Texas 73 - 69 over a&m
- Thread starter 2300 Nueces
- Start date
Can't wait for the season. I know it's an exhibition but always good to beat A&M and hear they have a pretty good team, but most importantly this game was for a great cause. Good to see both teams come together for a great cause.
I tried to find the score during the game, but apparently it is considered an exhibition game played to raise money for Hurricane Harvey victims and doesn't count as an official game. Glad Texas beat aggy anyway.
Droppin' Dimes - This wasn't your typical exhibition, and Texas showed real potential by beating A&M
HOUSTON - This wasn’t your typical college basketball exhibition game.
When the Aggies and Longhorns get together in anything and score is being kept, that’s what happens. In front of a boisterous crowd at Tudor Fieldhouse on the Rice campus, Texas made defensives stops down the stretch to earn a 73-69 exhibition win that had the intensity of a March game. Here are 10 postgame thoughts:
Mohamed Bamba rocked the rim a few times against the Aggies.
1) Before we dive into the actual hoops discussion, a reminder of the big picture, which Texas sophomore, and Houston native, Kerwin Roach, Jr. spoke about to begin the Texas portion of the postgame press conference.
“I just want to say thanks to everyone for coming out. This game really means a lot to me and my city. The hurricane affected a lot of people, and this game is one way to [help] relieve all of that,” he said. “There’s a lot of families out there that were affected by the storm, including mine. This game means a lot. It means more than basketball to me.”
The game was the benefit the Rebuild Texas Relief Fund, which helps those affected by the devastation in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey. You can visit the website at rebuildtx.org.
2) What Roach ended his statement with could be applied to the action on the hardwood too. Wednesday night’s “exhibition” meant more. At one point during the second half, Dylan Osetkowski and Tonny Torcha-Morelos, who weren’t shying away from throwing weight around and seeking contact anywhere, met near free throw line with the ball 50 feet away, which quickly led to double technicals and teams needing to be separated on the floor as Andrew Jones and Jay Jay Chandler got into it as well.
“Oh, I loved it,” said Mohamed Bamba with a grin when asked what he thought when both teams started mixing it up. “No, it wasn’t meaningless at all. It’s a game. We approached this game as if it was a real game. It was fun.”
That probably won’t be the last time Osetkowski is in the middle of a scrum, and although Texas didn’t play as well in the second half as it did the first, it didn’t back down, and responded to plays being made and momentum mounting against them with key plays of their own on both ends.
“I liked that our guys, we didn’t see any type of fear in them,” Shaka Smart said after the game when asked what he’d take away from tonight’s exhibition win. “I did think we played a little bit, in parts of the second half, not to lose the lead, but I did think our guys had a really good togetherness and mentality to let’s go do this together.”
3) Texas began the second half like it ended the first by playing some impressive basketball on both ends. It turned defense into transition offense, and back-to-back threes by Jacob Young put Texas ahead 54-39 with 12:56 remaining. Texas looked impressive off misses when it pushed the ball up the floor aggressively.
Then, the Aggies made their run. Why? Texas A&M’s 20-6 advantage in offensive rebounds played a big part. Throughout the game, the Longhorns played really good first-shot defense, but couldn’t close out possessions at a high rate particularly when Bamba had to go to the bench with foul trouble (players were allowed to commit seven fouls because it was an exhibition game, but both coaches tried to treat it like five until it got deep into the second half). On one hand, Texas needed to do a much better job of getting in good position to make a play. On the other hand, Robert Williams might be the best offensive rebounder in the country.
“Those guys were really good… it’s a good opportunity to learn. We gave them way too many offensive rebounds. Part of that is Robert Williams is as good of an offensive rebounder as there is. Part of it is we have to do a better job pursuing the ball,” said Smart when asked about what his frontcourt can learn after facing one of the best in the country. “But really for the first time out for these freshmen bigs, you couldn’t choose a better frontcourt to play against.”
Because of the Aggies ability on the offensive glass, Texas’s transition chances, after building that 54-39 lead, started to happen less frequently, and the Longhorns struggled to find rhythm in the half-court after a strong first half (63-percent from the floor). Texas A&M should be one of the best defenses in the country, and Texas, predictably as teams do this time of the year, wasn't nearly as crisp offensively in the second half as it'll need to be when the games count (14 assists to 21 turnovers).
4) A few key plays in the second half that helped propel Texas to a win:
After Texas A&M made one of its first charges to cut the lead to 56-49, Osetkowski found an open Matt Coleman in the corner for a three-pointer to push the lead back to 10 with just over 10 minutes left.
With 7:47 left, Texas A&M cut the Texas lead to 61-57, and the Longhorns responded by making stops. Robert Williams took a bad three-pointer and missed, which led to a transition layup through traffic by Jones thanks to a Young assist. Shortly after, A&M’s T.J. Starks missed a bad three-point attempt, and on the other end Jericho Sims converted a foul into two made free throws to push the lead back to 67-57.
The Aggies created a loud atmosphere by knocking down a deep triple to make it a 67-66 Texas lead, but Jones was able to draw a foul on a three-pointer and made two of three free throws. Following a couple of stops, Jones, who finished with a team-high 18 points (5-of-11 from the floor; 2-of-6 from three-point range and 6-of-9 from the free throw line), was again fouled and made both free throws to put his team in front 71-66 with 2:25 left.
“We needed that,” Texas’s head coach said about Jones getting to the line in the second half. “We scored more freely in the first half. Second half we were struggling to put the ball in the basket. You need someone to step up and draw some fouls and put the ball in the basket. He is not afraid to take the shot at all. You need guys like that. When you’re going through a drought offensively that’s the best way to curb that is to get to the foul line.”
Down three with time running down, Texas A&M threw it inside to All-SEC junior big man Tyler Davis for a bucket. Bamba anticipated it coming, and came across with an emphatic help-side block once Davis made his move against Osetkowski. Bamba was fouled, and after missing the first free throw, he received some energetic words of encouragement from Jones before knocking down a big freebie to make it 73-69.
5) In 29 minutes, Bamba finished with 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting (1-of-5 at the free throw line and 0-of-2 from three-point range) with 10 rebounds, one assist, two turnovers, two blocks, a lot of changed shots, and two steals. Texas fans will love his answer when asked about going up against Williams.
“I didn’t go out there alone. There were four other guys out there with me,” the freshman from Harlem, New York said. “I think Dylan played a huge role in helping me, teaching me the different tricks of how they’re drawing fouls and how to stay solid. People tried to turn it into Robert Williams versus Mo but I really got around my teammates, and we really came together. At the end of the day, we got a team win.”
Bamba, who committed five fouls, will have to learn when he can and can’t challenge shots. But in a game filled with some of the best frontcourt players in college basketball, he looked to be the best. And what doesn’t show up in the box score is the effort and edge he played with. He dove on the floor for loose balls. He was up on the bench yelling constantly. He didn’t back down, and constantly competed.
6) Maybe the best predictor of whatever future success Texas is able to have was shown in the first half from the two junior guards it desperately needs to be different guys following sophomore slumps.
As the game turned chaotic in the first half, Eric Davis, Jr. went to go get the basketball, held it in the half-court, and motioned for his team to calm down. A few seconds later when hesitation by a defender led to an opening off a pick-and-roll, he drilled a three-pointer to put Texas ahead 24-14.
At one point during the first period, Williams was starting to get very physical in the paint, and trying to throw his weight around on the glass. That resulted in him beating Bamba for an offensive rebound. As Texas went down the floor, Roach went right to Bamba, tugged on his jersey, looked him in the face and started energetically encouraging him to compete, and that he was better than that.
“We all cared about each other. This time last year going into a close game with four minutes left we would have struggled with leadership, and we probably would have lost,” said Jones. “This was a stepping stone, and it was a close game and we fought hard and came out with the win.”
Roach was terrific on defense, and finished with four points (2-of-4 shooting from the floor; 0-of-1 from three-point range and 0-of-2 from the free throw line), five rebounds, two assists, three turnovers, and one steal. Davis chipped in with 10 points, all in the first half, on 3-of-8 shooting (2-of-7 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the free throw line), two assists, and one turnover.
7) The guard duo of Jones and Roach has discussed the pride it is taking in its defense. Wednesday night, Texas A&M guards shot 5-of-34 from the floor, and the Aggies shot 30.3 percent for the game.
Before fouls started to pile up, Texas’s diamond full-court pressure defense was a weapon, and it showed the ability to trap unexpectedly at the half-court to create turnovers too. The zone defense was often solid, and the look of Bamba and James Banks in the middle looked particularly intriguing.
8) Sims was welcomed to college basketball in the frontcourt by a lottery pick, skilled senior, and a bruising junior that was an all-conference player last season. At times, the freshman was clearly, well, he looked like a freshman. But the very quiet Minnesota native never let his competitiveness waver, and flashed in an elite manner multiple times. Most notably, Sims took the ball at the elbow, put it on the floor, spun in the paint, and finished with his right hand. The very next play on the other end, he stuffed a shot near the rim. He finished with three blocks, six points, and two rebounds.
“It’s great for him. What an opportunity for him. This is no disrespect at all, but if you could see the level of competition he played against last year, this was a quantum leap going from that to Robert Williams and Tyler Davis,” Smart said about Sims. “I thought he held his own. He obviously has a long way to go and a lot to figure out, but that rebound was huge that he got for us. The biggest thing is he didn’t play with any type of fear.”
9) Coleman will have much better games than the one he had against Texas A&M. The freshman from Virginia picked up a couple cheap fouls early, and wasn’t able to truly get into the flow of the game. There were some lows, like a miscommunication with Bamba late on a potential alley-oop, which led to a costly turnover in the final minutes. However, there were some flashes too, like the big three-pointer in the second half and a crafty driving layup.
“This was great for him too because this is nowhere near the type of game he wants to play, but it’s a great learning experience, especially playing against a fifth-year guard in Duane Wilson,” Smart stated about Coleman, who finished with five points, two assists, three turnovers, and a steal in 19 minutes.
No matter what was happening and whether he was on the floor or on the bench, Coleman was constantly talking and completely engaged. He led the huddle before the game, and moved the ball around in the half-court.
10) The Longhorns still have a long, long way to go. But what they showed, particularly when they jumped out to a 40-27 lead at halftime, is they have the potential to be a much better team on both ends of the floor. More importantly, they showed a group that’s already more connected than last season, and one that could truly gel into a team with a foundation built on chemistry.
HOUSTON - This wasn’t your typical college basketball exhibition game.
When the Aggies and Longhorns get together in anything and score is being kept, that’s what happens. In front of a boisterous crowd at Tudor Fieldhouse on the Rice campus, Texas made defensives stops down the stretch to earn a 73-69 exhibition win that had the intensity of a March game. Here are 10 postgame thoughts:
1) Before we dive into the actual hoops discussion, a reminder of the big picture, which Texas sophomore, and Houston native, Kerwin Roach, Jr. spoke about to begin the Texas portion of the postgame press conference.
“I just want to say thanks to everyone for coming out. This game really means a lot to me and my city. The hurricane affected a lot of people, and this game is one way to [help] relieve all of that,” he said. “There’s a lot of families out there that were affected by the storm, including mine. This game means a lot. It means more than basketball to me.”
The game was the benefit the Rebuild Texas Relief Fund, which helps those affected by the devastation in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey. You can visit the website at rebuildtx.org.
2) What Roach ended his statement with could be applied to the action on the hardwood too. Wednesday night’s “exhibition” meant more. At one point during the second half, Dylan Osetkowski and Tonny Torcha-Morelos, who weren’t shying away from throwing weight around and seeking contact anywhere, met near free throw line with the ball 50 feet away, which quickly led to double technicals and teams needing to be separated on the floor as Andrew Jones and Jay Jay Chandler got into it as well.
“Oh, I loved it,” said Mohamed Bamba with a grin when asked what he thought when both teams started mixing it up. “No, it wasn’t meaningless at all. It’s a game. We approached this game as if it was a real game. It was fun.”
That probably won’t be the last time Osetkowski is in the middle of a scrum, and although Texas didn’t play as well in the second half as it did the first, it didn’t back down, and responded to plays being made and momentum mounting against them with key plays of their own on both ends.
“I liked that our guys, we didn’t see any type of fear in them,” Shaka Smart said after the game when asked what he’d take away from tonight’s exhibition win. “I did think we played a little bit, in parts of the second half, not to lose the lead, but I did think our guys had a really good togetherness and mentality to let’s go do this together.”
3) Texas began the second half like it ended the first by playing some impressive basketball on both ends. It turned defense into transition offense, and back-to-back threes by Jacob Young put Texas ahead 54-39 with 12:56 remaining. Texas looked impressive off misses when it pushed the ball up the floor aggressively.
Then, the Aggies made their run. Why? Texas A&M’s 20-6 advantage in offensive rebounds played a big part. Throughout the game, the Longhorns played really good first-shot defense, but couldn’t close out possessions at a high rate particularly when Bamba had to go to the bench with foul trouble (players were allowed to commit seven fouls because it was an exhibition game, but both coaches tried to treat it like five until it got deep into the second half). On one hand, Texas needed to do a much better job of getting in good position to make a play. On the other hand, Robert Williams might be the best offensive rebounder in the country.
“Those guys were really good… it’s a good opportunity to learn. We gave them way too many offensive rebounds. Part of that is Robert Williams is as good of an offensive rebounder as there is. Part of it is we have to do a better job pursuing the ball,” said Smart when asked about what his frontcourt can learn after facing one of the best in the country. “But really for the first time out for these freshmen bigs, you couldn’t choose a better frontcourt to play against.”
Because of the Aggies ability on the offensive glass, Texas’s transition chances, after building that 54-39 lead, started to happen less frequently, and the Longhorns struggled to find rhythm in the half-court after a strong first half (63-percent from the floor). Texas A&M should be one of the best defenses in the country, and Texas, predictably as teams do this time of the year, wasn't nearly as crisp offensively in the second half as it'll need to be when the games count (14 assists to 21 turnovers).
4) A few key plays in the second half that helped propel Texas to a win:
After Texas A&M made one of its first charges to cut the lead to 56-49, Osetkowski found an open Matt Coleman in the corner for a three-pointer to push the lead back to 10 with just over 10 minutes left.
With 7:47 left, Texas A&M cut the Texas lead to 61-57, and the Longhorns responded by making stops. Robert Williams took a bad three-pointer and missed, which led to a transition layup through traffic by Jones thanks to a Young assist. Shortly after, A&M’s T.J. Starks missed a bad three-point attempt, and on the other end Jericho Sims converted a foul into two made free throws to push the lead back to 67-57.
The Aggies created a loud atmosphere by knocking down a deep triple to make it a 67-66 Texas lead, but Jones was able to draw a foul on a three-pointer and made two of three free throws. Following a couple of stops, Jones, who finished with a team-high 18 points (5-of-11 from the floor; 2-of-6 from three-point range and 6-of-9 from the free throw line), was again fouled and made both free throws to put his team in front 71-66 with 2:25 left.
“We needed that,” Texas’s head coach said about Jones getting to the line in the second half. “We scored more freely in the first half. Second half we were struggling to put the ball in the basket. You need someone to step up and draw some fouls and put the ball in the basket. He is not afraid to take the shot at all. You need guys like that. When you’re going through a drought offensively that’s the best way to curb that is to get to the foul line.”
Down three with time running down, Texas A&M threw it inside to All-SEC junior big man Tyler Davis for a bucket. Bamba anticipated it coming, and came across with an emphatic help-side block once Davis made his move against Osetkowski. Bamba was fouled, and after missing the first free throw, he received some energetic words of encouragement from Jones before knocking down a big freebie to make it 73-69.
5) In 29 minutes, Bamba finished with 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting (1-of-5 at the free throw line and 0-of-2 from three-point range) with 10 rebounds, one assist, two turnovers, two blocks, a lot of changed shots, and two steals. Texas fans will love his answer when asked about going up against Williams.
“I didn’t go out there alone. There were four other guys out there with me,” the freshman from Harlem, New York said. “I think Dylan played a huge role in helping me, teaching me the different tricks of how they’re drawing fouls and how to stay solid. People tried to turn it into Robert Williams versus Mo but I really got around my teammates, and we really came together. At the end of the day, we got a team win.”
Bamba, who committed five fouls, will have to learn when he can and can’t challenge shots. But in a game filled with some of the best frontcourt players in college basketball, he looked to be the best. And what doesn’t show up in the box score is the effort and edge he played with. He dove on the floor for loose balls. He was up on the bench yelling constantly. He didn’t back down, and constantly competed.
6) Maybe the best predictor of whatever future success Texas is able to have was shown in the first half from the two junior guards it desperately needs to be different guys following sophomore slumps.
As the game turned chaotic in the first half, Eric Davis, Jr. went to go get the basketball, held it in the half-court, and motioned for his team to calm down. A few seconds later when hesitation by a defender led to an opening off a pick-and-roll, he drilled a three-pointer to put Texas ahead 24-14.
At one point during the first period, Williams was starting to get very physical in the paint, and trying to throw his weight around on the glass. That resulted in him beating Bamba for an offensive rebound. As Texas went down the floor, Roach went right to Bamba, tugged on his jersey, looked him in the face and started energetically encouraging him to compete, and that he was better than that.
“We all cared about each other. This time last year going into a close game with four minutes left we would have struggled with leadership, and we probably would have lost,” said Jones. “This was a stepping stone, and it was a close game and we fought hard and came out with the win.”
Roach was terrific on defense, and finished with four points (2-of-4 shooting from the floor; 0-of-1 from three-point range and 0-of-2 from the free throw line), five rebounds, two assists, three turnovers, and one steal. Davis chipped in with 10 points, all in the first half, on 3-of-8 shooting (2-of-7 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the free throw line), two assists, and one turnover.
7) The guard duo of Jones and Roach has discussed the pride it is taking in its defense. Wednesday night, Texas A&M guards shot 5-of-34 from the floor, and the Aggies shot 30.3 percent for the game.
Before fouls started to pile up, Texas’s diamond full-court pressure defense was a weapon, and it showed the ability to trap unexpectedly at the half-court to create turnovers too. The zone defense was often solid, and the look of Bamba and James Banks in the middle looked particularly intriguing.
8) Sims was welcomed to college basketball in the frontcourt by a lottery pick, skilled senior, and a bruising junior that was an all-conference player last season. At times, the freshman was clearly, well, he looked like a freshman. But the very quiet Minnesota native never let his competitiveness waver, and flashed in an elite manner multiple times. Most notably, Sims took the ball at the elbow, put it on the floor, spun in the paint, and finished with his right hand. The very next play on the other end, he stuffed a shot near the rim. He finished with three blocks, six points, and two rebounds.
“It’s great for him. What an opportunity for him. This is no disrespect at all, but if you could see the level of competition he played against last year, this was a quantum leap going from that to Robert Williams and Tyler Davis,” Smart said about Sims. “I thought he held his own. He obviously has a long way to go and a lot to figure out, but that rebound was huge that he got for us. The biggest thing is he didn’t play with any type of fear.”
9) Coleman will have much better games than the one he had against Texas A&M. The freshman from Virginia picked up a couple cheap fouls early, and wasn’t able to truly get into the flow of the game. There were some lows, like a miscommunication with Bamba late on a potential alley-oop, which led to a costly turnover in the final minutes. However, there were some flashes too, like the big three-pointer in the second half and a crafty driving layup.
“This was great for him too because this is nowhere near the type of game he wants to play, but it’s a great learning experience, especially playing against a fifth-year guard in Duane Wilson,” Smart stated about Coleman, who finished with five points, two assists, three turnovers, and a steal in 19 minutes.
No matter what was happening and whether he was on the floor or on the bench, Coleman was constantly talking and completely engaged. He led the huddle before the game, and moved the ball around in the half-court.
10) The Longhorns still have a long, long way to go. But what they showed, particularly when they jumped out to a 40-27 lead at halftime, is they have the potential to be a much better team on both ends of the floor. More importantly, they showed a group that’s already more connected than last season, and one that could truly gel into a team with a foundation built on chemistry.
