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HookEm

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Posts posted by HookEm

  1. I'm not too worried about Beard to UNC. I don't think that is the style they are looking for. Plus they seem to like keeping it in the UNC family. 

    Wes Miller to UNC?  Probably a stretch, but he is an alumni, only 38, and has won the Southern Conference 3 of the last 5 years, going 105-42 (71.4%).

    Mark Turgeon is from the Roy Williams coaching tree and could be a candidate. Yesterday he said he's not interested in the OU job, so maybe he had forewarning about Roy retiring.  He has only done "ok" though at Maryland, going 105-79 in the Big 10 and winning the conference once in 7 years.

  2. Quote

    The comparison is Kansas:UNC to Tech:UT

    This is generous to Tech.

    That said, I do think college sports are different - especially basketball.  It is possible to build a powerhouse at a location that isn't exactly desirable.  Is Lubbock so much worse than East Lansing, Bloomington, Louisville, or Memphis.  The airport is easy to get to and makes all of Texas accessible.  They have really good facilities and are kings of the campus. The "talent" on campus is better than anything you will find in the mid-west.  Beard has already shown he can recruit 4 and 5-star talent to Lubbock.  

    The main thing he has at Tech that he won't have at Texas is a really long leash.  His hard-ass underdog style of coaching actually may play better with the recruits he will land and the Tech alumni than it will at Texas.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  3. Ramey will be an excellent player when he gets a little better coaching. The tools are there.

    If we hire Ivey it wouldn’t surprise me for a couple of our seniors to stick around. I can see Durant and some of the NBA alumni making a call and putting some pressure on them to help make him successful.

  4. The thing about Chris Beard... his favorite place on earth is his place in Castell, between Llano and Mason. It is where he spends his down time.

    On the positive side for UT, it is a good bit closer to Austin. On the downside, it shows what he values in life. His ideal day is fishing on the Llano river in a fairly remote location, not taking advantage of big city life and all his money.

    So in my view, it will come down to whether being a UT alumni is at all part of his identity, and whether he thinks it will be easier to leverage the UT resources and brand to get recruits and win games. For the former, I have no idea - but I would feel better about our chances if he was a former player instead of just a student. For the later, he is already starting to land 5-star talent in Lubbock. I don’t think he will view UT as a huge upgrade there.

    I think he ultimately stays at Tech. I think he wants to turn it into a modern day Indiana. We will see on Thursday I guess. My Tech parents are losing their freaking minds right now at the thought of losing him.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  5. I’m about to take the family to the Mauna Kea hotel on the Big Island. It was running 50K per night, but $800 if paying cash rates. I thought that was an amazing redemption for Marriott. Not sure if they have suites.

    The SWA flight from Austin to Kona is 10 hours and includes a 1 hour layover in San Jose. On the way back we are doing a 1 night stopover in San Francisco.

  6. Updated odds that players stay.  Man this looks shitty.  I'm assuming we are going to hit the transfer portal hard.  Otherwise, this looks like the worst team in the Big-12 (and maybe the last 25 years of Texas basketball). 

    Starters:

    • Courtney Ramey - 95% - I can't imagine he would leave given that he will get unlimited shots next year
    • Tamar Bates - 100% - Welcome to the starting lineup
    • Brock Cunningham - 99% - I'm guessing we start him at the 3 and go "big"
    • Kamaka Hepa - 80% - He should get a big up-tick in minutes next year and will be an important piece
    • David Joplin - 100% - Could get 20+ minutes off the bench depending on our forward depth

    Bench:

    • Emarion Ellis - 100% - Could be a 2-3 year project before we get significant contribution
    • Keeyan Itejere - 100% - Hopefully he another diamond in the rough like Jaxson Hayes or Kai Jones. 

    Probably Gone:

    • Andrew Jones - 50% - My guess is he goes to the NBA-DL or Europe. Nothing to gain by another year 
    • Jase Febres - 40% - Bumping down to 40% due to senior night indications
    • Greg Brown - 15% - Stock has taken a bit of a hit. Will get tons of usage next year if he stays.
    • Matt Coleman - 10% - There is a chance he returns to help Shaka save his job.
    • Jericho Sims - 10% - Think he will go try to make money somewhere
    • Kai Jones - 1% - He is projected anywhere from 10-22 in the draft and he is a soph.  He gone.

    Gone:

    • Donovan Williams - 0% - 95% - Ouch. This is a terrible loss, even though he wasn't great this year.
    • Royce Hamm - 0% - 35% - As expected. I can't fault anyone for leaving once they have earned their degree.  
    • Will Baker - 0% - I suspect he will turn into an all-conference type player some day.
    • Greg Liddell - 0% - We are also going to ultimately miss him when he contributes for someone else

    I suppose there is still a 1 / 1000 chance that Andrew Jones, Matt Coleman and Jericho Sims all come back to try to save Shaka's job.  VERY unlikely though.

    • Like 1
  7. I was giving Sims crap for not bringing his best energy on the boards, and he shouldve no matter what his touches look like.  But it is hard to blame him for being disengaged when you see this stat.  

    How many times did we throw it away or get it stolen on the perimeter before we could get it down to Sims? A lot.
    • Hook 'Em 1
  8. It is a terrible terrible loss. One that will follow me for a long time courtesy of my ACU sister and BIL.

    That said, I knew this was going to be a dogfight as soon as I saw Tech only beat them by 7. And Arkansas didn’t blow them out either. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they beat UCLA. They are so scrappy.

  9. I'm not saying Shaka is the guy.  But I'm saying Barnes isn't the guy.  

    Every year his teams jump out to a good start. Every year I find myself thinking, "maybe we should'a just kept him". Then every year I get a fun reminder like this.

  10. I haven’t had much of a problem with Shaka’s rotations this year. For the most part, the games in the Big 12 have been very close. A few extra minutes for Hepa or Liddell could mean the difference between winning and losing.

    At least with Hepa, he seems to have a great attitude through it all. He is always on the bench cheering for guys and encouraging. And when he actually got minutes against K-State he responded with 15 pts on good efficiency.

    I think we disagree on Shaka’s development of players. Sims, Coleman, Ramey have shown steady improvement in their time here. Kai Jones has improved. Even Andrew Jones has developed well if you factor in his health issues.

    I’m expecting some good growth from Brock and Hepa.

    Anyway there will be plenty of time to discuss it all a month from now.

  11. Derka, what you posted is pretty much a worst case scenario for Texas next year and it is still vastly better than the 2017 squad with Tevin Mack and Shaq Cleare as the upper class “leaders”. Losing Taylor and Barnett killed that year.

    I can’t really disagree regarding Andrew Jones on whether he should come back. But I think he will. And as I’ve said before, I also think Febres will come back and would have redshirted this year if it was necessary.

    Losing Will Baker hurts a little, but he would have been a liability on this year’s squad. Let’s not forget he shot 27% last year. As a 7 footer. And the only way to keep him happy would have been to take away minutes from Sims, K Jones or G Brown. Also not sure who I would want Liddell taking minutes from this year either, but I absolutely wouldn’t want him getting the 18 mpg he got as a soph (while shooting 40% FG and 48% FT).

    I think Hepa will surprise some people next year. He isn’t getting many minutes this year but his efficiency is much better and his per 40 stats are all up a lot. He will get a lot of time next year and another year of maturation will do him some good. Maybe we will see a Jason Klotz / Clint Chapman type senior year out of him.

    I would love to see Royce Hamm back for another year. It seems unlikely, but he would help the team so much. Of course he is averaging 11+ fouls per 4 min, so even if he came back I’m not sure we could count on him for more than 15 mph.

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