CSNbbs

Here are a few thoughts after last night's game:

The referees. Apparently playing in sacred Texas territory gets you a few pass. Jimmy Hall was consistently fouled time and time again in the paint and no call. Slightly brushing up against a player should not be a foul. And the Ridenour tech call was way over the edge.

The ESPNU announcers get a P-U for devoting the majority of air time pumping up the Longhorns. They finally came around at the very end when Texas was for sure going down.

The starting lineup. Ridenour has produced some great efforts in the last few games and he's still not starting. I don't get it.

Rosa. Please don't shoot the ball from unfamiliar territory. I think I could get the ball in the basket from close range blindfolded more than his attempts. He does do a great job of rebounding.

Peterson. Apparently in the dog house. IDK. When he had minutes at the start of the season he was sensational. Playing for 60 seconds to me doesn't give him much of a rhythm on the court.

And finally a great second half, especially all the players on the court who stepped up with Hall on the bench. Not taking anything away from Hall but that stretch showed some great Kent State basketball. Congrats to all.

Quotes from Senderoff on Texas game from Record-Courier:

"Obviously a big win for us, playing a team like Texas with the tradition they have, the history they have, the coaching staff they have, and the players they have currently. It's a great win for us. We battled through some adversity throughout the game. The last two games we struggled to score, we did again tonight, but we kept at it defensively throughout the entire 40 minutes. Our guys stuck together through ups and downs throughout the game, and we were fortunate to make more plays.

"Going into this game, we were the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the nation. It's obviously really hard when you're playing a big, strong, physical team like Texas. Our mentality going in was we determine the offensive rebounds, we determine how hard we go, we determine whether we get them or not. Tonight, we got some early in the game that gave our guys a lot of confidence that we can do this the whole game.

"When we come into every game, that's our No. 1 thing we talk about. That's our identity as a program."

From Texas team website:

"Kent State deserves a lot of credit. They played hard. They came in statistically as the top rebounding team in the country, and they did a great job of being that tonight. We didn't do a good enough job rebounding.

"I actually think that was not the most detrimental component of the game to us. We turned the ball over in situations where it's really hard to defend against. When you turn the ball over and the other team gets a layup or a dunk, there's not much you can do defensively. In a low-scoring game like tonight where both teams are shooting in the 30s percentage-wise, for them to get 24 points off turnovers, that's the biggest difference in the game to me.

"On our offensive end, I thought one of the things that happened was when the ball wasn't going in as much, there was a level of tension or being worried about whether the next one was going to go in. You've just got to go out there and play. We had some possessions where we were too tentative.

"I think one of the things that happened tonight, and Kent State did a good job of this, is attacking when guys were frustrated. A team can sense that, and they gain aggressiveness."

Link to full story is http://www.texassports.com/news/2016/12/...3-58.aspx.