HOUSTON -- The conference call to announce that Texas and UCLA were going to be playing each other in basketball, in Reliant Stadium, was wrapping up and UT coach Rick Barnes heaved a long shot.
"Can you give us a little scouting report on your team?" Barnes asked UCLA coach Ben Howland.
Then came the retort.
"You don't need to worry about us," Howland said.
It was played for laughs. But you know what they say about comedy. Every joke has a little bit of truth in it.
They're calling this event the M.D. Anderson Proton Therapy Showcase. It's double-header, meaning the women's teams from each school will play each other at 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 8 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, followed by the men's game at 4:15 p.m. Houston's M.D Anderson Cancer Center is the top-ranked cancer hospital in the nation, in part because of its advanced Proton Therapy Center.
"I have friends of mine that have actually been treated at M.D. Anderson," Howland said. "They do an unbelievable job."
The matchup itself is a sexy pairing of two of the biggest brands in college athletics. And while Howland's joke might have contained its kernel of truth, the truth is that nobody knows quite what to expect out of Texas, either.
Barnes said he has 11 scholarship players, and thinks he'll play all 11 of them in most games. The Longhorns have no upperclassmen, and they'll spend the nonconference portion of the season, if not the entire year, trying to figure each other out.
UCLA, meanwhile, is coming off a 19-14 season and will rely heavily on freshman Shabazz Muhammad, a 6-foot-6 swingman from Las Vegas who was rated the No. 1 player in the class of 2012. Orbiting planet Shabazz will be freshman guard Kyle Anderson and junior center Joshua Smith, who averaged 9.9 points and 4.9 rebounds in 17.2 minutes per game last year.
So nobody really knows what to expect out of either team this year, except that both will be young.
Naturally, both coaches are looking at the game as an opportunity to showcase their programs in the fourth-largest city in the United States.
"I've always said playing in Houston should be a priority for our program," Barnes said. "We have so many Texas alums and fans in the Houston area, and obviously the area has proven to be great for us in regards to recruiting.
The Bruins have players from New York, Georgia, Washington, Spain and even Iran, but none from Texas.
And Barnes would just as soon keep it that way.
"I think we should put UCLA on a time schedule where they're here to play a game and not to recruit," Barnes joked.
This is because UT has come about as close to locking up the state as is possible. Nine Longhorns are from Texas, including three from greater Houston – Sheldon McLellan, Danny Newsome and McDonald's All-American center Cameron Ridley.
They help form a Texas roster Barnes considers unique.
"Totally different team we've been in the past," Barnes said. "We haven't been as good defensively. We'd like to get back to that."
Though this is the inaugural M.D. Anderson Proton Therapy Showcase, Reliant Stadium (and it's still-standing neighbor, the Astrodome) have a history with college basketball and with UCLA in particular.
The so-called "The Game of the Century," between No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Houston was played at the Astrodome in 1968, with the Cougars winning 71-69 in front of more than 52,000. UCLA won its seventh national championship at the Astrodome in 1971. Reliant Stadium hosted the 2011 Final Four.
