Texas Basketball 2023-24

[jimmyjazz 46000]

Given the timing, we had to name a staff member as "interim head coach".  Who would fans have preferred to RT?

Once he succeeded, the administration's hand was forced.  Would a school like, oh, University of Memphis have felt compelled to make that same choice?  Maybe not.  We're not Memphis, no matter how much it bothers @Hermanator and other win-at-all-cost types.

Edited January 8 by jimmyjazz

[BurntOrange&White 39934]

12 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

Again, the low bar set to be a coach at this university is to not have the cops called to your house at 1 AM the night before a game and end up in an orange jumpsuit. If you feel you are in danger of not meeting that low bar tied to your employment then go check into a Motel 6 for the evening.

added

[HookEm 2467]

12 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

this fan base, and in particular the denizens of this website, have made it clear that the standard set by rick barnes is nowhere close to good enough.

This isn't really a fair statement.  The standard set by Rick Barnes was right where we all want to be.  But Rick Barnes himself wasn't living up to his own standard.  He had gotten complacent and hadn't made the second weekend of the tournament in 7+ years when we fired him.  Everyone on this board would be thrilled with 2001-2009 Rick Barnes.

[VinyVango 694]

It's a weird combo of things in my opinion.  Our guards are inconsistent and outside Hunter well below average on defense and ball handling (and Hunter's not a great ball handler).  The new pieces are still a work in progress far as meshing and complimentary basketball.  Our stud portal transfer is still getting used to higher level competition and is a bit less polished as far as shot selection and being able to get teammates involved than we hoped. 

There is a clear drop in defensive consistency and intensity from Beard's teams and that is concerning since it seems like opponents get to the  basket a lot easier than the previous 2 years.  There's been stretches this year where the team shows it's good enough when motivated, aggressive and clicking to be a possible 2nd weekend NCAA tourney team, but the inconsistency is concerning.  When things aren't working, the great coaches will adapt and change to maximize their roster talent.  Terry seems like he is still trying to figure that part out consistently.  He's experimented with lineups that have shown promising results and also stuck with discombobulated lineups and guys who were having really bad games. 

We also don't really have a Sir Jabari Rice rock we can rely on in the crunch... and the defensive energy and focus tends to be bipolar during games.  This is not a talent depleted team or a team with a clueless coach... it's once where neither team nor coaches have been able to consistently build forward without taking the steps backwards along the way.  These concerns are amplified by the fact we are already > 1/3 of the way into the season.

[shadow_operative 15932]

8 minutes ago, HookEm said:

This isn't really a fair statement.  The standard set by Rick Barnes was right where we all want to be.  But Rick Barnes himself wasn't living up to his own standard.  He had gotten complacent and hadn't made the second weekend of the tournament in 7+ years when we fired him.  Everyone on this board would be thrilled with 2001-2009 Rick Barnes.

sure. i guess what i mean is that almost nobody around here has anything good or nice to say about barnes anymore. what he did from 1999-2010 isn’t what they remember or talk about. he’s a joke to a lot of people around here, as opposed to being fondly remembered as the best and greatest and most accomplished coach in school history. what he did from 99-2010 was great at the time, but because he set that standard and got our program to be a major player in national recruiting, now we need to exceed that standard. and i just don’t think that most of our fans realize that the odds of us finding another man as good as rick barnes who can win at an even higher level than he did is very very slim. so we should either embrace that level of winning as our ceiling, or realize that you’re going to be dealing with the chris beards and bill selfs and coach cal's of the world if you’re trying to go beyond that level of success.

Edited January 8 by shadow_operative

[closetohumping 17453]

I’m a huge Rick Barnes fan. Allegedly he chose being fired over firing his assistants. Pretty refreshing.  But his last few years were stagnant and we needed a new perspective.  Pretty similar to Mack tbh

[jimmyjazz 46000]

31 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

sure. i guess what i mean is that almost nobody around here has anything good or nice to say about barnes anymore. what he did from 1999-2010 isn’t what they remember or talk about. he’s a joke to a lot of people around here, as opposed to being fondly remembered as the best and greatest and most accomplished coach in school history. what he did from 99-2010 was great at the time, but because he set that standard and got our program to be a major player in national recruiting, now we need to exceed that standard. and i just don’t think that most of our fans realize that the odds of us finding another man as good as rick barnes who can win at an even higher level than he did is very very slim. so we should either embrace that level of winning as our ceiling, or realize that you’re going to be dealing with the chris beards and bill selfs and coach cal's of the world if you’re trying to go beyond that level of success.

I don't think the bolded part is true.  Rick Barnes is not a joke.  He did a great job at Texas, and eventually became a victim of his own high standards.

It didn't help that he started developing a concerning pattern of getting his late-era teams ranked REALLY high ~ January and then they'd eventually crumble.  He had been counseled by other uber-successful coaches on campus as to how one should avoid full pedal-to-the-metal coaching too early, and he eventually ignored that sage advice.

[HookEm 2467]

I don’t think you can look at what Texas has done and conclude we don’t care about winning.

We just built one of the best arenas in the sport. We put the students right down close to the action. We are shelling out NIL money to get some of the best players in the portal. We hired Shaka and stole away Beard, both considered top 5 coaching prospects at the time.

We had to fire Beard. We had to hire Terry. Period. UNC would have done the same thing. But I have no doubt we will quickly move on from Terry if he doesn't have sustained success here. We won't whack him this year, but he will be gone after next of he doesn't have us consistently in the top 10.

[Herpa Derpa 6126]

16 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

it’ll eat at me for some time that his stupidity cost him his job and all of us a couple decades of basketball dominance.

 

Perfect description for how I feel. Rick Barnes is the best coach Texas basketball has ever had. Beard was going to be better. You could feel it. You could see it. You could taste it. Beard and Moody were about to unleash a ball of energy that would consume college basketball for years. It was all right there in front of us. Three fingers on the brass ring and then it slipped through. And then the ride suddenly stopped.

The EE run was magical and a glass of cool water for parched throats. But the fallout remains and we all must suffer in purgatory until the next phase. Personally, I'd give RT two years to give me a 2nd round or better. That's a reasonable and fair shake for a coach with his resume. He's still part of the Beard era and all things considered it is best to start fresh which his presence will prevent. Let the Terry era be a coda and move on to the something much more promising.

[Rockethorn1978 6100]

17 hours ago, Hermanator said:

There was no felony. The DA declined to even press charges due to the he said/she said nature and lack of evidence. 

They got him in the first place because it was the obvious hire and a guy who would revitalize the program to the point of making far more money for the university than the $5 million they'd pay him. They wouldn't mind winning a title and will go for it if it's easy and doesn't require any risk or much effort, but they aren't 100 percent dedicated to doing what it takes to win. That's completely evident and why we have the shit show on the court we have right now. 

And that just isn't good enough for me. My time and money are too valuable to waste on half measure bullshit. It's why I find myself pulling away from the program and probably won't post much here about it any more. This today is maybe the 4th or 5th time I've posted about it all season. Such a shame because if they put in 80 percent of the effort on basketball they do for football we could be a national power with sustained success at the highest levels. We're the flagship university in the best talent rich basketball state in the country for fucks sake. It's frustrating. 

Don’t you know? Arrested means guilty. An arrest report is 100% true unless it goes against the narrative then it’s “don’t trust cops”.. 

It wouldn’t have bothered me one bit to bring beard back. We didn’t. It’s over and we have settled for Terry. Ride this out and hope He figures out how to win games with a pretty good roster. But the ones defending him will start the “the roster isn’t that good at all so it’s not RT” nonsense. 

[SL Xpress 7517]

3 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I don't think the bolded part is true.  Rick Barnes is not a joke.  He did a great job at Texas, and eventually became a victim of his own high standards.

It didn't help that he started developing a concerning pattern of getting his late-era teams ranked REALLY high ~ January and then they'd eventually crumble.  He had been counseled by other uber-successful coaches on campus as to how one should avoid full pedal-to-the-metal coaching too early, and he eventually ignored that sage advice.

I'll also point out he's continued that pattern at Tennessee.

I love Rick Barnes but I felt like it was time for a change. We pushed Mack Brown out. We pushed Garrido out. We pushed Conradt out. All 3 of them performed at a higher level than Barnes. Texas is a tough place to retire on your own terms. But I can watch the TJ Ford/Rick Barnes videos over and over again. I'm very grateful Barnes was our coach, that's for sure. 

But I never get tired of Derka going on about him, either, when other people do. I love Derka's posts. He makes this place more fun for me. At least when I'm not so melancholy about the program. 

One of the things no one mentions is that there's a bit of an artificial ceiling on the basketball coach's salary in the form of Sarkisian's deal. I assume either this year or next year Sarkisian is going to get a huge extension to put him on the same level as many of his peers. IMO that will raise the amount that will be spent on the basketball coach as well. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

btw i was only half joking when i mentioned TJ Otzelberger earlier. as hard as it is to pry away a top coach when every time the Texas job opens all of the top coaches get raises, TO is a guy who we could realistically land who seems to be on a sustained upward trend. he’s young, he has no ties to ISU, he’s already taken them to the second weekend (in his first year when tyrese hunter was his best player), and he’s a proven defensive coach, potentially elite in that department.

 

of the guys we could realistically pull, we could do a lot worse.

[SL Xpress 7517]

Just now, shadow_operative said:

btw i was only half joking when i mentioned TJ Otzelberger earlier. as hard as it is to pry away a top coach when every time the Texas job opens all of the top coaches get raises, TO is a guy who we could realistically land who seems to be on a sustained upward trend. he’s young, he has no ties to ISU, he’s already taken them to the second weekend (in his first year when tyrese hunter was his best player), and he’s a proven defensive coach, potentially elite in that department.

 

of the guys we could realistically pull, we could do a lot worse.

IMO the buyouts are a bigger hindrance than the actual annual salaries. I was stunned to see the buyout amounts of many of the potential targets out there. 

We'll see what it looks like the next go around. I'm just not ready to talk about potential replacements when there's still at least a year and half realistically before it's possible. 

[Chuckie Finster 22702]

17 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

well, i hate to break it to our fans, but we’re all doing an amazing job of talking out of both sides of our mouth and/or trying to have our cake and eat it too here. you want to win titles? you probably gotta have a scumbag at HC. you don’t want a scumbag at HC? you live with the barneses and the shakas of the world. jay wrights are extremely few and far between. you’re either willing to look the other way a little bit for success, or you’re willing to “settle” for the rick barneses of the world. there’s pretty much no in between. 

There's a fucking grand canyon between Barnes/Shaka and what Beard did.  I do not think there's any universe where we fire Beard for recruiting violations or anything that you see from the typical "scumbag" college coach.  But to think that any major institution in 2023 wouldn't have followed the exact same course of action as we did is the kind of delusion that can only be found on sports message boards.

It's fine and valid to be frustrated at the turn of events, but to blame the University is texags level commentary.

[jimmyjazz 46000]

Honestly, I think as a one-time nut to crack the buyouts give me no concern.  We certainly don't give a damn about those financials in football, although football revenue makes a strong case as to why not.

[shadow_operative 15932]

12 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

There's a fucking grand canyon between Barnes/Shaka and what Beard did.  I do not think there's any universe where we fire Beard for recruiting violations or anything that you see from the typical "scumbag" college coach.  But to think that any major institution in 2023 wouldn't have followed the exact same course of action as we did is the kind of delusion that can only be found on sports message boards.

It's fine and valid to be frustrated at the turn of events, but to blame the University is texags level commentary.

i’m not sure why you’re making this reply to the post that you quoted. i’m talking about fans not being happy with barnes level results while seemingly not realizing that most of the guys who get better results are questionable characters at best, and you’re out here ranting and raving about me “blaming the university” for…i’m not even sure what for. my post was about our fans and their expectations, while your response is about…hell, i still don’t know what it is that you’re talking about.

Edited January 8 by shadow_operative

[Chuckie Finster 22702]

7 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

i’m not sure why you’re making this reply to the post that you quoted. i’m talking about fans not being happy with barnes level results while seemingly not realizing that most of the guys who get better results are questionable characters at best, and you’re out here ranting and raving about me “blaming the university” for…i’m not even sure what for. my post was about our fans and their expectations, while your response is about…hell, i still don’t know what it is that you’re talking about.

I viewed your "we'd hire a scumbag if we really cared" as a +1 to Hermanator's commentary that the University does not care about basketball.  My post was more directed at his post than yours, but the scumbag comment triggered it.  

[shadow_operative 15932]

also if we’re going to keep bringing up what chris beard did then it’s about time that we start actually calling it what it is, and drop what to me looks like faux outrage and fake virtue. she was the drunken, abusive aggressor and he finally snapped back, after putting up with the her drunken, abusive behavior for days (it had started days earlier during our NYC trip). if you insist on bringing up what chris beard did, let’s at least have the integrity to be honest about it. 

Edited January 8 by shadow_operative

[shadow_operative 15932]

7 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

I viewed your "we'd hire a scumbag if we really cared" as a +1 to Hermanator's commentary that the University does not care about basketball.  My post was more directed at his post than yours, but the scumbag comment triggered it.  

i’m not talking about the university, just our fans and their expectations. you’ll see in my follow up post that i mentioned beard, bill self, and coach cal. these guys sign the best recruits, win the most games, and they hang banners. hell even coach k and john wooden did WAY more dirt than anything barnes ever did. so my point is just that it’s very very hard to find yourself a jay wright- that is, if you’re going to be a program that wins big, you’re probably going to have either an asshole or an unscrupulous bastard of a HC. empirically speaking anyway.

Edited January 8 by shadow_operative

[Hookem2147 21345]

38 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

btw i was only half joking when i mentioned TJ Otzelberger earlier. as hard as it is to pry away a top coach when every time the Texas job opens all of the top coaches get raises, TO is a guy who we could realistically land who seems to be on a sustained upward trend. he’s young, he has no ties to ISU, he’s already taken them to the second weekend (in his first year when tyrese hunter was his best player), and he’s a proven defensive coach, potentially elite in that department.

 

of the guys we could realistically pull, we could do a lot worse.

I thought it was a pretty big leap of faith when they hired him from UNLV because he did nothing in his two years there, but it's worked out. 

Interestingly, they've picked up their tempo this year after playing at a pace of a snail the previous two years. Some people always hated the pace that Beard's teams played and thought it would end up hurting recruiting/player retention. Interestingly enough, our AdjT this year is way down compared to last year despite the fact that we claimed we would be playing much faster.

[jimmyjazz 46000]

2 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

i’m not talking about the university, just our fans and their expectations. you’ll see in my follow up post that i mentioned beard, bill self, and coach cal. these guys sign the best recruits, win the most games, and they hang banners. hell even coach k and john wooden did WAY more dirt than anything barnes ever did. so my point is just that it’s very very hard to find yourself a jay wright- that is, if you’re going to be a program that wins big, you’re probably going to have either an asshole or an unscrupulous bastard of a HC. empirically speaking anyway.

I think this is basically true, although we should note that Cal has one title and Beard none (yet).

It's also not a new conversation, and at least as far as the message boards I frequent are concerned, it's not an uncommon take to say we (UT fans) don't want to get that far in the dirt, and the price is pretty clear.  This discussion has carried on for decades.

[CTC2 2798]

2 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

i’m not talking about the university, just our fans and their expectations. you’ll see in my follow up post that i mentioned beard, bill self, and coach cal. these guys sign the best recruits, win the most games, and they hang banners. hell even coach k and john wooden did WAY more dirt than anything barnes ever did. so my point is just that it’s very very hard to find yourself a jay wright- that is, if you’re going to be a program that wins big, you’re probably going to have either an asshole or an unscrupulous bastard of a HC. empirically speaking anyway.

I contend that Barnes became too nice.  I preferred the guy who nearly got in a fistfight with Dean Smith. 

[Revolution512 1492]

Extracurriculars will do that to a man 

[shadow_operative 15932]

lol, michigan wins the NC tonight with a coach who was suspended for three games two different times this season, once by his school, and once by the ncaa. 😂 i found that quite fitting considering today’s discussion.

[shadow_operative 15932]

5 hours ago, CTC2 said:

I contend that Barnes became too nice.  I preferred the guy who nearly got in a fistfight with Dean Smith. 

born again barnes was indeed a fairly hard right turn after the previous couple of decades of being one of the biggest hard asses around.

[Pancho 44877]

Ooff not in Andy Katz’s bracketokogy this morning 

[Red Five 40877]

Hiring Terry took a huge leap of faith. If this season goes the way I feel like it's going to go (and how Andy Katz feels like it's gonna go) then we need to cut bait at the end of this year. I understand though that that is very unlikely to happen. At which point, welcome back to years 2 thru 6 of the Shaka experience.

Fuck you Beard.

[closetohumping 17453]

16 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I think this is basically true, although we should note that Cal has one title and Beard none (yet).

It's also not a new conversation, and at least as far as the message boards I frequent are concerned, it's not an uncommon take to say we (UT fans) don't want to get that far in the dirt, and the price is pretty clear.  This discussion has carried on for decades.

Cal has quite a bit more success but he’s also older.  Feels like we could’ve had Cal if we wanted

[Newdoc 3448]

1 hour ago, Pancho said:

Ooff not in Andy Katz’s bracketokogy this morning 

This team might be able to street ball its way into the second round of the NIT.

[ClubWhatever 12153]

2 hours ago, Red Five said:

Hiring Terry took a huge leap of faith. If this season goes the way I feel like it's going to go (and how Andy Katz feels like it's gonna go) then we need to cut bait at the end of this year. I understand though that that is very unlikely to happen. At which point, welcome back to years 2 thru 6 of the Shaka experience.

Fuck you Beard.

My worthless opinion is to see if he can keep next year's recruits and do anything good with them.   If they bolt, or he keeps them and we look like helter skelter again, then cut bait.

[MrX 735]

I’m guessing based on the contract alone we can’t cut bait until after next season. 

[Hookem2147 21345]

As stated before, I would very much prefer to see Tre Johnson and Cam Scott in our backcourt next year and there is one way to ensure that doesn't happen.

Those are pieces you can build around for a season while mixing in some portal guys and retaining some current guys on the roster. 

If you fire Terry 90% of the roster is leaving/portaling anyway and you are likely facing an uphill climb in 2024-2025, so might as well see what he can do with two of the best freshman guards in the country. 

[Pancho 44877]

Well he’s not getting fired after this season anyway so we can just have fun anticipating about next year. 

[HookEm 2467]

It would take a collapse of epic proportions to fire him this year.  But if he misses the tourney both this year and next year, that would do it.

Tonight is really a must win in a fairly tough road environment.

[Rockethorn1978 6100]

I hate sports and the whole “he’s gotta have 2-3 years” thing. We all can see he’s not the guy but we “had” to hire him and if we miss the tourney this year with a team that shouldn’t miss the tourney we should make a change but instead we are forced to endure another season of this to make a change we could make now. Dumb. Oh well go horns! 
 

if we can’t win at home then we definitely won’t win tonight on the road. Maybe the reverse jinx will work. 

[closetojumping 62763]

When people involved with covering buyouts and such say things like this lately: "RT's our guy. He just needs time to clean up the mess.", I think anyone hoping for something after this season are in for a lot of angst. When the money stops referring to Terry as "RT", we'll know people that matter are getting restless.

[closetohumping 17453]

12 minutes ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

I hate sports and the whole “he’s gotta have 2-3 years” thing. We all can see he’s not the guy but we “had” to hire him and if we miss the tourney this year with a team that shouldn’t miss the tourney we should make a change but instead we are forced to endure another season of this to make a change we could make now. Dumb. Oh well go horns! 
 

if we can’t win at home then we definitely won’t win tonight on the road. Maybe the reverse jinx will work. 

Real world failing fast is a good thing.  But good luck firing someone after a 9-4 start.  I may walk back my three year prediction but I think two minimum 

[Rockethorn1978 6100]

16 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

Real world failing fast is a good thing.  But good luck firing someone after a 9-4 start.  I may walk back my three year prediction but I think two minimum 

I didn’t say fire him at 9-4 and he hasn’t beat anyone with a pulse in those 9 games. But if we end up 14-17 and miss the tourney then why waste another year? Because we have too? Because media will make us? It’s one thing to hire a new coach after a search and to give him 3 years but this was an assistant who inherited a team and kept it going. He didn’t take it to another level. That team was going to the EE with beard and probably would have advanced had he not fucked it up. I feel like this is different. From the EE to not making the tourney is worth firing. Or let’s do it again next year and do it then I guess. 

[MotownHorn 1770]

On 1/8/2024 at 5:45 PM, shadow_operative said:

also if we’re going to keep bringing up what chris beard did then it’s about time that we start actually calling it what it is, and drop what to me looks like faux outrage and fake virtue. she was the drunken, abusive aggressor and he finally snapped back, after putting up with the her drunken, abusive behavior for days (it had started days earlier during our NYC trip). if you insist on bringing up what chris beard did, let’s at least have the integrity to be honest about it. 

So you’re saying she was asking for it?

JFC man

Also everything you’re saying is speculation and you have no idea what really happened

One of the most famous and richest white men in Austin had to do some shit to get booked on a 3rd degree felony imo 

Edited January 9 by MotownHorn

[MotownHorn 1770]

4 hours ago, ClubWhatever said:

My worthless opinion is to see if he can keep next year's recruits and do anything good with them.   If they bolt, or he keeps them and we look like helter skelter again, then cut bait.

Agreed

im hoping we turn it around but if not RT gets next year and that’s it

Keeping him as interim for so long kept him from being able to properly recruit at the HS level last year. He deserves at least one real shot at that

[shadow_operative 15932]

lack of a true PG is killing us. so many sloppy turnovers and missed opportunities that any true PG would handle. we need a floor general in a bad way.

[shadow_operative 15932]

player tiers:

we know what you’ll bring to the game every time out:

disu and mitchell

inconsistent from play to play, game to game:

hunter and abmas

looked like solid role players but have since disappeared: shedrick and brock

needs to play more: 

weaver and onyema 

who?

everyone else 

Edited January 10 by shadow_operative

[ChickenSandwich 9843]

Weaver should start over Brock. Easiest starting personnel change we can make. Weaver basically gives you everything Brock does with more explosion and guard skill. Let Brock get his 20 mins from the bench. 

[Hookem2147 21345]

On 1/4/2024 at 11:29 AM, Hookem2147 said:

The path to 10 conference wins (which probably means top 6-7 seed) is probably this:

Must sweep (2): WVU

Must split at minimum (2): OU, Tech 

Must win at home (3): KSU, UCF, OSU

Need 2 of 3 (2): at TCU, at Cincy, ISU at home 

Steal one (1): at KU, at BYU, at and vs Baylor, at and vs Houston

Updated:

The path to 10 conference wins (which probably means top 6-7 seed) is probably this:

Must sweep (2): WVU

Must split at minimum (2): OU, Tech 

Must win at home (3): KSU, UCF, OSU

Need 2 of 3 (2): at TCU, at Cincy, ISU at home 

Steal one (1): at KU, at BYU, at and vs Baylor, at and vs Houston

[HookEm 2467]

That was a huge win. By far our best of the year. Cincinnati is a decent team that will probably make the tourney.  

This shows what a monumental difference a healthy Disu makes (especially when he isn't on a minutes restriction).  That was an incredible performance. I still think if Disu was healthy and got 30+ minutes against UConn we would have beaten them. (Not to mention if we had Shedrick healthy as well).

Our guards are such a question mark that I can't really project us doing much.  I agree with others that Weaver needs to be getting more minutes.  Cunningham is best when he is capped at ~18-20 min.  In our 3 losses, he averaged about 31 minutes.  In our wins, he is averaging 25 minutes and probably shouldn't have gotten that many.  I say that as Cunningham's biggest fan.

I also think that Onyema is pretty limited. He was getting worked for like 3 straight possessions and almost cost us the game.  Shedrick is a much better defender.

[Catdaddyhorn 3447]

2 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Weaver should start over Brock. Easiest starting personnel change we can make. Weaver basically gives you everything Brock does with more explosion and guard skill. Let Brock get his 20 mins from the bench. 

Brock guards interior guys though. Weaver can't do that. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

45 minutes ago, HookEm said:

also think that Onyema is pretty limited. He was getting worked for like 3 straight possessions and almost cost us the game.  Shedrick is a much better defender.

i still think he needs to play more than he has, or, more specifically, have a role carved out for him. basically the alexis wangmene role. come in for a few minutes at the right time with a boost of energy, rebounds, and blocks. he’s shown flashes that he can at least be a serviceable help defender, and i assume that he’s got some rebounding chops. i’d just like to see him get a little role carved out for him so that he can come in with confidence and give us a little bossy whenever we’ve got injuries or foul trouble.

[ClubWhatever 12153]

4 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

Brock guards interior guys though.

Not very well.   It's either an easy bucket or a foul, usually.

[HtownHorn 14754]

16 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

Brock guards interior guys though. Weaver can't do that. 

You have Disu, Shedrick, Mitchell, and Onyema.

We have had for full 9-man rotation for 3 games this season. 3-0 outscoring our opponents by a combined 62 total points.

Cunningham is a bench player, asking him to play more 20 minutes is a bad idea.

What we can't keep doing is having Weaver and Horton play nearly 30 minutes combined and attempt 1 shot between them, they are both too good for that shit.

[HookEm 2467]

35 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

i still think he needs to play more than he has, or, more specifically, have a role carved out for him. basically the alexis wangmene role. come in for a few minutes at the right time with a boost of energy, rebounds, and blocks. he’s shown flashes that he can at least be a serviceable help defender, and i assume that he’s got some rebounding chops. i’d just like to see him get a little role carved out for him so that he can come in with confidence and give us a little bossy whenever we’ve got injuries or foul trouble.

Fine. No problem with that. Those minutes need to come from Cunningham then.  Which means much more of Mitchell at the 3 then his minutes at the 4 go to Onyema.

And more Weaver at the 1/2 and not at the 3.