Chris Flanagan
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- Jul 6, 2012
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The Texas Longhorns struggled with the Rice Owls but pulled away in the end to win 66-55. Here is the Good, Bad and Ugly of the final non-conference game.
The Good
Myles Turner in his first career start (yes it was his first career start) put up 16 points. Jonathan Holmes quietly put up 12 points and Javan Felix put up 10 points. I would also say the 9-0 run to close out the game was also a good thing for this team.
The Bad.
Free throw shooting
60.7% from the charity strike is not going to win you many games and it almost cost the Longhorns.
The decision to not play Cameron Ridley enough.
I understand it's important to switch lineups and see what lineups work best. But today's move by Rick Barnes were more of a headscratcher than most of his decisions. Connor Lammert is a great 6th man. He is not consistent enough to be a starter. To be fair, Cameron Ridley got more minutes than Conner but if he would of play 30 minutes, it would have been a much different game.
But this has been a theme all season long. Cameron Ridley's minutes are down and if you measure the statistics as if he played the minutes he played last year, Ridley would be averaging the points, rebounds and blocks he did last year. It's tough to spread around minutes but don't make the job harder than it has to be. Play Cameron Ridley.
The Ugly.
Perimeter defense (Again)
The last 3 opponents the Texas Longhorns have played just keep shooting 3s. 8 makes by the last 3 opponents. Rice shot 32.5% from 3 point range. Stanford shot 44% from 3, Long Beach State shot 40% from 3. That is bad. For the season, the Texas Longhorns rank 55th in the nation in 3pt percentage but if they keep playing like this, it's going to be a weak spot on this team.
Moving Forward.
The Longhorns won the game. That's all you can expect to do. However, this was a bad game and since finals, the Longhorns have been just apathetic especially on ball reversal and off the screen defense. Teams will keep exploiting that weakness. That's going to be an issue in Big 12 play where teams will not go in the middle and decide to take the wide open 3 point shots. That has to be corrected by Saturday or it's going to be a long day in Lubbock.
The Good
Myles Turner in his first career start (yes it was his first career start) put up 16 points. Jonathan Holmes quietly put up 12 points and Javan Felix put up 10 points. I would also say the 9-0 run to close out the game was also a good thing for this team.
The Bad.
Free throw shooting
60.7% from the charity strike is not going to win you many games and it almost cost the Longhorns.
The decision to not play Cameron Ridley enough.
I understand it's important to switch lineups and see what lineups work best. But today's move by Rick Barnes were more of a headscratcher than most of his decisions. Connor Lammert is a great 6th man. He is not consistent enough to be a starter. To be fair, Cameron Ridley got more minutes than Conner but if he would of play 30 minutes, it would have been a much different game.
But this has been a theme all season long. Cameron Ridley's minutes are down and if you measure the statistics as if he played the minutes he played last year, Ridley would be averaging the points, rebounds and blocks he did last year. It's tough to spread around minutes but don't make the job harder than it has to be. Play Cameron Ridley.
The Ugly.
Perimeter defense (Again)
The last 3 opponents the Texas Longhorns have played just keep shooting 3s. 8 makes by the last 3 opponents. Rice shot 32.5% from 3 point range. Stanford shot 44% from 3, Long Beach State shot 40% from 3. That is bad. For the season, the Texas Longhorns rank 55th in the nation in 3pt percentage but if they keep playing like this, it's going to be a weak spot on this team.
Moving Forward.
The Longhorns won the game. That's all you can expect to do. However, this was a bad game and since finals, the Longhorns have been just apathetic especially on ball reversal and off the screen defense. Teams will keep exploiting that weakness. That's going to be an issue in Big 12 play where teams will not go in the middle and decide to take the wide open 3 point shots. That has to be corrected by Saturday or it's going to be a long day in Lubbock.
