*****Texas vs. Michigan Game Thread*****

[Aaron Carrara]

Texas Longhorns (6-2) vs. Michigan Wolverines (8-3)

When:  Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Time:  8:00 PM CST
Venue:  Frank Erwin Center
Location:  Austin, TX
TV:  ESPN2

All-time series record:  Michigan leads Texas 4-2.
Last meeting: Michigan defeated Texas 53-50 (Dec. 6, 2016 - Ann Arbor, MI).

Preview (by Jameson McCausland):

Texas returns to the Frank Erwin Center tonight for the first time since November 29th. The Longhorns will welcome the Michigan Wolverines and will be looking to build off last week’s road win over VCU. Texas will be without guard Andrew Jones, who is nursing a right wrist fracture. In his weekly media availability, Shaka Smart said he expects Jones to miss “at least the next few games we have coming up before Christmas.” Without Jones, who is the team’s’ leading scorer, Texas will lean heavily on Eric Davis Jr., Jacob Young and freshman Jase Febres.

Michigan will come to Austin with a 8-3 record. The Wolverines have suffered losses to North Carolina (86-71) and Ohio State (71-62), while also losing their opening game of the Maui Invitational to LSU (77-75). During their final game in Hawaii, the Wolverines got a 68-60 win over VCU and most recently got a 78-69 overtime win over UCLA. Junior Moritz Wagner will be the player to watch for the Wolverines. Standing at 6’11, Wagner leads Michigan in PPG (16.1) and rebounds (8.0). Wagner has the ability to shoot the ball from the outside and play close to the basket. Wagner will look to get to the best of Texas freshman Mo Bamba. Kentucky transfer Charles Matthews will man the point and will be joined by Muhammad-Ali Abdur- Rahkman in the backcourt. An interesting thing to watch will be how the Wolverines perform at the free throw line. For the season, Michigan is only shooting 62% from the charity stripe as a team, with Matthews leading the team in attempts and shooting a dismal 47%.

With Andrew Jones missing from the court, Texas will need improved guard play. Kerwin Roach will be relied heavily upon when the Longhorns are on offense. Smart said he is satisfied with Roach’s offensive game up to this point in the season, but wants to continue to see his junior guard continue improve his shooting. “We want him to get more consistent and better shooting the ball from the perimeter, but you are talking about a guy who ranks in the Top 20 player in the country with his two point percentage,” Smart said. On the defensive end, Smart emphasized the fact that the Longhorns will have to do a good job containing Charles Matthews. “Matthews is a terrific player and he is a guy that we’re going to need to do a good job of keeping out of the lane.”

Lately, playing Michigan has not been kind to Texas. The Wolverines knocked the Longhorns out of the NCAA tournament in 2014, before defeating Texas in the Bahamas in 2015 and getting a close win in Ann Arbor last season.

 

[Bogey]

FYI –The game is Tuesday, December 12 (today).

 

[Huskie1]

Curious to see if anyone steps up to replace Jones while he's out. Door is open for more minutes for someone.

 

[Jameson McCausland]

Curious to see if anyone steps up to replace Jones while he's out. Door is open for more minutes for someone.

Shaka will need more from Eric Davis and Jacob Young, especially Davis. Someone has to replace the offensive production Jones was giving.

 

[Huskie1]

I think it will have to be a combination of guys as no one player has Jones' skills. Hoping Davis can hit some threes consistently.  Jacob Young has flashed at times after being just awful last year. 

 

[okiehorn]

Man Texas guards are terrible perimeter players. It’s embarassing to watch. 

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Bamba with the three lol

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

That was a terrible half of basketball by the Longhorns.  Andrew Jones is sorely missed in the lineup.

Texas shooting just 30.4% from the field to Michigan's 51.9%.

 

[83Dee]

Perhaps Texas should pay attention to whether a kid can shoot, from the field as well as free throws, on the recruiting trail?  We are athletic, very athletic.... but it doesn’t help much when you can’t put the dad-gummed ball in the basket!  

It seems our entire men’s athletic program is snake bit.  That was an awful game.

oh, and good morning.   

 

[drgilbert]

It was very hard to watch. I thought we had turned the corner after our win over VCU, guess I was wrong. Our offense sucks. 

 

[Huskie1]

That looked more like last season unfortunately. We looked bad. The Big 12 is loaded so it may be another tough year. I hope I'm wrong and that was just a blip on the radar. 

 

[83Dee]

Perhaps I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.... here goes:

I was thrilled when we hired Shaka; thrilled!  I couldn't believe we basically pulled the #1 up and coming coach to our school with it's lackadaisical apathy towards all things basketball.  I thought it was an absolute coup!  When we did this, I thought that finally Texas basketball could live up to it's unbelievable potential. 

Well, we are well into year three now and, quite frankly, I am beginning to wonder if we wouldn't be better off with Rick Barnes.  Year three - and after finishing dead last in year two we have started this season 6-3.  But even that is deceptive..... we have played 4 decent to good teams and our record is 1-3 in those games. 

My analysis for what it's worth (probably little) is that Shaka recruits to win basketball games the way they were played 30 years ago.  I guarantee you that we would have killed Duke, Gonzaga or Michigan in a dunking contest!  But basketball is won at the three point line these days.... it's a shooting contest!  Go and watch a middle school game these days and guess what..... at that age offense is geared around getting open threes and knocking them down.  We have great athletes.... better than Duke, better than Gonzaga, Michigan, etc.... but we cannot hit threes and we can't even make two free throws in a row to save our lives!  For this reason and this reason alone, when we are in a close game at the end you can almost chock it up to a loss if our opponent can just hit free throws.  But if it's any consolation, we usually have more spectacular blocks, dunks and look better in pregame. 

There, I'm done.  Look for this team to finish somewhere in the middle of the conference this year, and possibly eek it's way into the big show.  Hopefully we can win round 1.  Then, look for people to say "we're young" and "look at the recruits we have coming in" because their highlight tape is full of spectacular dunks. 

Okay, I'm done.  How does the baseball team look this year? 

 

[83Dee]

That looked more like last season unfortunately. We looked bad. The Big 12 is loaded so it may be another tough year. I hope I'm wrong and that was just a blip on the radar. 

How many more rough years do you think Shaka has left?  This is basketball, so probably he has more grace than a football coach.  I think our new AD was at the game.  I wonder if he realizes that Texas has been in a funk in the three bell-cow sports for about a decade now (football, men's basketball, baseball...)

 

[longhorn_mig]

(1) This team sorely missed Andrew Jones.

(2) As far as I'm concerned, Jacob Young earned more playing time tonight. Instead of settling for 3's, he was being aggressive and driving to the hole. He also played some solid defense (got the steal during the press) and made some solid passes (alley-oop to sims).

(3) We lost this game because of the insane amount of point-blank shots we missed at the basket.

 

[Huskie1]

(1) This team sorely missed Andrew Jones.

(2) As far as I'm concerned, Jacob Young earned more playing time tonight. Instead of settling for 3's, he was being aggressive and driving to the hole. He also played some solid defense (got the steal during the press) and made some solid passes (alley-oop to sims).

(3) We lost this game because of the insane amount of point-blank shots we missed at the basket.

Jacob was terrible last year and I groaned every time he got on the court last year. That being said, I think he has played great this season and I'm amazed at how much better he is! Props to him for working his butt off and improving. He and young are both markedly better. On the other hand, Davis and Roach are still what they were last year. At least with Kerwin, you get some really good defense.

I'm not giving up in the team but last night bothered me. Michigan was not that good. 

I also wonder just what the Horns offensive philosophy is. There are long stretches where we seem not to run any offense other than a high screen and roll. No back screens, post screens, cuts to the basket etc.

just venting 

 

[MBHORNSFAN]

Shaka offense makes Rick Barnes offense look like the UNLV Rebels of the 1990's... Just awful.,..

 

[tejasrulz]

(1) This team sorely missed Andrew Jones.

(2) As far as I'm concerned, Jacob Young earned more playing time tonight. Instead of settling for 3's, he was being aggressive and driving to the hole. He also played some solid defense (got the steal during the press) and made some solid passes (alley-oop to sims).

(3) We lost this game because of the insane amount of point-blank shots we missed at the basket.

Pretty much nailed what I saw but I only got to see the 2nd half. Texas hung in there with a pretty decent Michigan team but having a 12 pt deficit was just too much to over come.

Losing your leading scorer is going to hurt any team, with Jones I think Texas wins this game. This year's team is so much different than last year's. They hustle and don't quit. I also firmly believe Smart was a great hire.

 

[TXHorns99]

Starting to believe Patterson put a curse on the athletic department when he left, lol.