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HookEm

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Posts posted by HookEm

  1. 22 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

    PG Julian Larry, Indiana State

    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.  

    • Hook 'Em 1
  2. 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.  

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  3. 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. 

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  4. 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.

  5. On 4/8/2024 at 11:27 AM, Teryor said:

    Gerry mentioned on OTF that we're after AJ Storr out of Wisconsin who I'd assume is one of if not the top prio for us.

    https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/aj-storr-1.html

    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%
  6. 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.

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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

    2 minutes ago, CTC2 said:

    IMO people underestimate what an experienced team we had last year.

    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.

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  9. 1 hour ago, TreatyOak said:

    Rodney Terry as coach is death by a thousand cuts. He's good enough to keep the program in a positive place, but not good enough at coaching or attracting talent to make the team a true contender. He's a perfect corporate CEO, as he will keep his job by offending the least number of people possible, but not visionary enough to make a real impact. I can see him here for decades. :(   

    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.

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  10. 18 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

    This is the most enjoyable thing about the portal. The portal levels out the talent and exposes the coaches that were winning simply because they were buying recruits. Coach Cal is one of those IMO. 

    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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  11. Arkansas could definitely be a destination job for Beard. Musselman took them to two elite eights and a sweet 16 all in a row. And Beard is a better coach than him. You could easily argue that Arkansas has a better history than Texas in hoops.

    Moreover, they are consistently in the top-10 in attendance. Beard and his ridiculous promotion skillz would be a thing to behold there.

    And the fact that it is a complete rebuild means nothing. Half the teams in the country are essentially in full rebound every year now.

  12. 1 hour ago, shadow_operative said:

    you get tired of this thread being used for its intended purpose yet you think the real question is “should we fire him now?” when literally no one is even talking about that? you’re doing the exact thing that you’re complaining about, just on the other end of the spectrum.

    This thread isn't titled "We shouldn't have hired Rodney Terry".  That is the conversation that I'm so exhausted from. 

    The thread IS titled "Fire Rodney Terry" and that is the question I'm asking.  Is anyone proposing that we actually do what the thread is titled?  If not, then this thread should die. 

    If you want to post about whether we should have hired him in the first place, then go ahead and start that thread and I can just avoid it.

  13. RT's horns down comments aren't in the same universe as being as bad as Sark's "Don't F****N' touch me again MOTHERF****R" moment:

    image.png.4f697199d910d17b564ede5f0811b51e.png

    And nobody cares about that anymore at all.  

    Turns out that winning gets you a lot of grace from the fanbase.  RT needs to win and win big.  Or he needs to go.

  14. I mainly tire of the constant re-whining that we hired him.  It is exhausting.  We all get it, Terry would have never been considered for the job under different circumstances.  Cool.  We all agree.  WE ALL AGREE.  But who cares, what is done is done.  He is our coach now and we can't go back in time.

    So the question is, what do you think CDC should do NOW?  Should he really fire RT after the season we just had?  

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  15. There have been plenty of players who started as terrible shooters and developed into good shooters. Mitchell has shown gradual improvement in his free throw shooting, which I think is a good proxy for overall shooting potential.

    • 40.5% - Last Year
    • 58.7% - This Year – OOC
    • 68.6% - This Year – In Conference

    For comparison, Kai Jones shot 68.9% from the line during his 2nd year, which is virtually the same as Mitchell in conference. His issue seems to be more about confidence than about mechanics. 

    I also think we are going to REALLY miss his rebounding.  He was 2nd in the Big 12 in rebounds per game and 3rd in Defensive Rebound %.  Our best returning rebounder is Shedrick and he was not very good.

  16. I appreciate that Mitchell understands his game well enough to not be chunking up shots when he doesn't have those skills. He is also a very willing defender and does the dirty work on the glass.  Another year in the weight room and shooting and he should continue to improve.  He is also a college power forward and should get most of his minutes there. 

  17. 7 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

    again, if we hadn’t hired RT then what would he be doing? he’d be at some MWC or CUSA school doing nothing of note

    What about now? Coming off a second year with a tourney win, a top-25 KenPom final year ranking, and having just signed the #8 HS recruiting class?  If RT wanted out at Texas and tested the water, I think he would land a decent job.  Maybe not as good as Marquette or Tennessee, but better than Fresno State. 

    I think RT would do better at Stanford than Kyle Smith (for instance).

    • Hook 'Em 1
  18. 12 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

    if we had money whipped timmy lloyd, nate oats, or even tj otzelberger then Texas would be in the beginning stages of what is hopefully the most prosperous era in the history of Texas Basketball

    Following last season, T.J. Otzelberger was 41-27 at ISU and they were an 11 seed and got bounced in the 1st round.  And at UNLV before that he was 29-30 and missed the tourney both years.  It isn't like he was a sure-thing hire.

    Tommy Lloyd would have likely parlayed any interest from us into a big raise at Arizona.  

    We probably could have gotten Nate Oats. 

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