Texas Basketball 2024-25

[HookEm 2467]

Thanks for the clip.  I like the way he moves without the ball to find open space near the rim. Hopefully we have the players with enough vision to take advantage of it. He also appears to be a good finisher (although everyone looks good in a highlight reel).  I like that he goes up with the intent to dunk on someone in a lot of those plays.

He looks more like a power forward to me.  His game seems to be in the paint or 3s.  He doesn't seem to score much off the dribble. I didn't seen him shot fake on the 3 and then attack the basket a single time.  I bet he is the kind of player where at the end of the game you see that he has scored 14 points and are like, wow where did those points come from. Timmy Allen style.

Unless we get some serious talent in the post, I don't see him ever playing small forward on this team based on what I have seen so far.

[ztejas 43425]

4 hours ago, HookEm said:

Thanks for the clip.  I like the way he moves without the ball to find open space near the rim. Hopefully we have the players with enough vision to take advantage of it. He also appears to be a good finisher (although everyone looks good in a highlight reel).  I like that he goes up with the intent to dunk on someone in a lot of those plays.

He looks more like a power forward to me.  His game seems to be in the paint or 3s.  He doesn't seem to score much off the dribble. I didn't seen him shot fake on the 3 and then attack the basket a single time.  I bet he is the kind of player where at the end of the game you see that he has scored 14 points and are like, wow where did those points come from. Timmy Allen style.

Unless we get some serious talent in the post, I don't see him ever playing small forward on this team based on what I have seen so far.

His 2P % was bananas - granted he wasn't playing P5 athletes. I would think he will be at least an above average finisher in the SEC. AND you can't hack him. iirc he was like 80% from the line.

Agree that he's a 4, but he's a stretch/smallball 4 that looks like a crafty rebounder. 

I think this could be a fun team.

Edited April 28 by ztejas

[Js1 85325]

Mailk Presley? Another guard? (From Vandy)

[Lonestar88 4662]

12 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Mailk Presley? Another guard? (From Vandy)

Presley is 6’6, so he can be a wing, but either way, I don’t see him playing much anytime soon. Could pan out later.

 

 

[HookEm 2467]

He is more of a forward at 6'6, 200.  Seems like some development depth freed up by Anamekwe bolting.

[Rickylovesweed 14299]

It seems pretty obvious we are about to play much faster next year with all these long/athletic guards and wings. 

 

[Rickylovesweed 14299]

Aidoo is getting On3 predictions to Arkansas.

It seems very unlikely Garrison and Aidoo both end up at Arkansas. 

Edited April 29 by Rickylovesweed

[Js1 85325]

Just now, Rickylovesweed said:

Aidoo is getting On3 predictions to Arkansas.

It seems very unlikely Garrison and Aidoo both end up at Arkansas. 

Garrison is 95% OU on on3

[Rickylovesweed 14299]

3 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Garrison is 95% OU on on3

For sure, but most those predictions were prior to visits to Texas and Arkansas. 

I think Garrison is going to school that pays him the most based on what @closetojumpingis implying. Honestly, we should probably pay him. I think he's worth it. 

 

[Teryor 4471]

2 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Aidoo is getting On3 predictions to Arkansas.

It seems very unlikely Garrison and Aidoo both end up at Arkansas. 

There it is, hopefully good for us

[MotownHorn 1762]

I think Shedrick is going to have a great season if he can stay healthy 

[Rickylovesweed 14299]

 

[Revolution512 1487]

21 minutes ago, MotownHorn said:

I think Shedrick is going to have a great season if he can stay healthy 

Based on what? With the roster Terry is building he’s not a fit for an up and down style.

Edited April 30 by Revolution512

[closetojumping 62697]

In a shocking turn of events, Garrison won't be coming to Texas. He will be getting paid though. 

[Thiefery 4995]

54 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

In a shocking turn of events, Garrison won't be coming to Texas. He will be getting paid though. 

damn this roster needed him badly..  have any idea what plan B is for Center?

[Js1 85325]

23 minutes ago, Thiefery said:

damn this roster needed him badly..  have any idea what plan B is for Center?

Gerry said Texas has other bigs they like more.  And the price is probably better. 

[BurntOrange&White 39931]

 

 

 

[Rockethorn1978 6077]

Doesn't feel like we are designing a roster around anything. You're not winning shit without a big man or two. I personally do not like 2 guards from the same team coming but whatever. 

[Thiefery 4995]

39 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Gerry said Texas has other bigs they like more.  And the price is probably better. 

i like Gerry but this feels like spin.. they were all in on Garrison.. now they found players they are higher on at a more reasonable price?  Need to see it

[BurntOrange&White 39931]

1 minute ago, Thiefery said:

i like Gerry but this feels like spin.. they were all in on Garrison.. now they found players they are higher on at a more reasonable price?  Need to see it

Gerry seems rather blind when it comes to the basketball side...but that could just be what his source feeds him.

[ClubWhatever 12140]

36 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Gerry seems rather blind when it comes to the basketball side...but that could just be what his source feeds him.

He often talks up what a great job Frank Haith is doing.  That should tell you something.

[Js1 85325]

1 hour ago, Thiefery said:

i like Gerry but this feels like spin.. they were all in on Garrison.. now they found players they are higher on at a more reasonable price?  Need to see it

Do any of them know anything? It was between OU and Texas and here comes UK? 

[closetojumping 62697]

1 hour ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Gerry seems rather blind when it comes to the basketball side...but that could just be what his source feeds him.

The guy pissed off the AD and Terry for his comments after the loss to Tennessee. He then stood by the comments. I don’t think he’s blind. I do think he was passing on a note more than offering his own view though. That seemed obvious. 

[Teryor 4471]

Feels like he fits the Rodney Terry mold of "guess I'll just recruit transfers who grew up in Texas" while also being very talented. Was the MWC freshman of the year this year. 

[Red Five 40857]

The guy pissed off the AD and Terry for his comments after the loss to Tennessee. He then stood by the comments. I don’t think he’s blind. I do think he was passing on a note more than offering his own view though. That seemed obvious. 

Refresh my memory on what was said, please.

[ClubWhatever 12140]

3 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Refresh my memory on what was said, please.

Probably when he said, and repeated about 5 times, that it was an indefensible coaching decision to keep Hunter inbounding the ball after his 3rd unforced turnover including one where he traveled a la the Miami game the previous season

Edited April 30 by ClubWhatever

[HookEm 2467]

2 hours ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

Doesn't feel like we are designing a roster around anything. You're not winning shit without a big man or two. I personally do not like 2 guards from the same team coming but whatever. 

I would definitely like another big, but it is possible to win at the college level without having big interior players as long as the team plays good team defense.  Houston had the #2 defense in CBB last year and their starting bigs were 6'7 J'Wan Roberts and 6'8 Ja'Vier Francis. We made the Elite Eight with 6'9 Disu and 6'7 Christian Bishop.  

If the season started today, we would have 6'11 Shedrick getting probably 25 min, 6'8 Onyema getting 10 maybe 6'9 Nicholas Codie getting 5 min.  Given the team makeup, I'm going to assume we almost never play with two "bigs" and instead play with a lead guard, 3 rangy guard/forwards and then a center. This wouldn't be a bad lineup:

• 6'3 Julian Larry
• 6'5 Tremon Mark
• 6'6 Tre Johnson
• 6'7 Jason Kent
• 6'11 Kaden Shedrick  

Or swap out 6'2 Jordan Pope for Julian Larry.  We have really good size now at the guard spots and it opens up a lot of options that we have missed in recent years.

Edited April 30 by HookEm

[Thiefery 4995]

9 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

Probably when he said, and repeated about 5 times, that it was an indefensible coaching decision to keep Hunter inbounding the ball after his 3rd unforced turnover including one where he traveled a la the Miami game the previous season

he was absolutely right about his criticisms.. if Terry and CDC got upset about him bringing it up.. maybe it's time for Terry to actually make adjustments

[BurntOrange&White 39931]

8 minutes ago, HookEm said:

I would definitely like another big, but it is possible to win at the college level without having big interior players as long as the team plays good team defense.  Houston had the #2 defense in CBB last year and their starting bigs were 6'7 J'Wan Roberts and 6'8 Ja'Vier Francis. We made the Elite Eight with 6'9 Disu and 6'7 Christian Bishop.  

If the season started today, we would have 6'11 Shedrick getting probably 25 min, 6'8 Onyema getting 10 maybe 6'9 Nicholas Codie getting 5 min.  Given the team makeup, I'm going to assume we almost never play with two "bigs" and instead play with a lead guard, 3 rangy guard/forwards and then a center. This wouldn't be a bad lineup:

• 6'3 Julian Larry
• 6'5 Tremon Mark
• 6'6 Tre Johnson
• 6'7 Jason Kent
• 6'11 Kaden Shedrick  

Or swap out 6'2 Jordan Pope for Julian Larry.  We have really good size now at the guard spots and it opens up a lot of options that we have missed in recent years.

Copium...

[ztejas 43425]

3 minutes ago, Thiefery said:

maybe it's time for Terry to actually make adjustments

I agree. Like processing Hunter for guards that can reach the top shelf of the pantry.

Edited April 30 by ztejas

[Lonestar88 4662]

CTJ has been saying forever that Garrison’s price was going to be absurd, so him to Kentucky isn’t that shocking. But we desperately need a big. 
 

The reporting around this team has been pretty wonky, we’ve had two transfer commits seemingly come out of nowhere, better hope that’s the case again.

[UnhappilyMarried 815]

1 hour ago, ClubWhatever said:

He often talks up what a great job Frank Haith is doing.  That should tell you something.

For all the talk that it’s so hard to get some assistants through compliance, it’s hilarious we have him on campus 

[closetojumping 62697]

53 minutes ago, Thiefery said:

he was absolutely right about his criticisms.. if Terry and CDC got upset about him bringing it up.. maybe it's time for Terry to actually make adjustments

Correct. The thing that got people the most worked up was that he called the coaching “embarrassing”. Folks here won’t like hearing the following but the defense against the poor coaching was the closeness of the final score, including Terry rebutting with folks to that point. “We barely lost!”. Okay then. 

[HookEm 2467]

Copium...

[MuellerHorn 4230]

1 hour ago, HookEm said:

6'8 Onyema getting 10

Onyema is an absolute liability. Him getting 10 mins/game would be disastrous. He couldn't dribble, let alone catch a pass, without the opportunity for a TO occurring this past season.

8 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Correct. The thing that got people the most worked up was that he called the coaching “embarrassing”. Folks here won’t like hearing the following but the defense against the poor coaching was the closeness of the final score, including Terry rebutting with folks to that point. “We barely lost!”. Okay then. 

Here's a wild thought... Maybe Texas wins a close game with better situational coaching. Not calling you out, CTJ - I know you agree. The hand holding of RT's in-game decision making is just crazy sometimes.

Edited April 30 by MuellerHorn

[BurntOrange&White 39931]

8 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Correct. The thing that got people the most worked up was that he called the coaching “embarrassing”. Folks here won’t like hearing the following but the defense against the poor coaching was the closeness of the final score, including Terry rebutting with folks to that point. “We barely lost!”. Okay then. 

Loser mentality.

[HookEm 2467]

6 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

Onyema is an absolute liability. Him getting 10 mins/game would be disastrous. He couldn't dribble, let alone catch a pass, without the opportunity for a TO occurring this past season.

Agree completely. He was horrid last year. Maybe he will be a little better next year.

My main concern is that Shedrick gets hurt and then we are playing Onyema 30 minutes a game.  Holy hell that would be terrible.

[Rockethorn1978 6077]

We can win going small but not to the level we want. Seems like every champion has a couple of good Posts over 6'10. Uconn had a 7'2 stud. I know we can find one and make it a priority. 

RT game day coaching is the biggest issue, I don't care how many homers he hits on the recruiting trail.

[Hermanator 7043]

4 hours ago, Js1 said:

Gerry said Texas has other bigs they like more.  And the price is probably better. 

Funny how we never hear this about the football program at Texas. 

Texas is just a 3rd rate basketball program by design. It has a 3rd rate coach, has 2nd rate resources put into it, and for the last 50 years gets 2nd to 3rd rate results. I was really really hopeful that with NIL and portal the money would be put into it to get it up to a 1st rate program level so both the men's high visibility money sports would be elite, but it's apparent that will not be the case.

The powers that be are perfectly fine getting 3rd rate results for their 3rd rate effort. We need to adjust our expectations to competing for an SEC title in basketball is acceptable and the goal. Getting any wins in the tournament is just a bonus and every so often we can go on an elite 8 run. 

Edited April 30 by Hermanator

[closetojumping 62697]

36 minutes ago, Lonestar88 said:

CTJ has been saying forever that Garrison’s price was going to be absurd, so him to Kentucky isn’t that shocking. But we desperately need a big. 
 

The reporting around this team has been pretty wonky, we’ve had two transfer commits seemingly come out of nowhere, better hope that’s the case again.

The Garrison recruitment was never very interesting. It seemed like it was always going to be about someone showing up to meet their expectations on the NIL end, with nothing else mattering. 

[HookEm 2467]

38 minutes ago, Hermanator said:

The powers that be are perfectly fine getting 3rd rate results for their 3rd rate effort.

This take is overly cynical.  We fired Rick Barnes, who is fringe top tier and our all time coaching leader to try to get better results.  Then we hired Shaka Smart who was fresh off a Final Four at VCU and at 38 years old, was by far the hottest young coach in the country.  In his final year, he got as high as #4 in the AP and was a 3-seed, and we still effectively fired him after the loss to ACU.  We turned around and hired Chris Beard who was also fresh off a Championship Game appearance and also a top-5 coach with a huge runway in front of him. 

And at the same time we upgraded our facilities and built one of the best basketball arenas in the country.  

Hiring RT was an unfortunate, but unavoidable decision that has been beaten to death on this board. I'm pretty confident that the administration won't stick with him for very long though if the program doesn't start competing for a title very soon.

In spite of all the underachievement, Texas still ranks as the #13 program since 1997 according to KenPom, which is mildly surprising to me.  

[CTC2 2797]

3 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Correct. The thing that got people the most worked up was that he called the coaching “embarrassing”. Folks here won’t like hearing the following but the defense against the poor coaching was the closeness of the final score, including Terry rebutting with folks to that point. “We barely lost!”. Okay then. 

Yeah, I don’t like hearing that. Fucking RT. 

[Burt Macklin 19023]

6 hours ago, HookEm said:

I would definitely like another big, but it is possible to win at the college level without having big interior players as long as the team plays good team defense.  Houston had the #2 defense in CBB last year and their starting bigs were 6'7 J'Wan Roberts and 6'8 Ja'Vier Francis. We made the Elite Eight with 6'9 Disu and 6'7 Christian Bishop.  

If the season started today, we would have 6'11 Shedrick getting probably 25 min, 6'8 Onyema getting 10 maybe 6'9 Nicholas Codie getting 5 min.  Given the team makeup, I'm going to assume we almost never play with two "bigs" and instead play with a lead guard, 3 rangy guard/forwards and then a center. This wouldn't be a bad lineup:

• 6'3 Julian Larry
• 6'5 Tremon Mark
• 6'6 Tre Johnson
• 6'7 Jason Kent
• 6'11 Kaden Shedrick  

Or swap out 6'2 Jordan Pope for Julian Larry.  We have really good size now at the guard spots and it opens up a lot of options that we have missed in recent years.

You’re way off here. That’s fine as a starting lineup, but Onyema being the only other guy on the roster over 6’7 is completely unacceptable. Terry has to add another quality big, or it’s a massive, inexcusable failure on his part. 

[BurntOrange&White 39931]

Portal Kombat: Two hoops transfers to know

New Mexico freshman 6-9 forward JT Toppin is a name to know for Texas fans. Toppin had a tremendous freshman campaign averaging 12.4 points and 9.1 rebounds in 36 games, including 35 starts. He's the younger brother of Obi Toppin. This should be considered a very tough recruitment. 

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/5143604/jt-toppin

 

UCLA freshman big man Berke Buyuktuncel hit the portal today, and he's a name to know for Texas fans. The 6-9, 240 pound power forward is from Turkey, and the Horns have someone on staff (yep, that high flyer) that has connections to players in Turkey. 

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/5174982/berke-buyuktuncel

 

-gerry

[VinyVango 691]

Portal Kombat: Two hoops transfers to know
New Mexico freshman 6-9 forward JT Toppin is a name to know for Texas fans. Toppin had a tremendous freshman campaign averaging 12.4 points and 9.1 rebounds in 36 games, including 35 starts. He's the younger brother of Obi Toppin. This should be considered a very tough recruitment. 
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/5143604/jt-toppin
 
UCLA freshman big man Berke Buyuktuncel hit the portal today, and he's a name to know for Texas fans. The 6-9, 240 pound power forward is from Turkey, and the Horns have someone on staff (yep, that high flyer) that has connections to players in Turkey. 
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/5174982/berke-buyuktuncel
 
-gerry

Both those guys would add some good depth and competition … but if it’s just one I’ll take the NM guy

[Js1 85325]

Last Texas kid we took out from a NM school worked out well 

[Teryor 4471]

Toppin would almost definitely start on this team man lmao. Apparently Tech was the school to recruit him to the portal and they're confident because his friend is a walk-on there which is silly. UCLA was awful and Cronin's decision to just have like 8 European newcomers who all kinda sucked. I watched a few of their games and Buyuktuncel didn't leave an impression at all. Throw him in the pile with the SDSU kid they were happy to get rid of as dudes who aren't moving the needle as backup plans. 

[MotownHorn 1762]

7 hours ago, ClubWhatever said:

Probably when he said, and repeated about 5 times, that it was an indefensible coaching decision to keep Hunter inbounding the ball after his 3rd unforced turnover including one where he traveled a la the Miami game the previous season

He was also drunk AF

[Revolution512 1487]

49 minutes ago, MotownHorn said:

He was also drunk AF

Terry or Hunter?

[HookEm 2467]

2 hours ago, Burt Macklin said:

That’s fine as a starting lineup, but Onyema being the only other guy on the roster over 6’7 is completely unacceptable. Terry has to add another quality big, or it’s a massive, inexcusable failure on his part. 

I agree 100% with this BTW.  I have no doubt we are going to add another big, and if we don't it will be a huge failure.  We don't have to get an awesome big, but we have to have depth.  Unless Onyema gets hugely better, he shouldn't be getting more than 5 minutes per game on a competitive team.

Either of the guys mentioned above would change the trajectory of the team next year given the current roster.  I have no doubt Toppin would start, likely at PF with Shedrick at center.  Then with the first substitution we could go small.

Just need some good news up in here.