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  • Survive and advance: Texas onto the Round of 32

    Gerry Hamilton

    By Gerry Hamilton (edited)

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    Survive and advance: Texas onto the Round of 32

    The Texas Longhorns beat the Colorado State Rams 56-44 Thursday night to advance to the Round of 32. 

    Before getting to the good and bad of tonight's game, this win has real meaning for the Texas program.

    With the win tonight, Texas has won a Round of 64 NCAA Tournament game for the third straight season. The last time that happened was the a stretch from the 2006-07 season to the 2008-09 season under Rick Barnes. Texas won a first round game four straight years from 2005-06 through the 2008-09 season, including a pair of Elite Eight appearances. 

    That alone makes the win tonight a big one for the Texas program. 

    The good

    Texas team defensive effort. The athleticism of Tyrese Hunter and Chendall Weaver overwhelmed Colorado State. And the Texas forwards did a very good job of speeding up the Colorado State bigs the entire night. Texas guarded the ball, defended in ball screen action, defended physically off the ball in offensive action played physical and defended the rim well considering Dylan Disu was in foul trouble the majority of the night. 

    Brock Cunningham made two hustle plays in the first half to gain an extra possession that were key in continuing the Texas run. Chendall Weaver brough great energy off the bench. 

    Ithiel Horton grabbed seven big rebounds from the off guard position. 

    Tyrese Hunter gave tremendous on ball defensive effort with active hands in the passing lanes. 

    Texas played both an athletic and smart defensive team against an opponent they could overwhelm with quickness and speed. The 44 points scored were the least for Colorado State in three seasons. 

    More on the good of Chendall Weaver at the end. 

    The bad

    Texas got some very good and clean looks in the first ten minutes of the game. They just flat out missed a lot of clean looks, and looks that Dylan Disu and Max Abmas have knocked down for the majority of the season. Texas two man game with Abmas and Disu created the looks Texas desired, and allowed others to play off of that in favorable situations.

    This was a game in which one play kind of told the story offensively for Texas. Texas ran Abmas on a curl action off the ball, and Abmas made the correct play getting one foot in the paint off the dribble to draw defensive help/rotation and kicked to Ithiel Horton - who correctly took three or four steps to the corner to create optimal space. Horton hit the corner three, but stepped on the sideline on the catch. That pretty much summed up Texas offensively Thursday night. 

    Dylan Disu forced some shots after getting off to a rough start. Was too much of a ball stopper on 2-3 possessions (he did make a mid-range on one of them). The early good look misses couple with foul trouble sped him up on offense. 

    When Disu is in foul trouble, Texas ball screen/two man game takes a major step back. Any possession with Dillon Mitchell as the main screener is not a good offensive possession unless the opponent plays the possession poorly. Texas is very easy to defend when Dillon Mitchell is the main ball screener. When Mitchell and Tyrese Hunter are the two man ball screen action - that's not a high percentage winning possession. 

    Max Abmas, a career 88.7% free throw shooter, with a pair of not normal misses in the last 1:30 minutes of the game. It didn't matter, but that isn't normal. 

    Watching Max Abmas sit at the scorers table for three straight bad offensive possessions (one bail out bucket) and Rodney Terry not call timeout was that of a hair pulling out event. 

    I'll stop here because it's survive and advance, and Texas advanced to the Round of 32 for a third straight year. 

    Game MVP

    Chendall Weaver, hands down. His energy, toughness, aggressiveness and all out winners mentality was the difference tonight. That was especially true in the second half. He made key buckets in the last ten minutes of the game on individual ultra athletic plays. His ability to keep rising while maintaining body control through contact is very high-end. 

    When Weaver makes plays on both ends of the floor, he becomes a difference maker on off shooting nights. 

    Edited by Gerry Hamilton

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    Neil Leininger

    Just to point out the SEC is now 0-3 all as higher seeds with 2 complete ass kickings. Teneessee looks like they are going to roll, but the SEC is not a great league. We have a great shot on Saturday. There is no way Abmas and Disu are going 10-33/1-12/3-6 (really 3-7) again.

    Edited by Neil Leininger
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    Gerry Hamilton
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    2 minutes ago, NothinButDaHorns34 said:

    Not going to be pretty against tennesse if this same team shows up offensively 

    Tennessee is the better team, without question. Texas will have to have a hot game of contested makes to have a shot IMO. 

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    Neil Leininger

    Terry did call a smart timeout after CSU hit a 3 to cut the lead to 11. It was early in the 2nd half, and I was thinking he needs to call a TO if they score here and they did, and he did. That was 3 straight offensive scores for the Rams. They didn't score on consecutive possessions again until the game was all but decided.

    Something also to consider. Terry is the 1st coach to take Texas to the round of 32 in conscectutives tournaments since the 2008-2009 season, that was Barnes 4th straight appearence and the last time he would go back to back. That is how bad this program has been in the last 15 seasons.

    Edited by Neil Leininger
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    Gerry Hamilton
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    6 minutes ago, Neil Leininger said:

    Terry did call a smart timeout after CSU hit a 3 to cut the lead to 11. It was early in the 2nd half, and I was thinking he needs to call a TO if they score here and they did, and he did. That was 3 straight offensive scores for the Rams. They didn't score on consecutive possessions again until the game was all but decided.

    Something also to consider. Terry is the 1st coach to take Texas to the round of 32 in conscectutives tournaments since the 2008-2009 season, that was Barnes 4th straight appearence and the last time he would go back to back. That is how bad this program has been in the last 15 seasons.

    For sure on the last part. It's a big win for the program, in a true survive and advance type of game.

    Wish RT had better TO usage in general. Way too many big runs waiting on TV TO's or letting the guys play through it for my liking. It get's one run out of the gym against quality opponents too many times.

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    Neil Leininger
    3 minutes ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

    For sure on the last part. It's a big win for the program, in a true survive and advance type of game.

    Wish RT had better TO usage in general. Way too many big runs waiting on TV TO's or letting the guys play through it for my liking. It get's one run out of the gym against quality opponents too many times.

    I understand. Texas was positive on the season on 10-0 runs, but they were in the streaky collection of teams. Hopefully he's learning on the fly, he had our guys ready for everything CSU wanted to do on offense. Tennessee is alot like CSU, not a great 3 point shooting team. If Hunter can smother Zeigler and we can make Knecht work for his 20-25, then I like our chances.

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    Gerry Hamilton
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    17 minutes ago, Neil Leininger said:

    I understand. Texas was positive on the season on 10-0 runs, but they were in the streaky collection of teams. Hopefully he's learning on the fly, he had our guys ready for everything CSU wanted to do on offense. Tennessee is alot like CSU, not a great 3 point shooting team. If Hunter can smother Zeigler and we can make Knecht work for his 20-25, then I like our chances.

    Rick won’t let Abmas and Disu beat him. Hunter, Mitchell, Weaver, Horton, Brock and Shedrick will have to combine for 45-50 points to have real shot. 
     

    Texas will have to score 70 Saturday to have a shot to get it done

    Dont think Tennessee is a great team, to be clear. But I do think they will score against Texas. They have the parts/players to score 68-77 depending on how they shoot the three 

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    qaertyisthatdude
    49 minutes ago, Neil Leininger said:

    Terry did call a smart timeout after CSU hit a 3 to cut the lead to 11. It was early in the 2nd half, and I was thinking he needs to call a TO if they score here and they did, and he did. That was 3 straight offensive scores for the Rams. They didn't score on consecutive possessions again until the game was all but decided.

    Something also to consider. Terry is the 1st coach to take Texas to the round of 32 in conscectutives tournaments since the 2008-2009 season, that was Barnes 4th straight appearence and the last time he would go back to back. That is how bad this program has been in the last 15 seasons.

    That's the type of timeout he should've called when Miami cut the lead to 10.  Good to see Terry learn from that mistake.

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    Gerry Hamilton
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    2 minutes ago, qaertyisthatdude said:

    That's the type of timeout he should've called when Miami cut the lead to 10.  Good to see Terry learn from that mistake.

    100%

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    CoachBobbyFinstock

    Who does Tennessee compare to that we have played this season.

    Barnes had some really good teams that underachieved in March. Hopefully it happens again. 
     

    Texas could have beaten Houston. Hung tough with UConn without Disu, If not for the rough start could have beat Iowa St. Texas did beat Baylor.

    Texas has warts and they are visible. However, they have moments were they can compete with some of the best teams. 

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    Gerry Hamilton
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    5 minutes ago, CoachBobbyFinstock said:

    Who does Tennessee compare to that we have played this season.

    Barnes had some really good teams that underachieved in March. Hopefully it happens again. 
     

    Texas could have beaten Houston. Hung tough with UConn without Disu, If not for the rough start could have beat Iowa St. Texas did beat Baylor.

    Texas has warts and they are visible. However, they have moments were they can compete with some of the best teams. 

    Tennessee is 10-8 vs. teams in the NCAA Tournament. Only losses this season are to tournament teams. 

    They are very good at guard because of multiple players with different strengths. Obviously, Knecht is going to be a difficult matchup for Texas. The Horns don't have the ideal 1v1 defender for him.

    Ziegler is a quality driver of the ball, but an improved three point shooter. A pest on defense. 

    Aidoo is the key Saturday. Have to limit him off the weakside offensive glass. And pump/ball fake him on the defensive end IMO. 

    If Tennessee's size at guard gives Texas issues, it will be a steep climb IMO. 

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