HookEm

In fairness some of them also played against guys that looked like this:

As far as I'm concerned, our ceiling is unchanged from the start of the season... and that is Final Four. However, our ODDS of reaching our ceiling are way lower than I thought at the start of the season. And our floor is also way lower. I'm not sure there is another team in the country with two better players than Disu and Abmas. When both of them are clicking, we can string together big wins. And both are pretty dang consistent. But the other pieces are just too hit or miss. Our odds of missing the tourney are probably better than us making the Sweet 16.

Should we be concerned that Chris Johnson isn't playing?

Abmas shoots a better percent from 3 over his whole career than J'Covan did in his BEST year... on DOUBLE the attempts. And he is a better free throw shooter. And he is more efficient from 2. J'Covan could use his strength to get buckets in a way Abmas can't though. Abmas is probably the best pure shooter we have ever had.

this is an important half of basketball. Can RT motivate them to step on their necks? Or will we settle for jacking up 3s and stop doing the dirty work?

No. Next question.

Now Abmas is just clowning on them.

You have been out on this coaching staff all year. That play was just confirmation bias. I've also been disappointed by this team, but still have hope that they can go on a run if they make the tourney.

My gosh every time down the floor is a huge dunk.

Weird to declare you are out on the team in a game where we are winning by 20 in the first half with highlight plays every time down the court. But whatever.

My hope is that Hunter works on his game and gets his head right in the offseason and has an awesome senior year here. As hard as it is to see, he has improved in his efficiency over the years. His FG% is up and he is taking fewer bad 3s. His assists are up. steals are up. He is getting to the line more. The biggest glaring issue is that he is turning the ball over way more than last year (and they seem to come at the worst times). And his free throw percentages are down. That tell me that his head isn't in the right place. We have seen players make a big final leap in their senior year (like Javan Felix or Kenton Paulino). Hunter definitely has the tools.

I think Massey's odds are pretty reasonable. Odds are 78% that we will beat ONE of Baylor, Tech, Kansas, or Houston. But... the odds are only 28% that we will win out at home. So my guess is that we go 4-4 to close the year with a surprise win on the road and a surprise loss at home.

Agree. The Beard shit is my all time sports low. He was going to crush it here. And he was going to usher in a level of fan support that we will never see again. Even beyond his coaching, that is the thing he does best. We will never get a promoter like Beard because there really isn’t anyone like him. Couple that with the Moody center and it was set up to be epic. Nope.

Thankfully I've never been abused in any form. But I do have a bias against abusive people, whether it is physical or mental. And I do agree that there is a broad spectrum for both drinking and driving and abuse. After reflection, DUI is probably worse on average. But verbal abuse can lead to terrible stuff like suicide and can ruin people's lives. I had friends with verbally abusive parents and it ruined the whole trajectory of their life. I actually ran track for UT and was coached by Stan Huntsman. That dude could be a bigtime asshole, but I never considered it abuse. I am willing to give a TON of benefit of the doubt to coaches, drill sergeants or even bosses - especially when the relationship is generally voluntary.

Meh. The fact is that just about every one of us has driven drunk. But most of us aren't verbally abusive. Our actions reflect our values, whether we admit it or not.

Drunk driving is bad because there is the POTENTIAL that you are going to harm someone. It similar in some ways to practicing poor gun safety (which is very dangerous and can get people killed). Both are very different than ACTUALLY harming someone and getting arrested for it. I would argue that being verbally abusive is worse than drunk driving. Harming someone WHILE drunk driving is different. You deserve to be fired and also go to jail in that case.

There really are times where he looks like an All-American. He can get to the rim. He can shoot (sometimes). He can play great defense. He can lead with confidence and intensity. And other times where he brings nothing to the table except turnovers. I really want to pull for him. He has so much potential.

The game last night was brutal. I would say we outplayed ISU for 30 of the 40 minutes. But the 10 they outplayed us, they REALLY outplayed us. And we missed so many easy layups in the 1st half.

Massey has us with a 59% chance of winning tonight. Projecting 70 to 67, good guys. As an aside, Massey has us finishing the year with 4.8 wins, 4.2 losses (by adding the probabilities). Or 5-4 if we win when we are favorites.

Athleticism can't be taught, but it can be improved with conditioning. Hustle can absolutely be taught and then reinforced through playing time.

Good point on Kabongo. I recall him being pretty frustrating to watch. In coming up with my placement on the list, I like to think... who would I rather have on this team: <Today's Player> or <Historic Player>, while generally trying to compare like positions. In the case of Abmas, it is interesting to see how he stacks up against the other guards. I think our ceiling would be higher with Marcus Carr, given his defense. But I'm not actually sure I would rather have Taylor or Coleman. Abmas' efficiency is just so much better than the rest of them. And his defense has been getting better every game. Max Abmas - 17.7 PTS, 2.9 TRB, 4.2 AST, 1.0 STL, 0.449 FG%, 0.399 3P%, 0.896 FT%, 2.4 TO, 18.8 PER, 0.168 WS/40, 25.1 USG%, 0.599 TS%, 6'1, 165 Marcus Carr - 15.9 PTS, 3.0 TRB, 4.1 AST, 1.6 STL, 0.428 FG%, 0.368 3P%, 0.772 FT%, 1.6 TO, 19.3 PER, 0.174 WS/40, 23.8 USG%, 0.548 TS%, 6'2, 195 Isaiah Taylor - 15.0 PTS, 2.8 TRB, 5.0 AST, 0.9 STL, 0.420 FG%, 0.311 3P%, 0.811 FT%, 1.8 TO, 21.4 PER, 0.167 WS/40, 27.1 USG%, 0.525 TS%, 6'1, 170 Matt Coleman - 13.2 PTS, 3.5 TRB, 4.0 AST, 1.2 STL, 0.485 FG%, 0.277 3P%, 0.813 FT%, 2.2 TO, 17.3 PER, 0.155 WS/40, 19.6 USG%, 0.602 TS%, 6-2, 180 AJ Abrams - 16.6 PTS, 2.2 TRB, 1.3 AST, 1.3 STL, 0.399 FG%, 0.396 3P%, 0.848 FT%, 1.4 TO, ??? PER, 0.125 WS/40, 21.6 USG%, 0.543 TS%, 5'11, 161

Agree on Ridley. He didn't have any credentials, so I left him off - even though I remember thinking how incredible he was for a time there. At his peak he was better than a lot on this list. Also, there was some talk in the other thread about how we shouldn't recruit point guards. Yes, the environment has changed, but I like seeing guys develop. And Corey Joseph, Avery Bradley and Myck Kabongo were all on the All-Freshman team. I am always surprised when I put together lists like this that Jordan Hamilton is the only All-American in the bunch. I remember him being good, but not THAT good.

Some of these shoe pics make me wonder if y'all even know what our color is.

I got to thinking about where Disu and Abmas stack up against our best players at Texas over the last 15 years. When both of these guys have it going, it is hard for me to remember more dominant players. So I decided to make my own ranked list going back to the 2009 season. Lot of great players at Texas in there. Where would you say these guys stack up? (My ranking is heavily weighted to their peak and not overall career at Texas.) Damion James - 2010 All-Big 12 1st Team Jordan Hamilton - 2011 All American 2nd Team J'Covan Brown - 2012 All-Big 12 1st Team Dylan Disu - TBD, 2023 Big 12 Tourney MVP Isaiah Taylor - 2016 All-Big 12 1st Team Marcus Carr - 2023 All-Big 12 1st Team Max Abmas - TBD AJ Abrams - 2009 All-Big 12 2nd Team Jaxson Hayes - 2019 All-Big 12 2nd Team Tristan Thompson - 2011 All-Big 12 2nd Team Sir'Jabari Rice - 2023 All-Big 12 3rd Team, 6MOY Mo Bamba - 2018 All-Big 12 2nd Team Matt Coleman - 2021 Big 12 Tourney MVP, All-Big 12 3rd Team Timmy Allen - 2022 All-Big 12 2nd Team Jonathan Holmes 2014 All-Big 12 2nd Team Andrew Jones - 2021 All-Big 12 2nd Team Myles Turner - 2015 All-Big 12 3rd Team, ROY Jarrett Allen - 2017 Big 12 All Freshman Gary Johnson -2011 All-Big 12 3rd Team Avery Bradley - 2010 Big 12 All Freshman Jericho Sims - 2021 Big 12 Tourney Team Kai Jones - 2021 Big 12 6MOY Corey Joseph - 2011 Big 12 All Freshman Courtney Ramey - 2021 All-Big 12 3rd Team Dogus Balbay - 2011 Big 12 DPOY Myck Kabongo - 2012 Big 12 All Freshman Prince Ibeh - 2016 Big 12 DPOY Sheldon McClellan Kerwin Roach Julien Lewis Javan Felix