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


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16 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

Shaka hasn't earned any cred with the fan base, and that's on him. From his actual poor coaching to his incessant coach speak/catch phrases, UT basketball fans have every right to roll their eyes at pretty much everything that guy says. let's not act that's unfair. 

You'll get no argument from me on that, but the subject in contention regarding redshirting was easy to verify.  Postgame comments are almost always posted on YouTube. People's comments were so far off from what I heard in the post-game that I assumed he must've commented on it again somewhere else. It's understandable to be wholly cynical and think he's full of shit, it's entirely another thing to just make shit up.  

Edited by Catdaddyhorn
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Baker doesn’t fit into the way we’re going to play this year, it’s as simple as that. He’s too slow to have a role in a Havoc type of system - which we’re clearly implementing. Let him sit this season out and work him back into the mix next year after major roster turnover.

Edited by CheesePie
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3 hours ago, CheesePie said:

Baker doesn’t fit into the way we’re going to play this year, it’s as simple as that. He’s too slow to have a role in a Havoc type of system - which we’re clearly implementing. Let him sit this season out and work him back into the mix next year after major roster turnover.

Again, whats the issue with playing 3-5 minutes here or there, especially in games we have in hand?

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30 minutes ago, BowleggedMonkey said:


Good for him. I wish him a ton of success. He could have a long NBA career. Needs the right system.


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?? NBA?  Nah, dude.

I'm not sure of what kind of system involves a slow stretch 5 that can't shoot.

 

If you take away the TCU game where he 4-6 from 3, he was 2/33 on the season.  

6%

 

Edited by Tylerocks
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42 minutes ago, Radical Larry said:

 

Texas center Will Baker enters NCAA transfer portal 

ByJEFF HOWE 13 minutes ago

Texas sophomore center Will Baker has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Baker didn’t play in a season-opening 91-55 win the No. 19-ranked Longhorns scored over UTRGV on Wednesday.

“We are very grateful for Will’s contributions to our basketball program,” Texas head coach Shaka Smart said in a statement released Saturday addressing Baker’s departure. “We wish Will all the best as he pursues his next opportunity.”

Baker averaged 2.1 points and 1.9 rebounds per game in 23 games as a true freshman last season. The Austin Westlake product who came to Texas as the No. 35 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite in 2019 played his best basketball of the 2019-20 season over the final six games when he averaged 14.1 minutes per game (more than his season-long average of 8.3 minutes per game) in helping the Longhorns win five games in a row to get back on the NCAA Tournament bubble before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the Big 12 Tournament and March Madness.

In the six-game stretch, Baker averaged 5.5 points per game and shoot 48 percent from the floor. The 6-foot-11-inch Baker was 5-for-14 from 3-point range after connecting on only one of his first 25 attempts from beyond the arc.

This story is developing and will be updated.

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3 hours ago, BowleggedMonkey said:


Good for him. I wish him a ton of success. He could have a long NBA career. Needs the right system.


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Will Baker is not going to have a long NBA career. I wish him well too, but the one thing this site doesn't need any more of is the needless exalting of Westlake players who aren't as good as we wished they were. 

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2 hours ago, hornfromdallas said:

hepa & baker have got to be depressed seeing how gonzaga developed drew timmie

timmie scored 28/10 yesterday

texas chose baker over timmie 

hepa chose texas over gonzaga 

if hepa transfers as well both hepa/baker will have james banks level of success at the next school 

throw Jordan Barnett into that mix as well. he never got a chance under Shaka and ended up becoming the exact type of player we were missing, ie an athletic, versatile wing who could really shoot the ball (he shot .414 from 3P his senior year on 6.1 3PA/GM). 

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53 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

throw Jordan Barnett into that mix as well. he never got a chance under Shaka and ended up becoming the exact type of player we were missing, ie an athletic, versatile wing who could really shoot the ball (he shot .414 from 3P his senior year on 6.1 3PA/GM). 

You know you and I will continue to battle over this. 🙃  Barnett transferred like 6 games into his time under Shaka.  For all intents and purposes they barely knew each other.  

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25 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

You know you and I will continue to battle over this. 🙃  Barnett transferred like 6 games into his time under Shaka.  For all intents and purposes they barely knew each other.  

true, but when you add the fact that Kendal Yancy and and Demarcus Holland couldn't get a look either (with Holland coming off a Big XII All-Defense Team season/being the unquestioned team leader), while a guy like Tevin Mack (one of Shaka's guys) got chance after chance (even when he was just plain bad), to me it seems clear that Shaka had zero interest in giving anyone who wasn't one of "his guys" a fair shake. that's how i see it. 

edit: this trait is not unique to Shaka. in fact it's pretty much SOP. but it is what it is. he's misused his rosters in a litany of other ways, and while this one might be common, it still happened, and it still sucks to guys never get a shot and then go somewhere else and shine.

Edited by shadow_operative
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I know it happens to lots of good programs, but the fucking all-star team of transfers you make out of ex-Longhorns (particularly under Shaka) is just fucking staggering.  

It's like the all-star team I made out of guys that got traded from the Cubs in the 1980's for Micro League baseball.  I won the pennant with those fucking guys.  Pour one out.

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true, but when you add the fact that Kendal Yancy and and Demarcus Holland couldn't get a look either (with Holland coming off a Big XII All-Defense Team season/being the unquestioned team leader), while a guy like Tevin Mack (one of Shaka's guys) got chance after chance (even when he was just plain bad), to me it seems clear that Shaka had zero interest in giving anyone who wasn't one of "his guys" a fair shake. that's how i see it. 
edit: this trait is not unique to Shaka. in fact it's pretty much SOP. but it is what it is. he's misused his rosters in a litany of other ways, and while this one might be common, it still happened, and it still sucks to guys never get a shot and then go somewhere else and shine.

What is the difference between Chikfila and every other fast food. Good management and coaching. These players get coached up... then they shine. Coaching matters!


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On 11/28/2020 at 10:50 AM, BowleggedMonkey said:


Good for him. I wish him a ton of success. He could have a long NBA career. Needs the right system.
 

I've long thought the same thing about Derka, but was afraid to voice my opinion. Your post is an inspiration, and I shall no longer be intimidated into silence. Give Derka a chance Shaka.

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A little more color on the Will Baker saga.  At about the 2:53 mark of the video below Shaka is asked about Will. 

 

 

This is what he said:

“It was his decision. Will asked a couple days before that first game to not play just to focus on his development and growth,” said Smart. “And that's why I did not put him in the game the other night. But then in our next practice after that game he came in and made me aware of his intention was to transfer. At the end of the day, he's a great kid. He's a very talented player who I think has a lot of really really good things inside him as a player and as a person. But it was his decision and, you know, as always, as a coach you want what's best for a guy and you want him to be able to follow what he feels is right.”

This is important because an ignored detail of the NCAA's "free eligibility" season is in order for it not to count the player has to remain at the school.  So maybe knowing his intentions to transfer Will decided not to risk an extra year of eligibility by playing this season? I know in football they prescribed a set number of games played (regardless of where it comes in the season) before an athlete loses his ability to redshirt, but I haven't seen an analogous determination made for basketball.  This could be the difference between being classified as a sophomore or a junior next December when he returns to the court for his new school. 

 

 

Edited by Catdaddyhorn
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Davidson at 11am today (Maui Invitational). Anyone know what to expect from them?


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Hopefully they will push the tempo and try to drive offense with the transition off missed shots. Likely, we will have the guards doing a lot of shooting with very limited offensive sets that involve the bigs getting a touch in the paint ... they look like a very skinny and slow team


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23 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

Davidson is typically a really good shooting team that plays at a slow pace. They work the defense and clock to get a good shot. They seem to have really big guards/wings according to their roster (starting wings are listed at 6'3", 6'5", & 6'7").  

So I'm going to pencil in a loss and be pleasantly gruntled if Shaka takes care of business.

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On 11/26/2020 at 2:30 PM, shadow_operative said:

we've been just about the worst team in the country (no hyperbole) at offensive rebounding under Shaka, and that's been pretty much by design. surely even Shaka Smart will realize that this team needs to do a 180 on that philosophy and turn it into a strength. we are not going to outscore the likes of KU and we are not going to our grind the likes of TTU without plenty of second chance points/second possessions. 

we won today in large part due to our offensive rebounding. it was a breath of fresh air to see our athletes crashing the glass and getting second and third looks. 

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25 minutes ago, Horny Bull said:

 

that's 100% on the offensive rebounding we did today. well, maybe 90/10 that and the fact that we are trying to no longer be the slowest team this side of UVA, but the second chance points we got mitigated many of our shooting struggles. i'll give Shaka credit for making those changes, because they were both much needed. 

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39 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

that's 100% on the offensive rebounding we did today. well, maybe 90/10 that and the fact that we are trying to no longer be the slowest team this side of UVA, but the second chance points we got mitigated many of our shooting struggles. i'll give Shaka credit for making those changes, because they were both much needed. 

Yep we’ve discussed it on here before. Offensive rebounding is a huge ointment for CBB offenses. Fans are routinely surprised to find out how highly rated some of Barnes’ teams were wrt offensive efficiency and a lot of it was all due to how consistently dominant they were on the offensive boards sans the DJ Augustin teams, which just had great shooters. I also think/hope GBIII’s consistent willingness to get to the bucket along with both Ramey and Coleman improving in that area as well will get us to the line at a much higher rate than last year. 

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23 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

Yep we’ve discussed it on here before. Offensive rebounding is a huge ointment for CBB offenses. Fans are routinely surprised to find out how highly rated some of Barnes’ teams were wrt offensive efficiency and a lot of it was all due to how consistently dominant they were on the offensive boards sans the DJ Augustin teams, which just had great shooters. I also think/hope GBIII’s consistent willingness to get to the bucket along with both Ramey and Coleman improving in that area as well will get us to the line at a much higher rate than last year. 

i agree re: those guys getting us to the line more. add Jones to that list as well. Shaka says that Jones is "by far our best scorer" and he's filled out physically again. if those guys can take the bulk of our FTs then we can actually shoot a decent clip from the like this year. m

re: the offensive rebounding, i absolutely love seeing it. to me it goes hand in hand with having an actual identity. teams that crash the offensive glass tend to be tough both physically and mentally, and when you don't have team with supreme basketball skill (which is 98% of the teams in the country), then having an identity to fall back on is the next best thing. this team is so long, physical, and athletic, that we would be fools not embrace that identity head on.

i was really glad to see that attitude/added production from the team today in what i thought was a pretty encouraging performance, despite the general tone from the game thread being that nothing has changed thus far. Davidson is well coached and full of experienced players, and for the second game of the season i was encouraged by what i saw. 

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I considered Jones a given when it comes to going to the bucket. His mindset to get to the hole has always been there despite not being as physically capable of doing it last season. Coleman and Ramey are the guys who need to step up in that department. Coleman just doesn't go to the hole near as much as he should while Ramey actually attempts to drive more frequently than Coleman but hasn't been able to finish as consistently as I would've liked in the past. Hopefully his improved athleticism leads to him actually finishing at a much higher rate. So far he has 9 FT attempts this season, 2nd only to Greg Brown's 13 and tied with Jericho.  

Edited by Catdaddyhorn
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27 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

I considered Jones a given when it comes to going to the bucket. His mindset to get to the hole has always been there despite not being as physically capable of doing it last season. Coleman and Ramey are the guys who need to step up in that department. Coleman just doesn't go to the hole near as much as he should while Ramey actually attempts to drive more frequently than Coleman but hasn't been able to finish as consistently as I would've liked in the past. Hopefully his improved athleticism leads to him actually finishing at a much higher rate. So far he has 9 FT attempts this season, 2nd only to Greg Brown's 13 and tied with Jericho.  

It will be interesting to see if people start collapsing on us.  Jones shot actually looked pretty smooth on the 2 3 pointers, IMO.

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