HookEm

I agree 100% with this BTW. I have no doubt we are going to add another big, and if we don't it will be a huge failure. We don't have to get an awesome big, but we have to have depth. Unless Onyema gets hugely better, he shouldn't be getting more than 5 minutes per game on a competitive team. Either of the guys mentioned above would change the trajectory of the team next year given the current roster. I have no doubt Toppin would start, likely at PF with Shedrick at center. Then with the first substitution we could go small. Just need some good news up in here.

This take is overly cynical. We fired Rick Barnes, who is fringe top tier and our all time coaching leader to try to get better results. Then we hired Shaka Smart who was fresh off a Final Four at VCU and at 38 years old, was by far the hottest young coach in the country. In his final year, he got as high as #4 in the AP and was a 3-seed, and we still effectively fired him after the loss to ACU. We turned around and hired Chris Beard who was also fresh off a Championship Game appearance and also a top-5 coach with a huge runway in front of him. And at the same time we upgraded our facilities and built one of the best basketball arenas in the country. Hiring RT was an unfortunate, but unavoidable decision that has been beaten to death on this board. I'm pretty confident that the administration won't stick with him for very long though if the program doesn't start competing for a title very soon. In spite of all the underachievement, Texas still ranks as the #13 program since 1997 according to KenPom, which is mildly surprising to me.

Agree completely. He was horrid last year. Maybe he will be a little better next year. My main concern is that Shedrick gets hurt and then we are playing Onyema 30 minutes a game. Holy hell that would be terrible.

I would definitely like another big, but it is possible to win at the college level without having big interior players as long as the team plays good team defense. Houston had the #2 defense in CBB last year and their starting bigs were 6'7 J'Wan Roberts and 6'8 Ja'Vier Francis. We made the Elite Eight with 6'9 Disu and 6'7 Christian Bishop. If the season started today, we would have 6'11 Shedrick getting probably 25 min, 6'8 Onyema getting 10 maybe 6'9 Nicholas Codie getting 5 min. Given the team makeup, I'm going to assume we almost never play with two "bigs" and instead play with a lead guard, 3 rangy guard/forwards and then a center. This wouldn't be a bad lineup: 6'3 Julian Larry 6'5 Tremon Mark 6'6 Tre Johnson 6'7 Jason Kent 6'11 Kaden Shedrick Or swap out 6'2 Jordan Pope for Julian Larry. We have really good size now at the guard spots and it opens up a lot of options that we have missed in recent years.

The announcement is wrong then. It only matters because everyone who sees it is like “we got ANOTHER guard?”. Well, we didn’t. This guy will never play one of the two primary ball handling spots. He is a small forward. Is Alex Anamekwe a guard? Cause that is who he is replacing.

Wouldn’t be my preference either, but he did start over half the games for a SD State team that was better than Texas last year.

It sounds like we may only have room for one more player. What bigs are realistic targets at this point. We HAVE to get another center. If Shedrick goes down (who seems prone to injury), we are starting Onyema. Ideally we would get someone good enough to send Shedrick to the 2nd unit.

Probably should change the thread title to "Transfer F Malik Presley"

He is more of a forward at 6'6, 200. Seems like some development depth freed up by Anamekwe bolting.

I have had many run-ins with Derka on the hoops boards. Somehow I missed this thread and was like... why are the basketball boards so peaceful all of a sudden... and so boring? Well, now I know why. I'm sad to see Derka go, but in my view he bullies far more than he is bullied. He loves to attack people, inflame a situation, and call names, and then in the end try to gaslight everyone into thinking HE was the one who was attacked. I have seen it over and over again. I've also seen him repeatedly derail a thread away from a positive discussion and on to whatever topic he wants. And it is very often an inflammatory topic where he is inventing an argument so that he can do what he loves... argue with huge longcat multi-posts that just wear you out. Classic example is reminding everyone over and over that he was the only one who thought we shouldn't have hired RT and everyone else is a small minded sunshine pumper. Man it was getting tiresome. But I always tried to de-escalate the situation because I know about his mental health issues. F the people who TRY to stir him up knowing about his issues. That was also ruining the board. I don't necessarily think he should have been banned, but he was given clear choices and the consequences for those choices were known to him when he made them. He knew he would be banned and just kept on digging in. It is sad to see, but not at all surprising. As time passes, I'm hopeful he will be invited back. That said, I'm sure he has already found a way to get past any bans and is already posting under a new handle.

Thanks for the clip. I like the way he moves without the ball to find open space near the rim. Hopefully we have the players with enough vision to take advantage of it. He also appears to be a good finisher (although everyone looks good in a highlight reel). I like that he goes up with the intent to dunk on someone in a lot of those plays. He looks more like a power forward to me. His game seems to be in the paint or 3s. He doesn't seem to score much off the dribble. I didn't seen him shot fake on the 3 and then attack the basket a single time. I bet he is the kind of player where at the end of the game you see that he has scored 14 points and are like, wow where did those points come from. Timmy Allen style. Unless we get some serious talent in the post, I don't see him ever playing small forward on this team based on what I have seen so far.

Is Kent more of a small forward or power forward? Any historical Texas comps?

The AF guy is not who we should be going for IMO. Between Jayson Kent, Tremon Mark and Tre Johnson, we already have enough bodies who can play small forward. If we get him, that's fine, but we have bigger needs. We really need an elite 4/5. Somebody can defend bigs and who brings a tough attitude to the team.

I swear, the thread police are out in full force. News flash: We aren't like the 300 other teams. There are no more than 10-15 other teams with our NIL bankroll, facilities, and clear need at his position. If we aren't working back channels to express our interest and resources, then we are dropping the ball.

Beard's positionless switching defense at Tech would be a perfect fit for that lineup. Basically a team full of forwards.

I would love for us to get Omier. He is an very solid rebounder and overall player. He isn't a great threat from outside, but 35% from 3 isn't bad. We could go "small" with 6'3 Julian Larry, 6'5 Tremon Mark, 6'6 Tre Johnson, 6'7 Jayson Kent and 6'8 Norchad Omier. That is a lineup that would give teams a lot of trouble. All of those guys are very good defenders. Great rebounding, great scoring. That said I have no idea if we are even a possibility.

This dude should be our #1 target right now. He would immediately change the potential of the team. He is one of the top rebounders in the country, particularly on the offensive glass. Was also the Sun Belt defensive player of the year before going to Miami. And he can score inside and outside the paint. Break the bank and do what is needed with NIL to go get him.

Never said RT has us on the brink of greatness. Had he won last year Beard would have gotten a huge amount of the credit. I prefaced all this by saying that Hurley is clearly the better coach. Maybe we would have won, maybe we wouldn’t have. We will obviously never know. And I’ll admit that saying we WOULD have won came across as more absolute than I intended. That said, had we beaten Miami, I do think Vegas would have had us favored in the game.

In a neutral site game, yes they probably would have beaten us by double digits too. But if Texas was playing in Houston, the atmosphere would have been wild. We would have packed 50K+ fans into NRG for that game. Plus, it isn't like they were 1990 UNLV. They were seeded worse than us. They lost 8 games, including two losses to Xavier (who we beat by 12), and also lost to Creighton, who we beat by 5. FWIW, I also think we would have beaten Michigan if we had made it to Houston in football. Flame away.

Hurley is a better coach and UConn is a better program, but last year in a virtual home game they were only up by four with five minutes to play… and we were playing without our two starting bigs, one of them a 1st team All Big 12 player in Disu. I am also convinced we would have beaten them in Houston if we had made the Final Four.

My preference for how the 1-3 shakes out: Starters PG - Julian Larry - 6'3 185, 10.6 PTS, 4.9 AST, 3.0 TRB, 1.9 TO, 1.6 STL, 51.1 FG%, 42.9 3P%, 79.7 FT% 1 yr left (5th year), 2x All MVC Defense, 3rd Team All MVC, #1 MVC steals, #2 MVC assist SG/SF - Tramon Mark - 6'5 180, 16.4 PTS, 2.0 AST, 5.0 TRB, 2.1 TO, 1.5 STL, 43.6 FG%, 32.7 3T%, 82.2 FT% 2 years left (5th yr, RS). Gets buckets and is also a very solid defender. SG/SF - Tre Johnson - 6'6, 190, 11.1 PTS, 2.6 AST, 2.9 TRB, 0.9 TO, 0.9 STL, 43.3 FG%, 35.7 3P%, 94.1 FT% (U19 WC) Top 5 national recruit. Very skilled scorer and able defender. Not a raw athlete like our previous high recruits. Dude is very skilled and lit up the McDonalds AA game with 5 3s. Bench (conference stats) PG/SG – Jordan Pope – 6’2, 165, 18.0 pts, 3.5 AST, 2.5 TRB, 2.5 TO, 0.7 STL, 46.0 FG%, 35.8 3P%, 85.7 FT% 2 years left. Has improved every year. Will likely be our starting PG the year after next. I would start Tre Johnson, but I would close with Pope similar to how we used Rice last year. SG/SF - Chendall Weaver - 6'3, 165, 7.4 PTS, 0.8 AST, 3.5 TRB, 0.4 TO, 0.6 STL, 51.7 FG%, 17.6 3P%, 70.7 FT% Dude has the potential to be so much better than his numbers. He is a game changer off the bench. If his efficiency improves in the offseason, he will get more minutes. But right now, I think he is clearly the 5th best of the bunch.

Great pickup. My only wish is that he came from more of a winning culture. The Indiana State guys won a lot of games. And Tramon Mark won a lot of games at Houston. Oregon State has been pretty bad for the last two years.

That could give us a home schedule like this (plus whatever terrible nonconference filler they give us): #1 UCONN #4 Auburn #14 Alabama #26 Florida #35 Aggy - Permanent Rival #46 Oklahoma - Permanent Rival #54 South Carolina #84 Georgia #108 Arkansas - Rotating H/A #183Vanderbilt This year we played: #2 UH #8 Iowa State #15 Baylor #31 Tech #46 Oklahoma #66 UCF #70 K-State #117 Okie State #144 WV Even though the SEC isn't quite as good of a basketball conference, that looks like a more interesting home schedule to me. And it could get more interesting if we get Tennessee or Ole Miss at home.