Scouting The 7th Ranked Texas Longhorns

It has been a while since Oklahoma and Texas were this evenly matched in basketball and with North Carolina losing to Wake Forest on Sunday night the opportunity to move up in the rankings is there for the winner. The Longhorns dropped three games in non-conference play but started off Big 12 play with a 75-67 home win over Iowa State. They’ve only played two true road games and have a 1-1 record in those contests.

Texas wins by an average of 12 points per game and are winning the battle of the boards by just over 5 rebounds per game. The win games by playing defense (holding opponents to 38% from the floor) but tend to struggle shooting from the floor. The Longhorns rank 12^th in the conference in 3-point shooting percentage (33%), 11^th from the free-throw line (63%) and 11^th in overall field goal percentage (44%).

Senior guard A.J. Abrams scores 17.5 points a game to lead the team and also typically provides the Horns with a long shot threat but has struggled as of late. He has only made 5 of his last 20 three point attempts and is averaging just 8 points in the last outings.

Damion (Benedict Arnold) James is quite possibly the best athlete on the team. His state line reads 14.9 points and 8.7 rebounds on average. Dexter Pittman is the man in the middle and will have to deal with Blake Griffin. Pittman averages 9.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game but has been limited in playing time to less than a half.

Connor Atchley and Justin Mason round out the starters for Texas. They average 6.6 and 7.1 points per game respectively while contributing just over 3 rebounds per game.