2018-19 Texas Longhorns thread

[Cameltoe 114]

37 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

yeah, they said that, but then when the team came running out of the tunnel on TV it looked like he was 100% fine. does anyone remember exactly when they announced he would be out? was it the day of the game again, like with Roach?

It's an official injury, all over the papers. Here's the Houston Chronicle story: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/longhorns/article/Texas-forward-Jericho-Sims-out-indefinitely-with-13511792.php

[ztejas 44217]

14 minutes ago, Cameltoe said:

I like that you're not even a Longhorn fan. "Your" ass. What is it... ya'd say... ya DO here?

I'm here for the football team. Also tits. And slap fights. 

So when someone that isn't a Tech fan, and is pretty ambivalent at this point about UT basketball, tells you that you should be concerned about the match-up you should probably shut the fuck up with your "Tech can't play basketball lol" shtick. 

Especially considering they won 3* more tournament games last season than Shaka has in his entire tenure in Austin. 

I'd probably have renewed interest in Texas roundball if you fired the assclown currently running the program. 

Edited January 11, 2019 by ztejas

[Cameltoe 114]

Ok ztejas, but just for the record, you don't know shit about basketball and your posts all suck. Now run along...

Early game tomorrow. 1:00 PM in the drum.

[ztejas 44217]

I'm out of reps but we're over halfway guys. Everyone chip into the collection plate here. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

i too am out. he's really been on a roll.

[ztejas 44217]

On 1/11/2019 at 2:35 PM, ztejas said:

Tech is going to whip your ass. Twice. 

Apologies for this one. I don't particularly like watching Texas lose - Texas basketball gave me a lot of great memories as a youth.

I just think Shaka needs to go. The fact that former fans such as myself are losing everything resembling interest should be a red-flag.

[Nolacycling 893]

This is one of those threads  I open apprehensively because I'm thinking someone's transferring. Similar to C Struggs transferring to heaven.

Edited January 13, 2019 by Nolacycling

[Braff Zacklin 13676]

6 hours ago, Nolacycling said:

Similar to C Struggs transferring to heaven.

[Goo Punch 4275]

our rating in AdjD has steadily declined since conference play started. which isn't super surprising considering that our conference opponents should be tougher than our non-con opponents. still, the teams we've played have generally been really poor offensive teams, so it's still a bit disconcerting to see the D steadily declining after player a few of the worst offenses in major college basketball. good think doke is out for KU, otherwise this one could get ugly. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

x/post-

   8 hours ago,  Fozzz said:

Or, if we play like we did last night, we'll win.  

On another note, is this the best team of the Shaka Smart era?  I think it could be.

---------------------

no. his first team was much better than this team. even after Ridley went down we won five games against ranked teams, including sweeping top 10-15 ranked WVU, and beating Final Four participant OU. The league was MUCH tougher that year and we finished tied for third, which is certainly higher than we will finish this year. Isaiah Taylor has been sorely missed by Shaka, and nobody on this current team is anywhere near as impactful a player as he was. Taylor was 1st team all Big XII ahead of Jevon Carter, Frank Mason, and more. EDJ and Roach were 1st Team All-Newcomer players, Prince Ibeh was the Big XII DPOY, and he couldn't even get any meaningful PT until Cam Ridley went down. And btw, when Ridley went down he was the only player in america averaging a double double with 3+ blocks per game.

So no. not in a million years is this team better than Shaka's first team. I haven't even mentioned guys like Connor Lammert and Javan Felix, both of whom are better than some of our starters/major players, and who if they played on this team would be two of our three best shooters. no. no no no. not even close. 

------------

his best and most talented team by far was full of Rick Barnes' players, none of whom were anywhere near as highly touted or highly recruited as the majority of shaka's own players. if that doesn't speak volumes about his coaching ability then what does.

[Machinator 32103]

 

[Fastbreak 4040]

On this date 9 years ago, the #1 Ranked Texas Longhorns hosted the Texas A&M Fighting Aggies....

 

How things have changed

[Machinator 32103]

 

[Machinator 32103]

 

[Machinator 32103]

Speaking of "luck", we caught KSU at the right time. That win in Manhattan is aging nicely.

[Goo Punch 4275]

yeah dean wade is back and barry brown is crushing it. definitely good timing on our part, and i wouldn't be surprised if we lost to them at home. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

x/post since not everyone reads every thread:

 

 

 

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Does anyone else think that Courtney Ramey has a similar game to Terry Rozier? I've said that a couple times now, and watching this play reminded me of that. 

 

[Catdaddyhorn 3463]

8 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

x/post since not everyone reads every thread:

 

 

 

 

I get the thrust of what you're saying, but there's a delicate balance to how a team needs to crash the boards vs maintaining defensive balance.  In your 4th video you criticized Roach for fading away at the top of the key. In all honesty he has to be a 100% certain of where the ball is going to risk crashing the boards there.  The guard/wing at the top of key when a shot goes up is essentially the safety of the defense and more times than not will start floating back when a shot goes up.  For the most part, you really don't want more than 3 guys (some would even go so far as to say no more than 2) crashing the boards at a time. Our issue has been that our most capable offensive rebounder (Dylan) is often 20 feet from the basket when a shot goes up.  Despite my disagreement and belief that analystics really only applies to the NBA, in today's analytics world crashing the boards is anathema, which is part of the reason Shaka used to go so far as to not even put a rebounder on the free throw line (which was a fucking hilarious example of Shaka's obsequious adherence to the analytics of today's game).

 

Here's a good article on the philosophical battle wrt offensive boards. 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/14505051/transition-defense-left-offensive-rebounds-cutting-room-floor

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Catdaddyhorn

[Goo Punch 4275]

i don't disagree, I was just pointing out that 3 out of 4 guards started moving back down the court when the shot went up, which is a recipe for disaster since we suck at both shooting and rebounding. Coleman was the guy who really screwed up, and he would have been benched for doing that under Barnes. Roach wasn't really the focus of that video. 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Goo Punch

[Machinator 32103]

Inside Texas on Shaka's job security

11-8 overall and 3-4 in conference...in year four...with his roster...including losses to VCU, Radford, Providence and Oklahoma State...

If Shaka was hoping to shut up the naysayers and frustrated Texas fans who are beyond ready for his departure from Austin, the previous (poorly constructed as it may be) sentence was not the way to get that deal done.

Instead, anybody looking for kindling for the get rid of Shaka fire has more than enough of that to go around.

Now, there are scenarios where Shaka loses his Longhorn job this season. Not making the NCAA Tournament would be tough (if not impossible) to overcome. Not making a postseason tournament of any kind would be even tougher.

However, the savvy, if underwhelmed, InsideTexas reader needs to be aware of three things that will heavily weigh in Chris Del Conte's decision making when this year does wind down for the Horns.

1. The buyout. If Shaka Smart were to be fired after this season, Texas Athletics would be on the hook for over $15 Million in buyout money. This is a proud, successful athletics program, but CDC didn't get to where he is by being stupid with money. The investment in Shaka has been pretty considerable and the AD is aware of Shaka's recruiting prowess and the local kid who's on his way as well as two other top 50 recruits. If firing him ends up being the play, it will be because they feel like they have no other choice, financially. That's a tough place to get to given the relative lack of concern Texas fans have for basketball and the positive current position of the football program. It might require some donors playing hard ball, or to help foot the bill. Speaking of which...

2. Shaka has a big money donor in his corner. For all the things Tom Herman has done right, there is a Texas-Ex bigwig who has felt slighted (rightly or otherwise) by the football team and has shifted his support over to the hoops team. Texas is a huge place and there are plenty of donors, but this isn't a guy you replace with just a checkbook. He's pretty powerful.

3. The buyout on the other side. Chris Beard would be #1 on UT's wish list, and we've heard that interest runs both ways. He signed an extension last March that pays him handsomely. We don't know what his buyout is off-hand and after a short Google search, but we do know money is playing a factor here as well.

None of this is to say that people can't want Shaka gone. It's not like he's making the most compelling argument that he should stay. Still, Inside Texas' job is to help its community prepare for what's next for Texas sports and it appears that, as of right now, Smart is more likely to stay than exit.

If he misses the tournament, expect the long knives to come out and for Del Conte to do what he's paid to do, make some tough decisions.

We have more emails out to Cigars soliciting comments and this thread may be updated today.

While we haven't written much about Smart's job security, we have been monitoring things behind the scenes with the expectations it would become a story-line.

[Eskimohorn 5682]

2. Shaka has a big money donor in his corner. For all the things Tom Herman has done right, there is a Texas-Ex bigwig who has felt slighted (rightly or otherwise) by the football team and has shifted his support over to the hoops team. Texas is a huge place and there are plenty of donors, but this isn't a guy you replace with just a checkbook. He's pretty powerful.

Sounds like a weak person to me

[Goo Punch 4275]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Red Five 41703]

In an interview Saturday Shaka referred to the “rough patch” we’re going through. Um we’re 6-9 since Thanksgiving.

[Burt Macklin 19230]

6 minutes ago, Red Five said:

In an interview Saturday Shaka referred to the “rough patch” we’re going through. Um we’re 6-9 since Thanksgiving.

By “rough patch,” are you sure he didn’t mean the last three years?

[Goo Punch 4275]

51 minutes ago, Red Five said:

In an interview Saturday Shaka referred to the “rough patch” we’re going through. Um we’re 6-9 since Thanksgiving.

that's one big-ass patch. 

[Machinator 32103]

Despite the feeling that we're playing out the string, we are remarkably still safely in the tournament according to Bracket Matrix: http://www.bracketmatrix.com/

That UNC win will continue to shine brightly, and the Purdue win looks better and better. VCU and Radford were ugly losses, but they are actually both in the field if the tourney began today. If we somehow split this week, our resume will have more staying power than you think. But that's a big if.

[Goo Punch 4275]

I can't wait lose a 6/11 matchup by a score of 64-63 after trailing the entire game, hitting a few threes late to get within one shot of winning, only to watch one of our guards clank a terrible 24 foot fadeaway as his four teammates stand and watch. 

Roach is crestfallen, Dylan is relieved, Coleman and Long are arguing with each other, and Jaxson Hayes is looking up in the stands at his dad who gives him a slight nod that says, "now let's go get this paper."

annnnnnd scene. 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Goo Punch

[TreatyOak 17318]

Joe Lunardi currently has Texas as a 10 seed. Looks like we won't have to face Radford again till the final. 

[Pancho 46250]

We're not even in the CBS bracketology. Not even in the first four out. 

Bracketmatrix has us as an avg of 10

[Machinator 32103]

On 1/28/2019 at 6:22 PM, Machinator said:

Despite the feeling that we're playing out the string, we are remarkably still safely in the tournament according to Bracket Matrix: http://www.bracketmatrix.com/

That UNC win will continue to shine brightly, and the Purdue win looks better and better. VCU and Radford were ugly losses, but they are actually both in the field if the tourney began today. If we somehow split this week, our resume will have more staying power than you think. But that's a big if.

Like I said.

Even if we lose in Hilton, we have some nice quality wins on our team sheet now.

[texasstrong12 4668]

3 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Like I said.

Even if we lose in Hilton, we have some nice quality wins on our team sheet now.

Already 3 wins against Kenpom top 15 teams and Texas will likely finish top 5ish in SOS. 

Like I said in the fire Shaka thread, if they get to 17 to 18 wins I think they make the tournament. Very few teams are going to have the quality wins that Texas has. But it's a big IF for Texas to get to 17 and 18 wins based on the remaining schedule. 

[Machinator 32103]

Team is shooting 78% from the FT line in conference play.

That is one improvement that the staff and team deserves credit for, if it sustains.

[jimmyjazz 47092]

Yes, they deserve credit for getting slightly better than average from the charity stripe.

EDIT:  oops, they're closer to 35th percentile, never mind.  Business as usual.

Edited January 30, 2019 by jimmyjazz

[Machinator 32103]

3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yes, they deserve credit for getting slightly better than average from the charity stripe.

78% is top 10 in the country.

But yeah, if they just did this from the beginning, we don't lose to Radford, and at least split Providence and VCU.

Maddening.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Machinator

[Goo Punch 4275]

x/post for those who don't read the Fire Shaka thread:

I just did some research on our FT shooting under Shaka, and the stats are both very telling and very damning. 

 

Texas FT leaders, minimum 3 FTA/gm 

Texas team FT stats and national ranks

 

2019: 

Osetkowski- 746% on 3.4 FTA

Hayes- .716% on 3.2 FTA

Roach- .700 on 3.2 FTA

 

FTA- 368, 245th

FT%- .701, 177th

 

2018:

Osetkowski- .721% on 3.8 FTA

Bamba- .681%, on 4.0 FTA

Roach- .651% on 3.4 FTA

 

FTA- 663, 147th

FT%- .665, 317th

 

2017: 

Jones- .775% on 3.4 FTA

Roach- .630% on 4.2 FTA

Mack- .588% on 3.4 FTA (played 15 games)

Allen- .564% on 4.5 FTA 

 

FTA- 637, 221st

FT%- .650, 326th

 

2016:

Taylor- .811% on 5.9

Roach- .629% on 3.5 FTA

Ridley- .407% on 4.2 FTA (played 13 games)

 

FTA- 743, 119th

FT%- .666 297th

 

1)His best shooters are his bigs

2)His guards are bad FT shooters

3)His players seldom get to the line

4)His one team that's been even decent at FT shooting (177th in FT% at .701) is his worst at getting to the line (245th in the country at FTA)

 

and he appears to have zero concern for this based on the players he has recruited. He's had exactly one good/impactful FT shooter in four fucking years. I don't think this can be overstated- this is like a football coach completely ignoring special teams. We lose a million close games and yet we refuse to recruit guards who shoot and we refuse to run an offense that leads to FTA, opting instead to go for long shots all game, even though we can't shoot or rebound worth a damn. 

 

the biggest constant for me since he's been here: the more research I do, the less I think of Shaka Smart as a coach. 

[Nolacycling 893]

I agree, the more research you do...

[Burt Macklin 19230]

14 hours ago, Machinator said:

Team is shooting 78% from the FT line in conference play.

That is one improvement that the staff and team deserves credit for, if it sustains.

Having Hayes and DO above 70% makes a huge difference. Like Derka said, our guards still generally suck at FTs and neither Hayes nor DO are good perimeter shooters, so our team still sucks at shooting.

also, conference play has only been 8 games and we don’t get to the line a lot, so it’s a small sample size. We’re still 1777th in FT% in the season. At least part of our improvement should be sustainable when because we swapped Hayes and Sims minutes. 

[Burt Macklin 19230]

Cross-posting this part of my post on the firs shaka thread to talk about just how damn good Hayes has been this year, even though you can tell he has so much more room for improvement.

1 minute ago, Burt Macklin said:

 

Side note: Hayes has been unbelievably good. His .245 WS/48 is top 20 in the country and that metric penalizes Hayes over guys on better teams because we don’t win as much. He leads the country in true shooting percentage, and he’s been significantly better than bamba was last year, even though you can tell when watching him that he’s so raw and has so many areas he can improve. Hayes net rating is 45.4!!!!!

 

 

 

 

[Machinator 32103]

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Yeah the Pac could be a one bud league this year. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

NCAA Teams grouped by rankings in both AdjO and AdjD:

 

Top 10 in both:

Duke, UVA, Sparty 

 

Top 20 in both:

UNC, UK

 

Top 30 in both:

Tennessee, Iowa State, Louisville, Nevada, Buffalo, Michigan, KU

 

Top 40 in both:

Nebraska, Marquette, Cincy, Wisconsin, FSU, TCU, Texas

 

Not listed: Gonzaga, Purdue, Va Tech, Villanova, Auburn, LSU, Maryland, Mississippi State, NC State 

 

That's right folks. Texas is now in the top 40 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. We just don't know how to win games, and that's a shame. 

 

The Kenpom top 10 in AdjO/AdjD:

 

1.UVA- 4/2

2.Duke- 3/6

3.Sparty- 6/7

4.Zags- 1/47

5.Michigan- 29/1

6.Tennesee- 2/28

7.UNC- 12/13

8.Kentucky- 16/9

9.Purdue- 5/50

10.Wisoncsin- 31/5

 

[Braff Zacklin 13676]

Surprised Texas cracks the Top 40 in Adjusted Offense (or any positive offensive metric, tbh). Just don't understand the stats very well, I guess.

[Goo Punch 4275]

6 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Surprised Texas cracks the Top 40 in Adjusted Offense (or any positive offensive metric, tbh). Just don't understand the stats very well, I guess.

points per 100 possessions with an adjustment for SOS. We don't turn the ball over very much which helps.

[texasstrong12 4668]

6 hours ago, Machinator said:

 

Yup. The bubble is worse this year and we got in at 8-10 last year and we weren't even in the first four game. 

Granted, we did win a Big 12 tournament game but I think we get in last year even without that win. 

[texasstrong12 4668]

Plus this. The two things the committee loves are SOS and quality wins. We will be near the top in both. 

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by texasstrong12

[texasstrong12 4668]

We finished 3rd in SOS last year (per Kenpom). We will finish about the same this year in SOS (currently 8th in Kenpom and 3rd in NET). 

The big difference this year is we will have more quality wins dependent on how we close out the year. I believe we had 5 "quadrant 1 wins" last year. If the account above is correct about 7-9 Q1 wins we will have 2 to 4 more quality wins this year. 

Edited January 31, 2019 by texasstrong12

[Catdaddyhorn 3463]

1 hour ago, Goo Punch said:

points per 100 possessions with an adjustment for SOS. We don't turn the ball over very much which helps.

I listened to the "Pretend We're Football" podcast today and one of them said it best. Some teams find a way to win and we're just a team that just finds a way to lose. Whether it be periods of play where we should stretch a lead to double digits or more, but don't. Or periods of play like against Georgia where we're on the verge of making a comeback and taking the lead, but miss consecutive wide open layups and dunks. Another guy made a good point about this team's senior leaders not being guys who really command respect. One guy shouts "Let's Go" in a timeout then commences to miss several easy bunnies out on the court while the other guy get's everyone hype, but routinely makes buffoonish mistakes in crunch time. I've gotta believe trading out Andrew Jones for Kerwin Roach's usage rate next year is going to have a demonstrable effect on our team, provided Jones can return to form. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

27 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

I listened to the "Pretend We're Football" podcast today and one of them said it best. Some teams find a way to win and we're just a team that just finds a way to lose. Whether it be periods of play where we should stretch a lead to double digits or more, but don't. Or periods of play like against Georgia where we're on the verge of making a comeback and taking the lead, but miss consecutive wide open layups and dunks. Another guy made a good point about this team's senior leaders not being guys who really command respect. One guy shouts "Let's Go" in a timeout then commences to miss several easy bunnies out on the court while the other guy get's everyone hype, but routinely makes buffoonish mistakes in crunch time. I've gotta believe trading out Andrew Jones for Kerwin Roach's usage rate next year is going to have a demonstrable effect on our team, provided Jones can return to form. 

I made a post earlier about us being in the top 40 nationally in both AdjO and AdjD, and I said, "we just don't know how to win." It seems to be a trademark of Shaka's teams dating back to VCU. I don't see our guys being coached up very well, and I don't see them maturing, or changing from boys into men. Roach and Dylan are seniors but they both play and pretty much act like wide eyed freshmen.

I mean compare them to Schofield and Williams. Roach and DO look and act like the guys who get their lunch money taken by Schofield and Williams. If you follow the Tennessee duo on IG they are generally all business, with a very serious approach to the game, and when they aren't serious it's still 100% basketball, whether it's workouts or pics/videos from the locker room. Roach is still posting screen shots of himself talking to girls, dancing, singing love songs in his car. Dylan just posts about his girlfriend, and then on every road trip the first thing that he and Brock Cunningham do when they arrive is dress up all goofy and take some goofy photo at half court of the opposing team's court. Dead serious. I mean last year as a fourth year junior he was doing all of that ridiculous, goofy shit with his hair, from the neckbeard to the cornrows; that's someone who doesn't take himself seriously. Even TJ ditched the braids as a sophomore. 

Shaka's style does not turn boys into men. Rick's style may have made a couple guys wilt over the years, but our guys absolutely became men under Barnes, Lanier, and Wright. Under Shaka our kids still look and act like kids. The camp counselor approach does nobody justice. 

Edited February 1, 2019 by Goo Punch

[texasstrong12 4668]

I was wrong about the 5 Q1 wins last year. We actually had 7. Here was our profile last year. http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2018/team-sheet?team=Texas

Q1 record: 7-11

Q2 record: 3-4

Q3 record: 5-0

Q4 record: 4-0

Here's our profile currently for this year. http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2019/team-net-sheet?team=Texas

Q1 record: 4-5

Q2 record: 2-3

Q3 record: 3-1

Q4 record: 3-0

 

Edited February 1, 2019 by texasstrong12