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HookEm

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Everything posted by HookEm

  1. That is part of the reason I wanted to snapshot it early in the process.
  2. Moreover, there are over 1,700 players in the transfer portal. Mark is ranked as high a 9, Larry as high as 40, and Kent as high as 79. If we can pick up Garrison and Pope, that is two more that are top-30 on a lot of lists. That is a fantastic haul. More important than the individual pieces though will be how they fit and play together. Last year, the sum wasn't better than the parts - and it wasn't even really about player development or coaching. They just didn't fit that well together. Abmas and Hunter is a very limited backcourt. And Shedrick, Mitchell, Disu is a pretty soft interior. Just replacing a couple of those pieces with comparable players that fit different needs would have made a world of difference.
  3. I took the top 40 players in each of the major sites to build something of a consensus portal rank. So, if someone was in the top-40 they made my list and then I filled in their respective rank for the rest of the sites. Here is how it shakes out... Here are some additional players plus our signees:
  4. Is this where we brag about being on a UT Engineering Advisory Board? Cool cool. I am too. Big deal. Honestly, Surly is one of the last places you want to start a dick measuring contest, especially as an engineer. Half of this site are engineers, and because we all went to a top-10 engineering school most of us are accomplished. FFS, can we not talk about basketball?
  5. Agree on both points. Obviously it depends on your guards around him though. If you have two good shooters at the other guard spots, and decent size, then he can be a really good asset. He brings an elite level of athleticism that can change the game and help free up the shooters. If he goes somewhere like Baylor or Houston, that always seem to have a boat load of good guards, then he will be a solid addition.
  6. I also agree that he will be replaced pretty easily.
  7. It was time for Hunter to move on. I'm torn on him because there were games when it seemed like he was one of the few who refused to lose. That aggressiveness was a double edged sword though. At times he would take over a game... and then he would make a terrible terrible terrible turnover. Sometimes those turnovers cost us the game, but we wouldn't have even been in the game without his defense and attacking in transition. He has some "dawg" in him that fit really well with Carr and Rice. Abmas was about the worst possible player to pair up with him. Abmas really is an undersized shooting guard, and isn't a good defender or distributor. Which meant that more of that load fell on Hunter (when he himself isn't a pure point guard). If Hunter was paired with Larry (a good defender and distributor) and Mark (a great scorer with size on the wing), he would have been better. I look forward to seeing where he lands. I hope it is on a contender where he isn't asked to be "the man". I will always appreciate him for helping get us to the Elite 8.
  8. There aren't many players in the portal who have been starters a S16, E8 and R32 team (playing 30+ minutes on each). He was going to be one of the top returning SEC players in assists and he is an above average defender. He has also improved his shooting every year (eFG% 0.377 -> 0.474 -> 0.512), (TS% 0.475 -> 0.508 -> 0.512). He has shown he can be a starter on a title contender, which we were last year. He just needs the right pieces around him.
  9. Like I said, if a player was a contributor on a winning program, that is also a positive sign. Tramon Mark checks a lot of boxes and he is exactly the kind of player we have been missing. I would rather he had some accolades, but it isn't a deal breaker. And the portal rankings are always imperfect. Some sites do a better job than others. Max Abmas was the #2 portal player last year (On3). Kadin Shedrick was #43. Tramon Mark was #78 player. Weaver was #272. Onyema was unranked. At some point, I'll put together a comparison of the top-35 portal players from last year and we can see who did the best job.
  10. He may be considered a top-25 transfer, but in 4 years he has never gotten a single All-Conference or All Defense Award. No All Freshmen Team. Not even honorable mention. Nothing. For me, that is a red flag, especially when 3 out of the 4 years were in the AAC. And Arkansas sucked last year. It would be different if he was a sophomore. Don't get me wrong, I hope he is great.
  11. I’m hoping these are our Onyema and Horton level players and the ones yet to come are better.
  12. It is easy for me to look at the new players every year with rose colored glasses. I see measurables and counting stats and ignore big flaws in roster construction, efficiency, defense and cultural fit. Now that we have been in the portal / NIL era for a few years, I'm starting to get a better idea of who will be successful at this level and who won't. In short, I want to see us get players with All-Conference credentials, who come from winning programs. If they are All-Conference, it means that their ENTIRE game is balanced and supports winning. Timmy Allen, Marcus Carr, Sir'Jabari Rice all were 1st Team All-Conference prior to coming to Texas. Abmas was borderline All-American. Weaver was conference RoY. All performed very well. Tyrese Hunter was Big 12 RoY and was a starter on our Elite 8 team (and could have been better last year with better roster construction). Tre Mitchell is the only previous All-Conference player who really underperformed and that was because he was a poor cultural fit. In contrast, Horton was in his 6th year and never sniffed an honorable mention all-conference nod. Kadin Shedrick is 6'11 and never got an all-defense selection or really any recognition of any kind (but he at least came from a winning program). Onyema also never earned any recognition at all. So why should it be surprising when all of these players are largely ineffective in the Big 12? So this year, while we haven't landed any bigtime players yet, the ones we are getting are checking some of the boxes. Julian Larry - 3rd Team MVC, 2x All-Defense, starter on Indiana State (#38 KenPom, 32-7 conference champion) Jayson Kent - 2nd Team MVC, All-Defense, starter on Indiana State (#38 KenPom, 32-7 conference champion) Tremon Mark - No accolades, but started 28 games over 3 years for a Houston team with a Final 4, Elite 8 and Sweet 16 For our next 2-3 transfers, I really want to see us bring in more players of this mold. Jordan Pope was All-Freshman in the Pac 10. But his team was so terrible that he didn't make an all-conference team despite good numbers. For me this is a red flag.
  13. I feel like this is a big negative for us
  14. Chicago plays the Knicks on Sunday. Suppose they could be headed up there to talk to Donovan.
  15. This is exactly the kind of player we need, especially if Hunter is the other guard. 6'3 point guard who is a 2-time all-conference defender, while also being an excellent distributor and as a bonus, can hit 3s at a very efficient rate. Yes, please. Moreover, he seems happy with a lower usage (~15%). And as a final, critical point, he has experience leading a very successful team. Indiana State was 32-7 last year and finished #38 in KenPom. Way better fit than someone like AJ Storr in my view. I'm not as excited about Carey Booth. Dude was not really very impactful in any way. We don't need more bigs like Onyema (who was better than Booth in just about every stat on a per 100 possessions or per 40 minute basis). We need to go out and get an ELITE big man who can rim protect and rebound at a high level. Someone aggressive. For me this was the big issue with our team last year. We played soft, mainly in the paint. And as much as I love Disu, when he was our center, we were a pretty soft team. And Shedrick didn't help much in that regard either. Christian Bishop was much more of a dawg down low than either of them. RT needs to fix that in the portal.
  16. Mitchell is currently the #1 rebounder and #1 FG% returning player in the SEC. He is #3 in blocks + steals and defensive win shares. Hunter is the SEC #2 returning player in assists. Obviously transfers could move them both down a little, but either way they would some of the top returning players in the SEC.
  17. Next year is going to be an interesting year. Right now you have juniors (like Hunter) who are playing against guys 2 years older and more experienced than them (thanks to Covid). The more experienced guards typically win in March (as evidenced by UConn just winning the title with a pair of 5th year guards). And every good team has a number of these players. Most of the good tourney teams had 3-4, we had four ourselves. Next year, those juniors are going to go from being relatively inexperienced, to being the most experienced players in college basketball. I really think it is crazy to want Hunter to hit the portal. He is going to look much better next year going against younger players, and that isn't even factoring in another year of offseason shooting and maturity. Plus the team is in desperate need of some continuity with all the guys graduating. I badly want Hunter and Mitchell to stay and I want us to put better, more complementary pieces around them this year. Weaver + Hunter + Tre Johnson + Dillon Mitchell + Kadin Shedrick (plus an elite lead guard and an elite big man) could be a very good team in 2024-2025 as talent and experience level in CBB takes a step back.
  18. His stats read like someone who is a ball dominant gunner. I haven't seen him play defense, but his stats don't point to him being a willing defender. At all. If you are a 6'6 guard and average 0.1 blocks and 0.6 steals while sporting a 32% usage... Fuck you. Not to mention only 2.6 rebounds. These stats annoy me just looking at them. I hate playing with players like this. Hard pass.
  19. I prefer my guards to average more than 0.9 assists per game. Which of these guards would we rather take (both have been playing in a power conference): Player A: 11.1 PTS, 4.1 AST, 1.3 STL, 53.9 TS%, 51.0 eFG%, 34.3 3P%, 2.7 TO, 20.8 USG% Player B: 16.8 PTS, 0.9 AST, 0.6 STL, 53.0 TS%, 48.2 eFG%, 32.0 3P%, 1.6 TO, 31.9 USG%
  20. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I may be wrong. But I think people fail to appreciate that the environment is about to change again. 5th year Covid players greatly inflated the talent level in the portal. You are still going to have a ton of players in the portal, but they won’t be nearly as impactful. And a lot of them will be one year rentals instead of 2-3 so there will be less continuity. Imagine if we only got one year of Carr, Allen and Bishop. Take out all the 5th year players this year and we have a completely different tournament. I doubt UConn wins without Newton and Spencer.
  21. I think it is entirely possible that RT will end up being the 2nd most successful coach we have ever had, in terms of what he accomplishes. But.... That is incredibly misleading because the environment is now set up for winning in a way that hasn't existed in our entire history. NIL, the transfer portal, an awesome new arena, the move to the SEC, favorable Texas high school talent improvements, increasingly rich alumni and media deals, etc. are all set up for us to dominate, not just win at the old rates. If he simply holds serve, then that is a major failing in my view.
  22. By "when the chips fall right", I meant that it will be quite uncommon - certainly not on a consistent basis. Maybe once every 5-6 years. Yes, we had an exceptionally experienced team last year: Carr (6th year), Rice (5th year), Allen (5th year), Bishop (5th year).... plus Brock and Disu in the 4th year. But, the extra Covid year is gone, so the silver lining is that NOBODY is going to have experienced teams like that again. And RT is showing that he can go get high school players, and they are going to play a much bigger role again starting next year. Even this year, with a team that most of us found to be pretty damn frustrating, we were an improbable pair of Tennessee free throws from potentially making the Sweet 16. And Tennessee was about as bad of a matchup as you could imagine for us. So, bottom line for me is that RT will field teams that might end up advancing if the matchups are good, or if the shots fall. But the high end potential and consistency aren't going to be there.
  23. This guy gets it. I expect we will make the tournament just about every year and win a game more often than not. And possibly sprinkle in a Sweet 16 or Elite 8 run when the chips fall right. That will be better than the 10 years before RT. But we will never win it all under him, and it is very unlikely we will make a Final Four.
  24. The last three years have been hugely influenced by the extra Covid year. It was literally the worst time in college basketball history to try to win with elite high school one and done type players (which is Calipari's bread and butter). People want to blame his failings on NIL and the portal, and that is accurate to a degree. But it is mainly an issue because he didn't fill his roster up with 4th and 5th year players. Kentucky "experience" ranks (per KenPom) 2024 - 196 2023 - 118 2022 - 187 2020 - 264 2019 - 284 2024 Elite 8 teams - Experience Ranking (median = 44) UCONN - 68 Purdue - 67 NC State - 14 Alabama - 60 ------------ Illinois - 11 Clemson - 25 Tennessee - 29 Duke - 197 1999 Elite 8 teams - Experience Ranking (median = 147) Virginia - 107 Texas Tech - 90 Michigan St - 119 Auburn - 65 ------------ Gonzaga - 20 Purdue - 176 Kentucky - 284 Duke - 351 This year, every team to make the Elite 8 was in the top-70 in terms of experience except Duke. If you go back to 2019, before the extra pandemic year, the teams making the Final Four were much less experienced. Note that this is in terms of ranking, not absolute experience level. This tourney, UK lost by 4 to Oakland, who started two 5th year seniors and a 6th year senior. Last year, they lost by 6 to K-State, who also started three 5th year seniors. Those type of guys are all gone next year and the younger, more talented players will play a much bigger role. Cal has done better than anyone in securing those young talented players and has not lost his fastball at all in this regard. Kentucky recruiting ranks: 2023 - 1 2022 - 9 2021 - 5 2020 - 1 2019 - 2 I'm not going to be surprised one bit when Arkansas starts reeling in top-5 class after top-5 class, and becomes a major pain in the ass.
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