Augustin Puts Texas in Good Hands
HOUSTON _ Texas had a huge home-court advantage Friday night, but more importantly it had a huge D.J. Augustin advantage.
Stanford had no answer for the Texas point guard, unless you’re counting, “We have no answer.” He’s too good, too quick, too smart. Too everything. OK, at 6 foot, he’s not too tall, basketball-wise, but somebody forget to tell him that.
And so, as the Longhorns were going about the business of eliminating Stanford, 82-62, from the semifinals of the NCAA tournament’s South regional, it was the compact, sturdy Augustin who was driving to the basket and causing all sorts of problems that the smart kids from Stanford couldn’t solve.
If height could be taught anywhere, it would be taught at Stanford. Lots of brainy students there. But you can’t teach height, as they say, so Stanford went out and recruited 7-foot Brook Lopez. Good move. He can play.
You can teach shooting, however, but some of the Cardinal players must have been cutting classes. Lopez scored 26 points, which was nice. His teammates, including Brook’s twin brother Robin, shot 12 of 43 from the floor, which a Stanford math major can tell you is 27.9 percent. Not so nice. It was particularly painful in the second half, when Texas started getting more physical with Brook Lopez. He didn’t score a basket in the final 13 minutes, 55 seconds of the game.
“Throwing a lot of bodies at him frustrated him,” Longhorn guard A.J. Abrams said.
If someone other than Brook Lopez had stepped up for Stanford, it might have been a different story. But that’s the thing about team sports, isn’t it? Where Brook Lopez had very little support, Augustin had lots of it. Whoever wants to beat Texas in the NCAA Tournament is going to have to figure out a way to deal with the relentless athleticism of the Longhorns. They seem to come at you in waves and from all directions. And they can shoot. Augustin, A.J. Abrams and Damion James all can score.
This was a game, until Augustin decided it wasn’t. Great players have a way of imposing their will on a contest, and a huge crowd at a converted football stadium witnessed some major will-imposing by Augustin on Friday night. Midway through the second half, he picked up a loose ball at mid-court and took it in for a layup to build the Longhorns’ lead to 58-51. Two minutes earlier, it had been a one-point lead. In what seemed like a few blinks, the lead was 15.
And that’s the thing about the Longhorns. Don’t make the mistake of blinking.
The Longhorns were frustrated with the way they were playing against Brook Lopez, who had done whatever he wanted in the first half. So they put 6-10, 299-pound wide body Dexter Pittman on him and brought help whenever the Cardinal star got the ball. He had only two rebounds in the second half.
“(Pittman) put his body against him, and I don’t think Brook could handle that weight on him,” Augustin said.
The suffocating defense seemed to rev up the Longhorns’ offense. A dunk and a primal scream by James made it 68-53 with about five minutes left. For all purposes, it was over.
“We just went back to playing our style of defense, as far as pressuring the ball and trying not to let them catch it so easy on the block,” Texas guard Justin Mason said.
It starts with Augustin. There can’t be a stronger guard in college basketball. There were a few media questions after the game that suggested he hasn’t gotten his due nationally. It seems hard to believe he hasn’t, but just in case: Here’s your due, D.J. Friday night wasn’t a fluke, and if there’s another player in the country who has the full attention of his teammates the way Augustin has, I haven’t seen it. And he’s only a sophomore.
“We give it to him, we know he’s going to make something happen,” coach Rick Barnes said.
The Longhorns, who play the winner of Friday night’s Memphis-Michigan State match-up, are one game from the Final Four. They came into the NCAA tournament as a No. 2 seed, but with a bullet: This is one of those talented, well-coached teams that can win the whole tournament, if things go right.
Things went right for the Longhorns Friday. After what transpired at Reliant Stadium, it’s hard to imagine things ever not going right for them. They didn’t do anything extraordinary. They just figured things out. Wear down Brook Lopez. Get the ball into D.J. Augustin’s hands. Wait for good things to happen.
“As long as we’re winning, that’s all that matters,” Augustin said.
He finished with 23 points, seven assists and five rebounds Friday. As far as winning goes, there seems to be a cause and effect, wouldn’t you say?
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