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HookEm

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Everything posted by HookEm

  1. Nobody wants anyone shooting 15 ft jump shots. That shot is on the endangered list. He needs to develop a 3-point shot if he ever wants to play in the NBA.
  2. The Big 12 is still very much up for grabs.
  3. I'm of the opinion that we should make horns down our own. Have players start flying the horns up, horns down, horns sideways, horns backwards McConaughey style, aggressive horns pointing at you, whatever. If we get a first down, get up flashing the horns down in their face. If we dunk on your head, give them the horns down when they are laying on the ground. Force refs to start penalizing US for doing it. JMHO.
  4. I don't have a ton of confidence we will make the tournament, but I don't think there are 68 teams better than us either. Both can be true. And I'm not sure why any Texas fan would bet $1,000 against their team.
  5. Yeah, PJ is very different than Mitchell. PJ had an insane low post game for a player of any size, much less one who is 6'5. (But his freakish long arms let him play more like a much taller player). I'm was really just posting to show that Mitchell is on a good trajectory. PJ was a LOT better player as a junior than he was as a sophomore.
  6. The coaching staff has done a good job with Mitchell. He is up from 40% FT to 61% FT, and in the last 5 games he is averaging 70%. If he stayed for four years in college, he could turn into a tremendous player. His defense is great and he has averaged 2 stocks and only 2 fouls. He doesn't really turn the ball over. He finishes. It is surprising, but he is averaging more rebounds and a better shooting percentage than PJ Tucker at the same age. Plus more stocks, fewer turnovers and fewer fouls. And PJ Tucker is STILL in the NBA. Mitchell has a lot more to work with athletically than Tucker. With good coaching and effort, he will make an NBA roster and likely stay a while.
  7. We aren't great, but there aren't 64 teams with a better resume than us at this point. Massey has us at #29, which seems pretty fair. I appreciate you have to be better than top-64 to make the tourney given all the auto-bids, but its not like we are ranked 70th. I would say at this point we are on the bubble. Our good wins are over: #9 Baylor, #51 at Cincinnati, #78 LSU. Our losses are to: #2 UConn, #11 at Marquette, #16 Tech, #74 UCF and #102 at West Virginia. The UCF and WV losses hurt no doubt. Let's compare to another bubble team, Miami... who is fresh off beating us and making it to the Final Four. Miami's good wins: #26 K-State, #27 Clemson, #65 at Virginia Tech, #71 Georgia, #74 UCF Miami's losses: #12 at Kentucky, #44 at Syracuse,#45 Colorado, #52 at Wake Forest, #80 Florida State, #171 Louisville Miami doesn't really have a signature win, though they did beat UCF early in the season. Their losses are much worse than ours. All but Kentucky are out of the top-25, and the Louisville loss is horrid. Let's compare to another bubble team, Michigan State... MSU's good wins: #9 Baylor, #62 Indiana St, #68 Butler, #72 Rutgers MSU's losses: #4 Arizona, #10 Wisconsin, #17 at Illinois, #20 Duke, #49 at Northwestern, #58 at Nebraska, #75 James Madison I would call our wins pretty much a wash. We both beat Baylor, and our win at Cincinnati is better than anything else they have done. Our losses are similar, but they have two more losses than us. Anyway, you can do the same analysis with the other schools who are in this range and we stack up well. The problem is that we play about a billion more teams in the top 20 and people project that we will lose most of them.
  8. If someone would have put a gun to my head before we hired RT and asked me to predict whether he would be successful, I would have probably said "No, but he will be more successful than he was at UTEP and Fresno, mainly because of our resources, but we could do better". That said, I thought there was a reasonable chance that he could adopt a Mack Brown type of head coaching style and be a wizard on the recruiting trail and in the portal... and we could hire some amazing assistants to help with the day to day player development. I thought there was a pretty good chance he could have us in the tourney every year, with periodic runs to the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. And I thought there was an outside chance, maybe 20%, that he could have us as a regular top-10 team. After going through Shaka and Herman, both really good hires at the time, I realized that there are no certainties in coaching. And that success at one level doesn't mean you will be great at Texas. I'm not sure I would put any coach at more than 50% likelihood that they would achieve huge success here in hoops. (Note: Chris Beard is the exception. I was 100% sure that he would crush it here. And I felt that way long before we hired him). So ultimately, I felt like RT deserved a shot. I didn't feel like it was a HUGE longshot, but I definitely didn't feel like it was a slam dunk. In my view, the job he did to right the ship last year was astounding. I attribute a huge part of our run to RT - and I think our players did too. The players and ex-players were steadfast in supporting RT for the job, and that means something to me. I also think loyalty is important, and the universe has a way of rewarding it. I still think the odds are low that he rights the ship. If we miss the tourney this year or next, I fully support showing him the door. We have too many resources to ever miss the tourney. And I don't care what we lose from year to year. The portal should have us in the top-64 teams every year. I don't think there were many people last year who were convinced that RT was the next coming of John Wooden. I think most felt like he earned a shot by giving us an Elite Eight... and winning a Big 12 (Tourney) title. But I think almost everyone realized that it was a risk.
  9. We are also two last second shots from being 0-5.
  10. As far as the team goes, I think we need to get Weaver up to 25 minutes a game. His athleticism is NBA level and he also hustles. He is also extremely engaged on the bench and is constantly cheering the team on. He could be a cornerstone of this program for the next 3 years with proper development. I want to see more out of Chris Johnson as well. He is very talented and if we don't play him, he is just going to hit the portal. This team showed today that they can beat anybody when Hunter is playing well. Abmas is always solid and Disu is great if he can stay out of foul trouble. This team could be one of my all time favorites if everyone would just play to their potential. Or it could be one of the most frustrating Texas teams ever (which is how it is trending). We are about 5 points away from being at the top of the Big 12 standings. And we are about 5 points away from being in last place. The season could still go either way. Freaking WV just knocked off KU.
  11. I added that part intentionally.
  12. I don't know how anyone can be an alumni or fan of a team and root against them. Must be a miserable life. That was an awesome win. I want more awesome wins. We ultimately fired Shaka and he was a 3-seed with one of the better teams in the country. Terry is going to need to be exceptional to keep his job. We don't need the program to bottom out to fire him.
  13. I thought the rotations were way better today. We are so shallow in the post that we have to go small for a good portion of the game. Shedrick played "ok" today, but he doesn't need more than 20 minutes, and his health probably wouldn't allow it anyway. Onyema is so limited on offense that we can't play both him and Mitchell at the same time. And really his defense and rebounding are also sub-par. He didn't see the floor today, which I see as a good thing. I would rather go small and give Horton, Weaver or even Chris Johnson more minutes at the 3 (and Mitchell a TON of minutes at the 4). Cunningham just hasn't been playing well at all and his minutes finally reflected it. He ended up with 10 minutes vs. his season average of 26. That is where he needs to stay until he can find his shot again. Horton is a turnstyle on defense, but he can also get hot and spaces the floor better than Cunningham (especially when he is this ice cold). Weaver got 19 minutes tonight vs. 4 against UCF. I really think if he would have played a similar number of minutes on Wednesday we would have won. I think our best lineup is: Hunter, Abmas, Weaver, Mitchell, Disu. That gives us a lot of athleticism and hustle rebounding. It gives us pretty decent shooting as well, and we can run the floor. And if Disu needs a breather put in Shedrick. If one of the guards need a breather put in Horton for any of the three. But I don't think we can start Disu and Shedrick as long as they are both hurt.
  14. I wonder if the rise in cancer is simply a result of people living longer. A ton of men will get prostate cancer if they live long enough. Doesn't mean it will kill them though.
  15. Let's be honest, children are a beating. They are a blessing. But my goodness they are also a beating. \Father of 3 teenagers
  16. I still think FSU is better and draws more eyeballs than the average SEC team, which should mean that it raises the contract incrementally for everyone. I actually think UNC is also pretty valuable all things considered. They are about on the same level as Ole Miss in football... but they are an absolute cream of the crop blue blood in hoops. And they are a also a top-25 national university. North Carolina is a populated state that is still geographically congruous to the existing SEC. Either the BIG or the SEC would be glad to have them. Virginia is another interesting one. They would help the SEC further expand to the Northeast with another flagship university in the 12th most populous state. And they are a top-25 university as well. Their football program isn't great right now, but their basketball team has won a title recently. I think they will be one of the more valuable programs in this next round of realignment. I don't think it is a huge driver, but adding UNC (#22), Virginia (#24), FSU (#53) and even Clemson (#86) to the SEC would be a coup from an academic perspective. Coupled with the recent Texas add and they will have really helped their academic reputation. If the ACC even loses FSU, it is going to really hurt their brand. If they lose their top 4-5 schools, their next contract will be far lower than the Big 12... which means the remaining decent programs will jump.
  17. The thing about Chris Beard was that if we ever got up by 10 points, it was game over. If we ever got to 50 points, it was also likely game over. Having an elite defense and a methodical slow paced, but efficient offense meant that a 10 point lead functioned more like a 20 point lead. With this team, a 20 point lead feels more like a 5 point lead.
  18. Shedrick, Onyema and Disu combined for 40 minutes... and 2 rebounds. FFS. Rebounding is a great indicator of coaching IMO. It relies on position (coaching) and effort (coaching) much more than on athleticism. Kevin freaking Love led the NBA in rebounding. How in the world can those three only get 2 rebounds in a game? They should be combining for 15.
  19. I mean I wanted 20 min of IT and 20 min of WEAVER.
  20. Prediction: We go 4-14 in conference play. Then Abmas and Disu go crazy in the Big 12 tourney and we win it. Let me dream.
  21. This team still has some good pieces. Abmas and Disu are really good players. But they are also both finesse players. We need some dogs on this team and don't have any. Shedrick was getting completely and totally outplayed. At one point he knocked down UCF #5 and tried to help him up. UCF player slapped his hand away and was like "bitch ass mothafucka". That dude was a dog and was the player of the game IMO. He wasn't trying to make friends. He was out there trying to beat the shit out of us. Maybe Shedrick is hurt. Who knows. But I was promised an enforcer and he isn't that guy. I also thought IT played "ok", but it was fools gold. His defense wasn't good. He wasn't chasing down loose balls or getting position. Zero steals. Zero blocks (for a big guard). Three rebounds. He played slow and soft and settled for jacking up 3s at the worst moments. I would have rather gotten 20 minutes of him and 20 minutes of Shedrick - who could possibly change the pace. Instead we got 37... THIRTY SEVEN!! minutes of Horton. Dude is somewhat fat and looks out of shape. He doesn't need 37 minutes. Damn. Come on Rodney. And if you are going to have Abmas out there for 39 minutes, you need the other guards to be able to play defense and cover his weaknesses.
  22. There is no doubt in my mind that if you gave this team to Bill Self (or Chris Beard or any of the top 10 college coaches), they would find a way to make them great. Our issues with Mitchell, Abmas, Hunter, Horton and others would not be as pronounced because the great coaches would develop them and also game plan around them such that they could be successful. So credit RT for recruiting, but that was never a concern. He gets an F for developing chemistry. The team looks like they just met at the Y and are now playing pickup. And yes I know there was a lot of turnover and these guys haven’t had a ton of time together. But they aren’t getting any better as the season moves along. There doesn’t seem to be any leadership from the court or from the bench.
  23. The roster isn't the issue. I actually give RT an "A" for getting this roster assembled in the timeframe that he did it. Abmas was a GREAT add. I mean he just about single handedly took Oral Roberts to the Sweet 16 and earned All Region honors. Disu is a fringe All-American. Shedrick was a great add. Getting Mitchell to come back was a nice feat. And the portal guys we lost were either knuckleheads (see Arterio Morris) or not major contributors (see Rowan Brumbaugh). And he has done a great job recruiting HS for 2025. Right now we have #5 Tre Johnson, #37 Cam Scott and #46 Nicolas Codie. That is a potentially great class. The problem is that the sum of all this talent is less than the parts. They play hard, but don't play effectively. The individual and team defense is nowhere close to what it could be. The offense has no identity. It is frustrating AF to watch.
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