Early in the week the 3^rd ranked team in the nation, the Texas Longhorns, conquered the CBE classic with wins over the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Pittsburg Panthers but as they keep winning, we already face the question: How good are the Longhorns?

Because of the schedule Texas won’t battle a ranked team before December the 19^th when they play North Carolina on Cowboys Stadium. They will maintain the #3 spot this week and can be even higher next one because the Spartans will face the Tar Heels on the ACC/Big Ten challenge and who knows what will happen there. What’s safe to say is that both teams ahead of them ran through big opponents. Michigan State beat Gonzaga and Kansas beat Memphis on ESPN’s marathon day.

On the CBE Classic, Texas just out talented Iowa and Pitt.

From the game against Iowa we conclude that the Hawkeyes will see better days on the horizon and that Texas haven’t been tested yet. Because of the way the Hawkeyes are built, they caused the Longhorns some problem. Because of the ball rotation, Texas help defended in the first half. They fixed that in the locker room and all of a sudden, the Hawkeyes couldn’t score because none of their Guards could beat Pittman and Damion James who finished with 3 blocks each. Except for junk time, Iowa was only 8 deep and as time progressed they warned out.

From the game against Pitt we conclude that the Longhorns do have a deep team. With Varez Ward leaving early on the game, J’Covan Brown was more than capable to do the job and they’ll need him more than ever now that Ward is most likely done for the season. Led by Damion James in both points and minutes, Texas ran over Pitt on the second half and never looked back. The Panthers are still trying to figure out a way to replace DeJuan Blair, so we can consider them a team in transition.

In these first four games of the season we have been able to see that the Longhorns can easily be a Final Four team. Their defense is amazing, Jordan Hamilton is a very nice shooter and Pittman’s game is evolving however without watching them play against top 25 competition, it’s tough to see their problems. Expectations around this team are high but we don’t know how they are going to behave when they face the Gonzagas, Xaviers, Villanovas, Daytons or Butlers of the world and until that date maybe they shouldn’t be number 3 in the nation.

Check More At: Basketball Outsider