Texas
Texas preparing to face either Virginia or Colorado State to open NCAA Tournament
AUSTIN, Texas — The excitement of the Texas Longhorns upon earning a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday quickly turned towards senior forward Kadin Shedrick when the Virginia Cavaliers were paired with the Longhorns as one of the No. 10 seeds facing a First Four play-in game on Tuesday.
Shedrick, in his first year at Texas, spent his first three college seasons under head coach Tony Bennett in Charlottesville, setting up a potential matchup with his old team if Virginia advances on Tuesday by beating the Colorado State Rams in Dayton at 8:10 p.m. Central on truTV.
Might Shedrick be in charge of preparing that scouting report as the Longhorns staff gets ready for both teams ahead of Thursday’s first-round game in Charlotte on TNT at 5:50 p.m. Central?
“He’s very familiar with those guys,” laughed Texas head coach Rodney Terry.
Facing a play-in team is a first for Texas in the NCAA Tournament that departed the Big 12 Tournament early and projected as a No. 8 or No. 9 seed by most bracketologists, allowing Terry’s team to escape a potential second-round matchup against a No. 1 seed and set up the possibility of an intriguing contest with former head coach Rick Barnes and No. 2 seed Tennessee.
Barnes left the Forty Acres following a string of disappointing early exists from the Big Dance, a continuing trend in Knoxville in three of the five tournaments since Barnes took over in addition to a Sweet 16 upset by No. 13 seed Purdue as a No. 2 seed in 2019.
With 16 years of experience coaching teams in the NCAA Tournament as an assistant and a head coach, Terry isn’t looking ahead to the Round of 32 and that likely looming matchup with Barnes, who hired him away from UNC-Wilmington in 2002, the start of Terry’s 10-year stint at Texas that included runs to the Final Four in 2003 and the Elite Eight in 2006 and 2008.
“The first game is always the hardest game,” said Terry. “If you don’t win the first game, there is no second game. So you’ve got to put everything you have into game number one and if you’re fortunate and blessed to get to the next game, you’ll deal with that one then.”
For now, Texas is starting to hone in on the details of both potential opponents, teams that Terry called well coached and successful this season. Foregoing plans to have a watch party for Tuesday’s game — they’ve already had their watch party, Terry said — the Horns will instead have an intense, competitive practice before backing off on Wednesday.
And although Virginia is arguably the worst at-large team in the NCAA Tournament field with an adjusted efficiency rating of No. 69 by KenPom.com and a NET ranking of No. 54 thanks to a 2-7 record against Quad 1 opponents, Bennett’s team does present a consistent challenge.
In addition to a transition defense that Terry termed elite, what always makes the Cavaliers dangerous, even in a down year, is Bennett’s signature pack-line defense, a philosophy directly opposed to the no-middle defense that Chris Beard popularized at Texas Tech — the pack line uses hard hedges on ball screens and asks on-ball defenders to force opponents into the middle and away from the baseline with off-ball defenders staying inside the so-called pack line, an arc one step in from the three-point line roughly 16 or 17 feet from the basket, to help take away dribble drives without having to recover to three-point shooters.
Even this year’s comparatively mediocre Virginia team executes defensively at a high rate, ranking fifth in adjusted efficiency, allowing opponents to shoot just 30.4 percent from three, 17th nationally, posting the fourth-best block rate in the country, and allowing a free-throw rate of 25.7 percent that ranks 22nd.
The elite defense combined with a regressive offensive mindset produces laborious basketball at an adjusted tempo that ranks as the slowest in the country. Bennett’s teams never play aesthetically-pleasing basketball, but this year’s group is outright bad beyond limiting ambition to the extent that turnovers are virtually non-existent — declining to attack the offensive glass, ranking among the worst teams in the country at getting to the line free-throw line and converting on those rare opportunities, and generally bricking shots inside the arc. The Cavaliers do shoot well from three-point range, ranking 47th at 36.3 percent, but also take them at the 293rd rate in the country because Tony Bennett.
Gross.
The Rams are a two-point favorite, according to DraftKings, with a 55-percent win probability from BartTorvik.com thanks to a more balanced statistical profile that includes a NET ranking of No. 36 on the strength of six Quad 1 wins and the No. 49 offense and No. 40 defense in adjusted efficiency.
In the Mountain West Tournament, Colorado State made it to the semifinals before falling to New Mexico, the eventual champions. During non-conference play, CSU notched a 21-point win over then-No. 8 Creighton, the program’s first win over an AP top-10 opponent in almost 40 years, in addition to conference home victories over San Diego State and New Mexico.
The Mountain West may be a mid-major league, but the top of the conference is high-major quality and the Rams slot just outside that grouping.
Terry is familiar with the engine of the Colorado State offense, senior point guard Isaiah Stewart, an Allen product who received an offer from Terry’s staff at UTEP as a member of the 2019 class and emerged as one of the Mountain West’s best players over the last several seasons, averaging 16.5 points and 7.0 assists per game this year while shooting 44.7 percent from three on a relatively modest 4.1 attempts per game.
Despite the solid adjusted efficiency on defense, Colorado State trends offensively in the raw percentages, ranking second in assist rate led by the playmaking ability of Stevens and shooting well from two-point range and at the free-throw line while relying on the fifth-year senior’s decision making to avoid turnovers.
So the matchup between the Rams and Cavaliers rates as an intriguing strength-on-strength contest even if the Texas team doesn’t plan on congregating together to view the outcome on Tuesday.
AUSTIN – Texas Governor Greg Abbott will be briefed Wednesday morning on the latest in the severe winter weather that will affect a large area of the state. He will then hold a news conference in Austin around 10:30 a.m. to announce any updates.
The Governor will be joined by Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd, Texas Department of Transportation Deputy Executive Director Brian Barth, Electric Reliability Council of Texas CEO Pablo Vegas, Public Utility Commission Chair Thomas Gleeson, and other state officials and emergency management personnel.
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Winter Storm Warning
What we know:
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for parts of North Central and Northeast Texas from 6 a.m. Thursday until Noon on Friday.
The National Weather Service expects heavy mixed precipitation with a transition to all snow on Thursday evening. Total snow accumulations will be between 2 and 4 inches. The NWS says isolated snowfall amounts could top 8 inches within more intense bands of snow.
Another aspect of a warning is what this weather will impact. Travel could be very difficult for the Thursday morning and evening commutes.
RELATED STORY: Dallas weather: Winter storm watch upgraded to warning, when to expect snow tomorrow
State Emergency Response Resources
Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to increase the readiness level of the Texas State Operations Center (SOC) to Level II (Escalated Response) ahead of winter weather expected to impact the state, with the greatest impacts beginning Wednesday through the weekend.
What they’re saying:
“With below-freezing temperatures beginning to impact large portions of the state, Texas is increasing the readiness level of the State Operations Center to ensure resources are swiftly deployed to communities,” said Governor Abbott. “As the State of Texas mobilizes the emergency response resources Texans need to stay safe and warm, I urge everyone to remain weather-aware, regularly monitor road conditions before traveling, and heed guidance from state and local officials. I thank all the first responders and emergency management personnel for their efforts to help Texas communities brace for winter weather.”
Winter Storm Watch
The National Weather Service has also issued a Winter Storm Watch which remains in effect from now through Friday night.
What they’re saying:
Heavy mixed precipitation is possible with a transition to snow expected late Thursday. Total snow and sleet accumulations of up to two inches and ice accumulations of around one tenth of an inch are possible.
Roads, and especially bridges and overpasses, will likely become slick and hazardous. Travel could be very difficult. The hazardous conditions could impact the Thursday morning and evening commutes.
Dig deeper:
Texans can locate winter weather safety tips by visiting TexasReady.gov, find warming centers opened and operated by local officials at tdem.texas.gov/warm, and check road conditions at DriveTexas.org.
The Source: Information in this article is from the Texas Governor’s Office and the National Weather Service.
Texas A&M football: How Reed Arena got its name
Reed Arena has been around since 1998. Here is a history of Texas A&M’s arena that sits nearly 13,000 people.
For the first time since December of 2017, Texas A&M basketball is ranked inside the top 10 in national polls.
The Aggies manhandled the rival Texas Longhorns on Saturday and surged up the rankings. They sit ninth in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and 10th in the AP Poll, released Sunday.
Despite national recognition, the Aggies know they have a lot of work to do if they’re going to stay there, and the next challenge will be daunting. Wednesday night, the Aggies travel to Norman to take on the No. 16 Oklahoma Sooners (13-1, 0-1) in their first SEC road test of the year.
WATCH MULTIPLE TEXAS A&M GAMES HERE
No. 9 Texas A&M (12-2, 1-0) won eight games in a row and will put the streak to the test against a good Sooners team looking to bounce back from a 107-79 loss to the No. 5 Alabama Crimson Tide.
Now, the Aggies are fully entrenched in a grueling conference schedule. Can Texas A&M continue their winning ways Wednesday on the road against Oklahoma? Here’s what you need to know for the matchup:
Texas A&M vs Oklahoma time
Day: Wednesday
Start time: 8 p.m.
Location: Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.
How to watch Texas A&M vs Oklahoma
TV channel: SEC Network
Livestream: Fubo, ESPN+, SEC+
Aggies capitalizing on ‘mature group’
Texas A&M entered the season returning 78% of last year’s total production. That familiarity in Buzz Williams’ sixth season has allowed the Aggies to flourish early this year. With experience a clear advantage for A&M, the team’s maturity has allowed them to get off to the start they’ve had.
“We have a very mature group. We have a group that has really good character, and that’s important. When we’re together, our ideas have to be based on the truth,” Williams said on his weekly radio show Monday.
A&M’s starting five against Texas (Wade Taylor, Zhuric Phelps, Hayden Hefner, Solomon Thomas, Henry Coleman III) have combined to play 460 games for the program, and that familiarity has helped the Aggies play well together when it matters most.
“The margins are just so thin. You always have to figure out a way to get better,” Williams said Monday. “We’re thankful for Saturday. There’s very little margin over the next nine weeks.”
Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma prediction
Twenty-point wins will be hard to come by in the SEC this season, and the Aggies know it. Wednesday against the Sooners will provide A&M with another measuring stick game, a test they’ve continued to pass. I expect it will be much closer than the Longhorns game was, with Texas A&M finding a way to grind out a one-possession road win over Oklahoma, 77-74.
Reach Texas A&M Beat Reporter Tony Catalina via email at ACatalina@gannett.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Get access to all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Two years ago, when the suicide prevention hotline launched, it was called a “game-changer.”
However, 988 systems in Texas are now beginning to buckle under the weight of a multi-million dollar budget deficit.
The Texas Tribune’s mental health reporter, Stephen Simpson, joined Eyewitness News to break down what caused this deficit and the impact on health care across the state.
Most of the money comes from a federal grant but was never meant to support the system long-term.
“This was just to get the 988 systems up and running until the state stepped in to take over the funding,” Simpson said.
The state of Texas has not dedicated any funds to the suicide prevention hotline.
Texas only has five centers dedicated to answering calls for help, compared to Florida, which has 13. As a result, 20% of calls from Texans in crisis in Texas are answered by out-of-state counselors.
“The more you’re transferred out of state, the more likely you are going to drop the call. Currently, Texas has the 5th highest number of dropped calls in the nation. Without the number of crisis counselors, the text and chat features we have here don’t really work,” Simpson said.
Texas has one of the highest numbers of calls into 988 centers across the country, mental health resources are low, and the suicide rate is climbing. The suicide rate in Texas jumped 37% from 2000 to 2022.
Senator José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, has filed a bill to create a state trust fund for the upcoming legislative session, which begins Jan. 14.
The 911 call centers are funded similarly. A surcharge on cellphone bills would support the 988 trust fund. Other states use money from Medicaid expansion to fund their 988 centers.
For updates on this story, follow Briana Conner on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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