Tilting at Windmills

Gridlocked traffic. Tex-Mex. Barton Springs. Pink granite. Live Music Capital of the World. BBQ. Burnt-orange clad douchebags. Matthew McConaughey.

OU travels 5.5 hours down I-35 to meet up with their BFFs in Austin tonight. This isn’t an ordinary rivalry where everybody shakes hands and has beers together afterwards. No, each fanbase probably wishes a meteor would strike the other school’s campus. Sorry Sooner fans, it was close last week. Try again.

Some tips for those coming down or up or over for the game tonight (wherever you happen to live … the Sooner Nation is omnipresent): park in the state lot at 15th (Enfield) and Trinity. That will put you within a couple blocks of the Erwin Center and right next to Scholz Beer Garten, a favorite pre-game watering hole. OK, for those of you who already knew that, some out of the way places you might want to try close by are Nuevo Leon (best margarita in Austin) on east Sixth and the Crown & Anchor (pool tables, darts, pub grub and a shit ton of beers), just north of campus where San Jacinto meets Speedway.

Good criminey, that's some tasty goodness.

Another crew coming to Austin is ESPN College Gameday. They’re here to watch the 25-1, #2-ranked Sooners who, should they get by Texas as expected, will be the number one team in the nation next week. At 17-8, unranked and losers of four out of their last six (two in Austin), Texas is grateful just to be in the national discussion today.

The Texas fans and media homers seem to get it somewhat, others not so much. Local sports radio personality and longtime Dallas Morning News columnist Chip Brown said this week that UT would keep it close or be tied with a minute and a half to go, “then who knows.” A caller immediately thereafter said that Texas would win it on a 35-foot buzzer beater by Abrams. What this tells me is, based on this scientifically accurate data sample, UT fans are basically saying they’ll win if prayers are answered.

Thou shalt not get blown out by A&M.

The guys at Barking Carnival at least have somewhat of a clue what’s about to hit them: Blake Griffin. Tech really didn’t do us any favors by showing the devastation that can happen when you leave Blake single-covered, and the BC guys astutely picked up on that. Where they missed the mark is by thinking Blake’s a black hole once he gets the ball in the post. I hope Rick Barnes thinks that, too, but I’m pretty sure he’s seen film of Blake dishing to a cutting Taylor or Willie or Juan Pattillo (pick one) for an easy layup or dunk many times.

Last time these two teams met in Norman was hella-fun, if you’re a Sooner. OU was up by 9 at the half and it really didn’t feel that close as the Sooners eventually won by 15, led by Blake’s 20 and 10. Damion James, UT’s asshat forward who decommitted from OU as soon as he figured out Capel wouldn’t grease his pockets like Sampson would, rode the bench most of the game in foul trouble. A.J. Abrams, UT’s best offensive weapon, was just 3-15 from downtown and was really never a factor.

James' password wasn't that hard to crack.

For their part, OU had four players in double figures, including Tony Crocker’s once-a-month good game. OU could probably handle Texas tonight without hitting on all cylinders, but it would be nice to blow them out of their own gym and watch a line of orange leave the HumDrum midway through the second half.

Since that game in Norman, Texas is 5-4, which includes a home loss to Nebraska and getting their asses handed to them by A&M. Oklahoma is, of course, a perfect 9-0 over that same stretch with four of the wins coming on the road and five wins by double-digits. Sounds like a recipe for an old-fashioned woodshedding, doesn’t it?

Definitely, but that brings up the only fear: that UT will play over its head and get the win it desperately needs to impress the tournament selection committee. The Whorns would also like nothing better than to deny OU its first number one ranking since March 13, 1990.

We know UT’s weapons: Abrams and James, not necessarily in that order. Abrams has allowed himself to be taken out of games as of late and a couple of things happen when he does: he forces bad shots and the rest of the team seems a little lost. Austin Johnson did a great job shutting him down early in the Norman game, contributing to OU’s fast start. It also helped that James was in foul trouble pretty much from the get-go, played just 20 minutes before fouling out and didn’t look all that great during the time he was in. Barnes was so fed up with James’ frustration that he benched him in favor of Dexter Pittman’s manboobs and reserve Gary Johnson, even in situations where it would have been appropriate (given his foul situation) to play him.

UT will try to guard Blake with a frontline of Connor Atchley, Pittman and Johnson. Atchley’s a 6’10” stiff who will get abused if Blake gets him on his hip, 1-on-1. Johnson is a nice post in the Ryan Wright mold, but think about Wright trying to keep Blake from rolling to the basket.

Count it.

Pittman is UT’s best post defense against Blake. He’s big and could push The Beast around a bit, but honestly that’s about it. Pittman hasn’t started every game for the Horns and Barnes will have a dilemma here: does he start Pittman knowing that’s the best way of slowing down Blake, or does he go ahead and tell him to skip the pre-game nachos run and get in immediately, knowing that he could easily get into foul trouble early, like James did in Norman. Another problem Barnes will have here is Pittman wearing out his gelatinous body trying to keep Blake from dropping 40, and not being able to do anything on the offensive end. Today’s game preview in the Austin American-Statesman indicates Pittman will take a seat in a very large chair to start the game. That same story quotes Pittman, who needed an oxygen tank and defibrillator after spending 21 minutes on his feet in Norman, as saying yeah, Blake wore his big ass out so much that he couldn’t keep up on the offensive end (Big Dex rained 6 points on 2-7 shooting that day):

“I was caught up more on the defensive end trying to stop Blake Griffin from scoring and rebounding. I forgot about the offensive part of it.”

The guy who concerns me is 6’0” Turkish guard Dogus Balbay. A veteran of Euro-style basketball, Balbay is an excellent pass-first point guard. He can duct tape dimes to his person and distribute them freely without fear of being molested by a sadistic Sağmalcılar narc. His strength is getting others involved, which he did in Norman, handing out six assists. Problem is, UT has to have people who can knock down what he’s giving them and that’s been a big problem for them over the past three weeks. The knock on Balbay is that he can’t shoot. He’s a pedestrian 43% shooter from the field, but is an absolutely horrendous 34% from the FT line. Teams have been known to back off of him when he has the ball, knowing he’s Doug Gottlieb with his shorts adjusted properly. So, there’s an easy solution to guarding Balbay here: put Crocker on him. It’s not like you have to worry about contesting his shot or letting him get the first step, then fouling him in an effort to catch up.

Finally, back to magaritas, beer and Mexican food: Pittman just calls that “pregame.” So, while he’s ordering the #9 heart attack on a plate platter and a frozen swirl (no salt), fans should be piling into the EC, ready to see a long-anticipated game that we thought earlier in the year would actually mean something. Well, it might not have much bearing in the overall Big 12 scheme of things (don’t tell that to Kansas and Mizzou), but it sure means a lot to us as fans. Since I live about 10 minutes from downtown Austin, I’m pretty much obligated to go. I love living here for the weather, the music, the nightlife and for the love of god, Tex-Mex is an actual food group. The best times here, though, are when the Longhorn faithful are whining once again that OU has somehow screwed them out of something. On Monday, I fully expect the entire Sooner Nation to hold up an index finger with their right hand, a middle finger with their left and proclaim the University of Oklahoma Sooners the number one team in the nation for the first time in 18 years … at the expense of the Texas Longhorns.

It really doesn’t get much better than that.