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HookEm

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Posts posted by HookEm

  1. I think UT can make a very attractive offer to Bennett - and Austin is right smack in the center of a lot of talent in Texas.  But lets not act like Charlottesville is a long way from any good talent.  They are within an easy drive of talent hotbeds of in DC, Maryland, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.  And Virginia itself has good talent.  And the whole Northeast is MUCH closer than in Austin. 

    Bottom line, I don't think PROXIMITY to talent will make a difference.  Ability to GET that talent with big NIL deals is a different story.  

     

  2. People on this board shit on Mark Adams pretty consistently. This is especially true when talking about who our next coach will be.  I'll go on record that I think he is actually a good coach and they will be a lot better in the future.  I don't think last year's Sweet-16 run was a huge anomaly. 

    Tech is young and has little experience playing together this year.  They only brought 3 players back after last year and only one is any good.  Here is their minutes breakdown:

    • Freshman = 28%
    • Sophomore = 24%
    • Junior = 18%
    • Senior = 30%

    Just for reference, this is our minutes breakdown this year:

    • Freshman = 17%  
    • Sophomore = 14%  
    • Junior = 0%
    • Senior = 69%  

    But... even more importantly here is the breakdown of new players vs. carryovers:

    •  New to team: 72%
    • Carryover:  28%

    They have also had bad injury luck.  Aimaq has been playing injured all year.  When he is in the lineup, Tech is a completely different team.

     

     

  3. Went to Cody Johnson last night and I sat in the upper deck (wife's work deal).  The sound was atrocious.  Terrible.

    If I had paid for the tickets I would want my money back.

  4. Yes.  And the Covid year allowed us to not only cherry pick the transfer portal for seniors, but then get them for TWO years.  

    I think with NIL and the evolving transfer environment, Texas is going to have its pick of experienced players if we want to go down that path.  (This is assuming we get a competent recruiter, which I don't think is an absolute given). This is part of the reason why I don't like Calipari. He dominates the high school scene, but I don't think he is a master at the transfer portal. 

    Beard is about as good as it gets with transfers, and has been for a while.  At least this staff has proven that they can also go out and get transfers.  Unsure how much of it was Beard and how much was the staff.

  5. Part of me likes the thought of keeping Terry because for the most part he has kept the culture going that Beard started. Yes, our defense isn't as good. But there is continuity and the results have been outstanding so far.  But the risk is VERY high that we take a big step back next year and never get back to this level in his tenure.

    If we bring in another coach it is almost certainly going to be a full reset.  Maybe that reset will be better (hopefully) than what we get with Terry.  But it could also take us down the Shaka / Strong / Herman / Sark path.  Of course Terry himself could take us down that path too.

    The truly annoying thing is that under no scenario, new coach or keeping Terry, will we be better off than we were 3 months ago. And we likely never will be again.

    FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!

  6. 6 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

    a lot of y'all still don't seem to realize how immense the loss of chris beard is.

    I think all but the most casual fans realize how crushing it was to lose Beard.  I mean just a horrible horrible gut punch to the program.  I am convinced we will never find a more perfect fit of a coach in my lifetime.  And his defense is a thing of beauty. Perfectly orchestrated team defense. Some prefer a great offensive identity, but for me Beard's system was perfection.  Smothering defense and slow but VERY efficient offense.  

    Dec 12 (on my birthday!) was probably my worst moment as a UT fan/alumni.  That includes the hoops loss to ACU, Route 66, the loss to evil superman Roy Williams, Colt's knockout at Alabama, etc.  The only thing close was the Big-12 title game in 2001 when fans were throwing beer bottles at Chris Sims. Similar to Beard, that was both a sports loss and a UT embarrassment. 

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  7. I don't put a ton of stock into comparing the current ratings with the ratings we had under Beard to start the year.  When he left the team, our average opponent was ranked #152, we hadn't played a single true road game, and we had played some of the worst teams in Div-1.

    Since that time the average opponent is ranked #68 and we have played in some of the toughest road environments in the country.

    I will agree that the defense doesn't look as good with just an eye test though.  Sometimes it is, but there isn't nearly the consistency.

     

  8. I actually like the way Terry has set the rotations. 

    The starters are our highest upside players.  To win, you have to get a few of these guys going.  We can feel out the other team see who is going to go off and who isn't.  If Timmy Allen has a mismatch, he can exploit it.  Mitchell and Disu can also establish some post defense and attack the glass.  One of our guards will hopefully be playing well.

    Then as we start subbing in our bench (ideally subbing out the cold players), we have a HUGE advantage over the other team.  They are subbing in WEAKER players while we are subbing in guys (who may be BETTER than our starters) who will move the ball, and generate spacing with their shooting and IQ.

    Also our bench has our lowest ego guys on the team (though most of our team is remarkably low ego).  These guys have proven that they can stay engaged and aren't going to pout because they aren't "starting".   It seems like Rice likes his role of assassin off the bench.  Cunningham is a near-perfect off the bench guy who can boost the energy after the initial game adrenaline and crowd enthusiasm wanes.  And Bishop can also come in and dirty it up with physicality.  Rice, Cunningham and Bishop are all "lunch pail" types who have some dawg in them.

  9. Agree. Cunningham has turned himself into a real asset.

    With most of our players (outside of maybe Rice), it depends on who you are getting any given night. 

    • Hunter can play like a 1st team All-American.  First seven games of the season: 15+ points on 52% shooting.  Since then? 8 points on 33% shooting.
    • Dylan Disu and Dillon Mitchell can be really disruptive on the glass.  Disu also leads the team in blocks by a wide margin.
    • Timmy Allen can take over a game and can score 20+
    • Christian Bishop can be really dominant at times. I actually think he is our best low post player.  But at times he can be a turnover / foul machine. 
    • Morris is a wildcard. He is the most athletic player on the team IMO.  
  10. Our bench this year is so good, it has me wondering if they would actually beat our starters.  The starters are probably better individual talents, but the bench has a bunch of hoopers.  Curious what you all think.  

    Since we only have 9 players on our bench, I put Carr on both teams.

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  11. KenPom and Massey both have us winning 2.1 more regular season games, so actually slightly better chance we go 3-1 than 1-3.  

    I think we may need to win 5 more games to get a 1 seed.  So we need to do one of the following:

    - Win out and then win the Big12 opener

    - Go 3-1 and then make the title game

    - Go 2-2 and then win the Big12 Tourney

    Jim Carrey Chance GIF

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  12. Tech is playing with some desperation, having won 5 of their last 7.  If they win 2 more (plus probably a win in the Big 12 tourney), they have a real shot at making the tournament.

    They play TCU and Okie State at home, both winnable games. And get OU and KU on the road. There is a reasonable chance that they go 3/5.

  13. A big consideration for me is the assistant coaching staff. Right now I think we have one of the best in the country. I think there is a good chance that they all stay if we keep Terry. I can’t see many wanting to follow Beard to his next gig given the way things ended here.  

    People talk about our experienced team and it being “player led”, but I think a lot of our success is because of the work of the assistants. That includes the high school recruiting and transfer portal. Beard obviously guided the ship, but a TON of the heavy work has been done by these guys.  Terry never had a staff like this at UTEP or Fresno.

    I’m still not saying we should hire him. But more that his current results may be a better indication of his future than what he did with less resources.

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  14. BTW - The USC team that beat Durant wasn't "dogshit".  They had wins over #8 Wichita State, #9 Oregon, #11 Washington State, #11 Arizona, @#16 Oregon and others.

    They had #16 draft pick Nick Young (All PAC-12) and #26 draft pick Taj Gibson (All PAC-12) and #62 pick Gabe Pruitt.... plus some other upper classmen.  They were a worst case scenario draw for us as they were experienced and also had NBA talent.

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