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Instant Hoops Analysis: Horns roll Austin High...er... Chicago State

Cliffs Notes: The Longhorns rolled through an outmanned Chicago State on Tuesday night be a score of 105-58.

The Participants: No.19 Texas (1-1) and Chicago State (1-0)

Pre-Game KenPom Rankings: Texas (No. 25) and Chicago State (No. 341)

Game MVP: Let's give senior big man Arthur Kaluma some love. The big fella had 15 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals, and almost all of it came in the first half. Can he fully replace Dylan Disu as a mainstay in this line-up on a nightly basis. We didn't learn anything tonight, but there's reason to believe he can be a Robin to Tre Johnson's Batman.

Speaking of Batman...: UT's super freshman scored 19 points on an efficient 9 shots. Ho, hum. A better opponent would have meant better numbers.
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Things You Need to Know: This game was over almost as soon as it began. The Longhorns jumped out to a 12-0 lead, which became a 24-4 lead, which became a 40-11 and eventually turned into a 50-18 game at halftime. This wasn't a game as much as it was a paid-for-slaughter.

Things You Need to Know II: Big man Ze'rik Onyema came off the bench to score 18 points and grab 6 rebounds. More of that, please.

Playoff poll week 2

Ohio State and Oregon are still ranked one and two.

The horns are now ranked third and Penn State is fourth

And surprisingly Indiana and BYU are fifth and sixth.

Notre Dame has worked their way back into the top ten as has Alabama.

And Boise, SMU, and the aggies dropped during a bye week

And Deion has Colorado in the top 20 at seventeenth.

Quick note on Dia Bell

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The elite Texas QB commitment remains rock solid to UT, but he doesn't say much publicly, so there is plenty of speculation about his future relative to the class he resides in. Some locally have expected Bell to move to the 2025 class while others see him relishing a senior season and potential bounce back after some early-season losses in 2024.

Rivals connected with an authority on the matter and the current expectation is for Bell to take the traditional route and lead America Heritage in 2025 before enrolling at UT January 2026. However, a source close to Bell did make it seem like the process wasn't quite finalized just yet. In the meantime, AHS begins its playoff run on Friday night, and reclassifications often go down in the spring/summer anyway, so the timing of the chatter picking up could be more speculative than anything else.

Should AHS make a deep playoff run, we'll get a fresh look at Bell and go from there. Worst case, he is slated to play in the Under Armour All-America Game, which begins workouts late next month. There could be more clarity when we see him there.

Today’s Gift (11-13)

“Love is heaven and fear is hell. Where you place your attention is where you live.” —Alan Cohen

I have recently witnessed too much division in our culture and my family recently and it is a sad thing to see. I’m hoping and praying we can get back to respecting one other, no matter our differing opinions on various topics.

I imagine we all want our upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with friends and relatives who have different views about life sitting at our tables to not end up in a food fight.

Be careful out there!

1 John 4:18 & 2 Timothy 1:7

TSK

Important recruit commits to Florida on 11/11/24. Texas didn't offer. Evan Noel

Evan Noel​

Kicker
Class of 2025 @ St. Stanislaus | Bay Saint Louis, MS

Hit 61 yard and 52 yard field goals this year. Florida flipped him from Arkansas.

Kohl’s Professional Camps, which only grades special teamers, lists Noel as a five-star kicker talent.

“Noel competed at the National Scholarship Camp in July of 2024 and had an outstanding camp. He scored 32/36 points on field goals and 107.5 points on kickoffs. Noel might have the best overall talent in the 2025 class! He is very consistent and handles pressure very well,” reads the Kohl’s breakdown of the newest Florida commit.

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