Twins cast large shadow

HOUSTON

To say that the Texas Longhorns face a tall order against Stanford is understating the obvious, by a half.¶ The Cardinal mascot is a tree, but its basketball team plays with two redwoods, 7-foot sophomore twins Brook and Robin Lopez.¶ "The more you talk to people, the more they say they're more impressive when you see them in person," Texas coach Rick Barnes said.¶ "They are long and athletic. But the thing that impresses you most is that they stay within themselves. They know exactly where their strengths are and play to them. They do an excellent job of getting position, they don't mess with the ball, and the team does a good job of knowing what they're after -- and they work hard at getting it." Together, the twins average 29.3 points and 13.8 rebounds a game.

"They make it easy to be a guard," Stanford backup Kenny Brown said.

They don't make it easy to rebound against them, or drive to the basket.

But Texas' Damion James, who has 26 points and 26 rebounds in two NCAA tournament games, says the Lopez brothers won't cause him or the Longhorns to alter their approach.

"We're not going to do anything, man," James said. "Just contest shots, try to play good defense and rebound the ball, because we know they're great offensive rebounders. Anybody can be stopped, but we're not going to try and stop them.

"I'm going to continue to do what I do. I'm not going to let one or two men stop me from that. Ain't nothing. Just a hard-fought game in the paint."

"He's just a tough player," Augustin said. "You know you can't really beat him up down low. He's going to fight back and he's going to play hard all the time."

On defense, Stanford guards willingly funnel things inside. Robin has blocked 83 shots, Brook 54.

"It's going to cause some problems, but I'm still going to go in there and drive and try to get fouls on them," Augustin said. "They are always looking to block shots, so that's going to be good for us -- to get into the lane and kick out to my teammates [to] knock down open shots."

Texas can solve a lot of the rebounding problem by knocking down perimeter shots as it did in tournament victories over Austin Peay and Miami.

"That would be a key," Barnes conceded. "We've got to do the things we do. We've had pretty good success with it, and I'm sure they're concerned about dealing with some of the things we do."

"I don't know if you can counteract their speed on the perimeter," he said. "As good as they are offensively, as good as their skill level is, I don't think they get enough credit for how good defensively they are, and that's the thing that concerns me."

Johwnson also has noticed how effective Texas' perimeter shooting can be.

"Have not seen a team like that," he said, "and it's very scary."