Texas Basketball 2023-24

[ChickenSandwich 9844]

21 hours ago, HookEm said:

Nobody wants anyone shooting 15 ft jump shots. That shot is on the endangered list.

He needs to develop a 3-point shot if he ever wants to play in the NBA.

 

Not going to happen. As a “post” player he should be developing a “post” offense. Timmy D made a good living shooting 15 fters 

[Rickylovesweed 14533]

On 1/21/2024 at 7:11 PM, Rickylovesweed said:

The key to the season are Brock (or his replacement Weaver) and Hunter. We have 3 starters that you can win with in Abmas, Mitchell, and Disu. 

If we get even decent level play from Brock or Hunter in Big 12 play we are 4-1 or 5-0. That's the frustrating part. The Baylor game is an example of what Texas can do when just one of those players show up. 

Still true. 

[closetojumping 62765]

9-9 in conference here we come!!

[Chad 1728]

The last two games have provided a glimmer of hope. Next up is a BYU team that dropped 3 of their last 5, another road win would be huge.

[KingBobo81 535]

Really nice to see the way the team has responded after that UCF loss - seems like things could have gone from bad to worse, and now we are right back in the thick of things.

Hope we see Weaver take that starting spot sooner rather than later. We can compete with anybody with those five on the floor.

Also, nice to see Brock finally knock one down!

[Napoleon 8692]

So are we looking at a #3 seed in the NCAA tournament?

Or does everyone think that there’s still time to slide into that last #2 seed slot?

[CashMcCoy 3199]

Haven’t watched any BYU yet, so I took a glance at their stats. Those fuckers throw up 34 threes per game at a 36.8% clip. Already 10/32 against Houston right now with under 10 minutes left (UH leads by 7). Saturday should be an entertaining game with some funny crowd shots.

[CashMcCoy 3199]

18 minutes ago, CashMcCoy said:

Haven’t watched any BYU yet, so I took a glance at their stats. Those fuckers throw up 34 threes per game at a 36.8% clip. Already 10/32 against Houston right now with under 10 minutes left (UH leads by 7). Saturday should be an entertaining game with some funny crowd shots.

Tie game. These mormons can ball and the crowd is electric. Sure they’ll show up for us too.

[Mile High Horn 11]

RT says hi. 
 

RT owns Baylor and OU.
 

 

[HookEm 2467]

I think Terry is settling into his lineup. Man, if only Weaver had played 25 minutes against UCF instead of 4, I have no doubt we would have won.  Weaver is great when another team is making a run because he can match their energy.  Horton... can't.

I have to think that was because Horton was playing against his previous team.  I'm sure that isn't lost on the players and maybe they are playing harder now because of it.

Regardless, I think at this point we have a clear "best" five. I don't care who starts, but we have to give these guys the most minutes: Abmas, Hunter, Weaver, Mitchell, Disu.  They should all be getting 32-35 minutes a game.  Horton and Brock can split the remaining 15-20 minutes at the 1-3 spots.   Shedrick and Onyema can split the 10-15 minutes available at the 4-5.  

Here are the minutes against Baylor and OU respectively

• Abmas - 39, 36
• Hunter - 34, 28
• Weaver - 19, 28
• Mitchell - 35, 34
• Disu - 24, 34
• Horton - 20, 22  
• Brock - 10, 11
• Shedrick - 16, 4
• Chris Johnson - 4, 2
• Onyema - 0, 1 (a very important minute tonight IMO)

I think that is about right.  Disu is going to get mid 30s if he can stay out of foul trouble.  Tonight was the first game he had fewer than 4 fouls since his minutes restriction was lifted.  Teams are clearly going at him. He CANNOT foul so much if we are going to have any chance.

[closetohumping 17455]

4 minutes ago, HookEm said:

I think Terry is settling into his lineup. Man, if only Weaver had played 25 minutes against UCF instead of 4, I have no doubt we would have won.  Weaver is great when another team is making a run because he can match their energy.  Horton... can't.

I have to think that was because Horton was playing against his previous team.  I'm sure that isn't lost on the players and maybe they are playing harder now because of it.

Regardless, I think at this point we have a clear "best" five. I don't care who starts, but we have to give these guys the most minutes: Abmas, Hunter, Weaver, Mitchell, Disu.  They should all be getting 32-35 minutes a game.  Horton and Brock can split the remaining 15-20 minutes at the 1-3 spots.   Shedrick and Onyema can split the 10-15 minutes available at the 4-5.  

Here are the minutes against Baylor and OU respectively

• Abmas - 39, 36
• Hunter - 34, 28
• Weaver - 19, 28
• Mitchell - 35, 34
• Disu - 24, 34
• Horton - 20, 22  
• Brock - 10, 11
• Shedrick - 16, 4
• Chris Johnson - 4, 2
• Onyema - 0, 1 (a very important minute tonight IMO)

I think that is about right.  Disu is going to get mid 30s if he can stay out of foul trouble.  Tonight was the first game he had fewer than 4 fouls since his minutes restriction was lifted.  Teams are clearly going at him. He CANNOT foul so much if we are going to have any chance.

I think 18 games in he’s still working on the line up.  Shit changes. 

[Js1 85449]

Nice jump from 59 to 44 in NET

[Pam Cummings 9647]

Weaver playing 20+ and Brock being glued to the bench seems like its turned things a bit. Love Brock but you gotta do what's best for the team. And i definitely don't believe that he read Fahrenheit 451.

[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

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

 

We are going to need to sweep OU instead of WVU and pick up another win in the 'steal one' category to make up for the UCF loss. Not a completely outrageous scenario.

Edited January 24 by Hookem2147

[closetohumping 17455]

18 minutes ago, Hookem2147 said:

Updated

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

 

We are going to need to sweep OU in stead of WVU and pick up another win in the 'steal one' category to make up for the UCF loss. Not a completely outrageous scenario.

yeah, gonna be tough, coin flip at best.

 

 

 

Not gonna turn this into an advocate for Rodney deal.  Sark lost 6 in a row his first year.  I know different scenarios but we're here, Rodney is the coach for the foreseeable future.  Let's see what happens I guess

[Zeus 6108]

Normally I don’t care much about CBB until the tournament but this has been a fun ride last year and this year. I’m pumped for the future, it actually seems like the team is well coached for once. 
 

Although I did love the pickup ball offense and zone defense back when Durant and DJ, AJ, and Damian Jones were all ballin for Texas. Those were some fun times, but that loose of a structure doesn’t always work. 
 

Pounding it to Disu is just badass when they know it’s coming and can’t stop him. 

[closetohumping 17455]

6 minutes ago, Zeus said:

Normally I don’t care much about CBB until the tournament but this has been a fun ride last year and this year. I’m pumped for the future, it actually seems like the team is well coached for once. 
 

Although I did love the pickup ball offense and zone defense back when Durant and DJ, AJ, and Damian Jones were all ballin for Texas. Those were some fun times, but that loose of a structure doesn’t always work. 
 

Pounding it to Disu is just badass when they know it’s coming and can’t stop him. 

For pure fun and entertainment the penders teams were great.  

[HtownHorn 14755]

I like our chances a lot this weekend against BYU. They will struggle to finish above .500 in conference play because they are a soft team. They are also shooting 40 points less in conference play from BTA over their season average because the athletes are better in the Big 12. Our guards and Disu should be able to punish them with athleticism.

[TornACL 7722]

Against Cincy at home, BYU had Knell shoot 9 of 14 from behind the arc.... And the rest of the team was a combined 4 of 32 (!!!) from deep.

So let's get another night like that from those fools and grab some rebounds.

 

[ztejas 43524]

12 hours ago, HookEm said:

• Hunter - 34, 28
• Weaver - 19, 28

This is huge. Tyrese is a good player but he hasn't done anything to deserve high usage or playing 35 mpg by default. Making him and Weaver earn it as our 2nd and 3rd guards should hopefully keep both of them engaged. You want to fall asleep on a rotation or lazily throw the ball away? That's fine - come take a seat on the bench and we'll let the honey badger off the leash for a bit. 

I still think Horton has some game in him, it's just taking him a bit longer to adjust. If we could start getting 20 decent minutes consistently from him instead of little flashes here and there we'd have a decent guard rotation. 

Not sure what is going on with Brock. He'll figure it out. 

The less we have to play Shedrick and Onyema the better. 

No one else should be playing anything but garbage minutes. That Johnson dude tried to punt the fucking game away last night as soon as he got out there. 

Just take it a game at a time and find a way to win at least 9 games and see if we can get a good draw or get hot in March. I'm not sure this team is very good, but they have shown they are capable of playing at a high level and they are fun to watch when it's clicking. Let's hope the trend line keeps going up.

[Js1 85449]

Why do we not like Shedrick? Bc he can’t stay on the floor bc of his back?

[Revolution512 1493]

He seems like such a soft player, constantly hitting the deck.  I know he's struggling with an injury but I don't understand why that means you can't stay on your feet.

[Js1 85449]

7 minutes ago, Revolution512 said:

He seems like such a soft player, constantly hitting the deck.  I know he's struggling with an injury but I don't understand why that means you can't stay on your feet.

Just off the top of my head - he took a really hard foul against OU last night and landed right on his back and in the UCF game, he basically had a UCF player land on his back while standing and ride him to the floor. 

Edited January 24 by Js1

[ztejas 43524]

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Why do we not like Shedrick? Bc he can’t stay on the floor bc of his back?

It just seems like the team flows better without him out there - but some of it is likely matchup dependent. I wasn't really commenting on his ability as a player, just how this team best functions holistically.

[Rickylovesweed 14533]

4 hours ago, ztejas said:

Not sure what is going on with Brock. He'll figure it out. 

 

For some reason, Terry has completely abandoned the really small lineup where Brock plays at the 5. We had a lot of success with that last year. 

I think that's where Brock is best utilized because he creates a lot of weird match ups where bigs have to chase him on the perimeter. Moving forward, I think I would also prefer Brock minutes at the 5 over Shedrick or Onyema when Disu needs a breather. 

[HookEm 2467]

I'll be honest, I can't stand Shedrick's game.  I thought we were getting a high level post defender and someone who could bang down low... and then shoot 80% FT.  I thought he was going to be a big upgrade over Christian Bishop last year.  That turned out to not be the case.

He runs around flat footed. He is always out of position and seems lost on defense.  He gets abused by bigger players.  He gets abused by quicker players.  He rebounds at a very poor rate.  He doesn't hustle.

On offense he is basically invisible.  I forget he is out there.  And about once a game, he hits the deck and lays there writhing in pain.

Maybe all of it is because he is injured. I don't remember him looking this terrible at the start of the season.  If you are f'ed up, I can see that it could make you timid and appear to be less athletic than you actually are.

[HtownHorn 14755]

24 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

For some reason, Terry has completely abandoned the really small lineup where Brock plays at the 5. We had a lot of success with that last year. 

I think that's where Brock is best utilized because he creates a lot of weird match ups where bigs have to chase him on the perimeter. Moving forward, I think I would also prefer Brock minutes at the 5 over Shedrick or Onyema when Disu needs a breather. 

Absolutely no way. Brock is where he needs to be, backing up Mitchell for 10 minutes a game.

[HtownHorn 14755]

34 minutes ago, HookEm said:

I'll be honest, I can't stand Shedrick's game.  I thought we were getting a high level post defender and someone who could bang down low... and then shoot 80% FT.  I thought he was going to be a big upgrade over Christian Bishop last year.  That turned out to not be the case.

He runs around flat footed. He is always out of position and seems lost on defense.  He gets abused by bigger players.  He gets abused by quicker players.  He rebounds at a very poor rate.  He doesn't hustle.

On offense he is basically invisible.  I forget he is out there.  And about once a game, he hits the deck and lays there writhing in pain.

Maybe all of it is because he is injured. I don't remember him looking this terrible at the start of the season.  If you are f'ed up, I can see that it could make you timid and appear to be less athletic than you actually are.

Shedrick is the 2nd best defensive player on the team behind Disu in points per 100 possessions, while 2nd on the team in BLK% (behind Onyema), 1st on the team in STL%, and 4th on the team in TRB%.  All the guards minus Weaver are giving up over 100. Shedrick and Disu are covering up a lot of bad perimeter defense. The rebounding is a problem but given where the guards are at defensively he can't rebound and defend the rim at the same time. The biggest problem for him was the surgery on both shoulders that cost him the entire off-season in the strength program and his back as taken a beaten the last 2 weeks due to some dirty play.

Shedrick is also shooting at .582/.400/.746, while scoring in double figures in over half his games.

Edited January 24 by HtownHorn

[Rickylovesweed 14533]

Big jump in NET. From 59 to 44. 

BYU is #5 in NET and it's a road game. This could potentially put us in the top 30 with a win. 

[Rickylovesweed 14533]

23 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

Shedrick is the 2nd best defensive player on the team behind Disu in points per 100 possessions, while 2nd on the team in BLK% (behind Onyema), 1st on the team in STL%, and 4th on the team in TRB%. 

That's all skewed by early-season play against lesser competition. He's been pretty terrible most of Big 12 play. 

 

[HtownHorn 14755]

14 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

That's all skewed by early-season play against lesser competition. He's been pretty terrible most of Big 12 play. 

He had the 2nd best +/- against Baylor, and was doing well against OU until they cheap-shotted him into the locker room.

 

But you are right, in Big 12 play he's 3rd on the team in PP100, behind Disu and Onyema. Weaver is the only guard below 112. He's 5th on the team in WS/40. Again the biggest issue with this team is that our guard play outside of Abmas is inconsistent to abysmal. He is a foul drawing magnet though, 2nd behind Weaver in FTr. He does lead the team in BLK% and has the best TOV%, while 7th on the team in USG%. Maybe if the guards could get him the ball in better spots he might be more efficient on the offensive end. The one positive is he is shotting 88% from the FT line in conference play.

 

Texas is 4th in the Big 12 in scoring average, but here's the real kicker. They are 1st in fouls committed and last in fouls called against their opponents, seems very familiar.

Edited January 24 by HtownHorn

[Ignatius 4017]

8 hours ago, Hookem2147 said:

Updated

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

 

We are going to need to sweep OU instead of WVU and pick up another win in the 'steal one' category to make up for the UCF loss. Not a completely outrageous scenario.

I’m liking the ‘2 of 3’ category to pick up that extra win also…

[shadow_operative 15932]

 

[MotownHorn 1770]

3 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

For some reason, Terry has completely abandoned the really small lineup where Brock plays at the 5. We had a lot of success with that last year. 

I think that's where Brock is best utilized because he creates a lot of weird match ups where bigs have to chase him on the perimeter. Moving forward, I think I would also prefer Brock minutes at the 5 over Shedrick or Onyema when Disu needs a breather. 

That makes sense to me

The old Warriors Death Lineup

[ChickenSandwich 9844]

Brick small ball lineups had Mitchell on the bench last season. I think he would take Brock’s spot in the small man lineup, he does everything better minus the three ball. 

[HookEm 2467]

All those stats for Shedrick are cool, but my eyes tell me a different story, at least recently. The dude looks injured and has for a bit now. He isn’t running fluidly at all.

And saying he has been our 3rd best defender isn’t saying much. We have played terrible defense for most of the season.

I thought he looked pretty good early in the season, but maybe that was before he got hurt.

[Chad 1728]

BYU dropped 4 of their last 6 games, they're reeling and Texas is heating up a bit. A road victory to jump over .500 in the conference would be huge.

[shadow_operative 15932]

3 hours ago, Chad said:

BYU dropped 4 of their last 6 games, they're reeling and Texas is heating up a bit. A road victory to jump over .500 in the conference would be huge.

agreed. x/post from the ou game thread:

the last 12 minutes of that game was probably our best 12 minute stretch on both ends this year. we turned on another gear that i hadn’t seen from this team before. BYU should be really telling. if we come out and give up a ton of threes and get blown out then the roller coaster continues. if we can replicate the focus and intensity of the latter part of that OU game then this team could actually be moving towards being the team we all expected it to be back in the fall.

[Revolution512 1493]

Wow A&M is at 82% to make the tournament?  What am I missing?

[Pancho 44881]

They have a higher NET than Texas and @shadow_operative can post their kenpom. They’ll make it, and will be a 7-10 seed most likely. Maybe a 5-6 if they do well down the stretch. I thought they were in line for at least a 2 seed earlier in the season, but they turned into their usual selves. I’d like to chalk that up as my jinx on them.  

[dcar00 14317]

On 1/24/2024 at 4:57 PM, HtownHorn said:

 

 

Texas is 4th in the Big 12 in scoring average, but here's the real kicker. They are 1st in fouls committed and last in fouls called against their opponents, seems very familiar.

shocked that there is gambling going on in this establishment.  I realize there aren't conf refs in basketball but same as it ever was.  Im sure there is data on this but every game seems like the first half is huge disparity in fouls to start the game which gets more even in the 2nd half but by then we are already in foul trouble.

and then there are the phantom trip fouls and fouls where our guy gets kicked in the leg on a layup with the call against him.

[Brian Fantana 6690]

On 1/24/2024 at 4:57 PM, HtownHorn said:

They are 1st in fouls committed and last in fouls called against their opponents, seems very familiar.

I see Houston, TCU, and Baylor higher than Texas on the PF per game list. Surprisingly tied with Houston for last in fouls against.

I suspect the discrepancy is mostly the result of you guys having smaller guards that aren't necessarily looking to drive the basket every trip down the court. Skilled guards, to be sure, but they are probably on the low end of the conference in points in the paint.

Houston's discrepancy is far more interesting considering how physical they play, but I think the refs are more inclined to let stuff go on both sides in their games.

[shadow_operative 15932]

[shadow_operative 15932]

imo, this team is a shaka smart team with a higher floor. we’re unreliable, we’re volatile (the stats have proven this), on our best day we are a final four team, on our worst day Huston-Tillotson is giving us a game if they can hit open threes. while (nearly) all of us realize that RT is out of his league here, much like Tom Penders and his teams, it is totally possible that this team squeaks into the tourney as a 10 seed and then finds itself in the sweet 16. our offense is good enough to win two tourney games if we’re hitting our shots. that’s a fact. 

so that’s the silver lining for me- as up-and-down as this season will be, if we can simply make the dance then we absolutely might show up and have a good time. and at this point of the RT experiment i will be very pleased with simply making the dance and making some noise. all regular season goals are gone. but who gives a shit about the regular season anyway? besides rick barnes apologists. amirite? let’s make the fucking dance and see what happens. 

[Pancho 44881]

On 1/24/2024 at 11:18 AM, HtownHorn said:

I like our chances a lot this weekend against BYU. They will struggle to finish above .500 in conference play because they are a soft team. They are also shooting 40 points less in conference play from BTA over their season average because the athletes are better in the Big 12. Our guards and Disu should be able to punish them with athleticism.

[KingBobo81 535]

imo, this team is a shaka smart team with a higher floor. we’re unreliable, we’re volatile (the stats have proven this), on our best day we are a final four team, on our worst day Huston-Tillotson is giving us a game if they can hit open threes. while (nearly) all of us realize that RT is out of his league here, much like Tom Penders and his teams, it is totally possible that this team squeaks into the tourney as a 10 seed and then finds itself in the sweet 16. our offense is good enough to win two tourney games if we’re hitting our shots. that’s a fact. 
so that’s the silver lining for me- as up-and-down as this season will be, if we can simply make the dance then we absolutely might show up and have a good time. and at this point of the RT experiment i will be very pleased with simply making the dance and making some noise. all regular season goals are gone. but who gives a shit about the regular season anyway? besides rick barnes apologists. amirite? let’s make the fucking dance and see what happens. 

This the attitude I have at this point - cross our fingers we get into the tournament and hope we get hot.

[Knoxtnhorn 6064]

On 1/25/2024 at 7:38 PM, Revolution512 said:

Wow A&M is at 82% to make the tournament?  What am I missing?

They are 12-8 still play TN twice, at Bama, at Ole Miss, at GA, + a couple of other games they'll be favored, but could lose.  They will also incur a loss in the SEC tourney.  I don't think 12+ losses get them in.  They're currently 10th in the SEC.

[Hookem2147 21345]

Somehow moved up 2 spots in NET to #42.

[Revolution512 1493]

Their offense is complete shit, it’s Taylor chunk it up and everybody go hit the offensive boards.

[dcar00 14317]

8 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

imo, this team is a shaka smart team with a higher floor. we’re unreliable, we’re volatile (the stats have proven this), on our best day we are a final four team, on our worst day Huston-Tillotson is giving us a game if they can hit open threes. while (nearly) all of us realize that RT is out of his league here, much like Tom Penders and his teams, it is totally possible that this team squeaks into the tourney as a 10 seed and then finds itself in the sweet 16. our offense is good enough to win two tourney games if we’re hitting our shots. that’s a fact. 

so that’s the silver lining for me- as up-and-down as this season will be, if we can simply make the dance then we absolutely might show up and have a good time. and at this point of the RT experiment i will be very pleased with simply making the dance and making some noise. all regular season goals are gone. but who gives a shit about the regular season anyway? besides rick barnes apologists. amirite? let’s make the fucking dance and see what happens. 

agree except our best day is not a final four team.  this team is not that good because Hunter is completely MIA and our D is a disaster.  the baylor/ou wins made up for the UCF/WVU losses so he can still get to 8-10.

one win in the NCAA tournament would be good because of our D.  Our best day is probably making sweet 16 assuming we are playing the higher seed every  round, upsets could change that.