Posted March 17th, 2006 by Matt
Filed under: Basketball
Tonight at 8:40 PM CST Texas will be playing their first round matchup against the Penn Quakers, in what amounts to essentially a home game at the American Airlines Center. Texas is making their 8th straight trip to the NCAA tournament with Penn making it to the big dance 9 times in the last 12 years.
LaMarcus Aldridge, might possibly be playing in his first and last postseason with the Longhorns. Aldridge had big games against the likes of Memphis and Villanova, but has struggled lately and did not finish the season strong. He will have to step up his game if the Longhorns want to make a real run at the National Championship.
Daniel Gibson also needs to get off to a good start. When he gets going early in the game, it is usually a sign of good things to come for the Longhorns. Gibson’s and Aldridge’s play will be important in the early rounds, so that they can take pressure of PJ Tucker having to do everything.
Penn brings the Ivy League’s leading scoring Ibrahim Jaaber, who is averging 18.4 ppg and 3.4 steals. Penn has two key players, Steve Danley and Eric Osmundson, coming off of injury that will have to step up if they have any chance of pulling off the upset.
All-in-all, Texas should be able to dominate the frontcourt in this game and come up with the easy victory.
reply to #1
Brian
March 17th, 2006 at 4:26 pm
I avoided oatmeal the last few days because I didn’t want to support the Quakers. 🙂
I think it probably helps Texas that the Piggies have already lost and won’t be as plentiful and loud in the AAC. Hopefully there’s a very pro-UT crowd for these first two games because impartial fans will definitely be rooting for the underdog to knock off the higher seed. With the way we go hot and cold, momentum could be a big factor if we let it.