Reply With Quote
James? Wasn't he supposed to go to atm?
UC Irvine - Texas: 89-42
47 point leadNice game. Anyone else saw the game? Damion james is awesome, I can't wait for this guy to enter the NBA.
This season is going to be nice, James is back, Pittman is back doing good and Bradley joining this season, he is a great player, with some nice dunks.
http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-...111509aaa.html
James? Wasn't he supposed to go to atm?
Oklahoma. But he changed his mind after the whole Kelvin Sampson debacle.
That team looks stout - very long and extremely deep. Adding Bradley, Jordan Hamilton, Shawn Williams, and Brown to the core of James, Pittman, Justin Mason, and the much improved Vares Ward makes a very long, extremely athletic and talented group. Throw in Dogus Balbay as an experienced PG and Alexis Wangmene/Gary Johnson and it's a team that rivals Kansas for most depth in the country. KU vs UT in Austin will be a legendary battle this year.
That '06 recruiting class by Barnes could win the NT this year single handedly if they were still entact - DJ Agustine, Damion James, Justin Mason, Matt Hill, Dexter Pittman, and some obscure guy named Kevin Durant. That'd be a filthy lineup as seniors.
They also get Florida transfer and former SEC all freshman 3 pt shooter Jai Lucas eligible around the middle of December.
Regarding the game yesterday, it was 21-19 at one point before UT shook the newness off and blew it open. The sheer number of team blocks they had was impressive.
yeah it was on tv after the 2009 MAAC soccer championship
the whole team is going to ball out of control
im a jcovan man myself.
Continuing on the UT basketball info, Barnes got the commit from Tristan Thompson, 6'9 PF/C out of Nevada. Ranked as one of the top 5-10 players in the country. The talent keeps pouring in, gotta love it.
POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM
Improved to 85-19 in season openers, including 10-2 in openers under Rick Barnes
Improved to 89-15 in home openers, including a 28-5 mark since moving to the Erwin Center
Improved to 62-5 at the Erwin Center in the last five seasons (dating back to the start of the 2005-06 season) and 152-20 at the Erwin Center under Rick Barnes
Texas held UC Irvine scoreless from the 10:05 mark of the first half until the 0:53 mark of the first half (9:12), recording a 21-0 run during the stretch
Improved to 11-5 all-time against current members of the Big West Conference
Defense held an opponent under 50 points in an opener for the fourth consecutive season
Has outscored opponents by an average of 37.3 points over the last six season openers
Outshot the Anteaters .565-.274 for the game, including .667-.206 in the second half
Dogus Balbay
Balbay logged 6 assists without a turnover in 19 minutes
Avery Bradley
Made his first collegiate appearance at the 16:00 mark of the first half
Reached double figures in scoring (10 points) for the first time in his career
JCOVAN BROWN
Made his first career start and became the 24th freshman in UT history to start a season-opener
Reached double figures in scoring (13 points) for the first time in his career
Jordan Hamilton
Made his first collegiate appearance at the 14:37 mark of the first half
Reached double figures in scoring (12 points) for the first time in his career
Damion James
Scored 10 or more points for the 70th time in 109 career game
Scored 20 or more points for the first time this season and the 11th time in his career
Logged 10 or more rebounds for the 49th time in his career
Logged 15 or more rebounds for the first time this season and the ninth time in his career
Recorded his first double-double of the season and the 38th of his career
Ended the game with 1,327 points, passing Lance Blanks (1,322 1989-90) for 17th place on the UT career scoring list
Improved his career rebound total to 983, just 17 shy of becoming the third player in school history to log 1,000 rebounds.
Dexter Pittman
Scored 10 or more points for the 19th time in 101 career games
Scored 20 or more points for the first time this season and fourth time in his career
Logged a career-high 10 field goals made (10-of-11), having previously made nine on two separate occasions
Alexis Wangmene
Played in his first game since Nov. 26, 2008 (vs. Oregon)
Varez Ward
Made his second career start (Arkansas Jan. 6, 2009)
Logged 4 assists without a turnover in 19 minutes
Shawn Williams
Made his first collegiate appearance at the 4:15 mark of the first half
Next game: Western Carolina vs. Texas
9:00 PM ET, November 18, 2009
Frank Erwin Special Events Center, Austin, TX
Pitman looked like a beast but he still needs to drop 20-30 lbs to play in the NBA.
Not necessarily, I think he could easily develop into a good bench big giving 20 min a game without losing much more weight. His conditioning has been improving and is pretty good right now.
That said all I need him to do is dominate college kids on the block for the next 5+ months
my roommate accidently closed the elevator on rick barnes the other day.
he was having a really ty day.
Tristan thompson is a great addition. It would have been nice to get Josh Smith, but he is probably going to UCLA.
This team makes me
lol jcovan
talk about a guy who looked like he wasn't ready for the big stage. looked like a turnover machine out there. Only reason mookie is all over him before even seeing him play this last weekend is because he's from port arthur and he feels obligated.
Shooters on the team makes Balbay look like poor man's ginobili. This team is going to combine the athleticism and elite talent of a kansas team with the defensive ferociousness of the gillespie A&M teams.
texas should finish 2nd in the big XII this year.
Western Carolina - Texas: 41-73
Nice game, Damion James did great, again.
POSTGAME NOTES
TEAM
Started the season 2-0 for the seventh consecutive year and the 10th time in 12 years under Coach Barnes
Improved to 63-5 at the Erwin Center in the last five seasons (dating back to the start of the 2005-06 season) and 153-20 at the Erwin Center under Rick Barnes
Improved to 7-3 all-time against current members of the Southern Conference
Texas held the opponents in their first two games to a combined 100 points or less for the third consecutive year and the fourth time in five seasons
Texas held a double-digit rebounding advantage (47-32) for the second time this season
Outshot the Catamounts .532-.262 for the game, including .500-.226 in the second half
The Longhorns are holding opponents to .215 (14-of-65) shooting from the field in the second half of games this season
The Longhorns have held opponents to under .300 shooting in three of four halves this season
The Longhorns have held opponents to .173 (5-of-29) shooting from three-point range through two games
The Longhorns have held opponents under 25 points in all four halves this season
J'Covan Brown
Reached double figures in scoring (10 points) for the second time in his career
Jordan Hamilton
Grabbed a career-high six rebounds
Damion James
Reached double figures in scoring (18 points) for second time this season and the 71st time in 110 career games
Led Texas in scoring for the second time this season and the 16th time in his career
Improved his career rebound total to 990, just 10 shy of becoming the third player in school history to log 1,000 rebounds
Gary Johnson
Reached double figures in scoring (10 points) for the first time this season and the 22nd time in 56 career games
Grabbed his most rebounds (seven) since UT's 71-49 win at Texas Tech on Jan. 17, 2009
Varez Ward
Reached double figures in scoring (10 points) for the first time this season and the third time in 34 career games
I tell ya, Bradley made a play in the first half last night that had me jumping out of my chair and looking around my empty living room to ask if anybody just saw what I saw.
Backs the ball up on the right elbow, hesitates, then blows by to the right of his defender, elevates against the W. Carolina post player and just throws it DOWN. Completely posterized the dude.
It's just one of those plays you don't see from many players. Reminds me of the first time I saw TJ Ford dish a nasty assist, Vince Young bust some insane run, etc. Bradley is going to be one of a player.
And it also looks like J'Covan found his game last night as well, that kid is a natural scorer, also threw out some nice assists that several times guys weren't even ready for. Main question now is how does Barnes divide up the minutes?
That is such a raw force - last night they were sloppy as offensively, throught the game it felt like the score was much closer than it was because they were so sloppy, but the most exciting thing was the defense. They have the potential to be defensive beaaaasts this year.
To me what needs to happen is Avery needs to start carving out a bigger role. We know what James and Pittman bring, but to be a true NC contender if not fav they need Bradley and JCovan to really step up and produce. The talent is there, they just need to find their roles.
It's not often you can say a Pitt team got out muscled, but Texas just did that. Not the same Pitt team without the beast and Sam Young, but still a tough Dixon coached team. Avery Bradley and Dogus Balbay played about the best one on one defense on and off the ball I've ever seen for a full game on star guards.
BTW, how the did Varez Ward his knee up in warmups?
What happened? I thought Pitt was up at the half.
Texas dominated the first half, suffocated them with defense for 15 minutes.
then they relaxed a bit, the seniors made sloppy mistakes, we had nothing resembling an offensive rhythm (give credit to pitt D), oh yeah, we missed like 6 free throws in 3 minute span, Pitt hits a few threes and they're up.
Then in second half they just looked gassed, Dogus was mini-manu out there, we hit some threes, just overpowered them.
Good game. Would have been a total domination had we hit anything close to acceptable % of free throws.
Horns looked stout in this tournament - no doubt. Whole conference looks like it's going to be playing at a much higher level than last year.
The 3 main things this team needs is 1) Learn to keep intensity throughout the whole game without letting up and giving teams the green light to go on runs. 2) Get some offensive flow and iden y. Too much one on one with almost no ball movement at times led to difficult ass shots and offensive droughts. 3) Make some free throws. Especially Pittman and James who will be there a lot.
Varez hurt his knee in warmups if you can believe that. And it looks like he's out for the season. But, with J. Lucas eligible to play pretty soon I'm not really worried. Give Varez a medical redshirt for this season and he'll just add to the depth next season.
As for last night, FT shooting has been in past seasons and continues to be this season a problem. I don't know what it is about UT basketball, but it seems every season we have issues at the FT line.
I also agree with above posters about the defense. Bradley with his long arms and athleticism can just lock guys down completely. And the overall potential for this team with defensive play is through the roof. They're going to be outstanding on defense all season.
Just need to work on patience and ball movement on the offensive end, also not forgetting about post/interior play. I'm just really looking forward to watching this team grow and develop throughout the season.
Barnes has done such a good job of getting talent to come to U.T. But he needs to deliver some glory to the program
I just hope he doesn't leave for a bigger program.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
