Basketball:
...we're pulled back in.The 91-51 win over Nebraska was just what the doctor ordered. Awiggo from BON had some quick thoughts here and txtwstr7 had more here.
There were a few interesting quotes that came out of the game. First from Brown:
"My job is to take over this team and get us to the national championship. I have to step up"
Brown had 12 points and a 2-1 assist to turnover ration (6-3) and under his lead the team showed a level of team offense I haven't seen from them in Big 12 ply. Barnes seems to agree calling this offensive effort what he has been envisioning all season. Awiggo quotes Barnes as saying that his ambition for this season was to eventually have a starting backcourt of Brown, Bradley and Hamilton. I would like to see this team on the road before I get too excited about the postseason. And I'll get that wish.
Clearly something happened with this team though. They had an extra practice they don't normally have but something deeper happened. The last we heard Gary Johnson was calling out teammates and Barnes was confessing that the Mason-Balbay pairing was murdering the offense. Then we see a product on the court that produced 19 assists and 50% shooting. Texas imposed their will on the game with their offense and tempo. Granted that Nebraska is a terrible team, but Texas has looked weak in the first half and less fluent on offense against similar competition.
I'm assuming that some kind of big team meeting took place where either Barnes pulled the team together or individual members asserted themselves. Perhaps Brown decided to take over and make it his team. His quotes indicate that's definitely his attitude and so far the results say that he may be successful.
One strong sign of a good team is the ability to really put away the weak ones. We won't really be able to see that for a while though as the remaining 5 games on the schedule will be toss-ups if we don't see the Texas we saw against Nebraska.
I notice that Texas has been thriving without Pittman on the floor but my hypothesis remains untested until we see sustained Pittman minutes with Brown, Bradley and Hamilton in the game. His performance in game has been excellent though as he has started grabbing boards and providing excellent protection around the rim. On offense, when he's passing out of the double teams effectively he's useful for his ability to command them.
Trips Right has the Post-Mortem here.
Football/recruiting:
13 and counting as of this writing for the 2011 class. We're still waiting on Malcolm Brown, Sedrick Flowers, and Christian Westerman but Mack landed top talent at Safety (Sheroid Evans), Corner (Leroy Scott), and defensive tackle (Desmond Jackson). GhostofBigRoy states that Chet Moss is apparently a fumble-making machine and I'll buy into anything regarding a Timberwolf.
David Ash was another big signing providing the class with a quarterback to lead the way for the remaining outstanding offers. On offense Texas also acquired the enforcer for whatever major running back ends up in the class with fullback Joe Bergeron, a real TE (MJ McFarland) and 3 total offensive tackles about whom I'm not well educated.
What do others think? Are any of these guys the answer for depth or is McWhorter proving to be the stumbling block with his less than championship-caliber units?