It’s pretty amazing how far out of it Texas was for its Elite Eight game with Memphis in Houston.
Though there are plenty of reasons for the blowout the Longhorns suffered at the hands of the top-seeded Tigers, one of the biggest was D.J. Augustin‘s lack of presence in this game. Though he was the second-leading scorer on the team behind A.J. Abrams, Augustin’s points came during a two-for-18 night.
The reason for this seems simple enough to me – Augustin was uncomfortable all game because he wasn’t running the team.
Augustin is Texas’ All-American point guard, but against Memphis (and for most of Texas’ Sweet 16 win over Stanford) coach Rick Barnes had Justin Mason running the point and had Augustin running around the baseline looking to get open for shots. Augustin also had a lot of turnovers, which helped Memphis jump out to its insurmountable lead. This, too, can easily be explained by Augustin’s different role in the Houston Regional games.
The problem is, Augustin is used to dishing out assists, not receiving them. This was not a smart move by Barnes and is, to me at least, one obvious reason Texas is not going to San Antonio.
This is obviously not the way Texas wanted its season to end. And I don’t just mean that they aren’t playing for a national title, but a blowout like this is disheartening and will likely leave them wondering what on earth happened.
It’s just one sports blogger’s opinion, but I’d say taking your All-American point guard and taking the ball out of his hands against what the NCAA committee says is one of the top four teams in the country will leave the team out of sync.
And that’s what Texas was on Sunday, to say the least.
This article appears in March 28 • 2008.