Houston Christian@Texas tipoff 8pm - could this school be called an HBCU?

[Burt Macklin 19230]

36 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

This completely dovetails with how I see it. 

I still don't know how bad 3 point shooting is going to be. I do know it's been gawdawful in the first two games, and HCU in particular wasn't a defense that could adequately defend BTA. These were about as open of a look as the Texas players are going to see, and they were woeful. 

I guess my main thing is that entering the season I just wanted to see progress from year 1 to year 2. Anyone who can't see that already is blind or a hater. The offense is loads more fun to watch, even when they're not firing on all cylinders. The transition game actually exists, whereas last year the players consistently pulled up in the half court rather than try to attack the basket. They're not bleeding down the clock to the 10 second mark before getting into their offense. They're not consistently meandering into the paint, picking up their dribble, then looking around like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction for what to do with it next. 

We actually have athletes on this team. Carr as the secondary ball handler is much more dangerous than he was as the point guard, especially since Hunter, Rice, and Morris all look like much more natural point guards than Carr ever did. We're loaded with guys who can beat their defender off the dribble, whereas last year we had none unless you count Carr's fadeaway mid range jumper, which wasn't reliable and didn't get him to the free throw line. 

Gonzaga will be a much stiffer test, obviously. I think Timme is going to eat our lunch again, but maybe we can do a better job of making up for it in other ways. I'm not expecting a win there, but maybe I change my mind after watching them against Michigan State today. I certainly don't think it's any kind of lost cause or anything. 

Yeah, it’s unfortunate that our perimeter shooting doesn’t look to have improved, which makes sense with the personnel losses and additions, but us actually pushing in transition could be a huge boon to the offense. Being a poor shooting team AND refusing to ever push are why our offense would go so long without scoring. 
 

Id prefer to have a good shooting team, but since Beard clearly prioritizes other traits, we can at least get some easy points and prevent long draughts through pushing the ball. 

[TommysTinyTowels 822]

10 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

i think we beat gonzaga, and i think that's where the hoe train takes off.

Hells yes. All aboard the hoe train!

Let's ride.

[CheesePie 238]

I think we’ll see more of Bishop once we start playing teams that can legitimately bang down low e.g. Gonzaga. Disu needs the early season minutes to get his confidence and feet back under him, and  clearly Disu has a better offensive game. But Bishop has shown he can be a physical presence on the defensive block. That alone should earn him minutes when we encounter the Gonzagas and Baylors of the world.

Edited November 11, 2022 by CheesePie

[Revolution512 1517]

2 hours ago, Burt Macklin said:

Yeah, it’s unfortunate that our perimeter shooting doesn’t look to have improved, which makes sense with the personnel losses and additions, but us actually pushing in transition could be a huge boon to the offense. Being a poor shooting team AND refusing to ever push are why our offense would go so long without scoring. 
 

Id prefer to have a good shooting team, but since Beard clearly prioritizes other traits, we can at least get some easy points and prevent long draughts through pushing the ball. 

I think we can let the season play out just a tad before we declare shooting hasn’t improved. Had we knocked down a high percentage last night, I wouldn’t have felt we somehow fixed it all. I know we will make free throws and we absolutely sucked at those last night.