Texas Basketball 2023-24

[Blotto 23560]

1 minute ago, shadow_operative said:

imagine what his slashes would be if he dialed it back a bit. 👀 

no doubt. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

it feels like the first 75% of each game we underperform, and then wear down these inferior opponents and pull away. we’ve got to stop having these slow, sort of rudderless starts. that’s a death trap come league play.

[shadow_operative 15932]

x/post-

we opened the season at #16, and with two games remaining in the non con we’re at #37. that’s essentially a free fall for a team that’s 9-2. there is no sugar coating this, there are no legitimate excuses- the performance thus far has been painfully, predictably subpar, and the most trusted computer ranking system around forecasts the following for this Texas team:

that’s a 4-10 stretch from january 20th - march 9th. if this happens then we don’t even sniff the tournament barring a terrible year for the field.

i know that this forum is full of rodney terry zealots who take any and all fair criticisms of his team as some sort of wild personal attack on the man/themselves, but the analytics are bearing out what any rational person could foresee: coaching matters, and a guy who’s spent 27 years proving that he isn’t up to snuff as a D-1 HC is going to continue that trend, especially in a league like the Big XII. if we do not get markedly better across the board then we are going to be a double digit seed, if not an NIT team. the obvious is happening. it sucks, but it’s happening. 

[Rickylovesweed 14503]

I don't disagree with the Terry and "coaching part" but the issue I have is I think the "analytics" drastically overvalue the Big 12 this year for a variety of reasons. 

For example, Texas going 0-6 during that stretch above would really surprise me. I don't think TCU, Iowa State, or BYU are particularly good other than rigging these "analytics" by beating the shit out of bad teams.  

Iowa State and BYU are nowhere close to being top 10 caliber teams. They aren't even top 25 teams. 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Rickylovesweed

[Hookem2147 21343]

As has been discussed before, the first 4 games in conference play will be huge. Tech at home, at Cincy, at WVU and UCF at home. Texas will be favored in all 4. Go 4-0 and it would take a monumental collapse to miss the tournament. Even the 4-10 doomsday stretch scenario outlined by Derka would be a 8-10 conference record which would easily get Texas in.

Iowa State made it at 7-11 two years ago and wasn’t even a last 4 team. The Big 12 in basketball gets the level of respect of the SEC in football.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Hookem2147

[shadow_operative 15932]

53 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

I don't disagree with the Terry and "coaching part" but the issue I have is I think the "analytics" drastically overvalue the Big 12 this year for a variety of reasons. 

For example, Texas going 0-6 during that stretch above would really surprise me. I don't think TCU, Iowa State, or BYU are particularly good other than rigging these "analytics" by beating the shit out of bad teams.  

Iowa State and BYU are nowhere close to being top 10 caliber teams. They aren't even top 25 teams. 

while i’m with you in principle, the fact remains that the big xii is a gauntlet; the toughest conference in america,  by some margin, as per usual. if we play against our b12 foes the way we’ve been playing against some of these cupcakes then we are going to get down early, lose a lot, and we are going to get our asses kicked on a damn near weekly basis when we face the top teams in this league. are some league teams overrated? yeah, but we all know by now what a gauntlet this league is. as of right now 8-10 seems very realistic. one unexpected loss and we’re 7-11. and we really cannot afford injuries. so, while i’m not pressing the panic button just ye, im definitely doing this:

 

waiting to see what adjustments we make for league play. the fact that an NIT bid is truly realistic should be concerning to everyone here, even if we ultimately are able to scrabble together a tourney resume. so far, this team does not look like anything more than a lower half big 12 team. that was not the expectation, and the struggles are substantive and they are real. hold on to your butts. league play is going to be brutal if we don’t improve.

Edited December 23, 2023 by shadow_operative

[HookEm 2467]

Just a small nit pick… if a team is an underdog in 10 games with a 40% chance to win each one, the odds are they will go 4-10, not 0-10.

Using the odds from KenPom, we should win 6 of those games in the hell stretch, not 4. Still not great.

[idigTexas 2289]

Two things. 

1.  This forum is not full of Rodney Terry zealots.  Taking a "wait and see" approach is not the same thing.  

2.  The games that count are played on the court, not a computer.  Pomeroy does a great job, but trusting a #37 ranking at this point in the season isn't much better than trusting a #16 before any games are played.  

[shadow_operative 15932]

1 hour ago, idigTexas said:

1.  This forum is not full of Rodney Terry zealots.  Taking a "wait and see" approach is not the same thing.  

the issue is not “taking a wait and see approach” (although tbh i’m not sure what’s left to wait and see), the issue is the freak outs and personal attacks in the name of RT any time anyone has been critical of his team since he took over. it’s the definition of overly zealous behavior.

very very few people here have actually trashed or dissed RT since he took over, and when they have, nobody has supported them. however time and time again people who’ve given fair criticisms or posted worries about RT’s teams have themselves been attacked by multiple posters for “hating” rodney terry. that’s zealot behavior.

Edited December 23, 2023 by shadow_operative

[idigTexas 2289]

What's left to wait and see is how the season actually goes. 

 

[shadow_operative 15932]

8 minutes ago, idigTexas said:

What's left to wait and see is how the season actually goes. 

 

again- dillon mitchell isn’t suddenly going to become a knock down three point shooter; max abmas isn’t suddenly going to start dunking all over people; dylan disu is not suddenly going to attain point guard skills and start bringing the ball up the floor and running the offense; we know who they are what they are capable of.

same goes for rodney terry. he’s been doing this for almost three decades now. we know who he is and what he’s capable of, and the performance and statistics from his team are only further bearing out what his 27 year career shows him to be: not good enough to take this program to new heights.

he’s at the back end of his career, and he was trending downward when he was hired to be an assistant for chris beard. rodney terry did not suddenly become bill self over night. he is who he is. convincing yourself that it’s rational to “wait and see” if he suddenly becomes a top flight coach/program runner out of nowhere is probably the source of your animosity towards those who are actually taking a rational approach.

Edited December 23, 2023 by shadow_operative

[shadow_operative 15932]

name another coach in the history of college basketball who spent 25+ years not being able to cut it at the likes of fresno state and and utep, who then suddenly became good enough overnight to take over what could be/should be/was about to be a top 5-10 program in all of college basketball. i’ll wait.

Frank Haith has a better career resume than rodney terry. if RT retired at the end of this season for health reasons, would you be excited if we hired frank haith to be our next HC? 

 

[idigTexas 2289]

Well shit.  Why didn't you say so?

Enjoy your misery.  

[ClubWhatever 12151]

17 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Iowa State and BYU are nowhere close to being top 10 caliber teams. They aren't even top 25 teams. 

By whose definition is BYU not a top 25 team?   I'm going to assume your contrarian position is based on watching more BYU games than the average pollster.  Because just looking at their schedule, declaring it to be shit, and then saying they're not a top 25 team doesn't make sense.

It's just one data point, but they scored 110 against an awful looking team that we struggled to consistently score against.

[shadow_operative 15932]

42 minutes ago, idigTexas said:

Well shit.  Why didn't you say so?

Enjoy your misery.  

you’re the only on here who’s miserable.

[shadow_operative 15932]

it’s absolutely wild to me how year after year after year i read the game threads where our fans just absolutely destroy our players, game after game after game, and nobody cares. nobody cares when someone says, “IT Horton is absolute fucking trash and should never see the court again.” nobody.

but for some reason when i say, “empirically speaking rodney terry is not good enough for this job”, it spawns pages of furious and combative posts from holier than thou fans who suddenly can’t handle even the most basic, obvious, well supported criticism. makes absolutely no sense. 

Edited December 23, 2023 by shadow_operative

[Blotto 23560]

1 hour ago, shadow_operative said:

you’re the only on here who’s miserable.

major fucking lulz at this one. 

50 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

it’s absolutely wild to me how year after year after year i read the game threads where our fans just absolutely destroy our players, game after game after game, and nobody cares. nobody cares when someone says, “IT Horton is absolute fucking trash and should never see the court again.” nobody.

but for some reason when i say, “empirically speaking rodney terry is not good enough for this job”, it spawns pages of furious and combative posts from holier than thou fans who suddenly can’t handle even the most basic, obvious, well supported criticism. makes absolutely no sense. 

Nobody is attacking you. "lets wait and see" is not an attack. Seriously, start at post #3528 and identify the one guy getting worked up. If this latest rant does result in "pages of furious and combative posts" my guess is 3/4 of them will be yours. Nobody cares.

A lot of us agree Terry wasn't the ideal hire, but he is the coach this season, so we might as well see how things develop now that Disu is back and contributing. We're 0-0 in conference. RT ain't going anywhere next week or the week afterwards, yet something tells me we're going to hear this rant after every game we lose (and we will lose games, almighty Beard went 10-8 in his lone conf season here).

The thing about Pomeroy's system is that he uses past data to predict future results. If you concede that a healthy Disu makes Texas a better team, its not unreasonable to think we might exceed the results predicted by a system using data where Disu was not playing. If Texas posts an 0-18 conference record, RT will probably get fired. If we go  18-0, he probably gets a raise. Its likely we fall somewhere between those extremes and some of us are interested in seeing how it plays out.

[shadow_operative 15932]

22 minutes ago, Blotto said:

major fucking lulz at this one. 

do i seem miserable to you? idig is the one who lost his ever loving mind over this shit, not me. 

Edited December 23, 2023 by shadow_operative

[shadow_operative 15932]

20 minutes ago, Blotto said:

Nobody is attacking you.

did you somehow manage to miss idig’s epic meltdown one page ago when i said the most innocuous shit about RT not being the guy? were you not around last march and april when people were talking shit and starting fights left and right with anyone who had said, “RT isn’t the guy”? seriously, this crap has been going on for months on end. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

24 minutes ago, Blotto said:

Seriously, start at post #3528 and identify the one guy getting worked up.

just did, and i have absolutely no idea to what you are referring. have you ever seen me worked up before? 

[closetohumping 17453]

5 hours ago, idigTexas said:

What's left to wait and see is how the season actually goes. 

 

You’ve got some nerve on you

[shadow_operative 15932]

On 12/8/2023 at 5:18 PM, idigTexas said:

You like to constantly remind everyone that you think hiring RT was a huge mistake.  You do it when any little thing goes wrong.  You do it when any little thing goes right.  I suspect you even do it in your sleep.  Trust me, WE KNOW.  We ALL know.  I would suggest that you do not need to keep reminding us, but something inside you says that if you keep repeating it, we will suddenly agree with you.  I also know that telling you that we won't isn't going to change anything.   

^^^^
this is one one getting all worked up. this is exactly what i’m referring to when i talk about idig losing his shit over nothing. 

everyrhing he accuses me of in this diatribe is empirically untrue, and i’ve never insulted or talked shit about rodney terry. all of my arguments are fact based and are supported by decades of data. my amotioks are not involved in my arguments at all.

but tell me again how no one is attacking me and how i’m the one who is miserable. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

11 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

You’ve got some nerve on you

A)you were by far the main one talking shit and starting fights all over the board during the ncaa tourney this year. i wasn’t going to call you out for it, but you’re here now, so i’ll point @Blotto in your direction since he apparently wasn’t around for all of that. while Texas was making a run to the EE this guy was talking non stop shit to anyone who’d ever said they worried about RT’s ability to succeed  as the next HC of Texas. just brilliant stuff.

and B)isn’t it funny how everyone is totally certain that shaka smart and rick barnes and matt painter are going to bust out of the tourney early, yet with our own coach, an inferior coach to all three by some measure, we all need to just “wait and see”? right. when it’s someone else’s coach we have zero issue calling a spade a spade, but when it’s our coach the only acceptable projection is, “well let’s wait see if this guy suddenly stopped being himself.”

it's the same story as it always is around here. blind homerism is celebrated, while opposing takes, no matter how fact based or objective, are reviled. nothing more.

Edited December 23, 2023 by shadow_operative

[closetohumping 17453]

1 minute ago, shadow_operative said:

A)you were by far the main one talking shit and starting fights all over the board during the ncaa tourney this year. i wasn’t going to call you out for it, but you’re here now, so i’ll point @Blotto in your direction since he apparently wasn’t around for all of that.

and B)isn’t it funny how everyone is totally certain that shaka smart and rick barnes and matt painter are going to bust out of the tourney early, yet with out own coach, an inferior approach, we all need to just “wait and see”? yeah, when it’s someone else’s coach we have zero issue calling a spade a spade, but when it’s our coach the only acceptable projection is, “well let’s wait see if this guy suddenly stopped being himself.”

it's the same story as it always is around here. blind homerism is celebrated, while opposing takes, no matter how fact based or objective, are reviled. nothing more.

You gonna start negging posts again?   Maybe another four month break will do you some good.   Just randomly going after posters isn’t very healthy.   Breathe.  Live better.  
 

 

got anymore of the “Shaka don’t trust white people” rumors?

Edited December 23, 2023 by closetohumping

[shadow_operative 15932]

2 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

You gonna start negging posts again?

if you go picking fights with fellow texas fans during the ncaa tourney again? absolutely.

[closetohumping 17453]

Just now, shadow_operative said:

if you go picking fights with fellow texas fans during the ncaa tourney again? absolutely.

Yea you don’t pick fights at all

[Blotto 23560]

9 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

A)you were by far the main one talking shit and starting fights all over the board during the ncaa tourney this year. i wasn’t going to call you out for it, but you’re here now, so i’ll point @Blotto in your direction since he apparently wasn’t around for all of that.

and B)isn’t it funny how everyone is totally certain that shaka smart and rick barnes and matt painter are going to bust out of the tourney early, yet with out own coach, an inferior approach, we all need to just “wait and see”? yeah, when it’s someone else’s coach we have zero issue calling a spade a spade, but when it’s our coach the only acceptable projection is, “well let’s wait see if this guy suddenly stopped being himself.”

it's the same story as it always is around here. blind homerism is celebrated, while opposing takes, no matter how fact based or objective, are reviled. nothing more.

Lulz. Terry won as many tournament games in his first season as UT head coach as Barnes did in his last 7 seasons at UT. We wont even talk about Shaka. This team, this year has nearly an identical resume as last years team at the same point in the season, so I'm not sure why a wait and see attitude is so unreasonable. There are actually a few of us that may be skeptical of Terry this season, but a lot of us were skeptical last year and it turned out all right.  But since we don't have....checks notes...~25 posts on the last page alone, maybe our skepticism goes unnoticed by you. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

2 minutes ago, Blotto said:

This team, this year has nearly an identical resume as last years team at the same point in the season, so I'm not sure why a wait and see attitude is so unreasonable.

uh, no. at this point last season we were no.6 in kenpom with impressive wins over creighton and gonzaga. we also had one of the best head coaches in the country, plus a senior laden team who’d all played together the year before and returned as one of the title favorites. we were also no.4 in the country in AdjD, compared to no.62 which is where currently rank in that supremely important category. 

this is why your attitude is so unreasonable- it’s not based on actual facts, stats, or reality. your eyeballs plus the stats and computer rankings plus the replacement of a world class coach with a guy who’s never won as a head coach should tell you that this year’s team and last year’s team are not comparable.

like i said, if it’s matt painter or shaka smart of rock barnes, you guys have zero problems calling a spade a spade.  it when it’s our HC, all of sudden his entire history as a coach goes out the window, and it’s “wait and see”. blind, blatant homerism. plain and simple.

[shadow_operative 15932]

and for the record- i have absolutely been mindful to use kid gloves when talking about RT around here, knowing how hypersensitive you all about the subject. that’s why every opinion i give is backed by facts and stats and why im never insulting towards RT. i love the guy. always will. 

with that in mind, let’s establish right here and now that it is not me who is freaking out on you guys for having a differing opinion. let’s get that straight. people like idig have freaked out on me and lost their minds over my differing opinion, no matter how lightly i tread with the subject- not the other way around. so for the record, let’s not spread the false narrative that im out here attacking RT supporters for supporting him, when the the reality is that the exact opposite of that is what’s happening.

[Js1 85437]

[shadow_operative 15932]

1 hour ago, Blotto said:

Seriously, start at post #3528 and identify the one guy getting worked up.

seriously, start at post 3408 and read until post 3411 and tell me who is getting worked up. 

[Blotto 23560]

4 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

uh, no. at this point last season we were no.6 in kenpom with impressive wins over creighton and gonzaga. we also had one of the best head coaches in the country, plus a senior laden team who’d all played together the year before and returned as one of the title favorites. we were also no.4 in the country in AdjD, compared to no.62 which is where currently rank in that supremely important category. 

this is why your attitude is so unreasonable- it’s not based on actual facts, stats, or reality. your eyeballs plus the stats and computer rankings plus the replacement of a world class coach with a guy who’s never won as a head coach should tell you that this year’s team and last year’s team are not comparable.

like i said, if it’s matt painter or shaka smart of rock barnes, you guys have zero problems calling a spade a spade.  it when it’s our HC, all of sudden his entire history as a coach goes out the window, and it’s “wait and see”. blind, blatant homerism. plain and simple.

My bad, I was conflating last year's team with Beards first year. Must be all the eggnog from last night. regardless, your endless bitching about Terry is a fucking beating. Its doesn't improve the board. Alas, as intellectually stimulating as this debate is, I'm being dragged off to a wide-e-wide style tour of christmas decorations my sister thought we would enjoy, so I must bow out. My apologies  to the board for awakening the beast. most aggy dont have the victim complex that you do.

[idigTexas 2289]

18 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

^^^^
this is one one getting all worked up. this is exactly what i’m referring to when i talk about idig losing his shit over nothing. 

everyrhing he accuses me of in this diatribe is empirically untrue, and i’ve never insulted or talked shit about rodney terry. all of my arguments are fact based and are supported by decades of data. my amotioks are not involved in my arguments at all.

but tell me again how no one is attacking me and how i’m the one who is miserable. 

Yes, yes, my rant was clearly unprovoked.  I have no defense.  I am forced to completely lose my shit by resorting to hyperbole and complete fabrication because your perspective is unassailable.  I mean you have facts and years of data.  What else can I do?  You have bested me in every way.  I try to defend myself, but before I can even type a single response, there are 73 more posts from you presenting perfect argument after perfect argument.  

I know when I'm beat.  I think I'll just go lie in bed and stare at the Rodney Terry poster on my ceiling.  

 

[shadow_operative 15932]

8 minutes ago, Blotto said:

your endless bitching about Terry is a fucking beating.

this would be a good point if i actually did endlessly bitch about RT, however that’s never remotely been the case. i don’t even bitch about RT period. hell i haven’t posted particularly often about him one way or the other this season. well, up until this idiotic conversation anyway. 

you are mad that i have a differing opinion, one that is seen as negative by you, so you’re lashing out, and now just making shit up about how i’m always bitching about RT to justify your unwarranted anger. 

but uh, dynamite job showing who’s miserable and who’s not.

Edited December 23, 2023 by shadow_operative

[HOOKEM4 5038]

[jimmyjazz 45985]

Jesus Christ, here we go again.

Facts:

-- RT would never have sniffed an offer or even an interview to be HC at Texas under normal circumstances.

-- he did a great job holding things together once he took over, and the 'horns had more post-season success than in the previous 15 seasons.

-- Texas had no real choice but to name him the permanent HC at that point.  Any other decision would have been a colossal PR blunder.

-- this season we are (predictably) worse.  We lost a lot of contributors -- Allen, Carr, Bishop, Rice, Morris come to mind.  Over 50 points per game.

-- getting Disu healthy should help.

 

There is nothing we can do BUT wait and see.  We get it, Rodney Terry is not likely to work out in the long haul (see bullet point #1).  We don't need to be reminded of it, and we sure as hell don't need another tantrum about a perceived abundance of freakouts, stats, history, whatever.

Personally, I prefer to just root for the 'horns and hope we can find our way to winning another dozen games or so in the regular season.  I think it's possible.

[shadow_operative 15932]

4 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

We don't need to be reminded of it,

i agree, and thankfully i don’t recall seeing anyone on this board go out of their way to talk about RT not being good enough for Texas. it just hasn’t happened. not that i’ve seen. people really have been supportive. with very few exceptions, everyone here likes him and has been rooting for him. 

 

4 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Personally, I prefer to just root for the 'horns and hope we can find our way to winning another dozen games or so in the regular season.  I think it's possible.

same. 

Edited December 23, 2023 by shadow_operative

[jimmyjazz 45985]

6 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

same. 

What are KenPom's predictions for the 6 games prior to the schedule you posted from Baylor on?  5-1 or some such?

[Rickylovesweed 14503]

4 hours ago, ClubWhatever said:

By whose definition is BYU not a top 25 team?  

BYU has played zero teams in the Kenpom top 25. 2 teams in the Kenpom top 40 (#30 San Diego State and #32 Utah). They went 1-1 in those games. Both those teams will end up as bubble teams or around 8-11 seeds. San Diego State is not nearly as good as they were last season. 

BYU is ranked high in the "metrics" because they've been blowing out really bad teams. That doesn't mean you are good. Against decent competition, they've looked like a bubble team. 

I don't think it's very "contrarian" either. A lot of people in the basketball world recognize the same thing. 

 

[shadow_operative 15932]

20 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

What are KenPom's predictions for the 6 games prior to the schedule you posted from Baylor on?  5-1 or some such?

here’s the remaining schedule:

[jimmyjazz 45985]

Yeah, that was what I was guessing pre-Baylor.  Thanks.

[HookEm 2467]

Derka makes a lot of good points. I'm on board with firing RT right now.  RIGHT F'ING NOW!!!!!

[Hookem2147 21343]

The 5 games between 40-49% win probability will likely tell the story: at Cincy, vs Baylor, at TCU, vs Iowa State and at Tech.

Win a few of those and things starting looking okay. The home schedule is honestly pretty favorable: Baylor and Houston will be tough, but the other 7 are Tech/KSU/ISU/UCF/WVU/OU/OSU.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Hookem2147

[HookEm 2467]

FWIW - Massey has us favored in our next 7 games. All of those games are definitely winnable. The hardest ones will be Balor (at home) and at Cinci.  

It is possible we could be rolling into OU at 16-2 and on a 10 game winning streak.  Not likely but possible.  After that it gets rough.

[Horn80 6131]

I’m having trouble understanding why Texas doesn’t have a point guard that can run the offense.  

[Rockethorn1978 6093]

Right now we’ve only have two losses to two top 10 teams. Once we start piling up losses to unranked teams then I’ll start bitching. Basketball is the one sport you can over blow how much you win by and what’s important is you win. I think we all know multiple losses are on the way given what we’ve seen so far. And fuck ou. Fucking overrated bullshit who have played no one till UNC and lost accordingly. 

[closetohumping 17453]

4 hours ago, HookEm said:

Derka makes a lot of good points. I'm on board with firing RT right now.  RIGHT F'ING NOW!!!!!

Let’s find a way to get RT on a tarmac and then fire him.  

[Rickylovesweed 14503]

I don't think this team is much different from last year based on the season trajectory. 

L to Illinois, close wins against meh teams in Rice and Stanford, etc. Don't forget that we were also giving up a ton of points at that part of the year (there were some glaring defensive issues).

Now can RT get this team to improve like last year is a big question but it's not like our success was linear last year. We really didn't find our groove until late in the season once Disu was back to full health. 

 

[shadow_operative 15932]

11 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

I don't think this team is much different from last year based on the season trajectory. 

last year at this point we were #6 in kenpom (#4 in AdjD) with impressive wins over creighton and gonzaga. this year we are #38 in kenpom (#64 in AdjD), our best win is vs #104 LSU, and most importantly, we don’t have Jabari Rice and Marcus Carr unlocking the rest of the team’s potential. last year’s team would probably be 9-10 point favorites against this one. the glaring lack of a PG and unusually poor defense are the biggest differences by far.

Edited December 26, 2023 by shadow_operative

[Rickylovesweed 14503]

4 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

last year at this point we were #6 in kenpom (#4 in AdjD) with impressive wins over creighton and gonzaga. this year we are #38 in kenpom (#64 in AdjD), our best win is vs #104 LSU, and most importantly, we don’t have Jabari Rice and Marcus Carr unlocking the rest of the team’s potential. last year’s team would probably be 9-10 point favorites against this one. the glaring lack of a PG and unusually poor defense are the biggest differences by far.

I know what the "metrics" were. 

We also gave up 81 points to Rice, 72 points to ULL, and 72 points to A&M Commerce at this time last year. We had some pretty damn glaring issues defensively to finish non-conference last year. 

You made a billion posts saying as much last year.