we've always been a poor shooting team that shoots a ton of threes, and we've always been a team that is awful at rebounding. An injury crisis forces Shaka's unused bench players into big roles, and what happens? Hamm and Cunningham come in and our rebounding improves markedly, and it coincides with a five game stretch where we shoot 44% from deep as a team (which just can't happen if Febres is playing 30 minutes and going 2-8 from deep 3/4 nights. our defense also improves markedly without Febres/with Hamm and Brock). Shaka gets forced into completely changing his personnel decisions, and the team is now irrefutably better for it. ain't that some shit?
this is the basketball version of what happened with our football team, when plain old bad luck and repeated injuries ended up forcing a coach to get out his own way, resulting in a better team. Specifically, Jordan Shipley missing two seasons due to injury, and ending up staying at Texas for six years. If that doesn't happen, then Colt McCoy doesn't have Jordan Shipley for his junior and senior year, which would have drastically changed things. On top of that, If Blaine Irby doesn't Mike Wacker his knee in El Paso at the Hand Job Bowl, then Greg Davis doesn't stumble into using Jordan Shipley as a flex TE, a crucial element in Texas upsetting OU, and going on to become the best team in the nation.
WAY TO GO SHAKA AND GREG! YOU GUYS DID IT! YOU GUYS ARE GREAT COACHES!!!