The thinking last week was that when Texas forward Brad Buckman was benched during the Duke game due to a calf injury, things went downhill from there. And Buckman is still out, and Texas still suffers.

Let's face it: P.J. Tucker is a dynamo when he gets to drive to the paint. He is a powerful slashing type competitor, and with Buckman inside as well, Texas is very, very hard to beat. But with P.J. Tucker playing guard, Buckman out and younger players expect to fill in the role of forward, Texas is going to suffer.

But by 17 points? Is Texas overrated? Or is Tennessee underrated?

Texas' first four games before the Duke game were all from smaller colleges and all resulted in 30 to 40 point wins for Texas. All well and good. It does help to practice against some competition before you go against the big Division I schools.

Duke was the first Division I opponent for Texas, and in fact, was a terrible choice for testing especially after the easy wins Texas had. When Buckman went out in the first half and all the adjustments were made, Duke just romped.

Duke romped because Tucker just wasn't and likely will never be used to going man to man against someone like Duke guard J.J. Reddick. Hardly anyone is, and as a result Reddick had a career high 41 points, 27 points from the 3 point range. Reddick had a once in a lifetime game.

So, what happened against Tennessee?

Turnovers. Tennessee had a 12 turnover margin against Texas. Buckman is still out and a lot of Texas hoopmen aren't playing at positions they have drilled for. Texas even out rebounded Tennessee, but that just isn't enough when you turn the ball over to your opponent.

It didn't help that Texas shot 48 and 41 percent from the field, but then Tennessee didn't shoot that well either, shooting 50 and 50. Both teams played an intensively defensive game.

What's in store for Texas?

Texas lost another starer in the Tennessee game: Daniel Gibson, to date a mediocre guard whose absence will put more strain on Texas, especially on Tucker. Texas has two more games against non Division I teams before they travel to 5th ranked Memphis January 2. That game also marks the last non conference game before they start conference play hosting Colorado January 7th.

Texas will likely disappear from the AP Top 25 by this Monday.

Tennessee on the other hand, goes against the Big 12's Oklahoma State, which is this blog's favorite, team December 23rd. After that, the Vols have three more non Division I games before they go to South Carolina January 8th for their conference opener.


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