| 14 July 2009
Sorry for the delayed post. I only got to see bits and pieces of the first 30 minutes of the game but was fortunate enough to make plenty of observations in the closing minutes. That's good, because this win was BIG.
- If we're giving out game balls there is no question that this one would go to Zaire Taylor. I'm going to continue to rip into him every time he has one of those 2 point performances on 1-for-three shooting nights because every time I do he seems to follow it up with a huge game. Maybe he reads MizzouRah, I don't know. Of course he had that big basket at the end to put the Tigers up for good but he hit so many big shots other than just that one. It seemed like every time Texas would take the lead in the second half and appear to be gaining momentum Taylor would respond with an ice cold 3-pointer. Even with his inconsistencies, Zaire has shown he's capable of carrying us at times. When the last time the Tigers had a true point guard that could do that? Dooling?
- As good as Taylor was, I'm positive that final play was not drawn up for him. I've watched the replay a dozen times and I'm certain the play was designed to go to the left side where Leo Lyons appeared to be popping out on a down screen from J.T. Tiller. I'm pretty sure the first option was to get Leo the ball out on the wing on an isolation play, which had been working the last couple times the Tigers had tried it. But Texas was expecting that and overplayed on Lyons and from there Zaire seemed to improvise a little bit and got a ball screen from DeMarre Carroll and took it to the rim when he was fouled and got the basket. Heady play by Taylor.
- The unsung hero on that last play was Matt Lawrence, which is funny because I can't tell from watching the replay where on the court he was actually supposed to be. But the reason Taylor was able to get to the lane so easily is because there was no help coming from Matt's defender. Even though Matt had only shot one-for-five from the field, the Longhorns were not going to give him an open 3-pointer. It's frustrating to see Lawrence get so many minutes sometimes, especially when he's having one of those three-of-12 nights. But Mike Anderson's not bull shitting when he talks about Matt spreading the floor even when his shot isn't falling.
- I mentioned that I thought the last play was designed for Leo and I think for good reason. In the final few minutes Leo was calling for the ball and attacking once he got it. Especially once Pittman picked up his fourth foul. It takes a lot of mental toughness to want the ball in your hands when the game is on the line. Leo has been showing that kind of toughness the last couple games. That's significant considering toughness has always been the knock on him.
- No one's mentioning this and I'm not sure why, but what the hell was Rick Barnes thinking by trying to throw the ball to halfcourt after Zaire's free throw? Does he have any concept of time? Talk about unnecessary. In 5.5 seconds you have time to quickly dribble down the court, run a quick play and get a great look at a 3-pointer that you shouldn't even have to rush if you execute the play properly. I mean, DeMarre stole the ball, dribbled for a couple seconds before getting fouled and Texas still would've had time to get a decent look if DeMarre had missed both free throws. For comparison's sake, it took Tyus Edney 4.8 seconds to get a layup against us in '95. I've always argued that Barnes is a terrible in-game coach. He's great at a lot of things: recruiting, managing his players, motivating his team. But he is awful at the Xs and Os.
- If Barnes hadn't botched that last play and decided to actually inbound the ball in the backcourt like any sane coach would've done, should the Tigers have fouled before Texas could get a shot off? I tend to say yes but I would've been nervous considering how the Tigers have rebounded on free throws over the years. But statistically, I'm sure an opposing team is much more likely to hit a 3-pointer in 5.5 seconds than it is to go to the line, make a free throw, miss a second one (harder to do than people think), get the rebound and score again. And even then the game would still only be tied. I think it's pretty obvious now that I break it down.
- I thought Tiller and DeMarre both made some uncharacteristic bonehead plays down the stretch. Tiller had two cheap reaching fouls in the final five minutes that were nothing more than mental mistakes on his part. One of them led to a three-point play by Pittman. They wouldn't have been bad fouls if he had gotten his money's worth on them because Texas probably had uncontested dunks otherwise, but they were soft fouls that gave Pittman the chance to finish. And is there a harder player to watch with four fouls than DeMarre Carroll? I'm pretty sure he picked up at least three fouls in the final four minutes that weren't called. And how many times is DeMarre going to have to get the ball stripped in the paint to realize that he needs to keep the ball above his waist when he's down there?
- At some point the freshmen guards are going to have to step up their games on the road. I'm not expecting MP3 (are we still allowed to call him that?) to perform much better than he has been. I think he's a player that clearly will not be very effective until he has a little more experience under his belt. But Marcus Denmon and Kim English have to get out of this road funk. With Paul, I feel like any contributions we get from him (on the road at least) is a bonus. But we need Denmon and English to start contributing if we're going to have any chance of competing at places like Allen Fieldhouse and Hilton Coliseum.
- Oh yeah, do you realize this is the first win the Tigers have had in Austin since Norm Stewart won his final game there in 1999? How 'bout that?
- Talking to some friends around campus today, the general consensus seems to be that now that the Tigers have this huge win under their belts and a huge game coming up against kU on Monday, they will inevitably go out and let us down on Saturday against Iowa State. I understand why everyone's concerned, but I'm expecting a win against the Cyclones. I think this team has turned the corner. I don't think the road losses to K-State and Nebraska were situations where Mizzou overlooked an opponent. I think they just came out and played poorly because they were going through that process of learning to win on the road. It takes young teams some time to do that. And it turns out K-State and the Nubs aren't so bad after all. Hilton is as tough a place to play as you're going to find but I think this team understands that. What was most impressive against Texas is that they were able to go through a long stretch where they didn't play well or catch many breaks without panicking. They also withstood some clutch plays by the Horns in the final minutes (how about that Abrams floater?). That's what hurt them against K-State and Nebraska and I think they've learned from that. Wednesday night may have very well been a turning point in the Mike Anderson era. Either way, win on Saturday and we have the first ranked Border War basketball game since Ricky Clemmons was on the team.
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