2018-19 Texas Longhorns thread

[ClubWhatever 12085]

2 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

You just reiterated my point. You expect the absolute best version of Sims to be the guy we see next year, despite the fact that he couldn’t earn more PT on a team with no post depth, and only had a handful of good games. 

I think a relevant observation about Sims is that he improved over the course of the year.  By the end of the year he was making real post moves that he couldn't make or was afraid to make at the beginning.   There's still room for improvement and he seems to be coachable and eager.  That warrants some optimism.

[Goo Punch 4275]

9 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

I think a relevant observation about Sims is that he improved over the course of the year.  By the end of the year he was making real post moves that he couldn't make or was afraid to make at the beginning.   There's still room for improvement and he seems to be coachable and eager.  That warrants some optimism.

I’m totally optimistic about him. I don’t think we’ve ever had an athlete like him in the program. Ever. I just want to see him perform more before I start expecting him to be a consistent standout player.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Goo Punch 4275]

I want to hear BitterWhiteGuy’s thoughts on this matter. I’m not familiar with his work, but I’ve seen those here who seem to have some sort of reverence for him and his opinion. Well, he registered- may as well start posting, right? 

Edited April 29, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Machinator 32097]

Speaking of @Bitterwhiteguy, this was a pretty interesting post-mortem of the 2017-18 season (some info is outdated, of course, like Ramey and Roach's chances of returning):

https://www.barkingcarnival.com/2018/3/22/17147882/pretend-were-footballs-final-show-bwgs-final-thoughts-on-17-18-im-all-over-the-place-here

 

BWG’s Texas Longhorns Thoughts

This has been a hell of a ride, from the highs of the Duke & Gonzaga games showing this team’s potential to the lows of the Tennessee State game & last quarter at Morgantown showing the worst of this team. This season has been a soap opera even by normal college basketball standards; there was a player dealing with cancer, another player fighting through injuries at the worst possible time, and yet another player has to deal with the FBI. All we really needed to complete the melodrama bingo card was a player in a coma after unknowingly marrying his sister. Grading this team in a vacuum is pointless, all of this other stuff has to be factored in because any one of these would have been huge stories in their own right much less combined into one season. With that in mind, I’m OK with how this season turned out. It is not the ending I had hoped for when writing the ebook last summer, but I also never envisioned the basketball equivalent of a plague of locusts descending upon the program. I think it is possible to simultaneously recognize that there were individual elements of the coaches’ decisions that were suboptimal within games while also understanding the heavily reduced options they had through no fault of their own. For example, Dylan Osetkowski pretty clearly played too many minutes this season, but that happened in large part because he needed to help shoulder the scoring load left by Andrew Jones disappearing from the lineup. Or take the incredibly slow tempo of the team despite having better athletes than the majority of their opponents; it would be preferable to let players like Roach & Coleman get out in transition, but when Texas is forced to run a 7-man rotation they have to consider the cumulative impact of that energy output over a 34-game season. It’s one of the reasons Texas didn’t press more, either; pressing like West Virginia means using 10+ guys every night. There are some games where WVU put fifteen guys on the court, Texas simply didn’t have that depth this year. Tactically, this team never realized their preseason ceiling because they spent ²⁄₃ of the year playing without one of their hole cards. (I rarely play cards and I’m mixing metaphors here, so if you’re cringing right now console yourself with the notion that I’m the guy who invariably dumps money to you in Vegas. I am the seal floating through an Orca pod waving at all the pretty predators.)

This is a long way of saying I’m giving the coaching staff a pass on the tactical stuff because a majority of their limitations were induced through no real fault of their own. We can discuss edge cases of how Jordan Barnett still being on the team could have helped or a couple of other chickens coming home to roost, but in my view most any of these chickens pale in comparison to the gaping hole left by a guy getting leukemia. It’s not like there was a super senior stuck on the bench who could have replaced the lost contributions of Jones — no offense Joe Schwartz and Ryan McClurg — and averted the sort of major reshuffling of responsibilities cascading from that illness. Further, the fact that Texas kept battling through the adversity is a sign Shaka Smart and his staff are instilling the culture they preach. We have seen other teams fall apart when hit with adversity; look at our neighbors to the north for an example of a team that checked out before the season was over. The Oklahoma Sooners were on auto-pilot for the last 2-3 weeks of the season and all they were dealing with was a losing streak. I have heard from a variety of writers across the country who were impressed by Texas’ mental resilience in the face of such daunting problems, and credit for that goes to not only the players from buying in but the coaching staff building an infrastructure that induced the buy-in. Our dearly departed Augie Garrido was famous for saying that adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it; this team’s character was revealed over and over again in the last two months regardless of the results on the scoreboard. When people discuss this coaching staff’s ability to coach, in addition to talking about offense & defense they need to include the ability to motivate. I don’t think there’s any question that this staff has an elite ability to motivate its players.

There are a series of questions that will determine the outlook for this program next year, questions we won’t have all of the answers to for awhile.

1. Who declares? Mohamed Bamba is the obvious loss to anyone who had eyes. There is some question as to whether Kerwin Roach II will leave for the NBA Draft; it’s my belief he will declare to get more information, which is the smart play. Any player seriously considering going pro in the next 1-2 years should declare so they’re able to find out from the NBA what they need to improve, so Roach declaring shouldn’t surprise anyone. I suspect he will get feedback that says he’s not quite ready and he will return for his senior season, but we will see.
2. Who leaves? Transfers are a part of D-I life, and this year should be no exception. It’s not hard to do the math on this team and see that Texas was counting on at least 2 players leaving this offseason when they recruited their 2018 class; the difference is that one of them was expected to be Andrew Jones and now that’s not necessarily the case. So who asks for their release? Jacob Young is leaving, but my guesses as to who else is likely to go elsewhere in order of likelihood are Eric Davis Jr. and/or James Banks. It is difficult to imagine Wildcard playing at Texas again given the ongoing FBI probe, though there’s a chance he could surprise us. Lord knows it wouldn’t be the first time.
3. Is Andrew Jones healthy? Jones is recovering from his first round of treatment really well and the family is cautiously optimistic, but the next 60 days will tell us a lot about if Jones has any chance of returning to Texas. This team without Jones can still be good, but bringing back a fully-healthy Jones (even if he’s 70-80% what he was before) will increase this team’s ceiling substantially.
4. Does Courtney Ramey choose Texas? The former Louisville commit would be a shot in the arm for the Longhorns, adding both a solid shooter and ballhandler to a stable of quality guards. I don’t think he’s picking Texas, Mizzou seems to be the leader but that recruitment is quiet enough I don’t have a very good feel for where he’s going.
5. How much can Eli Long contribute? At his best, Long is an above-average shooter and another point guard to put on the floor. He hit nearly 39% from three and was one of the better assist generators in his last season at Mount St. Mary’s, so there’s the potential for him to become a major contributor. It’s possible he takes up a significant portion of the offensive load if Andrew Jones is unable to return, and based upon his first two years with the Mountaineers he seems up to the challenge.
6. What is Texas’ offensive strategy? Maybe a better question is how effective Texas is with the read & react system, because we know that’s what they’re likely to run. My question is more about tempo and execution than system, because next year Texas can possibly run 9-deep. If they’re that deep, they can push the pace on offense more than they did this year. Will they?
7. How much does shooting improve? Tell me the players that return and I’ll tell you if they’re only incrementally better or significantly better. It’s possible Texas will have five guys shooting 35%+ from three, with a couple of guys potentially in the 40% range. This is also dependent on where the three-point line is next year. Moving it to FIBA distance could affect everyone other than Osetkowski, who seems to like to shoot the ball from Mars 2-3 times a game.
8. Do they press more? My hunch is that Texas will never be HAVOC South if they want to attract the Bambas of the world. Maybe five years from now when the G League is taking all the lottery picks Texas converts to a press team, but outside of that I don’t think Texas is likely to press more than 20-25% of the time on the season. I’m less concerned with the distance of the floor Texas defends than the efficacy of their overall defense. The last three years tells me Shaka will be able to field a quality defense regardless of the system he employs.

To the elephant in the room of Shaka Smart’s job security, here is what I think. I think there are relatively few scenarios in which Shaka doesn’t get a fifth year. If Texas has another 11-win season or if he gets ensnared in the FBI probe all bets are off. If Shaka is the one who gave Jones leukemia or is using Chris Del Conte’s garage as a puppy mill, he’s probably gone. If Shaka has rigged the jumbotron to mine bitcoin or he compliments Kirk Bohls in public he’s probably done at Texas. If Shaka punches Karen Aston in the face during a TV timeout or makes jokes about DJ Mel’s height then he should probably start shopping for a new home lest he CATCH THESE HANDS BECAUSE MEL IS MY BOY, BLUE. If Shaka nominates Eric Davis Jr. as team treasurer or saws the horns off of the court then honestly he’s probably already lined up Andy Kennedy’s gig so that kinda takes care of itself. Other than these scenarios, Shaka probably gets a fifth year.

This is to say his seat should not and probably will not be warm this coming season. Having said that, if this next team doesn’t show clear signs of progress or a clear identity then his fifth year is going to be very much a make or break year. I hesitate to put quantifiable goals for what constitutes “progress” until I see what the roster will be and dig further into the rest of the conference, but as next season gets near I’ll put down something more concrete.

It’s a long offseason ahead; as much as I wish Texas was still playing, I’m looking forward to the break. This season has been emotionally draining for myriad reasons, and it’s been kinda nice to passively watch basketball with my brain turned off. I feel like Reggie Miller, no wonder he’s always smiling.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Machinator

[ChickenSandwich 9797]

41 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

I’m totally optimistic about him. I don’t think we’ve ever had an athlete like him in the program. Ever. I just want to see him perform more before I start expecting him to be a consistent standout player.

Different body type but Prince Ibeth could be considered a freak athlete. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Edit: after reading Machinator’s link

 

Well, now I am familiar with some of his work and it is a whole bunch more of the same. I can’t even take him seriously with his absolute refusal to criticize Shaka Smart in any way. It’s the same as everyone else who writes about this team for Orangebloods, 24/7, or any other similar website. “Here’s 17 reasons why none of this is Shaka Smart’s fault.” Great. You guys are all brilliant writers who've been gifted with an in-depth understanding of basketball in such a profound way that you can bloviate away as to why an embarrassing three-year period featuring some extremely poorly coached teams whose calling card is collapsing are actually not poorly coached and nobody needs to worry. 

 

^^^^^ that’s essentially every article I’ve ever read about Texas hoops under Shaka. I redact the part about wanting his opinion on anything.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Goo Punch 4275]

Just now, ChickenSandwich said:

Different body type but Prince Ibeth could be considered a freak athlete. 

True. Prince is about as good as it gets at this level. But like you said, Sims’ body type is so substantive and strong for an athlete of his caliber. Both of those guys are in rarefied air athletically.

[HtownHorn 14446]

The reason why the rotation was 7 deep had more to do with Shaka's poor team building than Jones getting cancer, and the fact his entire 1st recruiting class is likely gone 2 years after they signed.

[Goo Punch 4275]

7 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Oh come on.  You’re really going to frame playing behind Bamba as, “He was so bad he couldn’t earn more minutes on a team with no post depth!”   That’s almost as disingenuous as the guy saying Balbay wasn’t a good defender.

Okay, forget his minutes. His production was totally underwhelming for 90% of the season. He was not an impact player in, what, 25+ games? But now he’s automatically going to hold it down in place of Bamba? I’ve seen 3x as many people agree with TexasStrong (“very little fall off from Bamba”) than those who agree with me (give the kid a chance to consistently contribute before we declare him nearly as good as/impactful as Bamba). And I’m sure you can tell that drives me up the wall. I think the people around here are absolutely crazy to be putting that sort of expectation on him based on three good games from last season.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Goo Punch 4275]

And for the record I do have a beef with Sims’ usage last year- he definitely should have been playing a lot more for the entirety of the season, *ESPECIALLY* knowing how big his role projects to be this year. But of course, we lost Andrew Jones to cancer, so there was no way we could have played Sims more.

[HtownHorn 14446]

6 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Oh come on.  You’re really going to frame playing behind Bamba as, “He was so bad he couldn’t earn more minutes on a team with no post depth!”   That’s almost as disingenuous as the guy saying Balbay wasn’t a good defender.

He's raw with a lot of athletic upside. He should have gotten more minutes than he did at the expense of Osetkowski, who was the 2nd least efficient player in the rotation after Ferbes.

[ChickenSandwich 9797]

DO gets a bit of a bad rap. When you have no offensive identity (or a guy you can play around) someone has to be the “chucker”. That player will have to take bad shots and force the issue due to lack of other options on offense. This player needs to have a thick skin (you see his elf boots?) and a short memory. Sadly Dillon was the only player on the roster who fit this bill. 

Mid he was a third option on a good team I think you would see his efficiency sky rocket. It’s not entirely his fault that Shaka asked him to play that role and he struggled. As he wore down Roach took on some of the hero ball work load but Dillon was still the designated chucker. 

Is what it is and I will not be surprised with a 5% improvement across the board in his offensive numbers if we can find a go to offensive player. 

[dogbreath 431]

Quote

The reason why the rotation was 7 deep had more to do with Shaka's poor team building than Jones getting cancer, and the fact his entire 1st recruiting class is likely gone 2 years after they signed.

Smart has had his issues, but I would take these choices everyday when not using hindsight.

First year recruits:  Mack, Roach and Davis.  The only sophomore transferred at midseason and the only junior was a transfer. It would be more appropriate to say Barnes mismanaged the roster. Davis never progressed after his freshman season.  Is that on him or the coaches?  Mack had problems.  Sometimes it doesn't work out, but you take the chance.

Second year recruits:  Allen, Jones, Young, Banks, Isom (gtr) and Osetkowski (tr).  I'll take the quality of Allen and Jones every year.  Young and Banks are gone after two years.  If the replacements are Ramey and either Roach/Cremo/grad transfer then that's a win.  Isom was hurt most of the year--shit happens.  Osetkowski - a frustrating but decent player in his junior year.  The roster had one senior who was a transfer and no juniors.  Again how is that on Smart?

Third year recruits:  Bamba, Coleman, Sims, Febres, Hamm, Long (tr).  Not sure what to say here, all look to be quality with Hamm and Febres needing to improve.  Lose Bamba, but take that quality every year.

Fourth year recruits:  Ramey, Hepa, Liddell, Hayes,  Cunningham.  May still get a gtr/tr if Roach stays in draft.  And hopefully Jones comes back.  Giving Texas a roster of

PG: Coleman, Ramey, Long

SG: Roach/Cremo/unknown, Ramey, Long, Febres

SF: Liddell, Febres, Roach/Cremo, Cunningham

PF: Ostekowski, Hepa, Hamm

C: Sims, Hayes

I would guess that there would be a 9 man rotation without Roach/Cremo/gtr and possibly Jones: Coleman, Ramey, Long, Liddell, Febres, Osetkowski, Hepa, Simms and Hayes. 

None of the above suggests to me poor team building by Smart.  There may have been some poor team management in individual games, but not team building.  And again to BWG's point, I have not seen Texas players quit, no matter how poorly the team has played

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Machinator 32097]

Young, Mack, and Banks not panning out is a big reason the last two seasons have been below expectations.

[CurlyDumps 4439]

16 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

I hope you’re just trolling at this point.

Me, too. Ranking on Balbay is lame as fuck.  Being clueless about him makes it worse. And just further evidence that CT is not a UT fan.  He’s a Shaka Smart fan.

CT never watched a second of Dogus Balbay’s UT career.

[Machinator 32097]

Solid post on the Texas offense by Jeff Haley:

https://www.burntorangenation.com/2018/4/29/17288078/texas-longhorns-basketball-offense-shaka-smart-wing-ball-screens

[texasstrong12 4668]

15 minutes ago, CurlyDumps said:

Me, too. Ranking on Balbay is lame as fuck.  

Yeah, just as it is lame as fuck to call Osetkowski a terrible and shit player. It goes both ways. 

The board is praising a guy that averaged 4.1 points, 2.2 assists, and 2.7 rebounds in his best year. Yet they are arguing Osetkowski sucked who averaged 13.4 points, 1.2 assists, and 7.2 rebounds in his 1 year at Texas. Yes, I know Balbay was a good defender. 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by texasstrong12

[HtownHorn 14446]

3 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

Yeah, just as it is lame as fuck to call Osetkowski a terrible and shit player. It goes both ways. 

The board is praising a guy that averaged 4.1 points, 2.2 assists, and 2.7 rebounds in his best year. Yet they are arguing Osetkowski sucked who averaged 13.4 points, 1.2 assists, and 7.2 rebounds in his 1 year at Texas. Yes, I know Balbay was a good defender. 

Osetkowski also took nearly 12 shots a game to get those supreme numbers, and had his lowest TR% of his career. He also averaged more TOs than assists. Balbay played his role well, Osetkowski did not. Balbay also came back from several injuries. The way Osetkowski looked at the end of the season, it's likely an ACL tear ends his career.

[texasstrong12 4668]

8 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Osetkowski also took nearly 12 shots a game to get those supreme numbers, and had his lowest TR% of his career. He also averaged more TOs than assists. Balbay played his role well, Osetkowski did not. Balbay also came back from several injuries. The way Osetkowski looked at the end of the season, it's likely an ACL tear ends his career.

"Balbay played his role well". 

You do realize that Osetkowski's role was to be a scorer right? Shitting on Osetkwoski while praising Balbay is dumb as fuck. 

Edited April 29, 2018 by texasstrong12

[hobbes2702 12771]

Apparently his role was to take terrible shots and turn the ball over excessively.

[HtownHorn 14446]

11 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

"Balbay played his role well". 

You do realize that Osetkowski's role was to be a scorer right? Shitting on Osetkwoski while praising Balbay is dumb as fuck. 

and he was shitty at that role. He had the worst FG% of his career last year, which corresponded in him playing better competition game in and game out. Which is why I'm also taking a wait and see approach with Long.

Edited April 29, 2018 by HtownHorn

[texasstrong12 4668]

8 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

and he was shitty at that role. He had the worst FG% of his career last year, which corresponded in him playing better competition game in and game out. Which is why I'm also taking a wait and see approach with Long.

Osetkowski had issues last year no doubt about it.

But praising a guy that averaged 3.7 points, 3 assists, and 2.7 rebounds  in his 3 years at Texas while arguing Osetkowski sucked is just stupid. 

 

[hobbes2702 12771]

It’s not when that guy was one of the best perimeter defenders we’ve had in the past 15 years

[texasstrong12 4668]

9 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

It’s not when that guy was one of the best perimeter defenders we’ve had in the past 15 years

That's nice, he also sucked on offense.

Regardless, there's no doubt Balbay was a hell of a defender and helped Texas. My argument is not a criticism of Balbay. The issue is praising someone like Balbay while saying someone like Osetkwoski "sucked". Both helped Texas in the role they played. 

 

[BigOrange1 6416]

33 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Apparently his role was to take terrible shots and turn the ball over excessively.

he fucking excelled at that.

[Goo Punch 4275]

I truly don’t understand how TS12 can’t to understand why people would praise Balbay and criticize Osetkowski. He also seems to believe that the per-game averages are THE entire story. One guy was the starting PG and defensive stalwart on a top 10 team who played his role consistently and effectively. The other guy was our top USG guy on pretty poor team that was not fun to watch, who did not play consistently or effectively. What’s hard to understand here? Balbay played lock down defense, got assists, and didn’t turn the ball over. That’s what we needed from him, and we got it. DO took awful shots at an awful conversion rate, turned the ball over, and helped Texas stumble their way to a totally unimpressive season in which we finished sub-.500 in conference- again. But hey, let’s just point out that DO scored more and pretend to be incredulous, right?

[Goo Punch 4275]

Also, there’s no way that DO can be that bad again, so at least we have that to look forward to.

[texasstrong12 4668]

12 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

I truly don’t understand how TS12 can’t to understand why people would praise Balbay and criticize Osetkowski. He also seems to believe that the per-game averages are THE entire story. One guy was the starting PG and defensive stalwart on a top 10 team who played his role consistently and effectively. The other guy was our top USG guy on pretty poor team that was not fun to watch, who did not play consistently or effectively. What’s hard to understand here? Balbay played lock down defense, got assists, and didn’t turn the ball over. That’s what we needed from him, and we got it. DO took awful shots at an awful conversion rate, turned the ball over, and helped Texas stumble their way to a totally unimpressive season in which we finished sub-.500 in conference- again. But hey, let’s just point out that DO scored more and pretend to be incredulous, right?

I'm absolutely shocked that Derka thinks a Rick Barnes player was god while a Shaka Smart player sucks. Just like you thought Connor Lammert was better than Jarrett Allen. 

Edited April 29, 2018 by texasstrong12

[hobbes2702 12771]

That has literally zero to do with anything.

[Goo Punch 4275]

4 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

I'm absolutely shocked that Derka thinks a Rick Barnes player was god while a Shaka Smart player sucks. Just like you thought Connor Lammert was better than Jarrett Allen. 

Dynamite response, you’re a joy to converse with.

[texasstrong12 4668]

Also, acting like Balbay accomplished anything in conference is hilarious. 

Texas finished T-4th in the Big 12 in the 4th best RPI conference in '08-'09. 

Texas finished T-6th in the Big 12 in the  best RPI conference in '09-10. 

Texas finished 2nd in the Big 12 in the 3rd best RPI conference in '10-11. 

The 1 year that the Big 12 was good with Balbay we were the 6th to 7th best team in conference. 

Edited April 29, 2018 by texasstrong12

[txhorns 2407]

As good as Balbay was defensively he was equally as bad offensively.  That severely hurt our team.

DO was not great last year but he did what he was asked to do.  He took the bad shots because someone had to.  We did not have a guard to create their own shot like most good teams do, well at least after Jones was lost.  This led to DO being that guy unfortunately.  That along with poor offensive sets was the reason for DO being bad.

The hatred of DO on here is ridiculous.  He also had a better PER than Balbay ever did.

[Goo Punch 4275]

This dude is in here feverishly looking up Texas’ old conference RPI numbers so that he can convince a bunch of Texas fans that they don’t actually like a former player who was a fan favorite. Jesus kid.

[Goo Punch 4275]

4 minutes ago, txhorns said:

As good as Balbay was defensively he was equally as bad offensively.  That severely hurt our team.

DO was not great last year but he did what he was asked to do.  He took the bad shots because someone had to.  We did not have a guard to create their own shot like most good teams do, well at least after Jones was lost.  This led to DO being that guy unfortunately.  That along with poor offensive sets was the reason for DO being bad.

The hatred of DO on here is ridiculous.  He also had a better PER than Balbay ever did.

Oh my god, stop comparing the two as players! This is beyond fucking stupid. We’re talking about who the fans LIKED, not which one scored more points or had a bigger role. How the fuck do yall not get this?!

Edited April 29, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Goo Punch 4275]

Up next, why Texas football fans are wrong to have liked Beau Trahan but not Chris Hall.

[Machinator 32097]

Is this the Texas Longhorns 2018-19 thread, or the Texas Longhorns circa 2010 thread? I have half a mind to change the title.

[texasstrong12 4668]

11 minutes ago, txhorns said:

 He also had a better PER than Balbay ever did.

Better PER, better true rebounding percentage, more offensive win shares, more defensive win shares, more win shares. His OBPM, DBPM, and BPM are probably also better than Balbay once Osetkowski's career is over at Texas. But it's impossible to calculate that because it only goes back to '10-11. 

[texasstrong12 4668]

12 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

This dude is in here feverishly looking up Texas’ old conference RPI numbers so that he can convince a bunch of Texas fans that they don’t actually like a former player who was a fan favorite. Jesus kid.

It's like you totally miss the point. Balbay was one of my favorites too. 

The point is it's idiotic to praise Balbay while calling Osetkowski a shitty and terrible player. 

[HtownHorn 14446]

35 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

I truly don’t understand how TS12 can’t to understand why people would praise Balbay and criticize Osetkowski. He also seems to believe that the per-game averages are THE entire story. One guy was the starting PG and defensive stalwart on a top 10 team who played his role consistently and effectively. The other guy was our top USG guy on pretty poor team that was not fun to watch, who did not play consistently or effectively. What’s hard to understand here? Balbay played lock down defense, got assists, and didn’t turn the ball over. That’s what we needed from him, and we got it. DO took awful shots at an awful conversion rate, turned the ball over, and helped Texas stumble their way to a totally unimpressive season in which we finished sub-.500 in conference- again. But hey, let’s just point out that DO scored more and pretend to be incredulous, right?

Not too mention that Balbay knew his limitations on offense. His .583 FG% his final year at Texas is impressive. Of course, he only averaged 2.9 FGA's a game. Shoot if Osetkowski could have averaged anywhere close to Balbay's freshmen year percentage of .455, no one would criticize him at all.

Edited April 29, 2018 by HtownHorn

[texasstrong12 4668]

7 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Not too mention that Balbay knew his limitations on offense. His .583 FG% his final year at Texas is impressive. Of course, he only averaged 2.9 FGA's a game. Shoot if Osetkowski could have averaged anywhere close to Balbay's freshmen year percentage of .455, no one would criticize him at all. 

Balbay didn't know his offensive limitations. Teams didn't guard him. 

It was 4 on 5 on the offensive end when Balbay played at Texas. 

[HtownHorn 14446]

8 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

Balbay didn't know his offensive limitations. Teams didn't guard him. 

It was 4 on 5 on the offensive end when Balbay played at Texas. 

Yet he had a career OTrg of 108.7 and a DRtg of 93.7, Osetkowski's one year at Texas, 99.9 and 101.3

WS are an accumulative statistic, the more one plays the more shares they get, but WS/40 can level that out.

Osetkowski had a .097 percentage last year, while Balbay had a career percentage of .124, it's also doubtful Osetkowski matches Balbay's career total of 6.2 either, as he had 2.9 last year, even though Osetkowski will easily surpass Balbay's career MP next season barring an injury.

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by HtownHorn

[Goo Punch 4275]

4 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

Balbay didn't know his offensive limitations. Teams didn't guard him. 

It was 4 on 5 on the offensive end when Balbay played at Texas. 

As opposed to Osetkowski, who took and missed a metric ton of terrible shots and who had nearly twice as many turnovers as assists. What a brilliant offensive player he was. 

[texasstrong12 4668]

12 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

As opposed to Osetkowski, who took and missed a metric ton of terrible shots and who had nearly twice as many turnovers as assists. What a brilliant offensive player he was. 

I don't know what to tell you. Teams would actually defend Osetkowski and not so much with Balbay. 

I don't know what world I'm living in if you think Balbay is in any way the offensive player Osetkowski is. I'm also willing to admit Osetkowski had offensive issues last year. 

Some of you have a selective memory. Balbay was non-existent on the offensive end. Teams wouldn't even guard him. 

Edited April 29, 2018 by texasstrong12

[texasstrong12 4668]

08-09 season: Balbay 21.1 minutes a game. 

09-10 season: Balbay 21.5 minutes a game.

10-11 season: Balbay 18.8 minutes a game. The end of the season his minutes were slashed even more. I think the last 6 games of the season he played like 15 minutes a game. 

Our best season under Balbay ('10-11) is when Barnes realized that Corey Joseph and J'Covan Brown were 20 times better than Balbay could ever dream of being on the offensive end. Teams actually had to defend Brown and Joseph. Our best season under Balbay is when Barnes came to the realization that Joseph, Brown, and Hamilton should be getting the majority of minutes in the back court. 

Funny enough the '10-11 season is when I thought Barnes turned things around after some lackluster years because he started prioritizing offense. 

Edited April 30, 2018 by texasstrong12

[Goo Punch 4275]

On 4/24/2018 at 7:51 PM, Dbeasy said:

TexasStrong is not dumb nor is he obsessive.

So what would you call picking a dumb fight about Doj Balbay and then obsessing over it like this? He starts an idiotic fight about which player is more liked by fans and then repeatedly goes and looks up a bunch of old stats as if he can prove to everyone that they’re wrong about who they like. This is days after starting another idiotic, misinformed, out-of-left-field fight with me vis a vis things he remembers me saying from two years ago and this is your take on him mr.white knight? That’s not dumb and obsessive. Great call. He’s Derka from ~2009. Just the worst. A totally combative idiot.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Goo Punch

[texasstrong12 4668]

16 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

So what would you call picking a dumb fight about Doj Balbay and then obsessing over it like this? 

"Dumb fight" because I think it's an absurd argument to praise Balbay while also calling Osetkowski a shitty/terrible player? 

Your long last love Rick Barnes realized in Balbay's final year that he was best utilized as a 15-20 minute player because he was an offensive train wreck. Maybe stop crying wolf when someone disagrees with you. 

The funniest thing is I'm not even being "combative". I think Balbay did a lot of good things for Texas. Just like I think Osetkowski did good things for Texas last year. If anything I'm trying to find a middle ground. 

Edited April 30, 2018 by texasstrong12

[HookEm 2441]

Balbay was a tremendous defender. Maybe the best defensive guard we have ever had here. 

Balbay was also one of the worst offensive players we have had that played such an important role for us.

The good always outweighed the bad for me though.

[texasstrong12 4668]

8 minutes ago, HookEm said:

Balbay was a tremendous defender. Maybe the best defensive guard we have ever had here. 

Balbay was also one of the worst offensive players we have had that played such an important role for us.

The good always outweighed the bad for me though.

Fair take and I agree. 

[BigOrange1 6416]

i can not imagine spending any portion of my time trying to convince a bunch of people who watched him play last year that osetkowski was anything other than a terrible player for texas.

he sucks and is a net negative for the program.

[texasstrong12 4668]

14 minutes ago, BigOrange1 said:

i can not imagine spending any portion of my time trying to convince a bunch of people who watched him play last year that osetkowski was anything other than a terrible player for texas.

he sucks and is a net negative for the program.

You can't honestly believe this? 

I'll even admit that Osetkowski wasn't as good as I was expecting in year 1, but "net negative for the program" is insane. 

Osetkwoski will likely average close to a double double in both years at Texas. These types don't grow on trees. Just see the improvement from Cleare to Osetkwoski. If you paired Allen with Osetkowski 2 years ago, I bet we would have been a much better team. 

Edited April 30, 2018 by texasstrong12