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Texas basketball 2020-21: Not even Shaka can fuck this up...right?


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1 hour ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

 

On the Coleman front I'm pretty sure Brock and Matt are roommates so it's interesting that Brock is on the trip  and Matt may not be. 

had a niece who got it at school.  she quarantined with her roommate.  roommate never tested positive.  that said, do they have a rule on contact tracing?  I would be hard to believe we could field a team if they did.

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6 hours ago, dcar00 said:

had a niece who got it at school.  she quarantined with her roommate.  roommate never tested positive.  that said, do they have a rule on contact tracing?  I would be hard to believe we could field a team if they did.

I assume so, but with the timing around the holidays and Brock's family living locally it's possible that Brock and Matt weren't in contact during the time leading up to their test. But then again it's basketball so I've never understood how one positive test doesn't render an entire team out with contact tracing. 

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This is a really fun team to watch.  Their chemistry is WAY better than I can recall since probably back to the TJ/Mouton days.  It feels like an Izzo team -- the maturity guys like Coleman, AJones, and Sims bring to the table is nicely offset by the young bucks like Brown & KJones.  Add in legitimate bench sparks like Cunningham and Williams, and we get a balanced 7+ deep team that can fuck with anyone, using disruptive, long defense, decent shooting and a calm ability to weather the occasional storm.  The Big 12 might be in for a different contender.

That said, I am 100% certain that Shaka Smart fell ass over teakettle into this lineup and that he'll either (a) fuck it up or (b) ride it to an Elite 8 plus and get a ridiculous contract extension.  He is failing upwards, like Steve Sarkisian.

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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

This is a really fun team to watch.  Their chemistry is WAY better than I can recall since probably back to the TJ/Mouton days.  It feels like an Izzo team -- the maturity guys like Coleman, AJones, and Sims bring to the table is nicely offset by the young bucks like Brown & KJones.  Add in legitimate bench sparks like Cunningham and Williams, and we get a balanced 7+ deep team that can fuck with anyone, using disruptive, long defense, decent shooting and a calm ability to weather the occasional storm.  The Big 12 might be in for a different contender.

That said, I am 100% certain that Shaka Smart fell ass over teakettle into this lineup and that he'll either (a) fuck it up or (b) ride it to an Elite 8 plus and get a ridiculous contract extension.  He is failing upwards, like Steve Sarkisian.

What feels so different from previous really good Texas basketball teams is that we nabbed a sure-fire one-and-done in the offseason, and he's been living up to his billing, and yet he's NOT the best player on the team. Our best player is our senior point guard.

That we can add someone like Greg Brown, and he can meet expectations, but our success doesn't hinge solely on him, makes this Texas team feel completely different from any other UT basketball team I've ever seen.

I disagree that this team just fluked onto Smart. This is a senior laden team, he's actually developed these guys into what they are. Matt Coleman's improvements have been staggering. Being a senior on this team actually matters.

Edited by BigXII
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32 minutes ago, Cashcar said:

Just enjoy it...nice run so far. Shaka may have learned some valuable lessons that carry forward. He shortened his rotation, is placing more emphasis on shooters and has made a couple of nice staff hires.

Shortened the rotation is key. He's playing his best players.

Ramey becoming a sharpshooter is a pleasant surprise. Just waiting on Andrew...

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Let’s not forget that essentially the same team won 5 of their last six including two top-25 wins to close out last year. They started the year with confidence and have only gotten better.

March Madness is crazy and anything can happen, but this team is very very good. Potential to be one of the best ever at Texas.

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1 hour ago, Cashcar said:

Just enjoy it...nice run so far. Shaka may have learned some valuable lessons that carry forward. He shortened his rotation, is placing more emphasis on shooters and has made a couple of nice staff hires.

IMO a big lesson he's learned over the last year is giving culture setters (Cunningham and Hamm) more playing time to actually allow their energy to make an impact on the rest of the team.  I don't know if he was mesmerized and seduced by the talent he suddenly had access to or what, but for a guy who constantly talked about culture, togetherness, energy, and guys for whom winning is the most important thing, he didn't do a good job of rewarding those sorts of traits with much playing time at different parts of his tenure here.  For all the criticism of Shaka's offensive X's & O's you've gotta remember that this is college basketball and most teams stink offensively for long stretches of time, even the good ones.  What really separates the wheat from the chaff are the little things that mostly require immense grit, tenacity, and IQ. Prior to this year all of Shaka's teams have been devoid of grit and tenacity which is exemplified by our woeful rebounding numbers during that time.  And all but his first team (prior to this year's team) lacked a measurable IQ for the game. Hopefully he'll take these lessons he's learned in the last 15 games or so and employ them for the rest of his time on the 40. 

Edited by Catdaddyhorn
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3 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

Prior to this year all of Shaka's teams have been devoid of grit and tenacity which is exemplified by our woeful rebounding numbers during that time.  And all but his first team (prior to this year's team) lacked a measurable IQ for the game. Hopefully he'll take these lessons he's learned in the last 15 games or so and employ them for the rest of his time on the 40. 

It may be a different way of saying the same thing, but the selflessness these guys show on the floor is like nothing I've seen in a Shaka team.  These guys literally do not seem to care who gets the bucket or the rebound.  They are playing for each other.  That has not happened for a long time.

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I went back and realized I was on page one of this madness. You can thank me now, because I have not watched one second of this incredible season.  I read about the Kansas game on the Herm fired thread, and understand Shaka is channeling his inner Samson.  What is happening? Did Shaka learn how to coach all of a sudden, or was it a slow process? Have we beaten any other really good teams, or is KU overrated?  

I will almost certainly keep my streak of not watching the team going, so you are all welcome.  

 

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2 hours ago, orangecat92 said:

Have we beaten any other really good teams, or is KU overrated? 

KU's only other loss was to #1 Ganzaga and Texas' only loss has been to #4 Villanova. Kansas has been dominant outside of their loss, and Texas looks legit. Texas won the Maui invitational for the first time in school history by beating UNC. The team basically picked up where they left off last season after everyone had written them off, when they won 6 in a row.

It appears they turned the corner late last season and reloaded this season by adding Greg Brown and all the seniors basically leveling up. Texas is legit stacked.

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2 hours ago, orangecat92 said:

I went back and realized I was on page one of this madness. You can thank me now, because I have not watched one second of this incredible season.  I read about the Kansas game on the Herm fired thread, and understand Shaka is channeling his inner Samson.  What is happening? Did Shaka learn how to coach all of a sudden, or was it a slow process? Have we beaten any other really good teams, or is KU overrated?  

I will almost certainly keep my streak of not watching the team going, so you are all welcome.  

 

What is happening?

We're a basketball school now.

Did Shaka learn how to coach all of a sudden, or was it a slow process?

Shaka got hair and all is well. In reality I think it's a combo of getting senior leadership, shortening the rotation and getting his best players minutes, and finally having some good guard play to pair with the traditionally great big play we've had under Shaka. Like I think the best guard we've had since I was a freshman back in 2014 was probably Isaiah Taylor. We haven't had a drafted point guard since Cory Joseph a whole decade ago. On the other hand, in the past five years we put Myles Turner, Jarret Allen, Mo Bamba, and Jaxson Hayes into the league. That's four first round bigs in five years.  None of our guards may have elite NBA guard written on them, but we finally have some respectable college guards who can lead the team to success and a five star one and done big to go with them. To make matters better, we don't have to rely on the one and done big to make our team work as we saw today and multiple other games, which allows him to develop properly. For the first time in a long time, we're a complete team.

Have we beaten any other really good teams, or is KU overrated?  

KU is definitely the best team we've beaten. Other than that we haven't beaten any other elite teams. That being said I think we're really solid. The other elite team we've played is #4 Villanova (likely to be #3 after the next poll) and we played them incredibly close in a hard fought game. We won the Maui invitational and we look good. Kansas has beaten Creighton, Texas Tech, and West Virginia and their only losses are to us and Gonzaga so I would not be surprised if they're a one seed when all is said and done. This is a fucking incredible win, I don't think we've ever beaten Kansas at AFH this hard and we have a ton to be proud of. Still a ton of ball left to play and Shaka and the Men's Basketball Team have a lot to prove, but fuck if it ain't easy to get excited right now 

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7 hours ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

This designed play out of a timeout is getting praise. This is like the 3rd or 4th tweet I've seen referencing the action leading to the lob. 

 

 

our offense in general looked so much more fo used and coherent yesterday, it was great to watch. Ramey can still have a poor possession here and there, but that's Ramey; you take that from him because of what all he brings to the table. other than that, i thought that our ball movement, and how crisply we moved around as a team, was all very quick and purposeful. it was probably the best all-around offensive game we've had since Shaka's first year here. Very encouraging. 

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2 hours ago, hornfromdallas said:

one of u fuccbois record the lhn basketball games & post them 

Someone else posted this link for the OSU game.  It’s a live feed of LHN.  Having YouTube TV, this has been appreciated.  Bookmark it on your phone and use it when needed. 
 

http://123tvnow.com/watch/longhorn-network-espnlhn/

 

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To go into the Phog and spank a team who's only loss was to #1 Gonzaga was huge. KU basketball has dominated Texas basketball for as long as I can remember, that's Shaka's biggest victory since he became coach at Texas. UNC turned out to be pretty meh, but between dominating KU like that and hanging with an extremely tough Villanova team to the end I'd reckon Shaka's squad this year is legit and not fool's gold like past teams that started off hot and faltered in conference play.

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8 hours ago, orangecat92 said:

I went back and realized I was on page one of this madness. You can thank me now, because I have not watched one second of this incredible season.  I read about the Kansas game on the Herm fired thread, and understand Shaka is channeling his inner Samson.  What is happening? Did Shaka learn how to coach all of a sudden, or was it a slow process? Have we beaten any other really good teams, or is KU overrated?  

I will almost certainly keep my streak of not watching the team going, so you are all welcome.  

 

It’s the hair and nothing else. 

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6 hours ago, BigXII said:

KU's only other loss was to #1 Ganzaga and Texas' only loss has been to #4 Villanova. Kansas has been dominant outside of their loss, and Texas looks legit. Texas won the Maui invitational for the first time in school history by beating UNC. The team basically picked up where they left off last season after everyone had written them off, when they won 6 in a row.

It appears they turned the corner late last season and reloaded this season by adding Greg Brown and all the seniors basically leveling up. Texas is legit stacked.

To clarify, they won 5 in a row last year to get back into tourney discussion and then laid a complete turd in the final home game getting blown out by OSU.  That's the kind of thing I hope Shaka with hair can avoid.

 

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