HookEm

We are also two last second shots from being 0-5.

As far as the team goes, I think we need to get Weaver up to 25 minutes a game. His athleticism is NBA level and he also hustles. He is also extremely engaged on the bench and is constantly cheering the team on. He could be a cornerstone of this program for the next 3 years with proper development. I want to see more out of Chris Johnson as well. He is very talented and if we don't play him, he is just going to hit the portal. This team showed today that they can beat anybody when Hunter is playing well. Abmas is always solid and Disu is great if he can stay out of foul trouble. This team could be one of my all time favorites if everyone would just play to their potential. Or it could be one of the most frustrating Texas teams ever (which is how it is trending). We are about 5 points away from being at the top of the Big 12 standings. And we are about 5 points away from being in last place. The season could still go either way. Freaking WV just knocked off KU.

I added that part intentionally.

I don't know how anyone can be an alumni or fan of a team and root against them. Must be a miserable life. That was an awesome win. I want more awesome wins. We ultimately fired Shaka and he was a 3-seed with one of the better teams in the country. Terry is going to need to be exceptional to keep his job. We don't need the program to bottom out to fire him.

I thought the rotations were way better today. We are so shallow in the post that we have to go small for a good portion of the game. Shedrick played "ok" today, but he doesn't need more than 20 minutes, and his health probably wouldn't allow it anyway. Onyema is so limited on offense that we can't play both him and Mitchell at the same time. And really his defense and rebounding are also sub-par. He didn't see the floor today, which I see as a good thing. I would rather go small and give Horton, Weaver or even Chris Johnson more minutes at the 3 (and Mitchell a TON of minutes at the 4). Cunningham just hasn't been playing well at all and his minutes finally reflected it. He ended up with 10 minutes vs. his season average of 26. That is where he needs to stay until he can find his shot again. Horton is a turnstyle on defense, but he can also get hot and spaces the floor better than Cunningham (especially when he is this ice cold). Weaver got 19 minutes tonight vs. 4 against UCF. I really think if he would have played a similar number of minutes on Wednesday we would have won. I think our best lineup is: Hunter, Abmas, Weaver, Mitchell, Disu. That gives us a lot of athleticism and hustle rebounding. It gives us pretty decent shooting as well, and we can run the floor. And if Disu needs a breather put in Shedrick. If one of the guards need a breather put in Horton for any of the three. But I don't think we can start Disu and Shedrick as long as they are both hurt.

I wonder if the rise in cancer is simply a result of people living longer. A ton of men will get prostate cancer if they live long enough. Doesn't mean it will kill them though.

Let's be honest, children are a beating. They are a blessing. But my goodness they are also a beating. \Father of 3 teenagers

I still think FSU is better and draws more eyeballs than the average SEC team, which should mean that it raises the contract incrementally for everyone. I actually think UNC is also pretty valuable all things considered. They are about on the same level as Ole Miss in football... but they are an absolute cream of the crop blue blood in hoops. And they are a also a top-25 national university. North Carolina is a populated state that is still geographically congruous to the existing SEC. Either the BIG or the SEC would be glad to have them. Virginia is another interesting one. They would help the SEC further expand to the Northeast with another flagship university in the 12th most populous state. And they are a top-25 university as well. Their football program isn't great right now, but their basketball team has won a title recently. I think they will be one of the more valuable programs in this next round of realignment. I don't think it is a huge driver, but adding UNC (#22), Virginia (#24), FSU (#53) and even Clemson (#86) to the SEC would be a coup from an academic perspective. Coupled with the recent Texas add and they will have really helped their academic reputation. If the ACC even loses FSU, it is going to really hurt their brand. If they lose their top 4-5 schools, their next contract will be far lower than the Big 12... which means the remaining decent programs will jump.

CDC to Beard: I pardon you

The thing about Chris Beard was that if we ever got up by 10 points, it was game over. If we ever got to 50 points, it was also likely game over. Having an elite defense and a methodical slow paced, but efficient offense meant that a 10 point lead functioned more like a 20 point lead. With this team, a 20 point lead feels more like a 5 point lead.

Shedrick, Onyema and Disu combined for 40 minutes... and 2 rebounds. FFS. Rebounding is a great indicator of coaching IMO. It relies on position (coaching) and effort (coaching) much more than on athleticism. Kevin freaking Love led the NBA in rebounding. How in the world can those three only get 2 rebounds in a game? They should be combining for 15.

I mean I wanted 20 min of IT and 20 min of WEAVER.

Prediction: We go 4-14 in conference play. Then Abmas and Disu go crazy in the Big 12 tourney and we win it. Let me dream.

This team still has some good pieces. Abmas and Disu are really good players. But they are also both finesse players. We need some dogs on this team and don't have any. Shedrick was getting completely and totally outplayed. At one point he knocked down UCF #5 and tried to help him up. UCF player slapped his hand away and was like "bitch ass mothafucka". That dude was a dog and was the player of the game IMO. He wasn't trying to make friends. He was out there trying to beat the shit out of us. Maybe Shedrick is hurt. Who knows. But I was promised an enforcer and he isn't that guy. I also thought IT played "ok", but it was fools gold. His defense wasn't good. He wasn't chasing down loose balls or getting position. Zero steals. Zero blocks (for a big guard). Three rebounds. He played slow and soft and settled for jacking up 3s at the worst moments. I would have rather gotten 20 minutes of him and 20 minutes of Shedrick - who could possibly change the pace. Instead we got 37... THIRTY SEVEN!! minutes of Horton. Dude is somewhat fat and looks out of shape. He doesn't need 37 minutes. Damn. Come on Rodney. And if you are going to have Abmas out there for 39 minutes, you need the other guards to be able to play defense and cover his weaknesses.

There is no doubt in my mind that if you gave this team to Bill Self (or Chris Beard or any of the top 10 college coaches), they would find a way to make them great. Our issues with Mitchell, Abmas, Hunter, Horton and others would not be as pronounced because the great coaches would develop them and also game plan around them such that they could be successful. So credit RT for recruiting, but that was never a concern. He gets an F for developing chemistry. The team looks like they just met at the Y and are now playing pickup. And yes I know there was a lot of turnover and these guys haven’t had a ton of time together. But they aren’t getting any better as the season moves along. There doesn’t seem to be any leadership from the court or from the bench.

The roster isn't the issue. I actually give RT an "A" for getting this roster assembled in the timeframe that he did it. Abmas was a GREAT add. I mean he just about single handedly took Oral Roberts to the Sweet 16 and earned All Region honors. Disu is a fringe All-American. Shedrick was a great add. Getting Mitchell to come back was a nice feat. And the portal guys we lost were either knuckleheads (see Arterio Morris) or not major contributors (see Rowan Brumbaugh). And he has done a great job recruiting HS for 2025. Right now we have #5 Tre Johnson, #37 Cam Scott and #46 Nicolas Codie. That is a potentially great class. The problem is that the sum of all this talent is less than the parts. They play hard, but don't play effectively. The individual and team defense is nowhere close to what it could be. The offense has no identity. It is frustrating AF to watch.

I just think it is going to be a feeding frenzy. The SEC and BIG still want to add good pieces. BIG seems to have room for two more. SEC could add four. That would get both to 20. This will be their last chance to add GOOD pieces, so I think they will. Any new contract for the ACC will be dogshit. You really think UNC or Miami will stay to prop up the ACC when they are making pennies on the dollar vs. what they could make in a better conference? No chance. It will be PAC10 part 2. I think when the dust settles you will have the following adds: BIG - FSU and Notre Dame SEC - UNC, Virginia, Clemson, Miami Big12 - Virginia Tech, Pitt, Duke, Louisville (Good enough football and great hoops) The leftovers would then be: NC State, Wake, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Syracuse, Stanford, Cal, SMU. Plus you have Boise State, Fresno St, Oregon State, Washington State, UConn, Memphis and maybe a few others that they could add into a big national conference. My guess is that they won't though because nothing they do will be enough to give them an auto-bid. Their best move would be to form a few 10-12 team regional conferences and hope to get in via the "best other conference champ" route.

Exactly. We get to be in a situation where we can't decide whether it is better to root for or against our own team.

Hiring RT was about optics, but there was also a degree of loyalty involved. You had a good, long-term assistant take over under extremely tough circumstances and lead us to the Elite 8. He helped deflect all the attention off the Beard situation and shifted the focus to whether or not we would hire RT. Not giving him a shot would have been poor form IMO. But I think everyone involved knew that it was a long shot. So... we gave him just about the minimum contract that wouldn't handcuff him on the recruiting trail. And now that it looks like he isn't up to the task, I think we will move on fairly quickly. It isn't like he is Shaka, with a National Coach of the Year award, who took his own team to the Final Four.

I agree with most of your post except this point. I think the Big 12 is already pretty clearly the #3 conference. Once Florida State bolts, some of the upper middle ACC schools are going to fight it out to join the Big 12 (schools like Virginia Tech, Pitt, Virginia and Louisville). They will take note of what happened to WSU and Oregon State and won't want to be stuck without a chair when the music stops. The ACC is as good as dead, IMO. Then there will be 2 power conferences, plus the Big 12 (with the rest of the respectable programs)... then everybody else. The SEC and BIG will get in 4 per year. Big 12 will get 2-3. And one spot will be left for everyone else. \Crystal Ball

It is funny to search google for "top college basketball coaches" and see three of our former coaches in the top-25. Meanwhile... we have Rodney Terry.

I agree. This is all true. On the flip side, I don't think Mick Cronin would have left UCLA for Texas if we had come calling at the end of last year (with him coming off a Final 4 and then back to back Sweet 16s). In fact, we would have a near impossible convincing any these guys to leave their current job to come to Texas: Bill Self, Kansas Dan Hurley, UConn Scott Drew, Baylor Tom Izzo, Michigan State Mike Cronin, UCLA Mark Few, Gonzaga Rick Barnes, Tennessee (lol) Shaka Smart, Marquette (lol) Chris Beard, Ole Miss (lol) We might be able to get one of these guys: Tony Bennett, Virginia John Calipari, Kentucky Tommy Lloyd, Arizona

In fairness, I think the top 5 jobs are pretty fluid right now. We don't really know which schools are going to be most committed to NIL (and have coaches who know how to exploit it). Florida seems like it should be a top football job, but... Florida State seems more desperate to win big and may significantly out spend them. It seemed like Aggy was about to be a major player in football when they were writing blank checks, but it hasn't panned out yet.