The Texas men's basketball team was only playing in its opening game, but the team has already been bitten by the injury bug. Four players sat out the game with various injuries.
The most notable loss in the line up was starting forward Brad Buckman. The sophomore was on the sidelines in street clothes with an ankle injury, but the Longhorns easily managed to overcome the loss to beat the Brown Bears, 89-51.
Senior Brian Boddicker stepped into Buckman's starting position and freshman P.J. Tucker played big roles in replacing Buckman. Boddicker scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
Boddicker, one of four seniors who sees significant minutes, scored eight of Texas's first 11 points. Those points were critical as Brown, a young Ivy League program, kept pace with Texas over the first six minutes.
"We missed a lot of easy shots around the basket that could have broken the game open early," coach Rick Barnes said.
With the score knotted at 7, Boddicker converted on two straight buckets. Then the Duncanville native stepped forward and drew a charging foul on Brown guard Patrick Powers.
Using Boddicker's four points and nice defensive stop, Texas went on a 13-0 run. Brown would cut the lead down eight on two occasions but never made a legitimate comeback run.
The second half started with another Boddicker field goal. When he went to the bench after five minutes of play, freshman forward P.J. Tucker, his replacement, picked up the scoring right where Boddicker left off.
Tucker poured in six points in three minutes and provided a rebounding force in the paint. Tucker scored six points in 10 minutes of action in the first half, and he pulled down six first-half rebounds.
With less than 10 minutes to go, Tucker poked a ball loose to junior transfer Kenny Taylor. The two ran the fast break to perfection as Taylor's pass led Tucker to an easy lay up. The basket put Texas up by 32 points.
When Tucker left the game with 7:21 to play, the crowd recognized his effort with a standing ovation.
He finished the game with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Tucker's point total tied the Texas scoring record by a freshman in his debut. He now shares the record with Jack Worthington and Ron Baxter.
"I think I did all right for my first game," Tucker said modestly. "My teammates gave me the ball in good spots, and I missed some plays that I should have made."
The North Carolina native had a chance to go into the record books by himself in the waning minutes after he picked up a loose ball and turned up court. He and Royal Ivey were on the fast break with no defenders in front of them. Instead of making the selfish play, Tucker gave the ball up to Ivey, who was in front of him, and Ivey converted the layup. Barnes was not surprised by Tucker's game.
"P.J.'s a basketball player. The way he spaced himself coming down the floor enabled him to get that return pass from Kenny," Barnes said. "That was just a great instinctive basketball play.
"He's got a great knack to score. He's got a great feel for the game. Rebounding-wise he does it everyday [in practice]."
Tucker's 13 rebounds were the most by a Texas freshman in a debut, bettering Mike Murphy's old record of 11 set in 1974.
"He wants to be good. As long as he keeps working, he will be a really good basketball player," Barnes said.
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