Hook 'Em Horns

Texas basketball, utilizing a football-esque ruggedness accomplished something their Longhorn gridiron compatriots couldn't. Lockdown defense.

The Horns utilized a smothering defense and relentless athletic assault on the glass to hold Scottie Reynolds (10pts) and the Villanova Wildcats to just 58 points, capturing an impressive neutral court win in the back half of the Jimmy V Classic in Madison Square Garden.

AJ Abrahams continued his outside POY campaign netting 26 points and playing a solid floor game, while the inside bruisers did their job grabbing contested offensive boards all night.

A couple takeaways from this game:

1. Texas has a lot of Memphis in them. Great quickness, relentless rebounding, tough extended pressure defense.. and the ability to build a house laying bricks from the charity stripe. It is a glaring weakness they need to shore up to win 5 games in March (no one is winning 6 other than UNC - sorry.)

2. 'Nova is a little small inside. With the bevy of big-man talent in the Big East (Harangody, Thabeet, Young (Pitt), Samardo Samuels ('Ville), Greg Monroe (GTown) it is tough to envision Villanova as any better than 6th in the carnage of that conference. Add in Syracuse, Marquette, Cincinnati (underrated - watch out for the 'Cats) and it is not that hard to see the Wildcats on the dreaded "Boeheim" come March...

No need to cry this year... so far!

3. The Big East is still really good. Yes, they went 0-2 tonight at the Garden. BUT - WVU is no better than the 7th best team in that conference and lost a close game to a Sweet-16 caliber Davidson team. (Read "Poles Are For Strippers" for more on Davidson's true "ranking"). In reality WVU will be battling with a host of Big East squads for the 8th and possibly 9th bids come March.

Villanova hung right with a Texas team that is a legit Top 6-8 team in the country. With the early season prowess displayed by that conference (Read "Big 12 December Report Card"), they or Oklahoma have positioned themselves early for the #1 seed that will go to the Big 12 winner. Villanova is good - but not near the true cream of the Big East crop.


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