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2018-19 Texas Longhorns thread


Machinator

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1 hour ago, Machinator said:

Wait for us to string together some wins before doing this.

We own UNC historically, now I'd like to see consistency against other quality teams.

And we've played up to competition with regularity under Shaka. Last year we went toe to toe with Duke, Gonzaga, and Nevada. We've always had talent, and we've often been able to hang with the big dogs. This isn't exactly uncharted territory for us Under Shaka. However our guard play, our three point shooting, and the fact that we finished the job tonight were all pleasant surprises. We start doing that on a regular basis and nobody,  it even me, will still be complaining about Shaka. 

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1 hour ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

It would help if he would dive to the basket or slip a screen every now and then instead of flailing out to the 3pt line all the time.

I get the frustration with this but it creates driving lanes for our guards when he kicks out to the 3 point line. I have no issues with Osetkowski shooting 3s if they are wide open. If that's not effective it simply means Texas needs to recruit better shooters that can hit those shots. 

Tonight is a good example of what a stretch big can do for our guards. Once Osetkowski hit those 2 three pointers UNC couldn't help off him and had to defend him out on the perimeter. That's a big reason there were driving lanes for Roach/Coleman in the 2nd half. 

 

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17 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

I get the frustration with this but it creates driving lanes for our guards when he kicks out to the 3 point line. I have no issues with Osetkowski shooting 3s if they are wide open. If that's not effective it simply means Texas needs to recruit better shooters that can hit those shots. 

Tonight is a good example of what a stretch big can do for our guards. Once Osetkowski hit those 2 three pointers UNC couldn't help off him and had to defend him out on the perimeter. That's a big reason there were driving lanes for Roach/Coleman in the 2nd half. 

 

I understand the rationale of the scheme,  but no one should ever do the same thing 100% of the time.  An occasional slipped screen and roll to the basket wouldn't compromise the spacing they're trying create with their open floor alignment. In fact it will create hesitancy for the guy guarding Dylan.  

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21 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

I get the frustration with this but it creates driving lanes for our guards when he kicks out to the 3 point line. I have no issues with Osetkowski shooting 3s if they are wide open.=

 

I have a problem with it when my old eyes can see he's leaving every shot short but he can't figure it out.  Funny how he came out after half and drained a 3 -- maybe Shaka actually coached him.  "Hey D.O. you need to aim a little deeper".

I know, it's absurd, but it actually seemed that comical.  His basketball IQ is about as high as that of my chihuahua.

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18 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Funny how he came out after half and drained a 3 -- maybe Shaka actually coached him.  "Hey D.O. you need to aim a little deeper".

 

They changed the action where DO was in the corner. Osetkowski is a better 3 point shooter in the corner than he is on the wings/top of the 3 point line. Notice both 3 point makes tonight were in the corner. 

This is the adjustment they need to make when they sag off Osetkowski. Put somebody else in the on ball screen and just let Osetkowski sit in the corner where he can shoot. 

If he hits a couple of those it gets the big out of the paint which is what we saw tonight in the 2nd half. 

 

Edited by texasstrong12
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I'll gif these later but both 3s from Osetkowski Texas put Sims as the on ball screener and he slipped to the basket. 

Osetkowski was sitting in the corner as a catch and shoot player. Maye was sagging in the paint to help on the penetration. 

This is our best action when Osetkowski is on the court. Osetkowski can't shoot in PnR for whatever reason but he's an alright shooter if you stick him in the corner and let him catch and shoot. 

Edited by texasstrong12
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11 hours ago, vin2basketball said:

Agreed - tonight was a great win but I'd really like to see us score consistently against a team playing a zone before we start sucking our own dicks. 

I'm not suggesting we go that far but if you can't recognize the positives that are happening in the program then you're not being very perceptive. Coleman, Roach, Dylan all a year older, additions of Hayes, Long, Hepa, Ramey, along with Febres and Sims doing their thing. It's a level of personnel that we haven't seen around here in terms of basketball talent and toughness, in a long time.

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9 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

Osetkowski can't shoot in PnR for whatever reason but he's an alright shooter if you stick him in the corner and let him catch and shoot. 

I can't decide if DO is in fact dumb as a stump or if he overthinks things, but whatever the case, he's a mess on the court.  I just can't see him ever being reliable enough to even get the PT he gets now.  Hayes is obviously the future (for however long we have him, which is probably just the rest of this season), but even Sims has a higher ceiling than DO.  We're long at almost every position -- I really don't know why we need to put 2 bigs on the court at any given time.  

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1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

I can't decide if DO is in fact dumb as a stump or if he overthinks things, but whatever the case, he's a mess on the court.  I just can't see him ever being reliable enough to even get the PT he gets now.  Hayes is obviously the future (for however long we have him, which is probably just the rest of this season), but even Sims has a higher ceiling than DO.  We're long at almost every position -- I really don't know why we need to put 2 bigs on the court at any given time.  

If we're talking about DO, then Hepa is the future, not Hayes.

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22 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Uh no. That would be a ridiculous overreaction unless we beat MSU tonight 

 

Not really. Arkansas is probably a tournament team. There aren't many teams with 2 better wins than Arkansas and UNC on a neutral court. Do I think we are the 11th best team right now? Nah probably not. But our resume is likely as good as anyone. 

Edited by texasstrong12
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I can't decide if DO is in fact dumb as a stump or if he overthinks things, but whatever the case, he's a mess on the court.  I just can't see him ever being reliable enough to even get the PT he gets now.  Hayes is obviously the future (for however long we have him, which is probably just the rest of this season), but even Sims has a higher ceiling than DO.  We're long at almost every position -- I really don't know why we need to put 2 bigs on the court at any given time.  
Our guards aren't exactly long. Our tallest guard, Febres, who is dubiously listed at 6'5" isn't really a dynamic player yet in terms of his dribble drive. We play 2 bigs because that's where our advantage lies. Maybe if we still had Mack we could get away with a 4 guard lineup, but the way we stand around on the perimeter with a dearth of movement I'm not sure you'd like the result.
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5 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

Our guards aren't exactly long. Our tallest guard, Febres, who is dubiously listed at 6'5" isn't really a dynamic player yet in terms of his dribble drive. We play 2 bigs because that's where our advantage lies. Maybe if we still had Mack we could get away with a 4 guard lineup, but the way we stand around on the perimeter with a dearth of movement I'm not sure you'd like the result.

I don't think there's any combination of 5 guys we can put out there that will make our half court offense look good.  I think this team needs to press and run like mad.  But, your point is valid.

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Good news about UNC game, besides beating a very good team, is that we were so close in a handful of ways on both ends, from letting the game slip away.  And a very young team (and one not necessarily loaded with 1-and-dones/2-and-dones), did not let that happen.  That's why I am confident this morning.  But good lord, Michigan State is as physical a team as we'll see all year probably.  

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2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

It's learned behavior.  Last year we started 4-0 and lost our 5th game to Duke in OT.  Then we lost our 6th game to Gonzaga in OT.  Didn't seem so bad -- and then we ended up going 19-15 with a 1st round NCAA exit.

Yeah not to mention football getting overranked and losing 2 in a row. Or that time MBB was #1 and we flamed out. We’re conditioned to getting overranked bc TEXAS had a big win and then revert to form. 

Beat MSU and I’ll accept a #11 ranking 

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I think we'd be among only a handful of teams that have even played 3 games against the Power6 league teams, let alone beat all 3.  A strong performance against MIchigan State puts us in the Top 25.  A win sits us somewhere between 10-15.  There's just too many "name" teams above that level that are still getting ass-play from the media despite not much competition.  

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14 minutes ago, Lobo said:

I think we'd be among only a handful of teams that have even played 3 games against the Power6 league teams, let alone beat all 3.  A strong performance against MIchigan State puts us in the Top 25. 

Yup. Nobody is arguing that we are the 11th best team but we have a good resume. The "eye test" doesn't mean much of anything when ranking teams. It's all based on who you've played. Arkansas and UNC might both be quadrant one wins. Not many teams have those type quality wins right now. 

Edited by texasstrong12
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5 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I can't decide if DO is in fact dumb as a stump or if he overthinks things, but whatever the case, he's a mess on the court.  I just can't see him ever being reliable enough to even get the PT he gets now.  Hayes is obviously the future (for however long we have him, which is probably just the rest of this season), but even Sims has a higher ceiling than DO.  We're long at almost every position -- I really don't know why we need to put 2 bigs on the court at any given time.  

Osetkowski does some dumb shit but he's playing in system much more this year. 

Weirdly enough he's been a pretty good defender this year. He did a hell of a job on Maye last night who can really score.  We don't win last night without Osetkowski's D on Maye. 

Kind of odd that his strength might actually be on the defensive end. 

 

Edited by texasstrong12
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17 hours ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

I think the idea that he’s in over his head is just as stupid and hyperbolic as cameltoe’s comments. The main problem with Shaka’s tenure here is his mismanagement of the roster, especially wrt to our guards, and running a guard reliant offensive system without a high number of adequately skill guards. All of the above made his margin for error super tight, too tight to overcome a healthy dosage of ill-timed injuries/suspensions. Our defense has been elite to well above average his entire time here, but the game is moving in the other direction so he needs to really improve on the other end of the court if he hopes to ever overcome our current malaise. We’re way too easy to guard. More movement on the offensive end not only forces the defense to exert more energy,  but it also increases the likelihood of confusion and mistakes by our opponents. Hopefully we continue to get better in this area as the season progresses.

Repped for use of malaise

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I don't know. We got to the paint and got good midrange shots, they just weren't falling. We also missed a bunch of open 3s. The real issue is the early off balance 3s with no rebounders under the basket that we took early in the shot clock when they were making their run. Those quick, one shot possessions in consecutive series killed us. 

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Based on Kenpom so far we've played #4 UNC (W), # 8 Michigan State (L), #51 Arkansas (W). 

Next 5 game stretch is going to be a grind. Radford and Grand Canyon are no pushovers. Radford already beat ND and Grand Canyon gave Seton Hall everything they could handle a couple nights ago. Providence and VCU and probably bubble type teams. Purdue looks like a 2nd weekend type team early in the season.

If we can somehow go 4-1 in this stretch we will be sitting really nice. 

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Still hoping Febres can be the guy, but in addition to him, this team is one pure shooter away from being able to compete on a higher level than we currently are/will be. Our length and athleticism lets us run when the game dictates it, and our defense keeps us close with most anyone who we will come across this season; it's our shaky half court O and lack of true shooting that has been and will continue to be our undoing. On nights when some combination of Coleman, Roach, Long, Ramey, and Febres are shooting well we will be very competitive in the league, but on the nights when we struggle to hit those shots we will be in for a fight. This Texas team could easily get hot and go the Sweet 16, and it unless something changes between now and then, it's another team that can lose in the first round of the tournament to any team that has a real offense, even a mid major. Even if we defend well, the ability to shoot off the dribble or shoot over the zone (or the inability to do so) will decide the game.

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23 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

Still hoping Febres can be the guy, but in addition to him, this team is one pure shooter away from being able to compete on a higher level than we currently are/will be. Our length and athleticism lets us run when the game dictates it, and our defense keeps us close with most anyone who we will come across this season; it's our shaky half court O and lack of true shooting that has been and will continue to be our undoing. On nights when some combination of Coleman, Roach, Long, Ramey, and Febres are shooting well we will be very competitive in the league, but on the nights when we struggle to hit those shots we will be in for a fight. This Texas team could easily get hot and go the Sweet 16, and it unless something changes between now and then, it's another team that can lose in the first round of the tournament to any team that has a real offense, even a mid major. Even if we defend well, the ability to shoot off the dribble or shoot over the zone (or the inability to do so) will decide the game.

I think we will land somewhere between a 5 and 9 seed in the tourney. If we can even get passable bench shooting from AJ during big 12 play I think we can be on the higher end of that range -- still my prediction of 21-10 regular season hasn't changed. If we can make Purdue, Kansas, and KSU (at home) 3 of the remaining 16 then I think we're a 5/6 seed. 

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He sounds like a baller.

we had some great stretches in Vegas.  Happy to come home as the #2 team from that tourney given the field. 

I know it was a holiday weekend with some travel but it’s weird we’ll go this early in the season with a full 7 days with no game.  

Bring on radford.  They are a salty bunch.  

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1 hour ago, Machinator said:

 

of course not. why start one of our best, most important players who we only have. for.a limited time when we can start someone who has no discernible basketball skill, gets eaten alive defensively, and who averages two made baskets and 3.5 personal fouls per game?

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