Augie Garrido - college baseball's resident philosopher - has a theory about what affects a young baseball team like his Longhorns.

After Texas' first win of its series sweep against Villanova, Garrido gave a short philosophy lesson to the media in the dugout, the core of which was three factors that affects his team.

The first factor was environment.

"As you can see, the team reacts differently in different environments," Garrido said.

He argued that where a team plays has a major role in how that team performs. Unfortunately for the Longhorns, they keep proving him right.

No. 21 Texas has won four of 12 games away from Disch-Falk Field so far, giving it a .333 road winning percentage. All of the losses in Texas' 10-8 record came on the road.

The Longhorns' most recent additions to the L-column were a pair of losses to Nevada-Las Vegas over the weekend.

Texas' journey to succeed away continues today at 7 p.m. when it faces No. 4 Rice (10-2) for the second time this season. The last time these two met was in Houston in the College Classic, where Kyle Russell delivered an almost unforgettable pinch-hit home run to win it for Texas.

But the environment was a little friendlier and a lot more energetic then, and now Texas must face the Owls on their turf, which, according to Garrido, makes a difference.

As big a factor as environment is, there are still two more things on Garrido's list, the first of which is experience.

"You can describe what a situation is like to a player, but without experience the words are empty," Garrido said.

Texas gains experience each week, but time comes at a premium as the season progresses.

Texas began the season where it left last year - as the consensus No. 1. The Longhorns quickly fell to No. 7 after dropping three games in San Diego, Calif., to the No. 25 Toreros, and fell again to the 14th spot after winning just one game in Stanford, Calif.

Texas is in danger of not being ranked before the end of nonconference play, but there is a silver lining. If Texas is learning from its mistakes, then the team's youth are learning quickly.

But Garrido is looking for those who have already been educated to help aid the process.

"It's then the job of those who have experience to share their definition with the newcomers," Garrido said.

While playing in the Houston College Classic last month, center fielder Drew Stubbs said he needed to be one of those leaders. From that time on, Stubbs has helped the team as much as possible.

But in order for Stubbs and Texas' other leaders to effectively bring the team up, it will take all three factors - environment, experience and leadership - in unison.

That was perhaps the most important point of Garrido's philosophy lesson.

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