gives them better shooting, ball handling, and generally improves offensive efficiency. When they do this vs Texas, that 3rd guard matches up with Jordan, the UT small forward, Being guarded by a smaller, faster defender sucks for Jordan when he is outside because it is harder for Jordan to get away from a quicker defender. Since Jordan is not a real quick guy, guarding a smaller, quicker player is also quite a challenge. Not allowing the opposing coach to get away with his 3 guard personnel is a big deal for several reasons, especially for Jordan on both offense and defense.

The obvious remedy is to punish the smaller player by posting up Jordan, give him some space to operate by clearing the lane of other UT players, and relentlessly feeding the ball to Jordan on the lane until the opponent is forced to either put in a bigger defender or double team Jordan. Doubling Jordan is risky because he is an excellent passer.

Jordan posted up a few times against the really small guard that was guarding him but the horns were not effective at making the entry pass. Solving this one basic problem would be a huge improvement for the horns and is coaching 101.

Great recap, Trips.

Kafka brings up a good point. When you have a 6-8 3 that can shoot from 25, handle and pass, you are going to have a matchup advantage almost no matter what. As Trips said, Jordan is doing a much better job of shot selection. But as Kafka said, if teams try to go small it should be an auto post up for JH against anybody 6-4 or shorter. Any other shot but that is a worse shot than you could have gotten had you been patient and gotten the ball to JH from the FT line in. We have seen more of that this year, but it should be automatic to bag the offense and just let JH post up until they go big. Then you pressure and run when they do.

Of course, they will likely zone if they have any ability to do so. Then you have to hope that JH can bust it and at least one of CJ or JB can help out with that. We still have work to do against the zone, but with active bigs on the boards and 4 decent shooters on the floor, it should come with experience.

All our matchup advantages are dictated by JH. That is why Barnes is playing him 35+ minutes even against bad teams. He knows that he has to have him on the court to dictate the matchup advantage. It is going to be fun to watch this team continue to develop. Unlike last year, we will continue to get better and better with this group.

We have our alpha dog and two young guys with talent that work their asses off. GJ is coming around to playing his role and Doge, Hill and Wang seem to understand exactly what their roles are. JCB is the wild card. He doesn’t understand his role and frankly, I’m not exactly sure what it should be either. If we get that figured out, things could really get rolling.

JCB’s role is to provide tenacity and an ability to give a big ‘F—- You’ to the rest of the world when things are not going the Horns’ way. He has the ability to come in and hit a big three to turn momentum, drop a dime or two, and is our best free throw shooter. On the tenacity part, think Varez Ward a two years ago against Duke (Horns played like crap, did a lot of vag rubbing, and Ward came in and made a game of it).

That said, he doesn’t understand that role and I’m not sure he would be happy with it when/if he ever does figure it out.

Still a little concerned about this team when they go against a credible zone and JH isn’t shooting well. He’s our only good shooter from deep although Corey has really come on lately. Hopefully he can continue b/c we’re going to need it.

Overall, extremely pleased with the effort, unselfishness, and demeanor of this team. We may not ascend to #1 but I don’t think we’ll implode either. Nice work, Coach Barnes.

Last year Rick Barnes had an abortion on his hands and he contributed to it. Unlike his counterpart with the football team, Rick learned from his mistakes and look what we have now. Rick is truly a coach, a hands on coach. The other guy is, as he reminds us, a CEO. CEOs don’t coach. Good job, Coach Barnes. Good job.

“…Going forward, Brown may be your ex-factor because his game compliments Cory Joseph and having that third deep shooter on the floor is considered the Holy Grail by most coaches.”

Isn’t that a huge assumption that Brown will figure out the difference between a good shot and some of the stuff he heaves up?

It is huge in every way for this team to be successful, and your point is well made.

Great effort.

Still some good NC home games to go with Piggy and UConn.

I was afraid that USC might have drawn up the blueprint to beat us the same way TAMCC seemed to do last season but so far we have put that game behind us and not looked back. Bravo coach and players.

Should be a solid conference season with KU, Baylor, Aggy, MO, OSU all playing well. Wished the home-and-home with Kansas had already started.

… plus USC hasn’t done anything to hurt our SOS. It’s all good, so far.

I was afraid that USC might have drawn up the blueprint to beat us the same way TAMCC seemed to do last season but so far we have put that game behind us and not looked back.

That’s yet to be determined, IMO. They’ve either played teams not talented enough to win, even with zone, or played coaches who would rather become monks than play zone.

They need to go to school on what Washington State did against Baylor last night.

i agree, just about all around.
kafka and barton make excellent points. the zone can/will kill us, to the point we may still lose to a Baylor Bear team that may be our kryptonite, maybe as many as three times this year.

hope RB has an answer for it. otherwise, this is the option pick motion goodness i have waited for from RB for YEARS. very pleased as always, trips. but especially tickled by Rick Barnes and getting “out of his comfort zone”

Forcing the opponent to match up with us? What a novel concept. Obviously one that the offensive brain of Greg Davis never fully grasped.

Gonna be an interesting season. I think clearly KU is the best team, but I think the South might actually be tougher this year so UT might have an advantage (unless Baylor starts playing).

Edit: I meant the North might be tougher (assuming KSU pulls it together).