2018-19 Texas Longhorns thread

[texasstrong12 4,668]

Ramey has a lot more game than Febres. I have no clue who will start tonight but it doesn’t mean much. I’m sure the starting rotation is going to change based on the health of Jones, Roach returning, and the development of Ramey. 

I fully expect Ramey to be starting at the 2 by the end of the year if Jones ends up being a spot minutes type player off the bench. Ramey can handle and defend so he’s more versatile than somebody like Febres. 

[texasstrong12 4,668]

47 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

I know Febres has been here longer, but i ultimately ser Ramey having a bigger role at Texas than Febres. Jase needs to focus on knocking down threes and playing that role for us. Ramey will be more versatile and more valuable long term.

Febres is the biggest wildcard on the team because he was recruited to be a shooter and we obviously have shooting issues. 

His minutes are going to be dependent on how much he's improved as a shooter. If he's hitting 3s he will get minutes and if he isn't other players like Jones, Long and Ramey will get more of the minutes because they can do other things better. 

Like you said, Febres should just focus on hitting wide open 3s and that can be his role. 

[Machinator 32,097]

Febres needs to be able to play credible defense, as well. It's fine if he's a one-trick pony on offense but he has to do his job on the other end of the floor.

[Machinator 32,097]

8 hours ago, deter said:

Nice set up. No true road games until conference play begins.

To put it in perspective.

[Horns RD Standard 62]

30 minutes ago, Machinator said:

To put it in perspective.

3 of the last 4 teams to play "true" road games are from the Big 12. Doesn't surprise me one bit. When you play in 'arguably' one of the best conferences, why schedule yourself into an early season hole? Non-conf - feast on a few cupcakes and manage to supply yourself with a few resume builder opportunities along the way. I see no problem with it at all.

[Machinator 32,097]

5 minutes ago, Horns RD Standard said:

3 of the last 4 teams to play "true" road games are from the Big 12. Doesn't surprise me one bit. When you play in 'arguably' one of the best conferences, why schedule yourself into an early season hole? Non-conf - feast on a few cupcakes and manage to supply yourself with a few resume builder opportunities along the way. I see no problem with it at all.

Oh, for sure, I just thought it was interesting.

We'll be playing two true road games in December against high-major teams next season, to balance out this season.

Edited November 6, 2018 by Machinator

[Braff Zacklin 13,408]

I would've thought that having a few marquee road matchups would be attractive to recruits, but maybe neutral-site tournaments/classics are enough?

[Goo Punch 4,275]

11 minutes ago, Horns RD Standard said:

3 of the last 4 teams to play "true" road games are from the Big 12. Doesn't surprise me one bit. When you play in 'arguably' one of the best conferences, why schedule yourself into an early season hole? Non-conf - feast on a few cupcakes and manage to supply yourself with a few resume builder opportunities along the way. I see no problem with it at all.

when we had loaded teams i loved our annual non con schedules stacked with tourney teams. i think i'd prefer for this team to stay at home and pile up wins while learning on the fly. we still have a bunch of young players, guys who haven't played together, new coaches, a new offense; we need to gain confidence and aptitude throughout  the non con, and we are set up to do that. 

[Machinator 32,097]

1 minute ago, Braff Zacklin said:

I would've thought that having a few marquee road matchups would be attractive to recruits, but maybe neutral-site tournaments/classics are enough?

I think it's getting tougher for teams to schedule home-and-homes with marquee opponents; big programs tend to prefer the neutral site games and the early-season tournaments.

If we can get over the hump and return to being a perennial top 10/15 program again, I do hope we bring back series with the likes of UNC, Duke, Michigan State, etc.

A home-and-home with Arkansas would be fun.

[Machinator 32,097]

Quick preview on the offense from Tim Preston:

The Offense

If you've been listening to our Pretend We're Football Podcast (and judging by the analytic numbers...you haven't), you'd know that one of the reasons for some of the heightened expectations this season is Texas' quasi-veteran laden lineup.

And, while the quasi part might not make you feel all that great, take heart that it's not the same absolutely-not-f***ing-veteran-laden-at-all lineup of Shaka's last two years.

Indeed, it's just about guaranteed that at least four of the five Texas starters will be sophomores or older this year with five out of five being a distinct possibility.

We'll get to the roster in a subsequent post, but let's talk about the offense.

While the offense wasn't quite as bad as it looked last year (89th out of 351 D1 teams in offensive efficiency last season), it also wasn't some kind of work of Da Vinci-ian beauty.

Time after time after time after time last year, Texas' offensive setup required them to be in the below setup.

Sometimes the angle/personnel would change but, essentially, that was where Texas seemingly had to be in order to initiate action last season in their offensive sets.

So, while they could talk all about wanting to play fast or wanting to push tempo, Shaka thought/knew/whatever that the best chance for Texas to get a clean look in their offensive sets was for the offense to get into those positions and then go from there.

Meaning, if it took Texas 12 seconds to get into that set (that’s pretty high, admittedly), then that’s what it took. And, then, only after they got into that set could they set in motion their offense.

One of the biggest issues in waiting for a set to initiate an offense works both ways. Many times that elongated timeframe also allowed the defense to get set and start their defensive assignments in earnest as opposed to recovering against an attacking offense.

Seven Seconds

That’s the buzz word this year.

Texas wants to be initiating their offensive system within the first seven seconds of the shot clock.

The thought process is pretty simple:

·Coleman, Roach, Long and Ramey (plus, potentially, Jones) can all initiate offense early with the ball in their hands
·Texas’ roster is jam packed with athletes who can move and finish
·The collective hoops IQ of this roster has improved significantly with the last couple of recruiting classes
·Coleman and Roach have both shown a strong ability to convert/generate fouls when they can attack against retreating/un-set defenses

There are, potentially, some issues:

·Rebounding, this year, will be an all-hands-on-deck affair, so run-outs could be at a premium
·Depth is there, but playing faster can lead to foul trouble (Coleman and Roach, wink wink), so playing intelligently will be crucial
·Previous iterations of this team have had issues with distinguishing between early shots and high quality shots

Continuity

The other wrinkle that Texas will look to incorporate is an idea called continuity. Continuity is the concept that the last 7-10 seconds of a shot clock will shift to an individually rotating set of movements designed to highlight a players’ personal skill sets.

Again, the idea is simple: create action where players have a cyclical/pre-determined motion at the end of plays that would lead to them getting the ball in their most-effective situation

·Sims flashing to the rim
·Osetkowski on flares
·Kerwin attacking weakside
·Febres/Long brushing off screens or shifting to the corners
·Etc.

This will normally happen in breakdown or late-clock situations when plays either lost their flow or were forced into check down looks if penetration led to a safety-valve kickout.

Endgame

It’s not overstating it to say that a Shaka Smart team that can figure out its offensive efficiency is a scary thing for the rest of college basketball. Athleticism, skill, defense.

Shaka’s teams have those things in spades.

Now we just need to see the ball go through the hoop.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

x/post-

 

This is my one big worry about expectations for this season: even I have Texas at 22 wins this season, a mark we haven't hit since 2014. I don't think super highly of Shaka (obviously), so expectations are high. However, the one thing that i could see dooming Texas to another disappointing season (and i'm being serious here, so please don't think this is a joke or something) is more athletes than hoopers. coleman is a hooper; jones is a hooper; i believe ramey and long and hepa might be hoopers- just straight basketball players, guys who've been eating and sleeping basketball their entire lives, as opposed to guys like Sims, Hayes, or Roach, who are natural athletes who ended up playing basketball. I mean Hayes didn't even start playing j til he was a teenager, and Sims is still lacking for basketball skill. DO is a wildcard here. DO vs Duke last year? Hooper. DO the rest of the year? NWGS turnover machine with moobs. If he could recapture some of that Duke game magic that would be huge.

 

All if that is to say that despite being deep, and super athletic, and fairly talented, we don't have an abundance of born and bred basketball players- true PG's, pure shooters, savvy ball handlers, post guys with an array of low post moves, etc. I know that optimism is high, and this *should* be Shaka's best team, but if our coaching is subpar again then i don't know that we have the straight hoopers to get us out of trouble in a league like the Big XII. Just wanted to get that final caveat out before the season starts. Hope i'm totally wrong about this. 

[Braff Zacklin 13,408]

[Machinator 32,097]

Didn't come close to covering the spread, but I'm not too concerned about that given how much we subbed.

I'm still not convinced we have the shooting we need to go far, or that offense will proceed smoothly in tight contests when the possessions reduce in number and the games slow down. But you can see that we're going to benefit from the upgrade in talent, depth, and experience at guard.

[Machinator 32,097]

 

[Machinator 32,097]

 

[Goo Punch 4,275]

36 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Didn't come close to covering the spread, but I'm not too concerned about that given how much we subbed.

I'm still not convinced we have the shooting we need to go far, or that offense will proceed smoothly in tight contests when the possessions reduce in number and the games slow down. But you can see that we're going to benefit from the upgrade in talent, depth, and experience at guard.

yeah i'm honestly thinking that my 22 win prediction is going to be difficult to reach, but everything i saw from the freshmen reaffirmed my feelings that we are going to be stupid good in a year or two if we can add/hold on to  Baker and McDaniels. Stupid good. 

[jinx 2,635]

3 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Must be a bunch of young uns in this thread, because this is comedy gold.  I hope we have a lot of him on this team.  I think Hepa, Hayes, Long and Ramey all earned their spot on Sesame Street.  I hope those guys share with the rest of the team how you get there.  

[Cameltoe 114]

I don't wanna say "I told ya so" about this recruiting class, but, I told ya so.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

jesus you're stupid. 

 

1)Literally nobody had bad things to say about this recruiting class, so bragging about being high on them is incredibly dumb.

2)They haven't actually done anything yet, and it will be a serious plus if any of them can give consistent contribution for the duration of conference play. 

Yes, tonight's game seemed to reaffirm what everyone already thought- Ramey, Hepa, and Hayes look to be the foundation of a great team in the future- think Boddicker, Ivey, and Mouton in 2003. We're e all excited about the future, but a 12 point win over KenPom's #302 team in which our three stud freshmen went for 12, 7, and 6 points is not the time to start thumping your chest about "calling" that a nationally heralded recruiting class would be good.

[immortal13 4,059]

37 minutes ago, Cameltoe said:

I don't wanna say "I told ya so" about this recruiting class, but, I told ya so.

Not this shit again

[texasstrong12 4,668]

It's going to be interesting how much small ball we play this year. 

Between Long, Roach, Coleman, Febres, and Ramey seems like you want to get as many of these guards on the court as you can. Plus Jones will probably get better as the season progresses. 

When we play another opponent that's an easy win (Citadel?) I hope we see some minutes with 1 big and 4 guards. No clue how effective it would be but I would like to see it. 

 

 

[Goo Punch 4,275]

Attendance was listed at 7,522. 

[Revolution512 1,480]

Ramey, Long, and Coleman combined for 19 assists/6 turnovers. I’ll take that start 

[Blotto 23,427]

8 hours ago, Cameltoe said:

I don't wanna say "I told ya so" about this recruiting class, but, I told ya so.

What specifically did you tell us? That our top 10 recruiting class had some good players? Thanks man, I've never been able to figure out how these rankings work.....I mean, are they ranking height, sense of humor, dance moves? 

[ClubWhatever 12,087]

I really liked what I saw out of Long, Ramey, Hayes, and Hepa.  Liddell did not play well but has potential.  I think a big key to how good of a season we will have is Sims.  Lance Blanks said that during the game, and I agree.  Right now Sims seems a bit cloudy in the head.  Like he thinks he's got to be this polished go-to force inside.  Right now we mainly need him to live on the glass and make the one on one moves when they're there.  Last night he was trying to bull through double teams and committed some dumb fouls in the process of trying to force things.

What I liked about Ramey and Long is that they can create.  Put those two on the floor with Roach and you have three guys who can create off the dribble.  A tough matchup for most teams.

[VinyVango 677]

Ramey and Hepa seem to have great energy and bball IQ.   Hayes brings great aggressiveness and athleticism and played a lot better than Sims last night.  I liked Long on offense.  He had some bad moments on defense.  No dis to Jones, but he just doesn't seem quite ready yet for live action. 

DO seemed hesitant to take the outside shot when he was wide open.  Sims had opening night brain freeze for most of the game.   The both seemed to be overthinking things.

All in all, the depth at PG and guard in general is awesome, so much so that we can certainly play with 3 guards a lot and even 4 at times. 

I liked the unselfishness and avoidance of the dribble the clock out offense and hope Roach doesn't screw that up when he suits up. 

[dogbreath 431]

The team needs to run, because their half court offense is largely ineffective.  Too many times DO popped when he should have rolled.  Player has to read what the defense is doing and EIU was playing the pop.  They did do a decent job of moving the ball around for three pointers.  The addition of Long and Ramey will help Coleman.  I like the possibilities of guys catching the ball and attacking.  Coleman did that with a nice assist.  And I especially liked that DO wasn't trying to initiate offense on the perimeter.

Will get a better microscope when they play Arkansas and with Roach back. 

 

[Machinator 32,097]

Every player available for the game yesterday played - except Cunningham. Is it too early to speculate as to whether he'll be redshirted?

[txhorns 2,408]

My thoughts on the first game...

1.  The freshmen will not doom us this year.  They also will not carry us.

2.  Ramey looks really good.  He seemed to have great court awareness.

3.  I wasn't too thrilled with Mitrou-Long's play.  He played too fast and out of control a lot.  Was out of position on defense a lot.

4.  Sims was not good.  Unfortunately we will have some of those games from him this year but hopefully we get some dominate games as well.

5. DO was much better on offense.  He didn't force things like he did last year.

6.  My wife gave me a bj during the middle of the game.  This has nothing to do with the game, I just wanted to brag.

All in all it wasn't the start to the year any of us wanted but we aren't doomed yet.  Some of the new guys seemed to push too much at times, Long and liddell especially, but that is probably just first game jitters.  We should know much more about this team after the Arkansas game on Friday.

[txhorns 2,408]

2 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Every player available for the game yesterday played - except Cunningham. Is it too early to speculate as to whether he'll be redshirted?

Hasn't it all but been guaranteed he would redshirt from the moment he signed?

[Machinator 32,097]

Just now, txhorns said:

Hasn't it all but been guaranteed he would redshirt from the moment he signed?

He seems like a prime candidate, but it's also been several years since we've actually redshirted a player.

[txhorns 2,408]

1 minute ago, Machinator said:

He seems like a prime candidate, but it's also been several years since we've actually redshirted a player.

That's because we have been young with glaring holes on the roster for several years.  

[pacman 7,324]

 

[Rockethorn1978 6,061]

With Roach back we will be better and Arkansas on Friday will show us everything. Even if they are a middle of the road sec team down from last year it will show us what the season will look like overall. 

[Gohogs14 122]

28 minutes ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

With Roach back we will be better and Arkansas on Friday will show us everything. Even if they are a middle of the road sec team down from last year it will show us what the season will look like overall. 

You guys definitely have more depth than we do, but with 9 newcomers we'll find out a lot about us as well

[txhorns 2,408]

4 minutes ago, Gohogs14 said:

You guys definitely have more depth than we do, but with 9 newcomers we'll find out a lot about us as well

Any more insight you can provide?  Who are the players to watch?  

[Machinator 32,097]

Daniel Gafford is a future 1st round pick.

[Gohogs14 122]

7 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Daniel Gafford is a future 1st round pick.

Yeah, he's obviously the main guy to watch. Freaky athleticism for a 6'11 guy. But he'll probably be double teamed in every game this year so our other frontcourt players will have to step up.

Isaiah Joe is a freshman who a lot of people think could be one of our better 3 point shooters ever. Made 9 in the first exhibition game. Jalen Harris is a transfer from New Mexico who will start at PG, he's fast and should be a good fit for our system but also had a bit of a turnover problem in our exhibitions. And then Reggie Chaney at PF is a freshman who probably will end up starting by the end of the year, believe he was the #3 ranked player in Texas so some may be familiar with him.

Starting lineup will likely look like this:

Jalen Harris (6'2, 166)
Isaiah Joe (6'5, 167)
Mason Jones (6'5, 207)
Adrio Bailey (6'6, 222)
Daniel Gafford (6'11, 233)

 

[texasstrong12 4,668]

Osetkowski played 28 minutes last night (averaged 35.2 last year), Coleman played 31 minutes (averaged 34 last year), and Roach didn't play (averaged 33.4 last year). 

I hope this continues. We're probably going to be reliant on these three at times in the year so Shaka needs to manage their minutes better (especially Osetkowski). 

 

Edited November 7, 2018 by texasstrong12

[texasstrong12 4,668]

The minutes distribution this year will be interesting. Roach will obviously get minutes but if Hamm looks like he did in the scrimmage he's going to get minutes too. Probably not huge minutes but I can see him getting more minutes than people expect. Also, Jones is probably going to start getting more minutes dependent on the progression of his health. 

Somebody has to be the odd man out here. Liddell's 7 minutes last night won't continue. Outside of games against bad teams I bet he won't play much if at all. 

But I think we actually have some depth this year. There are 10 or 11 guys that I think can play without a huge drop off. 

 

Edited November 7, 2018 by texasstrong12

[BigOrange1 6,422]

definitely hope osetkowski's minutes go down significantly this year.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

I want to want to talk about DO and how shocking he was in the post- and particularly at rebounding last night. First, some numbers-

 

DO had 5 boards in 28 minutes

Eli Long had 6 boards in 24 minutes

Jericho Sims had 5 in 20

Hepa had 3 in 11

Hayes had 4 in 20

 

Dylan was, again, *shocking* last night on the boards. I don't know how I'd never noticed it before, but he is the anti PJ Tucker. The guy has less than zero rebounding instincts. There was one play where DO was alone on the base line with Eli in the opposite corner. Long catches a pass and puts up a shot, and Dylan starts running towards the basket as the shot goes up. DO ended up underneath the rim, and the ball predictably bounced off the hoop and landed in the very spot DO had just vacated. If one of my 7th graders did that he would get an earful. That is day one stuff. That's impossibly bad for a senior with as much experience as he has.

After that I started paying more attention to him and he was awful. Eastern Illinois is a bad team with less size than any team we'll play the rest of the year and yet Dylan was consistently running himself out of a good rebounding position and into a terrible one. It really jumped out once I started looking for it, and knowing that he's a senior who's spent years working with Darrin Horn, it was a big red flag for me. 

So, with that being said, I am really hoping that DO can shoot better this year, and use the passing ability he has as a plus, because he was just dreadful in the post and in rebounding against a team with less size than Pflugerville high school. I'm really hoping to see the light come on for Sims, because if he can focus on defending, rebounding, and put backs, then hopefully he plus Hayes, Hepa, and our guards can control the boards for us. There were a lot of people around here just crushing DO last year, and I was a little late to join that bandwagon, but he did not look like he had a clue last night, which worries me going forward. 

[BigOrange1 6,422]

he's spare as fuck.

[VinyVango 677]

Hepa will quickly eat into DO's minutes if he doesn't show some life soon.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

i'm not one to take a player's personal life and use it to "diss" him, but i think that bringing up his personal life is relevant here, and my intention is not to diss him- i'm just calling it like i see it. if you follow DO on social media, such as instagram, DO appears to be very very very very very very very very soft. and i'm not sure that he really loves playing basketball. i'll give you an example from someone else i know who i think may be similar.

i know a guy who played baseball his whole life. youngest of three brothers, all of whom got baseball scholarships. This kid was all state in HS, he played at U of H where he single handedly beat Texas in the Minute Maid tourney, and he was drafted in something like the fifth round by the Nationals after his junior year. In single A Hagerstown he was their second best player and leadoff hitter (a guy by the name of Bryce Harper was the only better player), he could steal bases, he was nails defensively- he was going places. And then he suddenly retired at the age of 22 because he didn't like having to be away from his wife who he'd been dating since middle school. he just up and quit. turned out he didn't actually have a passion for baseball, it's just something he'd done his whole life because that's what was expected of him.

i think that's DO. I think he's this giant dude whose identity has always been wrapped up in being a basketball player, when in reality he'd rather watch This Is Us on the couch with his girlfriend than he would do anything basketball related. From my POV basketball is just a hobby that he hasn't yet fully figured out isn't something that he really loves, and it shows in his play. No passion; no fire; no drive or desire; and he gets worked by smaller/lesser opponents. I think the guy is just going through the motions with no real intent. From what i've seen we'd be better off giving a bunch of his minutes to Hepa, Hayes, and Sims, and phasing him out of the rotation. I just don't think he was meant to play basketball.

[HookEm 2,442]

You could be completely correct.  Or you could be completely wrong.  Which kinda makes you a dick for posting all that.  You really have no idea how much DO loves basketball and EVERYTHING you posted is pure speculation.  It may be a valid interpretation based on your observations, but it is speculation none the less.

I always love it when someone says, "I'm not one to do this... but here I am about do it."  News flash, you ARE one to "diss" people by bringing their personal life into the conversation. 

YOU JUST DID IT.

[HookEm 2,442]

I love Hepa by the way. That dude is going to be a monster for us by the time he graduates.  I watched him float around the court last night. Always in the right position. Always making basketball plays.  Doing the little things it takes to win, like setting picks, spreading the floor, hitting open looks, etc. 

When that guy gets consistent minutes and develops his body he is going to be fantastic.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

8 minutes ago, HookEm said:

You could be completely correct.  Or you could be completely wrong.  Which kinda makes you a dick for posting all that.  You really have no idea how much DO loves basketball and EVERYTHING you posted is pure speculation.  It may be a valid interpretation based on your observations, but it is speculation none the less.

I always love it when someone says, "I'm not one to do this... but here I am about do it."  News flash, you ARE one to "diss" people by bringing their personal life into the conversation. 

YOU JUST DID IT.

i don't agree with you at all. i think i went pretty far out of my way make it clear that i'm not dissing him, but rather explaining what i've seen and then giving my own interpretation based on conjecture. had i come in here and said:

 

"DO is a soft ass pussy who sucks and clearly doesn't give a shit about basketball."

 

THAT would be dissing him. That's not what I did. But don't let your righteous indignation and faux outrage keep you from seeing the difference.

[Goo Punch 4,275]

By the way, let's point out a couple things-

 

1)This is a message board. This is exactly what it's here for. Discussion.

2)We've all seen dozens and dozens of posts about DO that were 10x more inflammatory and disrespectful with none of the nuance, thought, or admissions of conjecture, yet you somehow managed not to blow a gasket any of those times. Hmm. Strange.

Edited November 7, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Machinator 32,097]

I don't see it as a diss (it's relatively tame compared to some of the shit posted on this website), but I find it a very tenuous connection that reeks of grasping at straws to confirm a preconceived notion.