
SL Xpress
Full Members-
Posts
4238 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Downloads
Recruiting - 2020
2019-2020 Football Season
Football
Entertainment
Sports
News and Business
Cloak Room
Transfer Portal
Recruiting
Events
Everything posted by SL Xpress
-
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
Um...it's the internet. There were people saying Charlie Strong needed more time. Put enough people in a room and all kinds of opinions get expressed. We're not a hung jury. It's okay if people decide they'd like Terry to be the head coach. I'm appreciative of him as well. I just don't want him as the next head coach. But we're not going to get a unanimous position on this. And that's okay. -
Most of it is flat out pandering and opposition politics as far as I can determine. Americans have a natural propensity towards isolationism, and the people actively speaking against US support are directly appealing to that. My favorites are those who have been all in in terms of supporting the Israelis (whom I support as well) who have been the biggest beneficiary by far of US foreign aid for 60 years, but when it comes to Ukraine it's "America First!" AIPAC is real. The thing is, foreign policy has rarely been the factor in US elections. People by and large simply don't give a shit. Even getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq weren't the number one determiners, although 1968 and the Vietnam War is the big exception. My guess is that whoever wins the Republican nomination in 2024 campaigns on the idea of better record management, no blank check, and using more of the funds being sent to Ukraine on projects at home. But like Nixon in '68, or frankly Obama in 2008, who ended up keeping Guatanamo open and never did pull the troops entirely out of Afghanistan, things can change once a person actually gets into office. But I know I'm voting for whoever indicates they're the most committed to Ukraine. I honestly don't care what their other positions are. Maybe the hard lifting part of the conflict is over by the time the election comes around? Ukraine will still need a massive amount of support, but maintaining a defensive position along a hostile border is different than trying to collapse layers of entrenched defensive lines.
-
There's an Iran thread, so I won't go into it. But I don't think they're interested in actually calming down the Israelis. There's going to be another big air strike at some point. Assuming the Israeli pilots aren't boycotting. But another thread.
-
"...makes Putin’s Russia appear to be an empathy-devoid dystopia." "appear" "...he said no, it will be more like the Jews remembering the Egyptians." Holy shit. What a line. Great delivery, too. I'm going to repeat that one a bunch.
-
Anything further you want to add to that, I'd love to hear about it. Not trying to make you slave away at the typewriter for my amusement. But I'd love to get his perspective, or in any case your perspective on his perspective, lol. Thanks for sharing.
-
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
I don't know the answer to that. I would think the budget for Texas went way up last year with all the staff Beard was able to hire. But I don't know that. -
Just to clarify, the 6 reactors there are not actually producing power, but they still need electricity and water. Nuclear power plants that have been in operation for a while need power and coolant for years after they're shutdown. Just part of dealing with the fission reaction. No reason to breathe a sigh of relief. The IAEA is panicked about the situation for good reason.
-
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
BTW, the number I was told on annual salary is $6m per year has been thrown around as a possibility. For reference, here's an outdated list from a couple of years ago: https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/ncaab/top-college-basketball-head-coach-salaries-bm10/#:~:text=Who is the Highest-Paid,second-highest-paid coach. -
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
When it's said he's responsible for portal recruiting, that could mean anything. He's the one who has to set up shifts among the staff to monitor it 24/7. I don't know. I do know Beard was the chief recruiter for this program in the way few head coaches are. I also know that of the assistants Terry was the main off campus guy, especially after Maligi left for Kansas State. Howard was a disappointment almost from the get go. In terms of the portal, Terry was the main guy for pretty much every transfer. Certainly Hunter. I don't actually know who the main guy was for Rice, but I did hear Rice credit Terry one time in a preseason interview. I don't say this as a defense of Terry per se, because I'd prefer someone else, but I want to be fair to the guy and give him his due. He works hard, and he's been a great person to have on staff. No doubt about it. But I want someone who will be better than Penders and Barnes, and I do not believe for one second Terry's stint as a head coach at Texas will be as good as those two. I mean, to be honest, I want someone who will retire at Texas as a hall of fame coach. Or at least has the potential for it. That's a really high bar, but that should be the bar. Donewald was supposed to provide international connections. Not saying he hasn't. Maybe he has and they just haven't panned out, yet. Getting foreign players to the US (I'm referring to non-Canadian for the most part) takes a ridiculous amount of effort. A lot of times it's almost as much luck as anything else that leads to the right connection. One of the things I like about Tommy Lloyd is he seems to have a real knack for it. I also have questions about how much of this staff sticks around when Beard gets another job. There's going to be some losses for sure regardless of who the next head coach is. -
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
I trust Gerry. Most people are going to throw names around knowing they'll never be held accountable for them. They have content to put out and they need clicks. Gerry likes to speculate about things as much as anyone, but more in private than in public. He won't throw it out there like he's "hearing things." He'll also have really good access to the program if Terry stays as the head coach. Gerry's not one to push for Terry because of that. But it does mean he's not going to bad mouth him, because that would be stupid. I say this a lot, but we're very fortunate to have Gerry covering the program. -
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
It was a good correction. I'm glad you posted it. I'm only kidding. Honestly, I need corrections more than I'd prefer. I'm not trying to mislead anyone. The point is still the same, but R32 is not the Sweet Sixteen. -
Holy fuck. I've been reading (and listening) to both of these guys since the invasion. Rob Lee even before that. Maybe I would have pictured Rob Lee being in Bakhmut? Maybe. But never Kofman, regardless of how unfair that might be. Kudos to both of these guys for hitching a ride over there to make first hand observations of the war, but especially to enter Bakhmut at this stage. Jeez. I have a different level of respect for both of them, and I had plenty previously.
-
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
You're gonna tell me the Germans didn't bomb Pearl Harbor, aren't you. BTW, the game they won in the tournament came against Matt Painter's Purdue squad. The Purdue fans were shaking in their boots to face another Chris Beard team in the tournament last year (they also lost to Texas Tech with Beard as coach). Didn't work out the same way, but it was funny. -
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
Well, to be honest the biggest credit for the Directors Cups goes to changing the rules that only the top 20 sports count. Stanford would still be winning them every year without that. And they're not Sears trophies any more. That went the way of their catalog. Learfield, the giant sports marketing conglomerate, is now the sponsor. So let's talk about systemic issues in the athletic department. First of all, I'm assuming we can skip over Dana X. Bible and Darrell Royal. I just want to mention Royal briefly, because he was an amazing athletic director in terms of finding people and convincing them to come to Texas. Just an incredibly charismatic person. People of all walks of life were completely charmed by the man. Including other coaches. But during those times each sport was responsible for their own fundraising, and capital improvements were basically a hodgepodge with a severely underfunded program. Usually if something was needed the school went to the state legislature to pay for it. Deloss Dodds was the first professional athletic director hired by Texas in the fall of 1981. He was previously at Kansas State for 5 years. Very early on he looked at the financial jigsaw puzzle that was Longhorn athletics and chose to solve it by putting all fundraising under one umbrella, the Longhorn Foundation. I'm not trying to insult your intelligence. I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page here. While it seems obvious in hindsight, and likely would have been done by someone eventually, it was a first for Texas, and it absolutely electrified fundraising. Dodds and his staff did a much better job of tying ticket priorities to donations. As annual revenue exploded, that became the key metric to measure Dodds' success. This is important. He wasn't ever involved really in the firing or hiring of the football coaches. That gave him cover when things went wrong. And boy did they. At the same time, what gets measured gets done, and what was measured by everyone who meant anything at UT was that the athletic department kept making more money every year. So guess what the department as a whole was measured by? The pressure intensified to bring in more revenue than the last year, like a blue chip answering to institutional investors. So anything that brought in incremental amounts was fair game for the most part, outside of naming a stadium or arena Papa John's or something like that. But signage? Commercials during games? Sponsored events during games? All of it was fair game no matter what kind of impact it had on the game itself. What really kicked things into overdrive was the settling of the Title IX lawsuit combined with the construction of the East Side of the stadium. The brand new suites along with the club level were gold mines. The athletic department sold tickets at the football games like professional teams do, approaching various business entities offering the game day as an event setting to conduct business and give tickets to employees, just like NBA/NFL/MLB teams had successfully done. I won't get into how mediocre the fan experience was in those areas. Suffice to say there was a significant lack of die hards, that's for sure. The athletic department was in full bloat mode. Hawaii was put on the schedule to give AD employees and their families a free trip. Every bowl game was a boondoggle. No one really questioned things effectively because the money just kept rolling in. Dodds steps down in the fall of 2013, successfully negotiating the formation of the Longhorn Network, but completely fubaring the realignment, and locking Texas into a grants of right deal with the Big 12. Patterson was hired with the instructions to get rid of the athletic department bloat, and run things more like a business. In doing so he managed to piss off EVERYONE. He was fired after less than two years on the job. Mike Perrin then became the interim director. He was akin to a substitute teacher who everyone liked, but we all knew he was short term just trying to be a good guy and help where he could. Which then brought us to CDC in 2017. So when we talk about institutional issues as an athletic department, we're really talking about Deloss Dodds making fundraising the chief priority of the AD office. Like I used to say all the time, they need the football team to win some games so they can go out and raise more money. There was always an amazing lack of emphasis on winning, and a much bigger emphasis on how to eke out a few more dollars with more corporate sponsorships, moving students to worse seating, moving the band away, moving the visitor seats, selling basketball season tickets to people who will never show up for games, on and on it went. Patterson was an overcorrection and a bad hire, but he wasn't around long enough to be called a problem. Perrin was always a temp. So it's really Dodds and CDC at this point. And while CDC is far from perfect - personally I'd prefer he was a bit more ruthless and aggressive in certain areas, but you get that and you go back to Patterson. CDC is a collaborator and kumbaya guy in many ways. But what I do know is that UT isn't whoring itself out QUITE as much as it did under Dodds, and for that I'm thankful. We don't have an underlying priority of hiring women for every woman's sport. It just feels like winning is the biggest priority, and that hasn't been true since Darrell Royal, which had its own issues in terms of funding. And yet he still increases the revenue year to year. If we'd ever put together a consistent winning football program under his watch he'll be printing money. -
I won't post them either, then, but the key thing is the russian with the camera is staring at the guy, and the Ukrainian says, "Glory to Ukraine," to him, after which the Russian gunned him down with a machine gun then posted it on the internet. "Glory to Ukraine" is now trending. His name is Khamzat Galeav. Edit: BTW, here's a paste of Dmitri posting a screenshot and translating from Russian media channels:
-
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
All the sports jobs are stay till I get fired or retire jobs. I say this a lot, but in my lifetime we lost Richard Quick to Stanford, who went on to win a ton of national championships and gold medals as the Olympics coach, but he was born in Austin, died in Austin. He had a nasty divorce, which is a big part of what spurred his exit. Then Mick Haley, who wanted a higher salary and the opportunity to coach the national team. Texas passed on that. He went on to win a couple of national championships at USC, and also coached the national team in the Olympics. But that's about it. Over the course of almost 60 years. Rick Barnes was told fire your assistants or we'll fire you. And he chose to fall on his sword instead of firing his assistants. Shaka Smart saved Texas a buttload of money and negative publicity and took the job in his home town instead of waiting to get canned. As far as the whole LSU for Texas or Michigan for Texas, could be. But no one is leaving Texas for those jobs, either. People just don't leave UT. Heck, a lot of coaches don't leave Austin. Mick Haley still makes his home here. People talk about how bad UT's hires have been, but it's really only been in football, then Shaka and Wetlich in basketball, and getting from Conradt to Schaefer. And Goestenkors was actually a really good hire. Just didn't work out. Then the long mediocrity in softball which has finally been fixed. Hopefully soccer will be fixed someday, too. Shoot, baseball going from Gustafson to Garrido to Pierce is better than anyone else in the country over that term by far. I don't know why that sport is even being included. I know some of the other non revenue sports have arguably underperformed at times. But they're in great shape now, across the board. -
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
I'm sincerely glad you're on this board. You're colorful. You're authentic. I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts, regardless of subject. You often make me smile. But this is a terrible, terrible take. Other people have already pointed out CDC's track record, so I won't go into it. The only thing that's unbelievable to me is trying to argue Beard wasn't a splash hire. Not only did he take Texas Tech to the Elite Eight and then to the championship game - which they lost in overtime, btw. He also took Arkansas-Little Rock to a 30+ win season and the Sweet Sixteen in his only season there. He'd won everywhere he'd been. He'll certainly win at his next job if he doesn't implode. It doesn't mean the next basketball hire is a home run. We'll have to see how it goes. But Texas hasn't won the last two director's cups because CDC has been piss poor at hiring coaches. He's been a wizard. -
That. Was. Fascinating. I’ve hated Trump from the very beginning and have gotten into a lot of tense moments with people who have supported him to the hilt. Some of them with significant sums of money to both him and his allies. I have no real sympathy for Kellyanne Conway as a politician and a chief Trump enabler. I do have some sympathy for her as a wife, and I did always find it unseemly that George Conway so bitterly - and effectively - attacked her boss. But I do agree with the point of view that Trump is one of the biggest dangers democracy has ever faced in this country. Thankfully he’s not more clever than he is. I mean, it’s still not over. There are many aspects of his reign that are simply setting the precedent for the next megalomaniac. For anyone who thinks it can’t get worse than Trump, just wait. Get a populist who can galvanize masses of true believers who is actually competent and we’ll be in even bigger trouble. Anyway, thanks for the post. That was well worth reading. Never would have seen it otherwise. Always avoided conversations about either one of them.
-
Yes. That’s quite...unfortunate.
-
Don’t forget mine clearing operations. They’re perfect for that. Send them in daily waves.
-
Here's a terrific interview from a few days ago by billionaire Richard Branson interviewing Howard Buffett, Warren Buffett's oldest son (he has an older sister) talking about Buffett's philanthropic efforts in support of Ukraine. "...the other way everyone can help is to understand that as Ukraine goes, so goes Western democracies. Every democracy in the world needs to be very clearly working on the side of seeing Ukraine successfully defend itself and its freedom. There are no winners if Putin achieves his goals in Ukraine, and he will not stop at its borders. My message to every voter and taxpayer in a free country is the best way to help is to make sure your elected government – whether you live in Europe or North America or somewhere else – has the political will to do whatever it takes to help Ukraine defend itself and end the war." https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/latest/richard-branson-and-howard-g-buffett-discuss-supporting-ukraine-and-the
-
Oh, there's no question. And he's going to be fired. I'm just saying there's an assumption he should have known better, when his life experiences may not have prepared him to know better. I've met plenty of people over the course of my life that said and did things that were completely tone deaf because nobody had called them into account for it before. Many times getting into heated arguments if I pointed it out. "That's not what I meant!" Of course, then there's the people who know exactly what they're saying and doing, but I don't think that's the case here. Scott Adams saying he's going to only live only around white people, for example. All this is assuming he used the phrase master-servant, and not master-slave. If he actually said master-slave, then he absolutely should have known better. If he used slave in any context, he should have known better. IMO, his biggest problem is that he completely lost the team, so players aren't willing to give him the benefit of the doubt any more. He has to go. Plain and simple. I like the North Texas coach, McCasland, as a hire, btw.
-
Not sure if posted or referenced in this thread, but here's a film with an outstanding perspective on the Iranian revolution and the resulting theocracy from an Iranian woman who experienced it. Made in 2007.
-
I have no idea what your point is here. Iran/Persia is a rich civilization with a population fully capable of contributing to the advance of our species that's been run by a repressive zealot religious leadership intent on imposing their will on their own population and exporting their version of what humanity should be on everyone around them. Blowing up/poisoning the girls' schools is them doubling down, but it's not like we haven't seen signs of this all along, and it's not like this is going to be the worst thing they do. Maybe the west starts arming dissidents and we create another Syria? Or Libya? Or ISIS? I think that's the most that can be hoped for. They're not going to let go of power. They're not going to see anything they do as evil. They would prefer to decimate their population if that's what it takes to keep power. Plenty of boys/men are going to die before this ends, too. The west isn't going to invade. Everyone else is either not strong enough or has their own issues to deal with. My only point was that human organizations run mandates to control masses. In general. What the Iranians do is barbaric, but the core dynamic you described is not unique.
-
That seems like the healthiest approach. I'll continue to have mixed feelings about the whole thing, but since it doesn't matter what I think, we'll both just see how it all works out. A really deep run would be a lot of fun regardless. Watching Penders' teams felt like the equivalent of eating cotton candy for me, but regardless of my thoughts of him as a head coach, the BMW run in his first two years with the Elite Eight in his second season is definitely one of the most special memories for me as a Texas basketball fan, and I know I'm not alone. I'd love to see something similar this season.
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!