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If he makes a series of Sweet 16s he's never getting fired. If he doesn't, he will at some point. People can predict whatever they want about his career trajectory at Texas. For example, I don't think he's going to make it long term. But I'd love to be proven wrong, and the way to prove me wrong is to have some level of consistent NCAA tournament success. To me he gets some credit for that team making it to the Elite Eight, even if Chris Beard was the architect for the program. That was some crazy stuff that went down. Things could have easily gone sideways. They didn't, and it was a blast to follow. I'm not able to be completely dismissive of him because of that. I'm also not watching what he's done this year and thinking I've misjudged him as a coach. I have no idea what team is going to show up from game to game. If that ends up being a formula to make it to the second weekend of the tournament, he has a lifetime position. I also don't mean if he falls short of the 2nd weekend one time he will be canned. I'm just saying if he can't make it there again after his first season over the next few years, I don't see him being extended. To me that's pretty much the bottom line. Things can be accelerated if he fails to make the tournament, but the victory over Texas Tech has me hopeful in a way I wasn't prior to that.

All I know is that last night's win was glorious. I refuse to root for Terry to lose and miss the tournament just so I can be correct. I want to be wrong. I want Texas to win in basketball and be very successful. If that's under Terry, I'll be thrilled. I was ready to stick a fork in this team for this season, and then they pull that thumping in Lubbock. That was so much fun!

Spring volleyball matches this week Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and Monday. Thursday at 7pm at Gregory. It will be shown on LHN. Texas State is the opponent. Friday at 6pm at Gregory. No LHN. A&M-CC is the opponent. Saturday versus UH. No time and no site announced, which means it will probably be no public invited. Monday at 7pm in San Antonio versus UTSA. There's also a trip to Europe for the team later on this semester.

You make it sound like some kind of insult. I'm glad they bother.

I never started. We got an Elite Eight out of it. We're not exactly covered with those in this program. It's a legitimate reason for celebration. I'm not going to root for Texas basketball to fail, but I am going to say not making the tournament has a very big silver lining. I feel confident right now by the end of next year we're looking in a different direction. That's not inside info. Just the way I see it.

I know this is probably Cloak Room, but Lindsey Graham's middle name should be "Talks A Good Game."

I have to admit that's pretty far down my list of priorities in terms of what a colossal fuckup it would be. To me it's like saying we shouldn't have supported Khomeini over the Shah because look at all the modern American military equipment Iran ended up getting access to.

I know this isn't true, but it feels like looks were a criteria. It just seems like we have an unusually good looking beach volleyball team. Especially based on that pic with the schedule where they're all wearing boots.

I don't know if it will end the discussion for me or not, but Beard is going to live rent free in my head for as long as he's a successful head coach, whether I share that on here or not. If he could have some kind of personal meltdown without hurting anyone and go coach at the equivalent of Tarleton State like Gillispie, that would give me a lot of closure.

To be perfectly blunt, it sounds like you have some trauma surrounding verbal abuse. My final argument would be there's some matter of perspective regarding this, but verbal abuse is a pretty nebulous term, defined mostly by the recipient, and can range across a whole range of behavior. Drunk driving actually has a measurable blood alcohol content associated with it. To say all verbal abuse is worse than all drunk driving is not accurate. To say that all drunk driving is worse than all verbal abuse is probably also not accurate. But from my life perspective, most drunk driving is worse than most verbal abuse, in terms of the potential victims around the perpetrator having agency to do something about it. I'd also argue that in terms of history, a lot of great things have been accomplished by humanity amidst a great deal of verbal abuse. I don't think any great things have been accomplished amidst drunk driving.

You've driven right off the silly cliff.

Personally, I watch Tyrese and feel like there's a problem with the coaching. Either that or he has an undisclosed injury. He's not the same player he used to be, that's for sure.

I had some massive buffering issues. Put it on pause and came back to it after 10 minutes. But yeah, it was unwatchable for me, too, before that. And it's not like it was scintillating. It was just crazy gossip used to make a gambling recommendation. If I was friends of those players or in any way an Arkansas fan I would feel some sympathy towards this going around. But I'm not. I won't even remember the players' names associated with this. It's just a quick laugh and then move on with my life. I hope nothing too damaging comes out of this for them, but I'm not going to invest a whole lot of emotion into it, either. Social media has a way of negatively impacting people's lives in devastating ways very quickly. But that's the world we live in. Nothing to do about it but keep telling kids to get off my lawn.

Ole Miss has a better funded athletic department simply because of their membership in the SEC. Boone Pickens ain't around any more. OSU is not going to be able to hire Beard away. I don't think Arkansas will, either, actually. Although they definitely care about basketball more than Ole Miss. But Beard is already doing his evangelical thing, so Ole Miss is on its way to becoming nutty about college hoops. It's what he does. But he's not saying no to Kentucky. Outside of any potential personal meltdowns from Beard, that's a match made in heaven right there. Undefeated.

It's what I'm rooting for. I'm an incredibly petty person who enjoys rooting for former head coaches from Texas to fail. Or at least not to exceed whatever accomplishments they earned at Texas. I get a certain amount of pleasure from it. Chris Beard is a personal nightmare, since some kind of meltdown is about the only way I foresee his career going sideways.

I don't really think about posting on message boards as winning, but I get what you're saying.

I believe there's a good chance he's hired by Kentucky very soon, so he better make it to a Final Four quickly. No inside scoop. It's just been my theory since he was first arrested. Get fired at Texas. Get hired by someone else who doesn't care about the optics. Win at a high level. Get hired to replace Calipari, who has worn out his welcome in Lexington.

I don't know how I feel about it, either, but I'm glad you posted it because that was highly entertaining.

I'll tell you why I hate Chris Beard. Ole Miss is now 18-3 and the school is setting different kinds of attendance records every week. He was The Chosen One.

The offense would be shit-tastic regardless. Terry is responsible for the overall direction of the program, and he is inadequate to the task. Hiring another assistant would be putting a bandaid on the issue. Honestly, I can handle having a shit-tastic offense if the defensive identity is there. It's not. But I'm trying not to dwell on that right now. I want to dwell on the fact I gave up on this team this year, while Terry and the players did not at all. It's an underestimation on my part regarding Terry's ability to lead this team, and I just want to acknowledge it. I can't say I've changed my mind about the man, but I can say I underestimated him, at least this season.

There is no assistant hire that's going to fix this program. And by fix, I mean put it in a place where it's competing for national championships. I don't actually think we'll be competing for Sweet 16s, and that should be the minimum. That said, I thought Terry was about to completely lose the team. He didn't. That speaks well of him, even if he's still not good enough to be the long term coach at Texas, IMO.

Elliott's recruiting skills are unmatched. That much is obvious.

Since I feel compelled to shit all over Rodney Terry when we lose games I don't think we should, I'd like to say that he's not absent leadership skills. It doesn't make me want him to be our long term coach any more than I do - which is not at all - but I honestly thought this team was done for after losing 3 out of 4 to Tech, WVA, and UCF. That UCF game in particular just felt like a stick a fork in them kind of game. I hate the way we play. I hate our defense. I hate our lack of continuity or overall vision. But I'll tell you what. Beating Baylor the way we did, taking out OU in Norman, and now going toe to toe against one of the most relentless effort programs in college basketball at least makes me feel like the team buys into Rodney Terry. I appreciate that. Doesn't make me a fan, but I at least admire the effort from the guy and the effort he's bringing out in these players.

How is this getting through the House. I appreciate all of you guys actively participating on this thread. I get obscenely depressed.

Clayton Williams style!