Texas Game

Overall a solid win. To go on the road and beat Texas in Houston is a great accomplishment. Hopefully, at the end of the year we will look back and say that this was the win that turned our season around.

Positives that I took away from the game include:
1) Durrell Summers probably had his best game as a Spartan. It was nice to see him attack the basket and score in transition more. While he has been shooting way too many threes this year, we are all glad that he made that last one. I just hpe that it doesn't encourage him to shoot even more. I would much rather see him dunk on someone.
2) Goran Suton played great. I think that today just illustrates that while it's fashionable to complain about Suton, we need him in the lineup. He gets Hansborough-like baskets that don't look very suave, but they still put two points on the board.
3) Travis Walton single-handedly shut down A.J. Abrams. His defensive effort was amazing and really rattled the three point shooting star. It forced Texas to go to the other four guys on the court, and as the score showed, they couldn't cut it.

With that being said, I don't want to get too carried away. We had many flaws out there today:
1) The rebounding seemed even worse than the reported 38-29 advantage that went to Texas. I haven't seen a Spartan game in a really long time where so many balls hit the floor. What was worse was that we weren't getting the loose balls.
2) It was another big game where Raymar Morgan essentially disappeared. He finished with 8 points on only 3 shots, but again had stupid mental mistakes and a bunch of travelling calls. Does he know how to finish on a fast break? Every time he gets the ball in transition he travels.
3) Kalin Lucas still can't find his shot. He is on pace to tie Drew Neitzel for the worst off season regression ever. Not only can he not shoot this year, but he also can't take the ball to the rack. He tried a few times in this game, but was unsuccessful. I guess we should just be happy that his assist-to-turnover ratio is very comparable to last year.
4) FT shooting was horrible (8-17). This was led by Delvon Roe who was 0-6 and is shooting just over 40% for the year.

Next Game: At the Palace vs. Oakland University.