40 Acres Sports

How Texas remained durable after Kevin Durant. Every single other player is better the season, especially Connor Atchley.

16 to 1: Ranking the Sweet Sixteen. Drinking the Forty puts the remaining NCAA Tournament teams in order.

Men’s NCAA Tournament: Texas-Stanford preview. The Dallas Morning News gives a slight edge to the Horns.

DD Lewis rejoins Seattle Seahawks after half a year in Denver. He’s had a lengthy, solid career after being undrafted out of school.

Oklahoma Sooners fan to stand trial for injuring Texas fan in bar fight. The nut grabber deserves jail time for the attack.

DJ Augustin is a leading man of March and a mama’s boy. Texas’ All-American point guard calls home every night.

Rookie Watch: Which veterans should the rookie class study? ESPN’s David Thorpe thanks Durant should emulate Allen Iverson.

After taking care of business on Friday, the Longhorns take on [tag]Miami[/tag] today at 1:15 pm in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. To get past the Hurricanes Texas will have to keep shooting the ball well from outside and stop Jack McClinton from going off. McClinton is an excellent scorer and had 38 points in their first round win over Saint Mary’s. If he does that again the Hurricanes have a good chance of pulling off the upset today.

To learn more about McClinton and the rest of his teammates, watch the SI.com Film Room Preview below:

[tag]Dexter Pittman[/tag] had his first double-double as a Longhorn against [tag]Austin Peay[/tag] but that wasn’t the thing I was most impressed with on Friday. The one play of the day that made me jump up out of my seat was Big Dex’s one-handed recovery of a loose ball. The ball was bouncing near the free throw line and Pittman bent over, palmed the ball with his left hand, and then tossed an outlet pass to DJ Augustin to start the break.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one impressed with it, Austin-American Statesman write Kirk Bohls spent half of his Saturday article discussing Dexter’s hand size:

The first thing you notice about Dexter Pittman is his huge hands.

OK, the second thing.

It’s hard to overlook the fact that when Pittman walks into a room, there’s much less space for everyone else.

However, after his tremendous size, which is literally diminishing by the meal, the most conspicuous thing about the 6-foot-10-inch, 295-pound-and-falling sophomore center is his truly mammoth hands. The biggest hands you’ll ever see on a human.

In Texas’ practices, he shows them off by catching the basketball with a single hand. He especially loves to taunt diminutive teammate A.J. Abrams with his hands, because the flashy junior guard has been Pittman’s primary tormentor regarding that ongoing battle of the pounds. […]

But no one was kidding Pittman about his hands — hands so large they could double as catcher’s mitts.

They come in handy when he’s trying to secure rebounds or block shots. He gives Texas a physical presence down low, something it needs since its best reserve post player, Gary Johnson, continues to sit out with a severe ankle sprain. Johnson remains questionable for the Longhorns’ second-round NCAA tournament game Sunday against Miami.

“I think I have the biggest hands in the country,” Pittman said. “Sometimes I will palm A.J.’s head. Or I’ll cover his whole face with one of my hands.”

He also puts them to good use on the court.

In the Longhorns’ 74-54 rout of 15th-seeded Austin Peay in the first round, he had a career-best 10 rebounds to go with 11 points, in his first double-double at Texas. He grabbed seven rebounds in his first seven minutes Friday. The breakout performance came in his first NCAA tournament action; he never got on the court in Texas’ two 2007 postseason games.

Even more impressively Friday, he actually palmed a loose ball laying on the floor of Alltel Arena, and quickly flicked it to a teammate.

“Did you see him snatch that ball with one hand?” Texas assistant Ken McDonald gasped. “Like it was a tennis ball. Now that’s coaching.”

I’m not sure how much Pittman will be able to contribute through the rest of the tourney, it will depend on the match-up, but if he continues to improve I’m excited about what he’ll bring in the next two seasons. Big Dex at a stronger, lighter 280 pounds could be a force in the Big 12.

The opening round game of the 2008 Men’s Basketball Championship turned out about as well as the Texas Longhorns could have hoped for. A nice, comfortable 74-54 win against an overmatched [tag]Austin Peay[/tag] team moves the Horns on to round two against Miami. [tag]AJ Abrams[/tag] was the leading scorer for Texas, he definitely had his three-point stroke working on Friday.

Texas got out to a huge 19-3 lead early and never let up against the Governors. The defense was active and the big men inside gave the undersized scorers for Austin Peay no room to make anything happen. [tag]Connor Atchley[/tag], [tag]Damion James[/tag], and big [tag]Dexter Pittman[/tag] controlled the paint and blocked six shots during the game. Texas kept their 15 to 25 point lead throughout the game, and while the starters didn’t get a ton of rest late the second half was relatively easy and everybody should be ready to go Sunday against the Hurricanes.

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