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HookEm

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Posts posted by HookEm

  1. On 10/23/2025 at 9:59 PM, pacman said:

    I'm not too worried about that top-100 list.  We have a few players who could easily be on there.  Tramon Mark was #71 on a similar list last year and he is back with another year of experience and a better coach. Dailyn Swain is ranked #74 by On3 for this year.  

    Traore was 2x All Big-West and set to be one of Xavier's top 1-2 players before he got hurt last year.  Pope and Weaver are going to be better off the bench than the 2nd unit of almost anyone we play.  Vokietaitis was AAC RoY and will be good.  

    There are a lot of pieces to work with.  If they gel and play as a team we will be able to beat anybody.  If they don't, we will be in the bottom half of the SEC and have to grind to make the tourney.

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  2. Are we sure that the bullet didn't hit something else first?  I know there was speculation about it hitting some body armor, but I have seen no credible evidence that he was wearing any, unless his armor had nipples on it.  Could the bullet have hit a table or mic or camera or something else and ricocheted into his neck? 

  3. Anyone who thinks this is anything other than a huge deal is very disconnected.  Charlie Kirk was massively popular among young men, who everyone knows skew increasingly conservative.  This is going to radicalize a lot of them and further entrench them in their views for years to come.  The fact that it came right on the heels of the Ukrainian girl's murder, which itself seems to be mobilizing people is not good. At all.

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  4. 3/4 of the students at Arkansas are from Texas. As such, Fayetteville is very Texan friendly in my experience. My daughter goes to school there.

    There whole area hits above its weight with quality of restaurants. On the downside, there are no nice hotels that I’m aware of. We always end up at the Hyatt Place (which is decent as far as that chain goes).

    Geraldi’s is probably my favorite place to eat. Right by campus and legit Italian. Atlas is a good high end spot downtown. Giusinger Cocktail Club is a great cocktail bar on the main square. Buttered Biscuit is a good breakfast. Wood Stone pizza is a nice local pizza chain.

    I could easily retire up there. Prices are reasonable and it is beautiful. We need nonstop flights from Austin.

  5. 12 hours ago, idigTexas said:

    Nike needs to stop using so much black.  It is not a school color, and with few exceptions, it ruins any gear for me, especially when it is heavily featured.  

    This is the correct take. The thing that separates UT unis from the other schools is our super clean burnt orange and white.  And there isn't a spec of black on it. A beautiful burnt orange shirt with black on it just ruins it. Orange Nike shoes with black on them are ruined.  C'mon this isn't difficult. Two colors. Burnt orange and white.  

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  6. Once Mark moved to point guard in the postseason, he averaged 3.8 assists per game. That isn't great, but he was definitely distributing the ball better from that position.  

    Also, Mark, Pope, and Weaver can all shoot the ball.  None are amazing, but with continued improvement it should be enough to keep the defense honest.

    • Mark shot 37% from 3 in conference last year and 36% across 50 conference games the last 3 seasons at UT, Arky and UH.  
    • Pope struggled from 3 in conference last year (31%), but shot 37% on 5+ attempts in 40 PAC10 conference games at Oregon St.
    • Weaver barely took any 3s in conference last year, but is a 36% shooter from deep over his career (on low attempts)

    Additionally, we have:

    • Cam Heide - He is a career 40% 3pt shooter, admittedly on low volume. 
    • Declan Duru - Shot 36% from 3 in 7 games for Germany U19 world cup (on ~3 attempts per game)

    On another note, I think the lineups above by Gerry are completely missing Lassina Traore.  He may end up being our best player.  He was set to one of the 1-2 top players at Xavier last year before his injury and is a 2x 1st team all conference player.  Assuming he is healthy, he is going to be a big factor for us.  I would like to see him get 25+ mpg.

    I think it will be less common for us to go with small lineups given the number of big bodies who will need to see minutes.  Swain, Duru and Heide all need minutes and can play SF or PF.  Traore and Codie can play PF or C.  Vokietaitis is a pure C.  I doubt that John Clark and Lewis Obiorah are going to get much playing time.  I will also be surprised if Nic Codie earns more than 10 mpg unless he has improved a lot.  Duru looks like he is physically ready to come in and contribute immediately.

    Here is a possible rotation:

    • Starters:  Wilcher, Mark, Swain, Traore, Vokietaitis - An imposing lineup to set the tone physically
    • Rotation 1:  Wilcher, Weaver, Heide, Swain, Traore - High energy unit to change the pace
    • Rotation 2:  Mark, Pope, Heide, Duru, Traore - Our best shooters with Traore to clean the glass 
    • Rotation 3:  Mark, Pope, Duru, Codie, Vokietaitis - Another big lineup
    • Closers:  Mark, Weaver, Pope, Swain, Traore - Most experience together and our most mature players. Plus good ball handling and FTs.
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  7. based on what gerry said there heide sounds kind of like jordan barnett. the mizzou version, not the one who shaka decided he had no use for.

    Wait just a second here. You aren’t allowed to compare a white player with a historic black player. Or vice versa. We have rules!!!

    Jordan Barnett is a decent comp. Can’t think of too many more. I think Heide is a better rebounder than Barnett. Last year, Heide averaged 11.1 rebounds per 100 possessions, which is pretty solid.
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  8. 24 minutes ago, Js1 said:

    That's what i assumed.  So you can't really say "Acc challenge opponent only from top half of the ACC league" because you don't get a say

    You want one of those opponents, guaranteed, you better schedule them yourself.

     

    Yeah. I assume this year we will finish in the 6-10 range in the SEC.  Any better would be a big accomplishment in year 1 given the strength of the league.  That means we will wind up with a team like Notre Dame, NC State, Virginia, Syracuse or Pitt.  We are going to have to improve a lot to get matched up with Duke or UNC.

  9. Regarding schedules, we typically have 9 home OOC games, plus 0-2 away games, plus a tournament or two.

    Not sure how realistic it is, but this is how I would design the OOC schedule from a fan perspective:

    1. An elite tournament - Ideally Maui invitational or Battle 4 Atlantis.  That likely gives us: a top-50 game + a top-25 game + a top-10 depending on how many we win 
    2. One elite home and home against:  Kansas, Duke, UNC, UConn, Michigan St, Gonzaga, UCLA, Michigan
    3. One ACC challenge home and home against a team in the top-half of that conference:  Duke, UNC, Virginia, Louisville, Syracuse, FSU, Miami, or NC State
    4. One 2 for 1 against a strong Texas historic rival: Baylor, Tech, Houston
    5. One 2 for 1 against a solid small conference team:  Creighton, Seton Hall, Wichita State, VCU, UNLV, George Mason, Marquette, Belmont, Davidson, etc. 
    6. 4 home games against other UT-system schools (most in the 100-200 range):  UTSA, UT Arlington, UTEP, Stephen F Austin, UTRGV
    7. 3 home teams against bottom feeders with preference for Texas schools (all in the 300+ range):  Houston Christian, New Orleans, whatever. 

    I would try to arrange it such that when we are away for the ACC challenge, we get an elite home game from #2 above.  And I would stagger the H&H against the solid Texas schools with the solid small conference team so we always get at least of them at home, and sometimes two. 

  10. 23 hours ago, Blotto said:

    yeah.... that didn't happen

    My bad. Misread the chart.  Still, it was our best 3 year stretch with a Final Four and two sweet 16s.  And we played almost no good OOC teams at home over that period.

    Here are our OOC home opponents since 2000 that finished with a top-100 computer ranking.  Top 10 is orange.  Top-25 is blue

    Rick Barnes = 12 top-25 and 27 top-100 teams in 16 years

    • 2000 - Arizona (13), San Diego (70)
    • 2001 - Illinois (4), Cal (35), Utah (67)
    • 2002 - Arizona (10), Providence (86)
    • 2003 - 
    • 2004 - Wake Forest (16)
    • 2005 - Memphis (51), UNLV (79)
    • 2006 - Villanova (4), Tennessee (16)
    • 2007 - Arkansas (41)
    • 2008 - Wisconsin (6), Oral Roberts (76), St. Mary's (51)
    • 2009 - UCLA (14)
    • 2010 - Michigan St (19), USC (63), 
    • 2011 - UConn (5), Arkansas (87)
    • 2012 - Temple (40)
    • 2013 - North Carolina (21)
    • 2014 - Michigan St (6), SF Austin (76), Vanderbilt (90)
    • 2015 - Stanford (38)

    Shaka Smart = 5 top-25 / 12 top-100 teams in 6 years

    • 2016 - North Carolina (3), UConn (31), Vanderbilt (36)
    • 2017 - Alabama (58), UT Arlington (77)
    • 2018 - Michigan (6), Ole Miss (90)
    • 2019 - Purdue (11), VCU (57), Providence (66)
    • 2020 - LSU (35)
    • 2021 - Villanova (15)

    Chris Beard = 3 top-25 / 4 top-100 teams in 2 years

    • 2022 - Tennessee (8)
    • 2023 - Gonzaga (2), Creighton (19), Louisiana (99)

    Rodney Terry = 1 top-25 / 1 top-100 team in 2 years

    • 2024 - 
    • 2025 - UConn (18)

    Sean Miller (projected) = 0 top-25 / 1 top-100 team in 1 year

    • 2026 - Virginia (~90)

    Barnes, Shaka and Beard all played about the same number of elite and top-100 teams on average. The only tenure that really stands out was Rodney Terry.  Not only were there almost no elite or even average opponents, the dregs of the schedule were truly bottom feeders.  It looks like more of the same for Sean Miller's first year.

    Time will tell if this is a result of the new NIL / SEC environment or if it will adjust back to the type of scheduling we had from 2000-2023.

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  11. Let's not kid ourselves, our home schedule is always trash.  As an example, lets look at the 3-year stretch from 2001-2004 that was our best in program history (Final Four and two Elite 8s).  This is who we played outside of conference those years.

    2001-2002

    • Home:  Arizona (10), Providence (86), McNesse St (138), UT RVG (161), Wash St (203), Jacksonville (206), TAMU CC (245)
    • Away: Stanford (12), Utah (55), UNLV (75)
    • Neutral / Preseason Tourney: Indiana (6), Gonzaga (25), Oregon St (109)

    2002-2003

    • Home: Princeton (139), Louisiana Tech (172), SFA (181), UTA (211), McNeese St (215), Mt St Mary's (299)
    • Away: Arizona (1)
    • Neutral / Preseason Tourney: Georgia (13), Notre Dame (17), Seton Hall (58), George Washington (128)

    2003-2004

    • Home: George Washington (64), New Orleans (156), Centenary (182), Brown (203), UTA (222), Wofford (270), SHSU (274)
    • Away: Providence (28)
    • Neutral / Preseason Tourney: Duke (1), Arizona (29)

    That's right. ONE home game against a team in the top-50 over that 3-year stretch.  Granted, we played more teams in the 100-200 range, but I hate that.  You can lose those games and it kills your seeding, but you get no credit for the wins. 

    On the plus side, we played a good number of elite teams. But they were hardly ever at home.

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  12. Today we went on a 6 hour boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. It was spectacular. We saw a group of 11 humpback whales feeding. And two groups of orcas.
    5c86cb8cc641263c1ed55b2419089399.jpg
    f5004396f05f60d0b4e1a389f3622c59.jpg

    c0bf93127a8ad0f903dd562589ba5cd9.jpg

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  13. Up in Alaska for a week. First part of the trip was at Matanuska glacier where my son is leading tours. Pretty awesome place.
    2e68a4c8553d6266ed6637d7600edd73.jpg
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    Last night we went up to Talkeetna and caught a glimpse of Denali. At first I was annoyed that the clouds were covering the mountain… the I realized it actually WAS the mountain.
    cba57ba69f88c3233f76b2612784fe0e.jpg

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  14. Love the height.   But are we slower than molasses?

    A lineup of Tramon Mark, Chendall Weaver, Cam Heide, Dailyn Swain and Lassina Traore would not be what I would consider slow. Weaver will likely be the most athletic guy on the court.

    I wonder how much better Xavier would have been last year if Traore wouldn’t have gotten hurt. I think he is going to be awesome for us.
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