I would only add that Ray Turner is a freak of an athlete who will only get better the more minutes we give him, and that Middleton is a freshman who has gotten better as the season has gone on, and is playing his best basketball now.

I only slighlty quibble with your comment that we have no basketball history prior to the last five years; we had the winningest coach in SWC history in Shelby Metcalf, although that was when the NCAA allowed fewer teams into the Tournament than now, so we didn’t Dance as much. We were quiet in basketball for much of the ‘90s, kinda like Purdue in football, though. You have to remember, though, that this is Texas, and we care about football the way y’all do about basketball in Indiana, so as long as the football team is doing well, people are happy. Billy Gillispie helped change attitudes about our basketball program, and Mark Turgen has continued that success.

I think this team is comfortable playing in close games, so if our game with y’all is a grind-it-out affair, I like our chances.