40 Acres Sports

Five Horns score in double figures as they roll past Texas Tech 80-51.

A lot of love in the media the last few weeks for the Texas A&M basketball program and the job Billy Gillispie is doing turning garbage into wins, but the Houston Chronicle points out that the Longhorns are still the premier program in the state. The Texas program was never at the horrid depths that the Aggies were, but [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] has taken it to a whole new level of excellence and consistency.

Some interesting facts from the article:

• Wins against ranked teams: Penders 10, Barnes 38.
• Trips to the Sweet 16: Penders 2, Barnes 4.
• Final Fours: Penders 0, Barnes 1.
• McDonald’s All-American recruits: Penders 1, Barnes 8.
• Weeks in top 10: Previous 92 years: 3, Barnes: 41.
• Only three schools have advanced to the Sweet 16 in four of the last five years – Duke, Connecticut and Texas.
• Texas is one of just nine programs to advanced to eight straight NCAA Tournaments.
• America’s favorite college basketball programs: Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, Kentucky, and Texas.

This is now almost two weeks old but it’s new to me and hilarious.

On February 3rd Texas A&M won a huge game over Kansas for their first victory over the Jayhawks ever. It was a great win for Billy Clyde Gillespie and the Aggies over a top 10 team so it’s understandable that the fans were excited. Heck I even understand storming the court after such a big victory.

There’s only one problem… the game was in freaking Kansas.

Typical Aggies.

Kevin Durant’s father says, “There’s a chance he would come back to Texas next year. There’s not a rush for him to go to the NBA.”

More love for KD as player of the year and to be the number one pick in the draft.

Good Knight Aggies! Acie Law was nails again but Texas Tech had too much time and got the upset win.

Ok, well obviously [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] is not yet named the Player of the Year in college basketball, but Grant Wahl from Sports Illustrated is already saying that Durant should be. I agree with him 100%. And frankly, who are we to argue with Sports Illustrated? Let’s just give him the award now.

On a side note, it seems like there have been a lot of Longhorns on sports covers over the past year or so. I guess it is a good time to be an athlete down in Austin. So who will be the next Longhorn on a major cover? I will go with the easy choice, Colt McCoy.

The Longhorns finally looked like a complete and dangerous basketball team for the first time since the win over Texas Tech. All five starters scored in double figures and the Texas defense locked down Oklahoma State, holding the Cowboys to 38% shooting and forcing 16 turnovers. OSU star forward Mario Boggan chipped in 16 points but only grabbed three rebounds and had none on the offensive end.

Star of the game for Texas was the much maligned A.J. Abrams who finally snapped out of his shooting slump with 17 points and even added some solid work on defense. Abrams’ shot was falling and he did a much better job of getting open for his shots and not settling for mid-range jumpers on the move. After struggling to get involved in the first half, Kevin Durant did his usual thing in the second half and finished with a game high 21 points and 12 boards. D.J. Augustin was a little rough at the start of the game and turned the ball over carelessly a few times but settled in and contributed 19 points and 8 assists. Augustin’s 3-pointer from the state of Texas emblem at half court to beat the shot clock was the play of game.

Check out highlights from the game below:

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Just because Kevin Durant can play every position doesn’t mean NBA teams should expect him too.

Texas A&M’s statistics crew is padding Aggies’ and opponents’ assists totals. Horns remove 8 of their own assists.