Texas vs UIW- 7pm, LHN

[Js1 85260]

4 minutes ago, HookEm said:

See... yall mocked me for putting Perryman in lineups.  Now he is out here draining 3s.  Lol.

Can I mock you bc it was a 2? Lol

[Rickylovesweed 14262]

The big thing this year is I hope RT doesn't go big when Disu returns. 

This Abmas, Hunter and Horton lineup creates a lot of issues for other teams because they are shooters. 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Rickylovesweed

[HookEm 2463]

I'm not too worried about the minutes.  We will settle in to 7-8 players getting the majority of minutes and play a variety of big and small lineups. 

I like the idea of staring big with Hunter, Abmas, Mitchell, Disu and Shedrick. Then have Horton be the 1st guy off the bench for Shedrick and bump up the tempo with a smaller athletic lineup.  Next in would be Brock for Disu and we go even smaller with 4 shooters and Mitchell playing the 5.  Then Weaver and Onyema get minutes as needed.

[Hermanator 7032]

Team is well constructed. Front court looks more dynamic and if Mitchell can be more than the glorified garbage man he was last year there's good depth. 

Gotta see it against top 25 competition and see it consistently before I can say more. They should steam roll a lot of the weak non conference schedule but conference is going to test them enough. Especially with Big 12 refs getting one last shot to screw Texas in a money sport. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

a lot of people saying they need to see us against better competition before drawing conclusions; i don’t. tonight was the polar opposite of the infamous 2016 season opener when i came onto the boards and declared that it was evident that this team was not going to be very good. that game? a 78-73 victory over…UIW.

my negative take brought with it a lot of contention, but in the end that team turned out to be far worse than any of us could have imagined, and you could see the glaring red flags from opening night: the lack of experience, the lack of shooters, the way the team looked totally disjointed, like a bunch of strangers who’d only just met for the first time, and who were bad at basketball.

this was the opposite of that. i have seen enough season openers in my lifetime to confidently say that- health willing- this team has just as high a ceiling as last year’s team had, and last year’s team deservedly made the elite 8, and honestly should have gone further.

now i definitely need to see some more games before i start making predictions, but the talent, size, athleticism, and depth is on display, as is the attitude, effort, and camaraderie. this team has a very high floor and an extremely high ceiling. as always, health will be paramount, but at our best this team is going to be a tough out for anyone in america. 

[HtownHorn 14663]

Texas will always have at least 3 shooters on the court at all times. Those include Hunter, Abmas, Horton, Cunningham, and Weaver. Then you mix and match at the forward positions with Mitchell, Onyema, Disu, and Shedrick. You could obviously see some lineups with 1 forward and 4 shooters. When Disu gets healthy a closing lineup of Hunter, Abmas, Horton, Cunningham, and Disu has the ability to spread you out and bury you.

[Js1 85260]

1 minute ago, HtownHorn said:

When Disu gets healthy a closing lineup of Hunter, Abmas, Horton, Cunningham, and Disu has the ability to spread you out and bury you.

[Rickylovesweed 14262]

Our next opponent (Delaware State) lost by 34 points to Penn State tonight. 

[shadow_operative 15932]

22 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

a lot of people saying they need to see us against better competition before drawing conclusions; i don’t. tonight was the polar opposite of the infamous 2016 season opener when i came onto the boards and declared that it was evident that this team was not going to be very good. that game? a 78-73 victory over…UIW.

my negative take brought with it a lot of contention, but in the end that team turned out to be far worse than any of us could have imagined, and you could see the glaring red flags from opening night: the lack of experience, the lack of shooters, the way the team looked totally disjointed, like a bunch of strangers who’d only just met for the first time, and who were bad at basketball.

this was the opposite of that. i have seen enough season openers in my lifetime to confidently say that- health willing- this team has just as high a ceiling as last year’s team had, and last year’s team deservedly made the elite 8, and honestly should have gone further.

now i definitely need to see some more games before i start making predictions, but the talent, size, athleticism, and depth is on display, as is the attitude, effort, and camaraderie. this team has a very high floor and an extremely high ceiling. as always, health will be paramount, but at our best this team is going to be a tough out for anyone in america. 

post script- take into account how many new faces we had playing together for the first time tonight. the guys pretty much looked like they were all returning after having played all of last season together. the team is no doubt going to get better.

[shadow_operative 15932]

8 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

kenpom has us winning 86-54.

pffffft. they were way off.

 

[TommysTinyTowels 785]

31 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

now i definitely need to see some more games before i start making predictions, but the talent, size, athleticism, and depth is on display, as is the attitude, effort, and camaraderie. this team has a very high floor and an extremely high ceiling. as always, health will be paramount, but at our best this team is going to be a tough out for anyone in america. 

We got shooters, we've got post players, we've got bangers and we've got hustle players. We played some D with 10 steals and 9 blocks.
We've got a coaching staff that took us to the elite eight and we've got the home court advantage of the Moody Center.
There is reason for optimism.

 

[HookEm 2463]

I realize he is a big, but I would add Disu to the “shooters” category. He shot 37% from 3 on decent volume at Vandy. And was 40% from 3 in conference last year. We can put 5 shooters on the floor if we want and still have a well constructed lineup that can play D and match up with anybody.

[Rickylovesweed 14262]

The other big thing is we might even be more experienced than we were last year. 

The FR on this year's team won't get nearly as many opportunities as Mitchell and Morris did last season. Cunningham (grad student), Horton (grad student), Shedrick (grad student), Abmas (grad student), Disu (grad student), Onyema (JR), Hunter (JR), Mitchell (So), and Weaver (So). 

Based purely on a minutes breakdown, we will almost certainly have one of the most experienced teams in the country. 

[shadow_operative 15932]