Texas Basketball 2023-24

[cafe society 2860]

I love Dogus; he can immediately impact (🤞) the team defense and ball distribution.  And to piggyback on earlier observations, get in the tournament and who knows?  Hunter struggled last year and had us all calling for his head, then in the post-season he pulled it together.

[Braff Zacklin 13554]

Love that the first thing Dogus does after retiring is come "home" for a job.

His best attributes (hustle and athleticism) can't be taught, though, so hopefully there are other lessons he can impart. Very interested to see how it shakes out.

[shadow_operative 15932]

i would love to watch Doj and Max play 1 on 1. dead serious my money is on Doj.

[HookEm 2463]

1 hour ago, Braff Zacklin said:

His best attributes (hustle and athleticism) can't be taught, though, so hopefully there are other lessons he can impart. Very interested to see how it shakes out.

Athleticism can't be taught, but it can be improved with conditioning.  Hustle can absolutely be taught and then reinforced through playing time.  

[shadow_operative 15932]

every guard on this team would be an improved defender if they were half the defender that balbay was. hopefully he can help in that department.

[Braff Zacklin 13554]

2 minutes ago, HookEm said:

Athleticism can't be taught, but it can be improved with conditioning.  Hustle can absolutely be taught and then reinforced through playing time.  

Going to ignore your first statement since it was unnecessary. However, I would counter the same applies to hustle--a coach can improve it, but without that outside pressure, the athlete who didn't hustle on his own will return to his roots and start to slack again, i.e., you can affect it but you can't really teach it.

 

[dcar00 14155]

as it relates to D, which is what Balbay really excelled at, positioning, keying, film work/tendencies, working within the team defense, absolutely can be taught.  

the will to play high effort D can't really be taught but it can be encouraged.

 

[shadow_operative 15932]

 

[Js1 85287]

Abmas at 2,955 points

I'd love to see him get 20 ppg to finish the regular season (180 points) to get him to 8th.  Then Big 12 tournament + NCAA tournament (say 4 games) would get him another 80 points and 6th all-time

Come on Max, time to fucking go off and get into the top 5

[PantsTent 2002]

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Abmas at 2,955 points

I'd love to see him get 20 ppg to finish the regular season (180 points) to get him to 8th.  Then Big 12 tournament + NCAA tournament (say 4 games) would get him another 80 points and 6th all-time

Come on Max, time to fucking go off and get into the top 5

I was looking at this earlier too.  He should easily get to 8th but beyond that means he went crazy or we play several more games.  I'm good with both!

 

[LTtxfan 49144]

So if Texas only gets 3 more regular season wins, they probably need at least one B12 Tournament win to get into the NCAA tournament...

[Hookem2147 21199]

Horton being unplayable has just forced us into some horrific lineup combinations. Seeing Cunningham, Mitchell and Shedrick out there together makes me almost wish Devin Askew was back on this team. 

We are effectively playing 7 guys right now and 3 of them are zero threat from deep (Shedrick, Mitchell, Weaver), with Hunter being pretty bad as well of late.

Some of this of course falls on the coaches because they constructed this thing and missed on some of their primary portal targets, but damn it needs to get fixed this offseason. Weaver, Onyema, Pryor, Johnson, Shedrick (I think he has a covid year) and maybe Mitchell (if he somehow wanted to return) are the only returning dudes I would want to see on next year's roster. Everybody else with eligibility remaining should be processed.

Edited February 7 by Hookem2147

[The_Great_Hornsby 3236]

36 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

So if Texas only gets 3 more regular season wins, they probably need at least one B12 Tournament win to get into the NCAA tournament...

I think Texas will win out at home, probably win at tech and lose the rest. 

[ClubWhatever 12120]

3-5, finish 7-11, NIT or some bullshit 

[shadow_operative 15932]

kenpom currently projects Texas to be tied with BYU for 10th in the league at 8-10. only UCF, WVU, and OSU predicted to finish with a worse record.

[SizzleChest 8283]

5 hours ago, The_Great_Hornsby said:

I think Texas will win out at home, probably win at tech and lose the rest. 

I’m not sure what going 1-4 at home to date leads you to conclude we win out at home.

4 hours ago, ClubWhatever said:

3-5, finish 7-11, NIT or some bullshit 

Seems like it.

[Pam Cummings 9639]

Most inconsistent team weve had in a while.

[HookEm 2463]

The game last night was brutal.  I would say we outplayed ISU for 30 of the 40 minutes.  But the 10 they outplayed us, they REALLY outplayed us. And we missed so many easy layups in the 1st half.

[Pancho 44712]

10 hours ago, The_Great_Hornsby said:

I think Texas will win out at home, probably win at tech and lose the rest. 

I think you’re misusing “probably” and “possibly.” We could possibly win at tech, but it’s not probable. They’re favored using ESPN metrics 65-35. They’ll be hype as it’s out last time playing in Lubbock for the foreseeable future. Sure, we’ve been better on the road than at home, but Lubbock is a tougher place to play than FW or Norman.

[dcar00 14155]

7 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

kenpom currently projects Texas to be tied with BYU for 10th in the league at 8-10. only UCF, WVU, and OSU predicted to finish with a worse record.

maybe the same media that told us to hire Terry can help him get in the tournament. I mean how can you leave an EE coach out of the tournament?

[Js1 85287]

Fell to 38 in NET

[The_Great_Hornsby 3236]

17 minutes ago, Pancho said:

I think you’re misusing “probably” and “possibly.” We could possibly win at tech, but it’s not probable. They’re favored using ESPN metrics 65-35. They’ll be hype as it’s out last time playing in Lubbock for the foreseeable future. Sure, we’ve been better on the road than at home, but Lubbock is a tougher place to play than FW or Norman.

Yeah this team is weird. They could win or lose all remaining games tbh. I have a feeling they will squeak into the tourney and win a game before losing in boneheaded fashion to a team we couldve beaten if we had a higher basketball IQ.  

[MotownHorn 1760]

Lunardi has us as a 7 seed set up to play Shaka's boys in the 2nd round 🤷‍♂️

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/bracketology/ncaa-bracketology-2024-march-madness-men-field-predictions

[Red Five 40846]

That seems optimistic. 

[Js1 85287]

Yeah, I'd take a 7 seed right this second.

But I hate hate HATE regular season rematches before the Sweet 16. 

Also let's be real, IF that was the bracket, I see 2 different things happen:

• aggy and Miss St. trade spots so we can face aggy in round 1 and Shaka in round 2
• They flip us into Charlotte with Tech so we face Barnes in round 2

They love nothing more than to pit us against aggy in the postseason - volleyball, softball, etc. 

Edited February 7 by Js1

[freyguy 4264]

We've got "stars" committing terrible turnovers, bouncing balls off their own feet when they dribble, falling down when they start a drive toward the basket, and get pushed around all over the place.

I'll be happy with one win in the tournament.  

[Pam Cummings 9639]

I'd be good making the tournament, i certainly wont be expecting much come March.

[The_Great_Hornsby 3236]

Texas Longhorns
With a home loss to Iowa State dropping Texas to 4-6 in the Big 12 and 15-8 overall, the Longhorns appear to be following a path we've seen before from at-large-quality teams in the Big 12. Picture a group that looks great in the NET rankings and at KenPom but is yet to string together sustained runs of victories. Rodney Terry's team owns road wins against TCU and Oklahoma, but UT is now 1-4 at home in Big 12 play. While the Horns were showing up in mock brackets as high as the No. 7 line prior to the loss to the Cyclones, we at Bubble Watch feel safer keeping this group in "Work to do" for just a bit longer. (updated Feb. 7)

[MotownHorn 1760]

I agree wholeheartedly that there's work to do.

A W last night would have done a good bit of that work but we pissed it away in the 1st half. By my count in the first half Hunter missed 2 wide open layups, Abmas missed 2 or 3 wide open 3s, and Disu missed a wide open 3 as well.

[KingBobo81 535]

This team is maddening to watch. I keep telling myself we have good individual players who could compete with anybody on any given night, and all we need to do is get on a hot streak. In reality, we have a disjointed, sloppy, inconsistent group who can't seem to figure out how to play together as a team and at times, we play some individuals who give very questionable effort. At this point, we are what we are - that first half last night was absolutely pathetic. I feel bad this is how Dylan and Brock are going to go out.

[MotownHorn 1760]

IMO they need to play loose with energy 

Every time they do that they do great

They’re too timid too often imo 

[Herpa Derpa 6123]

4 hours ago, Js1 said:

They love nothing more than to pit us against aggy in the postseason - volleyball, softball, etc. 

Based on results, one could legitimately argue the powers that be like to give Texas an easy match-up with little travel. Kinda how Duke always got matched with a directional school in Greensboro to start the run. Respek.

[Pancho 44712]

2 hours ago, MotownHorn said:

IMO they need to play loose with energy 

Every time they do that they do great

They’re too timid too often imo 

'

[Snake Diggity 4620]

We looked incredibly poorly coached last night and Hunter played about as poorly as I’ve ever seen someone with his talent level play.  Why our offense didn’t run thru Disu in the 1st half, I’ll never know.  Kudos to the team for clawing back into the game, but based on my view from last night, the tourney would be a waste of time for this team, and the longer we let Terry hang around the worse off we’ll be.

[Newdoc 3439]

9 hours ago, Snake Diggity said:

We looked incredibly poorly coached last night and Hunter played about as poorly as I’ve ever seen someone with his talent level play.  Why our offense didn’t run thru Disu in the 1st half, I’ll never know.  Kudos to the team for clawing back into the game, but based on my view from last night, the tourney would be a waste of time for this team, and the longer we let Terry hang around the worse off we’ll be.

Terry occasionally makes some good decisions and adjustments but I feel like I’m congratulating a toddler on finally pooping in the potty. There are some fundamental flaws with the “team”. Ugly Texas basketball is witnessed far too often. Not sure the light bulb is coming on for coaching but one can hope, right?

[shadow_operative 15932]

reminder of what terry’s peers expected of his team:

 

[Hookem2147 21199]

*fellow SID interns who fill out those things. Coaches couldn't care less.

It's a preseason poll. We were also picked to finish 2nd in 2021-2022, received two first-place votes and went 10-8. Kansas State was picked to finish dead last a year ago and went to the elite eight. They were picked to finish 6th this season and won't make the tournament. 

Edited February 8 by Hookem2147

[TxTower 650]

Lunardi has us as a 7 seed set up to play Shaka's boys in the 2nd round 
https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/bracketology/ncaa-bracketology-2024-march-madness-men-field-predictions

How sweet would that be if Shaka shits the bed in the first round again - against us?

A man can dream.

[shadow_operative 15932]

looking at the schedule i’m seeing us heading into the season finale at 7-10 with a home game against OU being a must-win game, or essentially a play-in game, save us winning 2+ games in the league tourney. if we don’t take a game or two that we shouldn’t between now and then that’s going to be a tough season finale with that much on the line.

[Js1 85287]

Man this team is too inconsistent for me to even try and gauge how they will do the rest of the year. Bipolar 

[Hookem2147 21199]

7 wins won’t be good enough if the 3 to get there are all home wins.

Now, if we steal one in Lubbock, Waco or Houston? 7 might be enough regardless of what happens in Kansas City considering our NET is respectable when looking at bubble teams of previous years. That would also give us 4 road Q1 wins which would have to be up there with any team in the country.

Edited February 9 by Hookem2147

[Deej 76755]

13 hours ago, Newdoc said:

Not sure the light bulb is coming on for coaching

[Pancho 44712]

18 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

looking at the schedule i’m seeing us heading into the season finale at 7-10 with a home game against OU being a must-win game, or essentially a play-in game, save us winning 2+ games in the league tourney. if we don’t take a game or two that we shouldn’t between now and then that’s going to be a tough season finale with that much on the line.

This team could go head-to-head with UCONN again and come within a few possession of an upset which would make us all happy or could also lose to a team like SMU on any given night. 

I can’t predict anything about this time. I’m not sure who could.

[Hookem2147 21199]

Nic Codie and Tre Johnson coming down for the game tomorrow, per Gerry

[shadow_operative 15932]

well despite this team being deemed unpredictable, i’ll try anyway, because this is how i see it:

wins: wvu, osu

losses: @ houston, @ ku, @ baylor, @ ttu

questionable: ksu, ou

the only one of those that i feel somewhat iffy about is calling baylor an automatic loss because their defense is garbage, but then i ask myself just how many more road wins we can expect in this league. for me the ou game and the k state are tough to predict, but for the rest of our schedule, i’d be very surprised if the results didn’t pan out the way i expect them to. 

Edited February 10 by shadow_operative

[HookEm 2463]

I think Massey's odds are pretty reasonable.  Odds are 78% that we will beat ONE of Baylor, Tech, Kansas, or Houston.  But... the odds are only 28% that we will win out at home.   

So my guess is that we go 4-4 to close the year with a surprise win on the road and a surprise loss at home.

[Braff Zacklin 13554]

I think we're 1-4 at home so far in conference play, so I wouldn't consider any future losses at Moody to be a surprise.

[ChickenSandwich 9829]

1 hour ago, HookEm said:

I think Massey's odds are pretty reasonable.  Odds are 78% that we will beat ONE of Baylor, Tech, Kansas, or Houston.  But... the odds are only 28% that we will win out at home.   

So my guess is that we go 4-4 to close the year with a surprise win on the road and a surprise loss at home.

[Pancho 44712]

1 hour ago, HookEm said:

 and a surprise loss at home.

 

A surprise loss?

 

[shadow_operative 15932]

i’m bringing this over from the game thread. i’m done with this team. and i don’t blame the players at all. but this team isn’t going anywhere as long as this coaching staff is in charge.

x/post-

(on this play disu got a dunk, ended up out of bounds, screamed at his teammates to get back on D, then sprinted down the court, passing all of his teammates in the process, and ended up being the first guy back on defense, just in time to watch wvu get an easy dunk)

there are singular plays where a team shows you crystal clear what their identity is, and this was one of those plays. how do you look at this photo and reconcile that dylan disu ended up passing up every single one of this teammates getting back on defense, not to mention that wvu got an easy dunk out of it. who gives a shit if he was actually with the photographers or a full three feet closer to the court? this complete lack of effort and competence from our team is bullshit. i’m out on this team. this coaching staff has undone every single bit of what their predecessors built. i cannot abide by that lack of effort. period.

Edited February 10 by shadow_operative