After coming up with a steal on the defensive end and no defender in front of him on a fast break, Dogus Balbay had a perfect opportunity to make a splash on the offensive side.
But his legs weren’t paying attention.
“I couldn’t jump for some reason,” Balbay joked afterwards. “That’s the first time that’s happened to me.”
He may not have filled the box score with scoring, but Balbay impressed in his first collegiate outing.
After sitting out last season with a knee injury and serving an 11-game suspension for a violation of the NCAA’s amateurism rules, Balbay finally got a chance to show Texas fans both his speed and defense during the Longhorns’ (2-0) 76-51 victory over Tulane (1-1).
Balbay finished with two points and two steals in 26 minutes of action, but his impact wasn’t about his scoring.
“He only had one turnover in 26 minutes,” said Texas head coach Rick Barnes. “We’ll take that every night.”
During Balbay’s first time on the floor, the sophomore guard smothered Tulane’s Kevin Smith, forcing a near turnover. On the next defensive possession, Balbay again bothered Smith — this time causing him to turn the ball over to Damion James for a fast break.
The two possessions won’t show up on the stat sheet, but Texas head coach Rick Barnes took notice.
“He really came with a pit-bull attitude,” Barnes said. “He played today better than we’ve seen him play.”
Balbay’s aggressive defense allowed Barnes to give him full court defensive duties, with Balbay picking up Tulane’s point guard as the ball was in-bounded.
“Their ball pressure was really intense,” said Tulane head coach Dave Dickerson. “I’ve never seen opponents pressure the way they did.”
Things went so right for Balbay that a steal fell right into his lap. While running back on defense after a missed layup, Balbay accidentally bumped into a Tulane defender, knocking the ball loose and directly into his hands, giving Balby his first steal as a Longhorn.
In Texas’ new point guard-by-committee approach, Balbay found a role in his debut. When both A.J. Abrams and Balbay were on the floor, Balbay spent most of the half-court sets with the ball in his hands while Abrams played on the wing.
“My job at the point is to pass the ball and to try and create,” Balbay said.
Tuesday’s performance was an improvement from the last time Texas saw Balbay on the floor. In a closed scrimmage against Gonzaga before the season, Barnes said Balbay was struggling to find the proper pace to play at.
“I was kind of confused,” Balbay said of the scrimmage. “But today … I knew what I was doing. It’ll get better every day.”
For Balbay, Tuesday was about getting out his rookie jitters.
“He told me [before the game], ‘Coach, all I’m going to do is play defense, and I’ll get lost on that end, and I’ll see what happens,’” Barnes said. “That’s a great attitude to have.”
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