Cameltoe

You do realize he was honorable mention all big 12 this year, right, dumbfuck? https://texassports.com/news/2018/3/4/four-longhorns-honored-on-phillips-66-all-big-12-mens-basketball-awards.aspx Kinda puts a crimp in your whole "DO sucks" campaign, doesn't it?

Oh really, and what part of it is insane? I'm dying to know.

Now you're just downplaying the success of our players for your agenda. Sims did not start last year and given his minutes, his stats are solid. Pomeroy's per-possession stats give him an Effective FG% of 60.7 which is really good and 2nd best on the team behind only Andrew Jones, and his per possession played defensive rebounding was 17.4 which is also really solid. Not to mention if you watched him play you would see that he looked like a player who any NCAA team would be more than happy to have.

Again I'm not relying on any development and progression other than what you would expect from any NCAA player from one year to the next. We did not lose our best player from last year, Coleman is in fact returning. We finished the year essentially without Mo Bamba who was injured for last several games of the season or playing ineffectively with recent injury problems. We made the dance anyway. Sims absolutely kicked ass for a freshman last year, and Osetkowski put in essential and important work in getting us to the dance as our most utilized player. Add to that a recruiting class that is up there with the top 10 programs in the country and you have a dance projected team. I only said a "lock" if Roach returns. Otherwise a probable tournament team. Why is this so hard for you to grasp?

I'm not relying on anything other than the talent level we have playing basketball here next year when I say we are a probably tournament team next year. Lock if Roach comes back. It doesn't matter that last year's team was a 10 seed, it doesn't matter that last year we had Mo Bamba. I'm talking about next year. And yeah it does have a lot to do with Ramey, Liddel, Hepa, Hayes, Long, and Cunningham. But mostly it has to do with Coleman, who will project as one of the top floor leaders in the conference even as only a sophomore next year, it does have to do with Sims and Osetkowski who bring big bodies to the table AND basketball skill at the same time and that's an ass-kicking combo at the NCAA level.

Eh, you are dumb. Returning Coleman, Osetkowski, and Sims makes us look like a decent team. Getting Roach or Jones back and we look like a lock for the tournament. Factoring in our top 10 recruiting class, possibly even top 5, we look to be a probable tourney team.

Laughably hyper-critical. We had serious injury adversity last year and still made the dance and finished .500 in the toughest conference in America. Take the Barnes dick out of your mouth for a second and look at the big picture. A program is in fact being built here, and yes, it does take time. The talent is coming in and the outlook isn't particularly bad at all.

I basically agree, but forcing non-Bamba freshmen into significant roles would actually help us long-term, provided those guys don't go pro after 1 season like Bamba. The problem with one-and-dones is that if you don't win a championship the year you have them, it does nothing for your team except help establish it as a destination for top recruits. That's fine and all, but it's probably better to have a nice nucleus of players who are just slightly less draftable than Bamba, to one actual Bamba.

What is this fucking coverage? Rozier fouls Lebron and they don't even tell me how many fouls that is on Rozier. I get a sililoquey from Jeff Van Gundy about some pointless bullshit but no actual info about the game. I see ESPN is as bad as ever.

If we had some shit-ass Weltlich-era recruiting class coming in then it might be like "yeah, we NEED Snoop to return." But we are recruiting at a pretty elite level right now, so while I think we'll be a lot better if Roach does come back, I wouldn't put it in the "need" category.

Totally agree. The best possible scenario would be for Roach to decide on finishing out his career here with an awesome senior year and even saying something to the press like "I just love being a Longhorn and I wanna finish out my career here at UT." But at the same time it's all these guys' dreams to be able to earn a living playing basketball and if Roach thinks this is the best time for him to take that next step then you can't really begrudge the kid.

I'd like to have Roach back. I think we go farther with him than without him next year. Roach is a nice player. Good height, excellent athleticism, plays good defense, and puts up good assist numbers. He is not a proven shooter but his shot has improved. But, we're probably not gonna win a championship/make a final four whether he comes back or not. If that is the goal, and I think it is, then that's why i say we don't REALLY need him. Because what we need to make a final four and possibly even win a championship is a nucleus of multiple guys who can spend multiple years in college. That is what really needs to be worked for and what the long game strategy is. Roach's decision about next year isn't going to impact that very much.

Wow, Eric Gordon has come a long way from the skinny little one-and-done freshman at Indiana U. Looks like he's put on about 20 lbs too.

It took the refs an eternity to fathom the fact that a digital clock readout is going to say "0.0" for one tenth of a second before the buzzer sounds. The ESPN announcers were even slower to figure it out.

Our guys did it for Barnes for 7 years.

Where did I say anything about not needing leadership? I said that I expect Coleman and Osetkowski to provide leadership next year. Lack of seniors has indeed been a problem, but the big picture is more subtle and complicated than that. Having upperclassmen on the roster, is in general, a good thing, and it is important. Our lack of experience is a big reason why we've been getting beat up in the experienced Big 12 of the last 2 years. But there is such a thing as a good NCAA team without upperclassmen. It's rare, and the exception not the norm. But I have a hunch we're going to be good next year while still being pretty young. What I like most about the incoming class though, is that I think they'll form an ongoing nucleus year after year rather than all bolting for the pros after next year.

Aside from this statement making no real sense (what does thinking so hard have to do with being a leader?), we don't NEED Roach to be a leader next year. I'm fine with him being a good basketball player for us. That's the most important thing. Showing leadership as an upperclassman would be great too, and I hope he comes back. But we've got leadership from Coleman and Oset whether he does or doesn't come back. And the incoming class is chock full of guys who can probably play significant minutes at the NCAA level, so the fact is we don't really NEED Roach next year.

Notice how I use the word "arguably", and yes he was arguably the most talented scorer we've ever had here. All those names from the past you mentioned were SWC era guys. I guess it's tough to put him over Durant but I guess I give him some credit for being 8 inches shorter than Kevin and able to score the ball and create his own offense even better than Durant. I literally have no idea how you watched J'Covan and didn't take away from it that he was a gifted scorer.

I've always believed in character. If you look at all the NCAA championship teams of the past, you find tons of guys with great character. In the J'Covan situation, I sided with J'Covan over Barnes. I believe there were just as many character issues with Barnes as J'Covan. I didn't attend the practices and so I've only heard 2nd-hand about the stories of J'Covan's character issues. I saw the games up close and personal, and I saw J'Covan basically just play basketball his entire career, and I watched him play it well. I can't remember a single time I was ever watching a game and saw J'Covan do something that was a sign of character issues. So as far as I'm concerned the stories about J'Covan being a primadonna or whatever are hearsay and I'm just gonna go with he was arguably the most talented scorer we've ever had play here. I've always been a character guy. Basketball talent matters too though, but Tevin Mack wasn't a big enough talent to start thinking about overlooking character issues.

It should be pointed out that you used Mack's season stats for his last year here, in which he only played 2 big 12 games and the rest non-conference games. The non-conference schedule is easier than the Big schedule. Since DO's season numbers include a full slate of Big 12 games, his stats should be adjusted up for that, or TM's down.

He also had a steal, which YOU failed to mention! If we're drafting a college program for the next 4 years I take DO before Tevin Mack no question. Maturity factor alone.

It's all well and good to say "we could really use a player who can do X" but the truth is it doesn't have to be that complicated. If you put 5 solid basketball players out on the court, then solid basketball things will happen. You could field a team with all guards, literally no bigs, and if they were all badass guards, you would have a good team. So before lameting that Mack was the "type" of player "we could really use", remember that what matters more is that all the players are mature, talented, and do good things on the court.

sorry I'm not up on "''bama basketball" news. But in my defense I don't think anyone in Tuscaloosa gives a crap about the basketball team, let alone anyone outside the state of Alabama like me. Their basketball program is even worse than our's. 5 months ago we went into their place in Birmingham and stomped them by 16. Dylan O had 8 points and 11 rebounds. Tevin Mack goes from our team to 'bama and you think WE got the short end of that stick? Laughable. Mack will struggle to keep pace with incoming freshmen and Bama isn't going to be any good next year either, Tevin Mack won't change that.

Mack hogged the ball in some November and December games his sophomore year and put up ok numbers. That was after an extremely mediocre freshman year. He didn't really accomplish anything as a UT basketball player while he was here. And I just now realized, the positive quote about him from Avery Johnson is because Avery is now his head coach. LOL, no bias there!

Are you drunk or just stupid? Stop naming Mack to all-conference teams he's never been close to and probably will never make. Get back to me when he actually DOES make that team. I would take DO over Tevin Mack without the slightest hesitation. Maturity factor alone, regardless of talent. The fact that you think Mack's loss was actually a thing, in light of where we are today with recruiting and talent level, is laughable.