The Report Card: Texas sends a message with shorthanded win
DATE: Friday, Nov. 21
A- — Texas
On the same day Texas learned it would be without point guard Isaiah Taylor for about 4-6 weeks due to a wrist injury he suffered the previous night, the Longhorns sent a message they'll still be difficult to beat without him. They built a double-digit early lead and relied on their stingy defense to preserve it, ultimately emerging capturing the 2K Classic title game with a 71-55 win over Cal.
For the second straight night, the offensive catalyst for Texas' success was Jonathan Holmes, who has answered any questions about whether he can make the move from power forward to small forward. The 6-foot-8 senior had 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Longhorns one night after he put up 17 second-half points against Iowa.
What has to be encouraging for Texas is the other Longhorns around Holmes certainly are capable of producing more. Elite freshman Myles Turner shot just 2 of 8 from the field and played only 17 minutes, numbers that will surely improve as he gets more comfortable. Taylor's replacement Javan Felix also shot poorly and had five turnovers.
B+ — Charlotte
Charlotte is becoming to November what UConn is to March. The 49ers are the team you don't want to see in your bracket in a holiday tournament.
Two years ago, they emerged from a mediocre field to win the Great Alaska Shootout. Last year, they upset Kansas State and Michigan en route to the Puerto Rico Tip-Off championship. And this week, they've toppled Penn State and South Carolina to earn a date with surging Miami in the Charleston Classic title game.
To extend that win streak Friday, Charlotte had to rally from 14 down in the first half against South Carolina and survive a furious turnover-heavy finish. In the end, South Carolina's Sindarius Thornwell missed a 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left and the 49ers escaped with a 65-63 victory.
D+ — LSU
With two a highly touted freshman center, two NBA prospects at forward and a couple of high-scoring transfer guards, LSU has more than enough talent to make the NCAA tournament. Thus it's fair to ask an obvious question: Why aren't the Tigers better?
LSU continued to do less with more on Friday when the Tigers lost 70-61 to Old Dominion in the opening round of the Paradise Classic. Ice-cold shooting and frontcourt foul trouble doomed the Tigers, who led by as many as 12 points early but could not stop Monarchs star Trey Freeman in the second half.
It would be easy to excuse a bad early-season performance from LSU except that this sort of thing has become a pattern. Erratic play and losses to lesser talented teams kept LSU out of the NCAA tournament last season and the Tigers nearly fell to middling Texas Tech earlier this week.
D- — UNLV
Even for a team that lost all five of last year's starters and plays three freshmen heavy minutes, UNLV has looked unexpectedly bad so far this season. The Rebels lost by 40 in a secret scrimmage against UCLA, barely eked out home victories over Morehead State and Sam Houston State and endured a humbling 89-60 loss to Stanford on Friday night in the Coaches vs. Cancer semifinals.
UNLV fell behind against the Cardinal 36-12 and was never competitive thereafter as Stanford shredded whichever zone defense the Rebels tried to implement. All too often Stanford stars Chasson Randle and Anthony Brown got cleaner looks than they usually do in shootaround. Even backup guards Robert Cartwright, Marcus Allen and Dorian Pickens feasted on the Rebels.
About the only positive for UNLV was that the team's effort didn't appear to wane even as the deficit ballooned. Nonetheless, the Rebels look nothing like a team with NCAA tournament or Mountain West title aspirations right now. Instead they appear to be a bunch of talented guys with no chemistry no direction and no clue.
NOTES:
• To break up its travel to Maui, Kansas State stopped off in Southern California for a Friday night matchup with dangerous Long Beach State. In retrospect, it was probably a poor choice. Branford Jones scored 14 points, Mike Caffey had 13 and the 49ers overcame a big deficit on the offensive glass to upset the Wildcats 69-60.
• Chris Webber-esque timeout gaffes were an epidemic in the ACC on Friday. Clemson called one with the score tied and 6.6 seconds remaining, enabling Gardner-Webb to sink a pair of free throws and pull off a 72-70 upset. Hours later, Wake Forest coach Danny Manning did the same in the final minute, thwarting the Demon Deacons' comeback bid and dooming them to a 85-81 loss against Iona.
• Colorado State's 80-70 come-from-behind victory over Georgia State was critical for the Rams because they can't afford to lose these sorts of games the way they scheduled. Larry Eustachy built a slate heavy with quality mid-majors in hopes his team could put together a strong RPI without facing a ton of power-conference teams on the road.
• Why was Syracuse able to defeat Iowa 66-63 and avoid going 0-for-the-2K Classic? Freshman forward Chris McCullough had a lot to do with it. The 6-foot-10 McCullough delivered a 20-point, 10-rebound performance against the Hawkeyes, enabling the offensively challenged Orange to bounce back from a loss to Cal the previous night.
• It remains to be seen if Florida ever lives up to its preseason top 10 ranking, but right now the Gators clearly are nowhere near that good. With Dorian Finney-Smith and Eli Carter sidelined with injuries, Florida needed overtime to escape with a 61-56 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. The shorthanded Gators head to the loaded Battle 4 Atlantis tournament next, which could be a recipe for disaster unless some scorers emerge to support Michael Frazier.
• Heck of a second half from Virginia to thwart George Washington's upset bid. The Cavaliers only allowed the Colonials to score 16 second-half points, holding them to 5 of 25 shooting. • Couple appealing title games on tap this weekend: Duke-Stanford in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic and UConn-West Virginia in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
• Xavier probably won't receive too many headlines until it faces some of the stronger teams on its schedule, but the play of Rivals 150 freshman Trevon Bluiett is worthy of more attention. How's this for a stat line through three games? 18 ppg, 5.3 rpg, .650 FG% and a 7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
