"Texas in the NCAA Tournament" by Three yards and a cloud of dust

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Texas in the NCAA Tournament

March 16, 2011

I had the same thought as thousands of Americans who filled out an NCAA Tournament bracket.

            “If Texas can get their act together they can make the Final Four, but that’s a big if.”

            In the Victoria Advocate office pool I went I figured it’s better to dance with the Blue Devil you know than the devil you’ve been trying to figure out for a month and I have Duke knocking out Texas in the sweet 16.

             The key for UT to have an extended tournament run is forward Gary Johnson.

            Sure Jordan Hamilton is a great scorer, Tristan Thompson may solidify his status as an NBA lottery pick and Dogus Balbay is the teams lock down defensive guard, but if Johnson doesn’t play as well as he did a month ago the Longhorns make it past the Sweet 16.

            Johnson comes into the Big Dance averaging 11 points and seven boards this season.

            UT’s struggles have mirrored Johnson’s as teams have figured out how to hold him down in the paint.

            Johnson had been held to single digits in four of the last five games including eight against Nebraska and six in a home loss to Kansas State.

            In the Big 12 Tournament semifinal against a physical Texas A&M team Johnson scored just nine points and hauled in four rebounds.

            Last week Texas lost yet again to Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament Final and Johnson managed just four points and nine rebounds.

            Of all the No. 1 seeds Duke is the most susceptible in the front court and if Texas catches fire and plays like they did during the first 11 Big 12 games the Longhorns will play San Diego State in the Elite Eight.

            Duke doesn’t have the push up front as they had last year with center Brian Zoubek and the along with Johnson and Thompson the Longhorns have some big bodies in Alexis Wangmene and Matt Hill off the bench.

            Even if Kyrie Irving returns for Coach K, he probably won’t play up to par with two tournament games under his belt.

My Final Four: Ohio St. vs. Duke and Kansas vs. Pitt. Ohio St. over Pitt 60-53 in the Final.

My Bracket buster: St. John’s will knock out the BYU Jimmers and play Florida in the Sweet 16.

My first round upsets: Clemson over West Virginia, Marquette over Xavier, Memphis over Arizona, Mizzou over Cincinnati, Belmont over Wisconsin and Utah State over Kansas State.

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Comment

birdfan says...

Texas lost exactly where I thought they would.... round 2. Great athletes don't always make a great team. Duke's coaching staff builds a team, barnes doesn't.

March 22, 2011 at 12:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

aalvarado says...

I don't think it's Barnes' inability to build a program. In his time there he's produced All-Americans, a Naismith Award winner and a bunch of first round picks.
He's always been a program builder, but never been a great game day coach. The final 12 seconds of the game show the little things the Longhorns don't do to win games. And that is the subject of my next blog.

March 22, 2011 at 10:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

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