I know next to nothing about Texas, even though I live in Houston. I know they were run out of the gym by both Duke and Tennessee in the same week...but weren't at full strength. They are now. Looks like a team that can play tough defense can really give them trouble, but if LSU gets TT and Big Baby in major foul trouble AND hits 20% below its seasonal FT average...well, you're not going to win an Elite Eight game. I've worried about beating Duke and Texas within a 3 day period from the moment Selection Sunday began. That's a tall order, taller than any this team has had all year, IMO. So, what do we know about Texas? What are the key matchups to watch? Most importantly, how long will it take for a Texas fan to ignite a flame war by mentioning the name "Ryan Perrilloux"...inquiring minds wanna know!!
Here's a primer from a Longhorn forum: !. Clearly, LSU is has a series of big time run and jump athletes. More impressive was the fact that they forced Duke to play half court basketball and they beat them. Duke is a scary team when they are in transition because Redick hits 55-60% from three in transition. LSU took away the transition game. 2.There are going to be some interesting match-up possibilities in this game. Tyrus Thomas has a chance to defend Aldridge as well as anyone this year if LSU goes that route. Thomas can let Aldridge go to the fade and still block/change the shot and since Aldridge's offensive game is not one of deception (pump fakes), Thomas can play without fouling. 3.Temple was terrific defending Redick in the half court. The question becomes, does LSU try and take Gibson out of the game or do they put Temple on Tucker and take their chances with Tucker being able to take him down low. 4.Expect a lot of 2-3 zone or sagging man-to-man because LSU is one of the worst perimiter shooting teams in the country. Other than Mitchell, no one on that roster is a consistent jump shooter from outside 12 to 14-feet. When in zone, finding Tyrus Thomas and putting a body on him will be key. 5.Texas must make 8 to 10 three pointers Saturday because dominating the paint against LSU is not likely and LSU will bring the hard double team with active hands and their athletic ability makes kick outs difficult. 6.LSU big men will settle for 15-foot jumpers and early in sets if Texas makes them available. Both Davis and Thomas take some quick shots in the mid-range and this is a positive situation for Texas if that happens Saturday. Those shots keep the Texas bigs from defending without fouling situations and that is a positive.
One more thing: the crowd should be decidedly pro-LSU as I'd imagine LSU fans are buying up WVa and Duke fan's tickets at about a 9 to 1 ratio at least over UT. Love hearing the band and the "LSU" cheers during last night's game. Will love it even more to hear them much, much more loudly tomorrow afternoon.
Thanks for posting that, Tejas. My short and shallow assessment of this game is that if we can stick to our identity and force a defensive slugfest kind of game, UT goes down. If their guards can hit some treys and open some space we could be in trouble. How Aldridge and/or Tucker do defensively against Davis will be interesting to see. Aldridge is good but even though he's talked about as a possible #1 draft choice he's not up to Shelden Williams level just yet, so I expect a bigger contribution from Davis.
I don't know about that. There were a good bit of Texas fans there last night, and not that many LSU fans. We'll see. As far as the game, I'm quite worried. Texas is a good team. We're capable of beating them, but we don't really have any match ups that we can take advantage of. We're going to have to be better offensively, making the easy shots & free throws & need a good game plan defensively to win.
One other thing I'd like to touch on - I'm very glad WVU came back and gave Texas a great game in the second half and forced them to play hard and win in dramatic fashion. Otherwise I'd be a little more worried that after our intense game against Duke, we might not have as much gas left in the tank compared to UT.
Should be a good game. Put me on record saying this will be a texas win by 10 +. Any team that loses to U of H won't beat THE University of Texas.
oh please... that was way early in the season. if you want to use that logic, didnt Duke beat "the" university of texas by 30? Didnt LSU beat Duke by 8? in using that logic, should LSU DESTROY Texas? no.... so with LSU losing to the university of houston, that doesnt mean were were going to lose to texas... silly.
looks like an even matchup to me. common opponents-Southern,WV, Tenn, Duke, TxAM. the main diff is that at the same time in the season, LSU beat Tenn. looking at their stats, they have no glaring weakness (LSU has several-turnover prone, weak 3pt shooting). i do notice that UT doesnt create many turnovers. probably means they are happy playing halfcourt game. they have two good post players in aldredge (6'10") and tucker (6'5"). they have 3 good 3pt shooting guards, but none have great size (5'10", 6'1", 6'2"). both teams really only play 6. i give UT the advantage because they are so well-rounded-basically better 3pt and ft shooting. but really it will come down to match ups-what players can create an advantage over their man (i guess zones throw this out of whack). you cant really tell this till gametime.
According to your assessment, doesn't sound like it'll be much of a game at all. If I summarize your post, it pretty much looks like UT owns every matchup in this game. LSU has no advantages at all. You're really feeling generous (or just safe) by only predicting 10+. Playing the loss-to-Houston card won't do you any favors. If we're going to look at early-season losses, didn't you get crushed by tenn in december? In Austin? The same team that LSU whipped? Just checking. This will almost certainly be another back-and-forth, momentum swinging type game. It will almost certainly be decided by a couple of big-time plays one way or another in the last 2-3 minutes. And when the game is decided on these types of things, I've learned not to doubt the Tigers. They have a heart, a will, and a chemistry not often found in college b-ball anymore.
