hoops game thread *****Texas vs. Louisiana Tech Game Thread*****

[Aaron Carrara]

The Texas Longhorns (6-3) will host the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (7-3) at 1:00 PM CST on Saturday at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin.  The teams have met previously three times, with the last meeting taking place on November 10, 2010 in Austin.  Texas is 3-0 all-time vs. Louisiana Tech.

The Longhorns fell to Michigan 59-52 on Tuesday, suffering from poor shooting, turnovers and missed free-throws.  Texas will face the Bulldogs without their leading scorer Andrew Jones, who continues to rehab a wrist fracture.  Tulane transfer Dylan Osetkowski is averaging 17.7 point per game, while freshman Mo Bamba is averaging 10 rebounds per game and 4 blocks per game, which leads the Big 12 and ranks 3rd nationally. Junior guard Kerwin Roach is averaging 11.1 points per game and ranks third on the team in scoring.

Louisiana Tech lost on Tuesday evening at home to Louisiana-Lafayette 75-71.  Sophmore guard and Texas native Jalen Harris leads the Bulldogs in scoring, averaging 16.4 points per game.  Complimenting Harris is DaQuan Bracey, also a sophmore, averaging 14.3 points per game.  Rounding out the trio of guard play for head coach Eric Konkol’s team is Jacobi Boykin, who averages 14 points per contest.

The Bulldogs are a talented team that can compete with most teams on any given day.  With the Longhorns’ recent shooting struggles and playing without Andrew Jones, Texas must play smart basketball to avoid a potential upset.

The game will begin at 1:00 PM and will be televised on Longhorn Network.

[Oldmanastro]

We won 75-60.

[MikeV73]

Short and sweet hoops thread

[83Dee]

The apathy here is shared by the local fans.... the Erwin Center looked 3/4 empty. 

[Baron]

Texas hoops has lost a lot of it's luster the last 4 or 5 years. It's amazing how the basketball and football programs seem to be mirroring each other.

[Bear19]

Texas basketball never had much luster to lose. But I gree we've lost whatever there was.

[PTA]

I think free-throw shooting in basketball is likened to field goal kicking in football.  You can make them all day long until you reach the 40 acres.

 

[tejasrulz]

I wasn't able to watch the game but I do plan to watch it on the LHN when they replay it.

LTech is better than most of your smaller schools. This game was their biggest loss of the season so far, before this game their biggest loss was by 4 pts. They only lost to Bama by 3 there. They average 82 pts a game and this was their lowest scoring game of the year.

Texas shot 49% from the field and 42% from 3s while holding LTech to 44% and 24%. I'd like to see the fielding % for Texas higher and theirs lower but those numbers aren't that bad.

62% (21-34) from the line is bad. Then you see of the 13 misses, 10 our from the bigs. That position have historically shot bad from the line, think Shaq. Be that said, every coach practices free throws, a lot.

The crowd was small but school is out. For the rest of us, the FEC is also a bad venue for basketball but if I wasn't working, I would have gone to this game. I can't wait until they get the new place and I hope they look at some of the basketball schools on how to build it.

The Big XII is loaded this year with a lot of good teams. ou beating Wichita St yesterday at their house was big for them. Look for them to be ranked next week. WVU is #11, Kansas is slipping (only beat Nebraska by 1 yesterday) but they are Kansas. Hopefully the remain in their funk when the visit Austin in 2 weeks. OSU upset Florida St yesterday so they should be ranked next week too. TCU is undefeated, Tech is ranked, Baylor is good, Iowa St will be tough, you get the point. I can see the BIG XII champ having 3 to 4 loses this year.

[Sirhornsalot]

This might be a good time to drive down and catch a game, plenty of seats available. What do tickets cost?

 

 

[longhorn_mig]

Glad to see the team rebound with a win against a sneaky good La Tech team (as tejasrulz explained above). Some thoughts:

(1) The reason La Tech made a run was due to Mo's foul trouble. If he stays out of foul trouble, the game isn't as close as it was in the 2nd half.

(2) Mo can definitely drive you a bit crazy, but I keep having to tell myself he's a freshman that's never faced this kind of competition. If he plays weaker competition, he's significantly more assertive and aggressive and looks like a world beater. Throw him against a more solid team with a legit big man, he slowly disappears and his decision making becomes suspect. All that said, Jarrett made some great strides in his development from December to January. Hopefully Mo does the same.

(3) Dylan stayed out of foul trouble, and naturally, there was more offensive production from the team. Hopefully he doesn't make a habit of committing that many turnovers though.

(4) I'm sorry that Davis was out with an injury, but it confirmed even more in my mind that Young should be starting while Jones is out. Young isn't perfect, but he's improved a great deal with his defense and shot selection. His ability to create is something we need desperately right now.

(5) Finally, Coleman has to look to shoot more. With Jones out, we need the offense. It's great he's always looking to pass first and get his teammates involved, but if the shot is there, take it.