HookEm

What a sad sack of a program Ole Miss is. Making the tourney in year one is an impossibly high standard there. Oh, except in year one, Kermit Davis (Ole Miss's LAST coach) made the tournament in year one (taking them from 12-20 the year before). Oh, and Rod Barnes, the Ole Miss coach two coaches prior (in the early 2000s) took Ole Miss to the 2nd round of the tournament in his first year. Of course, Barnes' starting point was higher, but still... two out of the last three Ole Miss coaches made the tourney in year one. Neither of those dudes were top-5 coaches either.

Cool. Beard is better than RT. Got it. You win an argument that literally nobody is having.

And yet RT is a terrible coach because he wasn't dominant at Fresno State and UTEP. Hahahaha.

You keep saying this, but it simply isn't true. I guess that is the state of the world these days... There is no middle ground or balance. You are either labeled as an RT sunshine pumper or hater. There was no bigger Beard fan on this board than me, I promise you that. I liked him long before Texas hired him. My parents are top 1% Tech donors and are basketball fanatics. I've been subjected to countless Beard games over the years. And when we hired him, it was guaranteed we were going to be great. But Beard didn't do it alone at Tech. Mark Adams was a big reason for their success and was a great assistant. Dude coached a Juco national title himself and took Tech to the Sweet 16. He was just too weird and lost the locker room. And Beard didn't do it alone at Texas. Rodney Terry and the rest of the staff did a lot of the heavy lifting before Beard was fired, and did all of the heavy lifting after. Most of my posts simply ask that we give RT the credit that he is due. But for the thousandth time, I don't think we should have hired him. I also wouldn't say that Beard's season this year is an "epic failure", but it is a failure. BEARD HIMSELF WOULD SAY IT IS A FAILURE.

I suppose there are only 10-20 people who actually read this thread so there is no reason to keep my spot secret...

I could tell you but then I would have to kill you

Fair, but Tark also landed them on probation. RT also made the tourney at Fresno.

Again, a top-5 coach should never miss the tournament even at a school without a ton of historical success. Ole Miss has resources. We aren't talking about Fresno State here.

I was at the game. The first half was one of the best performances I have ever seen from a Texas team. Just incredible. But then you look at the scoreboard and we were only up by single digits. It was inevitable. Once the outside shots stopped falling, like they always do, you have to be able to work it inside. We HAD to have Disu to close this one out. The team knew it. The fans knew it. When he went down it was over. And as an aside, Disu is going to have to learn to stay out of foul trouble. Other teams take it right at him constantly knowing that he is going to foul. It is too bad we won’t get to play in that arena again. If I’m honest, I like it better for hoops than Moody.

I was making shit up. I recall that being the story at the time, but who knows. My bad. Really all four of those guys would have done very well to stay and play under Beard. I'm sure Coleman wasn't forced out, or even hinted at that he should move on.

This is also misleading. Chris Beard was announced April 1... AFTER Beard was announced, we lost all of the following at the end of April / early May: Donovan Williams (National #66), who went on to average 12.7 pts, 3.3 reb for UNLV (and is currently on the Atlanta Hawks) Kemaka Hepa (National #55), who had played in 50+ games and would go on to average 11 & 6 over two years at Hawaii Gerald Liddell (National #44), who went on to average 12 pts, 7.6 reb for Alabama State & Detroit Royce Hamm, left and averaged 8.6 pts, 9.3 reb for UNLV Matt Coleman still had a year of eligibility left and could have come back. He ended up undrafted. Greg Brown cost himself a lot of money by going pro and went from a potential lottery pick to being drafted 43rd overall. Beard didn't inherit just four dudes, he had eight... and then forced out four of them and replaced them with better players. At least get the narrative right. Do better. lol.

Come on man. Beard had FIVE dudes on the 21-22 team who were All-Conference the year before playing for him. The team was talented AF to be a one and done in the tourney: Marcus Car - 20-21 3rd Team All Big 10 and on the late-season Wooden Award List Timmy Allen - 20-21 1st Team All-Pac10 Andre Jones - 20-21 2nd Team All-Big 12 Courtney Ramey - 20-21 3rd Team All-Big 12 Tre Mitchell - 20-21 1st Team All A10

The standard is also different for football and basketball. We are a true blue-blood in football. We might be up or down any given year, but we are without question one of the 7-8 best programs in the history of the sport. We should expect to make the new playoffs every year, and win a title once every 15-20 years. In basketball, we have potential to be a great program, but we have never lived up to it. Barnes was (and is) a very good coach, but only got us to one Final Four and two Elite 8s. Shaka was the hottest coach in the country when we hired him and he sucked ass. Now he left and is having more success at freaking Marquette. Chris Beard was building something good, but who knows if he would have reached the mountain top. Even if he hadn't bit and choked his way out of Austin, he has a volatile temper and has a hard time holding on to talented players. Ultimately, Texas basketball has more in common with Aggy football than with UT football. We recruit well and hire previously successful coaches. We get glimmers of success, but just never pull it all together for a sustained period. It sucks, but it is true. Expecting more from RT than was delivered by Penders, Barnes, Shaka and Beard is weird.

SMH. So much wrong in these posts. Not even gonna try.

I've read some stupid shit on this board, but this takes the cake. In our history, Texas has never made the Elite 8 in back to back years. Ever. But if RT doesn't make it this year, the season is a failure? Lololol. Do you even stop to think before you spout this crap? Given our losses, just making the tournament this year is a small success, especially given how brutal the Big 12 is this year. Also I get that Beard deserves credit for "building" the roster last year and developing the players in the offseason. But RT didn't exactly "inherit" the team. He and the rest of the staff were right there in the middle of it all, from recruiting, to conditioning, to player development.

Dwyane Wade was great in the 2003 NCAA Tourney.

It is crazy that one of the worst P5 coaches is somehow going to finish in the top-6 in by far the hardest conference in the country, likely in the top-25 in KenPom, and ahead of 63/80 of those P5 coaches. If we end up as a 7-seed, we are going to be the highest ranked 7-10 seed in KenPom. Any 1-2 seed that doesn't want to avoid us is really stupid.

We really need to get out of the dreaded 8/9 game. Even if that means losing on purpose to get to a 10-11 seed. That said, playing UConn again wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Last time they faced us we did ok without BOTH Disu and Shedrick.

Ole Miss is within 300 miles of Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Little Rock and all the medium and small towns in between. There are 27M people within that 300 mile radius. Lubbock is within 300 miles of DFW, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque. There are 14M people within that 300 mile radius. Gonzaga is pretty remote and they seem to do ok.

Counterpoint:

Here are the remaining schedules for the middle of the pack Big-12 Schools. Games between mid-pack teams are bolded. Kansas (9-6) - at Baylor (41%), K-State (79%), at Houston (26%) Baylor (9-6) - Kansas (59%), Texas (67%), at Tech (51%) BYU (8-7) - TCU (61%), at ISU (33%), OSU (74%) Tech (8-7) - at WV (59%), at OSU (56%), Baylor (49%) TCU (8-7) - at BYU (39%), at WV (59%), UCF (72%) OU (7-8) - Houston (28%), Cinci (65%), at Texas (33%) Texas (7-8) - OSU (78%), at Baylor (33%), OU (67%) K-State (7-8) - at Cinci (38%), at Kansas (21%), ISU (43%) If all the favorites win, you end up with: 12-6 - Baylor 10-8 - KU 10-8 - BYU 10-8 - Tech 10-8 - TCU 9-9 - Texas 8-10 - OU 7-11 - K-State So we really need the above teams to lose every game that isn't to another mid-pack team.

In this era of NIL and transfer portal, there is really no excuse for a top tier coach not making the tournament, even in year 1. Beard was hired March 13. That gave him the entire transfer portal to build a team - and the entire offseason to coach it up. And he wasn't coaching in March, so he could immediately get to recruiting those transfers. This season is ending up as a mild failure IMO. If Coach K, Bill Self or Roy Williams took over Ole Miss in this era, everyone would expect them to be ultra competitive immediately. And top-tier players would have been transferring there from day 1. Beard signed the #12, #78, #106, #108, #132, #137 portal players. That is good, but not great. He had a lot of advantages at Texas, but I also think the staff he put together was a great group of recruiters - including Rodney Terry. We'll see what year two looks like, but I'm not ready to declare that he is going to own us in the SEC.

How dare you have optimism, sir.

I think the takeaway is that 8/9 is a worse case scenario if you are looking to go very far. Have to avoid playing a 1-seed who are generally in a different class than the 2-4 seeds.

Actually, just looked it up and it seems I'm right. Historic odds by seed: