Jump to content

SL Xpress

Full Members
  • Posts

    4237
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by SL Xpress

  1. I think we have a really good shot here. (no, not really)
  2. I don't even understand Musk's quote. The fundamental weakness compared to what? I don't understand the context. What society is doing so much better than western civilization, and how is that being measured? Over what time period are we talking about? Is he talking about current western civilization compared to the past? There are plenty of examples of western civilization not exactly excelling in empathy, regardless of results. I read an interview from the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention in the Cloak Room that was downright depressing talking about the book The Sin of Empathy. Is this the new talking point?
  3. What does it gain me to argue with you? I'm telling you what part of the criteria was, and part of why they were hired. If they had done well I'd be ecstatic. They didn't and now they're gone. I only wish it didn't take so long for Smart to depart. I don't really give a shit about their race. I only care if they win. They didn't. But their race was absolutely a critical part of the criteria for their hiring. Del Conte has primarily hired white men, even for the women's sports. Do I care? Do I cry in exultation? I do not. I don't give a shit. I'm glad Floreal has done well. I do not care that he happens to not be a white man. I love how successful our athletic program is right now regardless of what the demographics of our coaches are. If we happen to show a little more diversity at the head coaching position within the athletic department, so be it, but it's not a personal priority. Or at least not the most important priority. If someone told me all we were going to do is hire white men for head coaching positions from here on out, that would actually bother me. But I don't believe that's the case.
  4. I just know I wish all kinds of career ruin on that man. 6 years of that horse shit. Like ctj suggested, I hope Marquette keeps him for the next 20 years. I think one of my favorite moments in following college basketball not involving Texas or Phi Slamma Jamma was watching the last timeout for Tom Izzo's Michigan State and Smart's Marquette team in the Sweet 16. Tom Izzo is over there designing a play while challenging his players' collective manhood, while Smart is drawing his team into a huddle for a quick tai chi session. "Breathe" he softly implores his players. Watching the Spartans give his team a smooth buttfucking over the final deciding moments of the game was extraordinarily satisfying.
  5. I don't think it's meant to be good for college sports. I think the purpose is to give student athletes the same freedoms as fellow students to transfer to another school if they want, along with the same freedoms as the coaching staff and administration that are employees of the university. The damage done to college sports is collateral. Any restraint of trade regarding student athletes is seen as fair game for the court system at this point. People are complaining about the portal window. Those people should be grateful we still have a window. There's no reason why the NCAA can't be sued for not keeping the portal open year round. It's highly unlikely they'd let it go to court, because they're no longer willing to allow anything to go to court.
  6. No disagreement there. Heck, the baseball search was a real debacle, and that was with interim athletic director Mike Perrin, post Patterson. We ended up with David Pierce, who while not good enough to keep his job, wasn't a complete disaster. But that hiring process was a big oof. Raises for sitting coaches everywhere. You get a raise! And you get a raise! And you get a raise! And who could forget the university president flying up to Tulsa to make assurances to the offensive coordinator up there so he'd take the job at Texas? Thankfully, it's a distant memory, because Del Conte handles these things like a champ. I'm just saying it makes complete sense they were hired as the head coaches.
  7. What do you mean it doesn't make sense? Both he and Charlie Strong were hired because they were considered the best black coaches available and the person most invested in the hiring process made it a central part of the criteria that he wanted the first black head coach in both sports on his watch. I don't really care what the criteria is if it works. I'm not someone who is against DEI just because. But I have to admit I'd prefer Texas go after the best candidate available, whoever that is, and that wasn't done on those coaching searches, because that wasn't the criteria.
  8. Texas had a long string of great defensive tackles, but I've always felt like Kenneth Sims was the best of any of them. He was literally unblockable. It was amazing watching him at the snap of the ball. Offensive linemen were helpless against him. The line of scrimmage simply didn't exist any more. He just exploded into the backfield and disrupted everything, even if he didn't end up making the play. And he made the play an inordinate amount of time for a defensive tackle. I felt like he was the biggest can't miss of anyone drafted as a Longhorn, aside from Earl Campbell. People are bringing up his coke habit, which I was never aware of, but he had some really serious injury issues, too. A broken leg and a ruptured achilles tendon in the NFL - which was often career ending back in his day - along with the broken toe versus TCU. If we're going to talk about the lack of his Hall of Fame career in the NFL I think it's pretty important to mention those along with whatever he was shoving up his nose at the time.
  9. I feel like it's a gift. They're in their comfort zone. UT is showing dominance on every level. They get to commiserate together about the hated arrogant t-sips and how their own athletic programs are underperforming compared to the Longhorns, who just stole the most successful head coach on their campus. They don't have bonfire any more. This is a great bonding mechanism for them, and a fantastic link to former Aggies of all ages.
  10. It's threads like these that make me feel I'm among my peeps. I am grateful to Mack Brown. I honestly thought I would live my lifetime with football being deemphasized as unimportant to the overall mission of the school. Maybe it should be. I don't know. I think UT is a better place when we're at the top of the food chain in football, but I'm biased. But the energy is different. Applications are up. Donations are up. People wear their gear. There was a decade and a half before Mack Brown got to Austin where football was such an afterthought in so many ways. It was an entirely different feeling than 2010 to 2022, where the primary driver of mediocrity was simple incompetence. 1984 to 1997 felt purposeful. That said, fuck Mack Brown. I never liked him. He's not my kind of guy. I'm grateful to him, and many of his manipulative narcissistic qualities were used to benefit the UT program. The national championship in 2005 will forever be my favorite sports moment of my lifetime. Nothing will ever exceed it. But I'm glad he's gone. I wish he wasn't hanging around the program like the emotional vulture he is.
  11. Yeah, I didn't get that far. That's the Southern Baptist Convention for you. Not just that denomination, but that's the biggest one.
  12. You know, I was reading that interview, and many of the things they were saying at the beginning I agree with. I think there's almost a pretentious claiming of empathy where it's actually very difficult to attain. I love the word, personally. I think it's a great word and I'm grateful it's come into our vocabulary. He calls it The Sin of Empathy, and compares it to the sin of anger or fear. He then says there are times when anger or fear are not sinful, just as there are times when empathy is not sinful, but there are times when it is. There's a section in there where the author talks about saving someone from drowning while remaining on the boat or remaining tethered to shore that I absolutely agree with. A phrase I constantly use is "don't keep such an open mind your brain falls out." I do think boundaries can be extremely healthy, and sometimes those boundaries run counter to any aspirations of empathy. That's not always a bad thing. Then it got into politics where it started defending the actions of the administration from a biblical point of view and then I couldn't read any more. Just more tribal tripe with a Christian cloak wrapped around them rather than an American flag or whatever other iconography they want to steal for their purposes of power. If someone wants to defend the actions of this administration from a political or societal management point of view that's one thing. My big issue is the annihilation of democratic principles and the threat to future peaceful transitions of power, more so than any specific policy they're implementing. But to come back and try to defend the actions as Christian, or why Christians should be in favor of what is going on, is not biblically sound to me. But that's not the point. Their tribe is in power so the troops of all stripes are going to rally to the cause, and use the tools at their disposal to defend the people from their tribe in power. Anyway, I couldn't make it through the entire article.
  13. There's a huge part of me that feels Goldberg should have waited to "burn his source" to see what else they were going to share on the chat.
  14. It the midst of this clown show of an administration, I wanted to point out Erdogan has taken further steps to secure authoritarian rule for himself and his party. Undoubtedly emboldened by Trump being in the White House. It's not like Erdogan was a perfect representative of a working democracy with regular peaceful transfers of power - or that Turkey has some kind of historical institutional depth with same. It shouldn't all be put at Trump's feet. There's a good chance it happens with either Biden or Harris in office, too. But there has to be a sense from authoritarian leaning leaders they have a friend in Washington in terms of mindset that they didn't have before. Protests against Turkey's President Erdogan, arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, see hundreds arrested - CBS News
  15. It will come up again. Getting a new hire is a natural point for it. Wait until Beard wins a national championship - if he does - and see what happens then.
  16. I mean, that's what a lot of guy conversation is about. Do you want a message board that's only about factual information? Never mind the impossibility, the level of entertainment would be nil.
  17. Just to be clear, Miller contacted us first. Calipari also contacted us. But yes, Miller was absolutely a top candidate.
  18. How do you know we didn't make overtures? One of the things I love about Del Conte is we don't get into these get every coach we contact a pay raise sort of coaching searches. He identifies his target and then gets them. The gap between dismissal of the previous job holder and new hire is often record setting. But there's a lot of behind the scenes leg work being done to get to that point. Just because we don't see signs of Texas showing interest doesn't mean the interest wasn't shown.
  19. The decision had been made before the Sweet 16 game was played. Once the team made it to the 2nd weekend after beating A&M the job was his. It didn't matter what the outcome of the Xavier game was. I guess the timeline we're talking about is important. But before a final decision had been made Calipari was part of the conversation. He was just going to be expensive in ways Miller never was going to be. I want to be clear. I would have dropped any interest in Texas basketball whatsoever and rooted for us to lose every game if we had hired Calipari. But Del Conte likes Calipari on a personal level. And regardless of my feelings about him as a person or a head coach, he has an incredible resume on paper. I'm just saying I don't agree with the declarative nature of the statement, while also admitting that Miller was a frontrunner in certain aspects. Mostly from the sense it would have been an easy deal to consummate. Price was right. He wanted to be at Texas. He has a decent history of success.
  20. I liked Lloyd more, too. But one thing I'll say about Lloyd is he's not a salesman. He starts speaking and it's as exciting as watching paint dry. You'd think that how good of a basketball coach he is, is all that matters. But at Texas it's helpful to have a little huckster in you to bring out fans. Probably shouldn't be that way, but it is what it is. Always has been.
  21. I don't know that Miller was Del Conte's first choice. Miller was openly excited about the opportunity if Texas went with someone other than Rodney Terry. Calipari had also shown some interest. There are some thoughts that Calipari was Del Conte's first choice. It doesn't matter since we went with Terry. But you're saying it declaratively here in ways I don't agree are accurate.
  22. A ring is the ultimate goal, but those are unutterably difficult to achieve in men's basketball. Texas has one Final Four in the modern era. If we were to never again get to another Final Four, that would be disappointing for me. A string of Elite Eights would feel unsatisfying on some level. But if we can get to the Sweet 16 regularly, with not a lot of consistent first weekend flameouts, and then make it to a few Final Fours, if the head coach never won a national championship I would still think of him as an incredible success at Texas.
×
×
  • Create New...