Cameltoe

My pick to win the Aura D'Oro award is Suarez. That's the award for most ears bitten off opponents in the cup.

Cleare + Ibeh + injured Ridley + Lammert == Deep Frontcourt Derka math.

Pomeroy team offense, Texas Longhorns last 6 years: 2013 - 174th (Barnes) 2014 - 61st (Barnes) 2015 - 47th (Barnes) 2016 - 49th (Smart) 2017 - 177th (Smart) 2018 - 89th (Smart) So over Barnes's last 3 years we averaged 94th in the nation in offense. Under Shaka's first 3 years we averaged 105th. A little worse for Shaka, but they both get failing grades here. But let's give credit to Shaka who hasn't really been through a whole cycle of recruiting his freshmen and seeing them grow up. I know I sound like a broken record but building a program can take time and Shaka's tenure so far is an example of that. I see the program on a upward trajectory right now, and that's really the most important thing.

If that's true, and I'm not sure that it is, I'd chalk that up to youth. We were decimated after 2016 and we're still rebuilding from that. Investing in the one-and-dones Allen and Bamba wasn't great for the long term but we had to take on talents like that. The good news is reinforcements are one the way. Coleman looked really good for a true freshman last year and I thought Sims looked promising too. This year my gut tells me the freshmen will be pretty good, but i'll admit it's too early to say. The news about Hepa is cool, and most scouting reports have Ramey and Liddel either higher or as high as Hepa. Hayes is a nice wildcard and so is Cunningham.

According to bookmakers, about a 15% chance the winner is not among the teams you mention.

Good stuff, txhorns.

The 2016 roster wasn't close to a talent level that can go to a Final Four or win a championship. Not even close. To act like it was is beyond stupid.

That's cool. I like how every 4 years we're reminded there's this little country called Uruguay, and they play some damn fine soccer there.

What's the story on Suarez these days? They still let him play? Is he still awesome when it comes to things on the pitch not involving biting?

Losing your best 3-pt shooter halfway through the season with a roster lacking other 3-pt threats isn't very conducive to scoring.

I do that because in the final 10 games of the season that I watched, Mo Bamba wasn't a big factor for us. It was the other guys who stepped up in the final 10 games of the season, and at times in that stretch we looked better without Mo on the court than with him, due to him getting out of position on defense and being a stagnating iso-player on offense. I also note that that is the only year we will ever get from him and he is old news in relation to rating next year's prospects.

Prince Ibeh? Yes. He was terrible and never should have been offered by Barnes. A drain on the program contributing nothing for at least 3 years, finally blocking a bunch of shots in his senior year while doing nothing besides that. Easily one of my least favorite horns of all time.

So the weird ass argument you are going for here is that the 2016 roster was complete and therefore if Shaka can't beat the world with that roster he can't do it with any roster? Sorry to burst your 2016 roster love bubble, but it was not what I'd call a complete roster. We had one really good player on that team, one. Isaiah Taylor. Roach and Davis were starting as freshmen. A freshman Tevin Mack was getting significant minutes. Ridley was injured most of the year and played in only 13 games. Prince Ibeh in his senior year finally turned out to be somewhat serviceable and a good shot blocker, but that was about all he could do on the court was block shots. He was frankly a terrible basketball player. Cleare, Lammert, Holland, and Yancy round out what was an ok, but far from what I'd call complete, roster. Add on top of that they weren't Shaka's guys. Add on top of that that by and large those guys weren't rated as highly coming out of HS and the guys we're pulling in now. Your argument is basically worthless. Yet you sit here and post incredulously as though you are bringing down the house with some irrefutable, awesome point.

Seriously dude, what does the 2016 roster have to do with anything at this point? There was some talent on that team, but not all that much. Taylor and Felix were a good guard tandem, but Felix was always undersized. Ridley was a pretty good big, but not world class or anything. Lammert was a decent wing, but again, not some amazingly great NCAA player. Shaka did an ok job with that team, got them to the dance, lost on a buzzer beater to UNI. But what does the 2016 roster have to do with ANYTHING? It's the off-season and we're talking about the trajectory of the program. We have 3 proven guys returning who can start in Coleman, Roach, and Sims. We have a potential impact shooter in Febres also returning who has good size at the guard position. Then we have SIX potentially impactful newcomers in Long, Ramey, Liddel, Hepa, Hayes, and Cunningham coming in. There's absolutely nothing mediocre about that talent pool and there's no real reason to question what Coach Smart is doing right now. Yet here you are, moronically doing just that.

Haha, well for one thing I live in Austin and have my entire life. As I understand it you are off in northeast Texas in Tyler or Dallas or something. So, don't try to tell me about "we are texas", "bleeding orange", etc.. Why would I be ok with mediocrity? Your guesses are way off. What I want is a national championship in basketball for the University of Texas. We weren't gonna get it from Barnes who had become a complacent dinosaur ruling over the program with an iron fist. We made an absolutely fantastic hire in Shaka Smart and that was the beginning of righting the ship in a direction towards that goal of a championship level team. Shaka gives me a good feeling every time I hear him talk, unlike Barnes who essentially had reverted to just saying the word "again" over and over in every interview the last 7 years of his stint here. He's an intelligent guy with a passion for basketball. He had success at his previous post at VCU and he is bringing in the necessary personnel on the recruiting trail for us to be a great team. That's job #1 and he gets a check on that box. As far as your complaints about the offense, I have faith in Shaka to produce offensively. A lot of it has to do with the roster. Once we have a complete roster, the offense will come. The complaints you make about ball movement or whatever can be made about almost any NCAA team. I don't think Shaka was *at all* some kind of "flavor of the month" trap hire. But if you're so sure of it, maybe you should inform the national authorities who let him coach our national team. They need to know this hot news flash from "Immortal12" on SurlyBevo.

With Ramey, Coleman, Roach, and Long, point guard play should NOT be a problem next year.

What analysis? All I said was that Tech is losing 5 seniors who were all significant contributors plus an underclassman going pro. That's big time losses. Yes, if you recruit well enough you can make up for it but does Tech really have the cavalry coming in to Lubbock? I doubt it.

Sorry, but 5 of your top contributors last year were seniors. And did Zhaire Smith go pro? Either way, you are now rebuilding in the windswept plains.

What a ridiculous request. I have no idea how Hepa will shake out next year, I only know that we are hearing legitimate commentary that he's likely to produce right away for us. Making a national squad has to be a good thing. If Banks also made that team then I have no real explanation for that. But Hepa is only one of six talented guys who could join the rotation next year along with Ramey, Liddell, Long, Hayes, and Cunningham. When you add those guys to the returning group of Coleman, Roach, Osetkowski, Febres, Hamm, AND Sims, it looks pretty viable to me. There should be strong competition in practice for playing time, and I wouldn't be surprised if Long is pushed by the freshmen for minutes. It gives Smart a lot of options and it could mean a couple of years in a row of returning a lot of talent.

This thread is fucking hilarious. Getting called out by Derka for being combative and the way I comport myself is ridiculous to the point of hilarity. And ball movement? Yeah it would be great. I'm not sure Bamba actually helped ball movement last year. But Coleman and Roach did, and they'll be back. The news about Hepa is great, and Immortal is clearly just trolling Shaka at this point. Ball movement or not, the important thing is a team full of talented, hard-working ball players who put the team first. There's reason to think it could happen under Shaka Smart.

Assembling a shitload of talent from transfers and freshmen is great, but it doesn't guarantee anything. Graham, Mikaliuk, and Vick were at least known for sure to be good. Sure next year's KU team COULD be great. They could also be a disappointment. Probably they will be just good enough to win the Big12 regular season title. LOL. But, this "final four" "historically good" is just silly.

Hasn't even been 9 months. Only took about 2 weeks for Kemaka Hepa to expose this guy's stupid opinions.

Why wait 9 months? You can pull up posts I made 9 months ago about UT being on the upswing and making the dance in 2018 that everyone thought were ridiculous but were correct.

Lol, why exactly do you think this? Your roster is decimated. You think your incoming class is 2012 Kentucky then?

Alright, maybe I short-changed him a bit saying he wasn't dominant for any single game. He did have some big games. He also had some crappy games. He was raw and inconsistent. Players like Brodziansky at TCU and Wade at KSU were more valuable because they were simply more polished players playing smarter team ball. And the larger point is that what got this whole conversation started--this idea that we can't be good next year because Bamba has exited--is stupid.