Barton, I knew you’d get a kick out of DJ’s performance. I’d love to see some midrange looks from him, but out of a pure iso look to keep the floor open. The ball screen is mucking things up for him. And yes, we’ll make a deep tourney run if Atchley, Mason, and GJ continue to improve at this rate.

Kafka, I think you’re dead on in your assessment of our lack of depth being the root of a whole host of problems. Ideally we’d be able to rest DJ and have him fresh for winning time. But instead, we need to steal minutes by getting him off the ball and hiding him with some zone. Your Mason comment is dead on. He’s fine when teams have their 3 on him, but a clever coach might use his best on-ball defender to pressure Mason when we show our cards too early. That’s why I’d like to see both DJ and Mason in the backcourt after makes to force the defense to declare early in the possession. Mason at the point without DJ in the game is a nightmare.

Scip, Mason and Atchley have really saved DJ’s bacon. Barnes does have a way of developing lunchpail guys and thank goodness for it. Atchley’s dribble drive to the rack surprised the hell out of me. Where’s that been? Mason on a true forward is a huge mismatch on the glass as well as off the dribble. Sometimes it’s good to be a tweener.

GJ’s boxes will only get better as he becomes more comfortable. He’s a high 50’s field goal percentage guy. Talk about a turnaround.

The DDM is great if you can recruit long athletes that can dribble, shoot, and pass. These same athletes must also then be able to guard and rebound on the other end. If I was coaching against it I’d try to keep my bigs on the floor defensively by running some sort of a sagging man to man, matchup zone, or junk defense (box and 1, triangle and 2) based on the skills of the opponent. Then I’d do all in my power to hammer them in the paint and on the glass. Stanford at Arizona yesterday as well as tOSU and Oden’s one man zone vs Memphis in last year’s tourney are good examples. Earlier this year, I enjoyed the way Tim Floyd of USC went triangle and two vs. Memphis paying particular attention to Memphis’ main creators Douglass-Roberts and Derrick Rose holding them to 38% from the field and 62 points in an overtime game. If they had any kind of inside presence and shoot better than 28%, they probably win the ball game. I’ll make a post on the differences between motion offense, sets, and the DDM. If I was a coach, I’d run all 3 by the way. I think Texas has the personnel to do just that based on how teams try to defend them.

Great write up.

I was blown away by the play of Mason and Atchley for the second game in a row. Mason’s aggression is back and though he may not have his 3 stroke fully back, he will humiliate your bigger small forward on the offensive boards with his hustle and his defense was primo.

Atchley is just so skilled. Whatever our reservations about Barnes’ systemic offense, is there any coach in America who improves the individual game of his players better than he does?

GJ’s box score of 12-9 in 25 minutes works for me.

Hey, when you get the chance will you write something on the DDM offense?

Wonderful to see Augustin playing point guard instead of shooting guard who dribbles reeeally well.

Abrams and Augustin need to be getting more rest. Everybody needs at least 2 or 3 minutes rest per half. Augustin’s persistent shooting problems could be from tired legs.

You may have noticed that the horns seldom fast break, full court press, or half court press. Given the great ball handling by Augustin, and the speed of Connor, Damion, Gary, Mason, and Abrams, the horns could be an excellent fast breaking team (leading to buckets of buckets). The reason they seldom fast break is probably to rest Augustin and Abrams. It would be better to play Augustin and Abrams fewer but more intense minutes so the horns can more efficiently use the speed of the front line.

The reason the horns seldom press is not only because they want to rest Augustin and Abrams but also because Augustin is not well suited for pressing because he is not super fast in the open court. Neither Augustin nor Abrams are well suited for trapping because the trapped player can often just look over their heads (i.e. does not feel very trapped).

Barnes’ philosophy this season of “shortening” games (i.e. reducing the total number of possessions in the game) is great for resting Augustin and Abrams but also is great at giving the inferior team a better chance of winning (because the longer the game, the more likely it is the better team will win). Now that Mason can be trusted as a sub for Augustin and Abrams, the horns should rest Augustin and Abrams more and break out the pressing D and the fast breaking O.

The horns also need to work on handling full court pressure.

Mason is good at handling the ball when guarded by a bigger small forward but when he is guarded by a smaller guard, it is tougher for Mason to deal with the pressure. Barnes needs to pay attention to that matchup.

Dexter had a good box score but has lost some confidence in the last few games of barely playing. He seemed more tentative instead of exploding to the bucket and dunking it. Dex had a great game against the ags last time, wonder if he will be permitted to play much on Monday vs. the ags?

You are right. For the first 17 minutes of the second half, I was smiling. DJ had 7 assists in the first 17 minutes of the that half and only 3-4 shot attempts. Guess what? It was the best offensive basketball we have played since Tennessee. He penetrated and dished more in the 2nd half than he has in the last 10 games combined. That is why I have been so frustrated with DJ. Because I know he is more than capable of doing it. Not just capable, but potentially exceptional. That is his game. His strength is his ballhandling. The ability to penetrate and not turn it over. He just needs to get in a pass first first frame of mind when he drives. I am praying that the tape of the 2nd half will convince him and the coaches of this.

I am cautiously over optimistic (is that possible?) that we are becoming a viable Final Four-Elite Eight type team. We still need Connor to look for his shot more and AJ to continue not forcing shots. Combine this with DJ being a distributer first, James and Mason continuing with their very solid play and GJ continuing to improve and we may have something special here. We still need to improve our FT shooting, but I honestly think that we have the ability to be an above average FT shooting team.