40 Acres Sports

Follow along live with 40 Acres Sports on Twitter and below for our thoughts and analysis during tonight’s conference basketball match-up on ESPNU. We’ll be live right around tipoff for Texas versus [tag]Texas Tech[/tag] so join us to discuss the game at 8:00pm Wednesday night.

Things might be a little less wordy than normal, but please feel free to leave comments and questions using the live tool, but not all comments will be published. Read below for more notes on comments and how the live blog will work. Hook ’em!

(continue to read full live blog …)

Follow along live with 40 Acres Sports on Twitter and below for our thoughts and analysis during today’s big hoops match-up on CBS. We’ll be live right around tipoff for Texas versus [tag]Connecticut[/tag] so join us to discuss the game at 3:00pm Saturday afternoon.

Things might be a little less wordy than normal, but please feel free to leave comments and questions using the live tool, but not all comments will be published. Read below for more notes on comments and how the live blog will work. Hook ’em!

(continue to read full live blog …)

It was the first time since 1983 that a team from the state of Texas hosted a basketball game as the #1 team in the country, and until overtime it looked like it would be a while before it happened again. The top ranked Texas Longhorns were taken to the buzzer by the Texas A&M Aggies Saturday evening before the Horns finally pulled away in overtime 72 – 67. After only 3 points in the first half, senior All-American candidate [tag]Damion James[/tag] put the team on his back and dominated with 23 points in the second half and overtime. His big 3-pointer and and then game ending block of an Aggie 3-pointer in OT finished off the thrilling victory.

Some brief highlights and thoughts on the game from ESPN are below…

Next up for the Horns are back-to-back road games against top 15 opponents. They’ll face #12 [tag]Kansas State[/tag] Monday night on ESPN and then travel to play #15 [tag]Connecticut[/tag] on Saturday on CBS.

The Texas Longhorns are the number 1 team in the land this week after all. The football team came up short, but thanks to a [tag]Kansas[/tag] upset loss the men’s basketball team is now the top ranked team in both the AP Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. This is the first time in Texas history to hold the number 1 ranking.

Head coach [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] felt the ranking was a compliment to the program and all the effort each of the players puts in every week. Of course, unlike football college basketball has a playoff and as Barnes put it, “I can’t honestly tell you who the No. 1 team was in the country on the second week of January last year, but I do know who won the national championship.”

Here’s this week’s top 5 college basketball teams:

• Full AP top 25 rankings
• Full Coaches Poll

WTH?! (What the Heck?) moments are attempts to find the memorable and the off-beat perspective on Longhorns sports. Here are some interesting moments from the Texas basketball game against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Cowboys Stadium was a less than optimal game watching experience. (Image: TexasSports.com)

Pregame WTH Jerry’s World?! Re-issuing this WTH tagline again. Walking into the Death Star you were immediately attacked by beer vendors. Where were you guys at the Big XII championship football game?! Make sure you are a fan of Miller products because Bud Light and Coors cannot be found.

1st Half (15:47) WTH Baby Video?! The Big Daddy video board was not enough so the Cowboys set up a smaller four sided video underneath for fans to see player names, fouls and points. Unfortunately, the baby video was often wrong or did not change with the substitutions that were happening on the floor. It was cool to see the time elapsed photos of converting the facility into a basketball arena. Shout out to the video producer who showed the UT Pom Squad often. So often that we noticed that one of the girls took out her belly button ring!

1st Half (9:12) WTH FREE throws?! UT is awful at the free throw line. On successive trips to the charity stripe [tag]Dogus Balbay[/tag] and [tag]Damion James[/tag] missed both free throw attempts. The team was 50% for the first half and clawed their way back to finish at 70% for the game. This will be a glaring weakness for the team this season unless head coach [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] starts passing out $20’s for every made free throw at practice.

Half Time WTH Wholly Guacamole?! Never heard of the product and probably will never eat it. The sponsor for the halftime did provide us a funny moment when two youngsters played a very terrible game of pong on the giant video board. The best part was when the little brother started shoving the sister while she was playing.

2nd Half (13:11) WTH Balbay?! As UNC was trying to stage a comeback, Dogus Balbay was awaiting the inbound pass after a Tar Heel basket. The ball was rolling around the court so Balbay dropped kick the ball right into Alexis Wangmene’s grill.

2nd Half (4:39) WTH PB&J?! With a shout out to the teams of the past (BMW – Blanks, Mays, Wright), the new group of Pittman, Bradley and James put together a string of blocks, shots and dunks to get the 38,052 in attendance (3/4 Longhorn fans) up off their feet. Damion was the leader with 25 points and 15 rebounds followed by Dexter who had 23 points and 15 rebounds. A career day for a freshman was put in by Avery Bradley who finished with 20 points. The freshmen team that Barnes has put together will have many more career days on the 40 acres.

It looked awkward but not too bad when it happened, but the pregame injury Texas guard [tag]Varez Ward[/tag] suffered Tuesday night turned out to be season ending. He went down hard during layup drill sand had to be taken off the court on a stretcher and the university announced Wednesday that Ward has ruptured his quadriceps tendon.

From the university:

Statement from Athletic Trainer Eric Fry
MRI results showed that Varez Ward ruptured his right quadriceps tendon. He is scheduled to undergo surgery early next week and will miss the remainder of the season.

Statement from Head Coach Rick Barnes
We all feel for Varez. Everyone within our program understands how much time and hard work Varez has put in, and he has been the most improved player on our team from the end of last season. He means a lot to this program. There is one thing for certain, he will be back.

ESPN goes behind the scenes with Rick Barnes at a Texas basketball practice:

North Carolina head basketball coach Roy Williams regrets scheduling his team’s December match-up versus Texas. Or more accurately, he regrets scheduling the Horns along with a full gauntlet of tough teams including [tag]Kentucky[/tag], [tag]Michigan State[/tag], and [tag]Ohio State[/tag] before the end of December. Williams is worried he may have overextended his inexperienced Tar Heels:

North Carolina coach Roy Williams admitted he might have over-scheduled his young team. The last game he took was the Dec. 19 game at Texas in the first college basketball game ever at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. “As it gets closer, I’m thinking maybe I shouldn’t have done that,” Williams said Monday.

Tickets for the big game in Jerry World between Texas and UNC are are available on StubHub.

(via The Dagger)

Yes, [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] is still just a big kid. What does he do when he’s bored at home? (Which living in Oklahoma City is probably pretty often.) He gets in a slap fight with his brother Tony. And video tapes it and throws it up on Twitter.

The friend taping it giggles like a school girl. Awesome.

(via Deadspin)

The Texas basketball team got some good news this week when it was determined transfer guard [tag]Jai Lucas[/tag] would be eligibel as soon as finals for the fall semester are completed. That means he’ll be able to play December 15th against Texas-Pan Am and get one prep game before the huge December 19th matchup against [tag]North Carolina[/tag] at Jerry World.

Link: Hoops guard Lucas eligible on Dec. 15