Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Shaka Smart & crew decided to gift us all with a bacon-wrapped turducken by handling their business against a feisty mid-major. Outside of a few minutes late in the first half, the Longhorns kept the Vaqueros at arm’s length and showed moments of real burst that - for the moment - differentiated this squad from previous Smart squads. The last time Texas beat a non-conference opponent by 35+ was a Northwestern State team who won four games all year; while the Vaqueros aren’t likely to make a deep NCAA run, they’re currently ~100 spots higher in KenPom than that Northwestern State squad and they could be in the running for the WAC automatic bid. Does it mean a lot? Not a ton, but if you’re looking for ways to frame this then let’s dig in.

The Longhorns got a bit sloppy/complacent twice in the game, and both times the Vaqueros - I’m going to use that name as much as possible because when will it happen again this year - took advantage to trim the lead to something less than secure. Despite Texas smothering the Vaqueros (whee!) defensively for most of the first half, they got the lead down to 9 with a few minutes left in the half before Texas went on a run to stretch things back out. A lesser version of the same event happened in the second half, but crucially Texas never let it get all that close. This was a relatively painless game, and for anyone who wasn’t aware of the difference compared to years past the Longhorn Network was happy to remind us all:

It got to 64-50 Texas and I was about to get grumpy, but the Longhorns turned on the jets and finished on a 27-5 run to really show what they can be when it’s all clicking. Turnovers were leading to easy buckets, defense was smothering the opponent, and dunks & free throws were available in large chunks. Speaking of..

Texas shot 34 free throws in this game; last season they averaged 12.8 per game. Small sample size caveat here, but I didn’t see a game last year they shot more than 31. The aggressiveness going to the rim was a nice change of pace, both Matt Coleman and Courtney Ramey went to the rim hard several times. If this is indicative of the new offense, it does seem to prioritize going to the paint to look to score more than last year.

Yea, uhh, I guess I see why Shaka Smart keeps mentioning him in press conferences. Jones going 6-6 from the floor with 8 rebounds on a regular basis is definitely going to earn him some minutes this season. He looks stronger and more coordinated than last year, and his defense isn’t as raw; I suspect he’s still going to rack up some fouls trying to make plays, but with this depth he’s probably allowed to take chances on defense. Which, while we’re on the topic…

This is a fairly significant departure from last year’s design, with an apparent emphasis on aggression and letting the guards/wings take chances because the staff knows they’ve got about 60 feet worth of athletic shot blockers waiting in the paint for any guards who get past the first line of defense. In a way, it’s a bit of a Barnes defense with Smart’s pressure layered on top; they’re going to use their guards to get up in the opponent’s grill and look for deflections/steals where they see them, and if they miss the guards are going to get funneled into the trees. One thing that needs to get tightened up is the help defense; tonight it appeared to be dialed to ‘max help’ which meant driving guards with a sense of spatial awareness could spot cutting offensive players and take advantage of the defense over-committing to the help. This is going to need to get tweaked a bit, or perhaps they’re willing to deal with the consequences if it stops the guards from getting to the rim. There is definitely a level of aggression I haven’t seen from the backcourt in awhile, time will tell if they keep going for the steals against better teams. The full-court ‘press’ wasn’t really much of one, it was more a token effort and having a freshman at the head of the diamond seems like something better shelved for later. Maybe - and this is saying something compared to a year ago - put Kai Jones at the head of the press?

It’s only one game - without Andrew Jones lurking on the perimeter - but Texas took 37 twos to 17 threes. Last season the percentage breakdown between threes, twos, and free throws was roughly 37/50/13, tonight it was 23/53/24. I would guess the season ends up somewhere in the middle, but it did seem tonight like the threes were less the primary intent and more in the flow of things.

Brown showcased some of the things that made him a highly touted recruit, like the dunk everyone stopped down for:

He also showcased why I was trying to temper expectations a bit, as he was lost on defense fairly regularly and he seems to be having to learn what it’s like not being the main creator/ball-dominant playmaker. In other words, he’s a (quite talented) freshman adjusting to the college game. Some of the things he tried tonight will get him flattened against West Virginia or Baylor, but some of the things he tried tonight could be a much needed offensive spark against those teams. Greg Brown giveth, Greg Brown taketh. He got a double-double in large part because he pursued the rebounds and converted 7-9 from the free throw line, which is not nothing from a freshman making his collegiate debut.

I know it’s weird of me to bring up in a game where they snagged 54 rebounds, but I felt like when Sims wasn’t in there the rebounding got pretty sketchy. A fair number of those rebounds came from Texas having a lineup that dwarfed the Vaqueros (yay!) and who could simply out-athlete the other UT as opposed to reading the trajectories and anticipating where they needed to be. Too many of the rebounds were ones where the ball hit the court first; those will not be available much in the Big 12.

I want to acknowledge his effort tonight; he played more in the flow of the game than most of last season and his pauses weren’t nearly as lengthy/possession killers, so that’s a good sign. I just need to see him replicate it a few more times before I trust it.

He, uh, didn’t have any.

I’m going to go half-Rumsfeld here and ask myself questions I will then answer, but without invading any countries for questionable reasons in the process. Do I think this game proved Texas is bac-err, Texas is significantly better? Not yet. Do I appreciate not having to write about Texas beating an overmatched team by two points? Yep. Does this tell me much about how Texas will fare in the Big 12? Maybe against Kansas State. (Hey-o!)

It’s 1-0, and now they step onto a (hopefully charter) jet and head to Asheville, NC for the Maui Asheville Invitational to face Davidson and a couple more teams, assuming they didn’t all carry COVID with them due to Shaka fist-bumping the other team after the buzzer because nobody’s learned anything since March. It’s probably safe to assume at least a couple Texas games get cancelled this year; it’s already happened to Baylor, Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee, and a few dozen other squads. Watch the games that you can FROM HOME and hopefully the Longhorns will be able to string together some wins for all of us. The first game is Monday, November 30th at 11 AM CT on ESPN2.

Maui Invitational Bracket

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