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HookEm

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Everything posted by HookEm

  1. Here is a rambling synopsis: We are very strong on the wings with three excellent players in Tre Johnson, Tramon Mark and Arthur Kaluma. We take care of the ball and are #10 in the country in turnovers (vs. #173 last year). And we are efficient scoring the ball: #9 in eFG% and #13 in 3PT%. Our defense overall is good at ~#28 in defensive efficiency. Tre Johnson is our "star". He is a 6'5 SG/SF who plays like a poor man's Ray Allen. He is a certain one and done lottery pick and plays with a lot of fire. That said, the team tends to stand around and watch him cook when he is in the game. He also can try to shoot himself out of a slump so he occasionally has really bad nights. He can be the best player on the court regardless of who we are playing on any given night. Tramon Mark is a solid SG/SF who started the year hurt and is just getting his feel with the team. He is a really good defender and can guard just about any position on the floor. He is a decent rebounder and really nice mid-range scorer. He was all over a player out on the 3-point line fighting through a screen and he reminded me a little of a very poor man's Kawhi Leonard back in San Antonio. But he is definitely still shaking the rust off. Arthur Kaluma is probably our best player. He is a SF/PF with range and impacts both ends of the floor. He is a good rebounder and is an efficient scorer and can create his own shot. All three of these guys have some dawg in them. We just haven't seen them all put it together. Our best point guard is Jordan Pope. He has been very subdued and hasn't yet played to his potential. On the plus side he doesn't turn the ball over and has been reasonably efficient. But he disappears for long stretches of the game. We need him to step up as a leader on the team. Our other point guard is Julian Larry. He is a more active player than Pope and seems to create more offense. He is also a better defender than Pope. But he is a little more careless with the ball. Neither of these guys have really done much to separate from each other, so we get about 20 minutes from each of them. Chendall Weaver is probably the most fun player on the team, much like last year. He has bulked up a little and does his best Russell Westbrook impression trying to take it to the rack and dunk on people at every chance he gets. He also flies around getting offensive rebounds. He has improved in most facets since last year and is a key contributor. Part of me would like to see him as our starting point guard with the above three wings. Our weak point has to be center. Shedrick.... well you just have to watch him and make up your own mind. Opinions on this board are mixed. When he stays down in the paint, he can be an "ok" post defender. And he can score when he gets it down there. But too often he drifts out to the perimeter on both offense and defense. I swear half of our opponents scores this year seem to have been when Shedrick is switching off on someone and gets beat for an open 3. But I digress. Onyema has shown signs of improvement. He is in better shape and is playing much more confidently. I generally like it when he is on the floor. He is a decent defender he is moving well. We also have some solid young pieces in Nic Codie, Jamie Vinson, Devon Pryor. We also lost a huge key player in Jayson Kent, who would have been ANOTHER versatile wing player, and probably best rebounder on the team. I am starting to doubt we see him again this year. Overall the team is well constructed outside of our weakness at center, and even there we aren't horrid. But the coaching remains a big problem. Against weaker teams, we blow them out as we should. But in SEC play, we are going to struggle if Mark doesn't step up as an All-SEC caliber player and if Pope doesn't play to his potential. It is frustrating because the pieces are there for this to be a Sweet 16 or better team. But the coaching is so bad that we could miss the tournament entirely.
  2. Fair. I’m old and fat.
  3. My favorite center Shedrick had 2 rebounds tonight against a high school team. Meanwhile Weaver had 8 in fewer minutes. Yes, he had 14 points and hit a 3, but that isn’t what we need out of him.
  4. I’m pretty sure I could play for APB.
  5. Looks like we are projected to be 6-12 if we win all the ones we are favored in. And we are projected to be 8 -10 if you add the probabilities. Not good.
  6. I still think Vinson has the best potential of our big men. He has 9.8 +/- for the season vs. 4.8 and 4.4 for Shedrick and Onyema respectively. I would have liked to have kept Dillon Mitchell on this team. He could have played small ball center for us and does basically everything better than Shedrick. He is a better defender, especially on the perimeter. And he is a better rebounder. This year he is even shooting 3s better than Shedrick. Of course if he would have stayed then we wouldn't have signed Kaluma - and Mitchell fits terribly with Shedrick. Dillon Mitchell Kadin Shedrick Also Tyrese Hunter is a better player than either of our current point guards. I wish we could have kept him as well. He has improved every year including this one. I would have also liked the continuity bringing back a couple of guys who were key parts of the program, including during the Elite 8 run. Tyrese Hunter Jordan Pope Oh well that ship has sailed. We need to get Pope playing up to his potential. All of his numbers are down this year and he just looks sooooo passive. As the point guard he needs to step up and lead the team. Match Tre Johnson's competitiveness.
  7. Mark + Tre Johnson + Kaluma is such a good collection of wings. I’m not sure we have had a better group ever at Texas. The problem is at PG and Center. Pope and Larry are fine, but they aren’t elite. And you need elite guards at the college level. And center is also really sub par.
  8. Any update on this question?
  9. Literally nobody said our floor was Sweet 16. But a lot of people were optimistic and thought we could be better than last year. Losing Mark for the start of the season hurt and losing Kent continues to hurt. I still think this is a well constructed roster (outside of Shedrick, but I have beaten that horse to death). But they are just not coached to their potential. Give this roster to Bill Self and you would have a great team.
  10. This is why I like the concept of crowd sourcing the computer models. One model may emphasize one type of data, another emphasize another. But if you have 50 computer models, then combined they will use all possible data to some degree. And if one uses an obscure method, then it will be only a small fraction of the overall rating.
  11. Things would be so much better on offense if Tre was running around everywhere through screens without the ball like Steph Curry. Instead the whole offense is him playing ISO ball. That won’t beat tournament level teams very often, I don’t care how good he is.
  12. We all know the ceiling with RT is pretty low. That said we aren’t firing him for at least another year or two. That said, Haith has been horrid. He should be fired after this year for sure.
  13. Cool every possession is hero ball, which is just so much fun to watch
  14. Seatgeek is by far your best option, especially within a day or two of gameday. Otherwise you have to rely on the seller seeing that the sale was made and transferring you the tickets. It happens automatically with Seatgeek.
  15. If #14 ISU gets a win over #17 ASU, I would expect them to jump ahead of Miami, Souf Carolina and Ole Miss. So they would likely get in even without an auto-bid if this was the system. #15 Boise will also likely jump a few of them with a win over #31 UNLV. Not sure it would be enough to get in though.
  16. Massey has exactly this data: Computer Composite Ranking Here is what the composite looks like if you eliminate the high and low 10% models for each team: There is a lot of talk about "helmets" and conference bias, but crowd sourcing the computer models eliminates almost all of that. And surprise, the unbiased composite model is actually pretty close to the CFP rankings. Alabama is above Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Miami. The highlighted teams still have games to play. If Army beats Tulane and UNLV beats Boise, I'm not CERTAIN that Army will be below UNLV in this model. They are very close as it stands. Unfortunately, Army will play #52 Navy after the CFP brackets have been announced. What a stupid decision that was.
  17. If you watch Shedrick play and that is your main takeaway, then we are just seeing things completely differently. For a center at this level, his rebounding and defense are horrific. I don't care what the stats say. Watch him actually play. He is so lost. He floats out to the perimeter on both defense and offense and is just so ineffective.
  18. Texas has to do something about Shedrick. He is a complete defensive liability on the perimeter and is basically worthless rebounding the ball given his size. He lopes around out of position, looking lost and goofy on both ends of the court. He plays extremely weak in the post. He is easily faked into jumping to try to block a shot at the worst moment. He slows down the offense by clogging things up both in the lane and moving out to the perimeter. He is basically zero threat on pick and roll. He may be a genius (heck, he went to Virginia and Texas), but he plays with a very low IQ on the court. I just cant stand watching him play any more. Per 100 possessions Shedrick - 12.7 TRB, 4.8 BLK, 1.4 STL, 1.4 TOV, 3.7 PF Onyema - 12.2 TRB, 2.9 BLK, 2.9 STL, 2.2 TOV, 2.2 PF Vinson - 16.3 TRB, 4.7 BLK, 2.3 STL, 0.0 TOV, 2.3 PF Codie - 7.8 TRB, 3.9 BLK, 0.0 STL, 0.0 TOV, 0.0 PF (small sample size)\ Kaluma - 15.2 TRB, 1.6 BLK, 1.0 STL, 3.0 TOV, 3.0 PF I would give Vinson and Codie more minutes, even if it costs us a game or two while they come up to speed. Our season is severely limited if Shedrick is getting 25+ minutes in March. If we have to start him, fine. But he needs to be getting more like 15 mpg, with 10+ going to Vinson, 10- going to Onyema, and then 5+ going small ball, especially if we can get Kent back. In blowout games, Vinson and Codie need to be getting 25 minutes each, with some of it coming at the same time.
  19. This team could use a guy like Jericho Sims or even Christian Bishop in the worst way.
  20. Why does Porter not have talent?
  21. I don't think Indiana has that much better of a resume than Iowa State and it isn't even a consideration to keep them out. Using Massey rankings for easy of use: ISU Wins: #24 K-State, #28 Iowa, #30 Baylor, #47 WV, #54 Utah, #57 Cinci Losses: #34 Tech by 1, at #49 Kansas by 9 SoS: #48 Indiana Wins: #16 Michigan, #35 Washington, #41 UCLA, #45 Nebraska Losses: at #5 OSU by 23 SoS: #61 Nice OOC you have there Indiana. #113 Charlotte, #126 Florida International, UR W. Illinois. For fucks sake. At least ISU plays Iowa. If you don't play a single Power 5 or highly respected other school like Notre Dame, Boise, then F you. You don't deserve to make it.
  22. I think the committee is going to want to put 4 SEC teams into the tourney. Selecting Bama would result in the most backlash, especially after last year. They have two good alternatives in Ole Miss and South Carolina. My guess is that if SMU loses, one of them will get in over Bama. I want it to be South Carolina just to see the meltdown by Ole Miss and Bama, who both beat the cocks.
  23. I just really wish that Kent hadn't gotten hurt. I really wanted to see a starting lineup with him and Kaluma playing the 4/5 and with Mark and Johnson on the wings. I think that would be a great lineup and would rebound much better than what we have been starting.
  24. There is no reason to think Porter Moser would have significantly better talent at UT than OU. OU objectively has a better basketball history than we do and has plenty of money to get recruits. If he doesn’t have top end talent, it is his own fault.
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