Light 'Em Up: Texas Trounces The Mountaineers: 66-49

[Chris Flanagan]

The 3 seed Texas Longhorns were in Kansas City trying to win their first Big 12 tournament title. The Longhorn got off to a great start and were able to rout the West Virginia Mountaineers 66-49.

Turning Point of the game

The Texas Longhorns started the game on a 12-0 run and never surrendered the lead. They controlled this game from the beginning and never took their foot off the pedal until the end.

Player of the Game

Jonathan Holmes

Holmes scored 7 of the first 12 points of the game and he finished with 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. The most amazing part of Holmes's performance is that he did all of that in only 18 minutes of play. Javan Felix receives honorable mention for his 16 points , 6 assists and 3 rebounds.

Stat of the Game

7-17

The Texas Longhorns shot 7-17 from 3 pt range. That's 41%. That was the biggest difference in the game.

Epilogue

Well not much rest for the Longhorns as in 21 hours, they will be playing another game. This time it will be against the Baylor Bears. The Bears upset the Oklahoma Sooners in the quarterfinals and have won 8 of their last 9 games. They will be a tough matchup tomorrow as the Longhorns try to get to the Big 12 tournament championship game. Baylor dispatched Oklahoma much like the Longhorns did to the Mountaineers, get up early and don't let up. It will be an interesting matchup on Friday night for the Longhorns but if the Longhorns want to get a better seed in the NCAA tournament, they must win this game. The Semi-finals will be on the Big 12 network tomorrow night.

 

[Juan]

Baylor got pushed in both of their games (OU trailed by 21, but cut it to 3 or 4 in 2nd half).

Hopefully that translates into turnovers, lazy defense and some foul outs for them.

 

[BudreauReye]

Apparently Todd Wright told Coach that the team was run down. Coach listened and let them have a couple of days off. Who can argue with the results from the results of last nights game? Sure would be nice if last night marked an upswing trend for the Horns for the Horns. Especially after their recent losses on the road at the end of regular conference play. Of course, those losses were against some pretty good teams peaking and Tech who was due for a break sometime or other. It sure would be nice to see Texas peaking in this tournament and the Big Dance. This season has already been a pleasant surprise, but, I WANT MOAR!

 

[Chris Flanagan]

Apparently Todd Wright told Coach that the team was run down. Coach listened and let them have a couple of days off. Who can argue with the results from the results of last nights game? Sure would be nice if last night marked an upswing trend for the Horns for the Horns. Especially after their recent losses on the road at the end of regular conference play. Of course, those losses were against some pretty good teams peaking and Tech who was due for a break sometime or other. It sure would be nice to see Texas peaking in this tournament and the Big Dance. This season has already been a pleasant surprise, but, I WANT MOAR!

I think you are completely right. Fans constantly say after a bad performance that these players need to run suicides or mountains. Punishment for losing but sometimes the best solution is rest. Even the most athletic bodies need a period of rest. It's just like someone's career. Sometimes you need to get away because the law of diminishing returns applies not only to economics but real life. So good call by Rick Barnes.

 

[Topstarr]

let them rest 2 more days, then we can win all of the big 12 games

 

[BudreauReye]

I think you are completely right. Fans constantly say after a bad performance that these players need to run suicides or mountains. Punishment for losing but sometimes the best solution is rest. Even the most athletic bodies need a period of rest. It's just like someone's career. Sometimes you need to get away because the law of diminishing returns applies not only to economics but real life. So good call by Rick Barnes.

I agree with you. These kids did not loose those away games because they took things for granted or because they all of a sudden developed a bad collective attitude. They lost them because they are young, they probably hit a wall at some point, that road stretch was probably the most difficult stretch of the schedule in the toughest basketball conference in college basketball this year, and those teams won because they had time to watch Texas play and figure out what to do to counter what they figured Texas would do, with a home court advantage. That is a tough set of circumstances for a young team to deal with. Another year older and smarter and perhaps with the addition of of Mr. Myles Turner's services ... well, I think that that kind of adversity can well be better handled next year. I am grateful for the way this season has turned out already at this point, but it seems to me that in the Big Dance, teams will not have so much of an opportunity to figure out what to do against Texas as Texas' conference foes did later in the season. Plus, hopefully, there will not probably be a home court advantage like in conference games. Who knows? We just might surprise some folks. It will be fun to watch no matter how it turns out, and I am already looking forward to next year!

Let's also not forget that we are going to have us a bona fide stretch three next year!

 

[BudreauReye]

I meant for this post to go on this thread ...

Speaking of our 6'-7" stretch three, Jordan Barnett. I was killing some time waiting for the Baylor game to start and I found this interesting post by horn1chris over on 247Sports' Texas website. Looks like there are some good links to take a look at some of his games this year.

There are several full games of 6-7 SF Texas signee Jordan Barnett on the CBC HS student website. Here they are in case you've got some time on your hands to watch some HS bball games (scroll down the page for even more games):

 

http://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/81809

(this is a game they lost against their rival Chaminade who has a Top 5 SF recruit in SF Jayson Tatum, the son of CBC's head coach of all people!)

 

Barnett is averaging 20.0ppg, 7.8rpg

made 98 of 132 FT's (72%)

made 21 of 50 3's (43%)

http://stats.stlhighschoolsports.com/sports/basketballboys/stats/overall30.php

 

Scouting Report:

 

IMO, Barnett is a cross between Dion Dowell and Jordan Hamilton.

 

Barnett is super athletic like Dowell was but isn't quite as raw...good passer, better bball IQ, and slightly more skilled.

 

He's a much better athlete than Jordan Hamilton but isn't as good skill wise. Like Dowell in HS, Barnett has to play 80% of the time inside because he's taller than everyone else but he still shows decent ballskills and doesn't look as awkward with the ball as Dowell did in HS..

 

Barnett will need to learn how to play on the perimeter fulltime in college which means becoming a better ballhandler and a better perimeter shooter.

 

Strengths:

Good all around player

Passing/Vision

Bball IQ

Athleticism

 

Areas of Improvement:

Perimeter ballskills, ballhandling, shooting

Getting stronger

 

Forecast in college:

Barnett will need a year to adjust to the college game but should play some based on how athletic he is. I could see him coming in and playing around 8-15min a game next year depending upon the situation. He looks like he has the potential to be a big time player though by the time he's a junior.

 

This post was edited by horn1chris on 3/14/2014 at 11:55 AM