Texas Basketball 2024-25

[Blotto 23460]

Goddamn....Hunter Dickinson is still around? I guess he gets a covid season, but that dude  seems like he's already played a career's worth of college hoops. I guess Davis is basically playing it out in the same fashion, he just doesnt seem as ancient to me. 

Edited October 30 by Blotto

[Hookem2147 20954]

Looks like there is already a line out for Monday.

Texas -2.5 against Ohio State

[Js1 85161]

13 hours ago, Blotto said:

Goddamn....Hunter Dickinson is still around? I guess he gets a covid season, but that dude  seems like he's already played a career's worth of college hoops. I guess Davis is basically playing it out in the same fashion, he just doesnt seem as ancient to me. 

It felt like Perry Ellis was in college for 10 years.

[Texas Wahoo 3383]

 

 

[Derka 5989]

 

[HtownHorn 14573]

1 hour ago, Texas Wahoo said:

 

 

Could be Gerry's Hi from yesterday.

Gerry followed it up today with a "He feels good." Thinks Clark has NBA upside.

[Pancho 44584]

 

[Derka 5989]

 

[Pancho 44584]

''

[Braff Zacklin 13474]

44 minutes ago, Derka said:

 

Oh, yeah? Well, maybe the other guys will be third team!

[NBHorn7 59]

 

[MuellerHorn 4202]

7 hours ago, Pancho said:

''

I feel like this is a pretty weak slate of programs given who is normally in a Maui.

Oh well. Glad Texas will be back there again. 

[Pancho 44584]

13 hours ago, MuellerHorn said:

I feel like this is a pretty weak slate of programs given who is normally in a Maui.

Oh well. Glad Texas will be back there again. 

 

Well they normally have 1 blue blood. 

[Js1 85161]

On 10/30/2024 at 3:19 PM, HtownHorn said:

Could be Gerry's Hi from yesterday.

Gerry followed it up today with a "He feels good." Thinks Clark has NBA upside.

We got him 

[BurntOrange&White 39815]

 

[Derka 5989]

here’s to hoping that the likes of @Wulaw Horn and @SL Xpress are active posters this year. sadly,  longhornmatt appears to have gone the way of tpe and whoootex. that’s a shame. i always enjoyed his takes.

Edited November 5 by Derka

[Dbeasy 15007]

I got tired of the unattractive play mid way thru the second half and went to bed. Johnson was a huge bright spot, and you can see some talent on the floor, but it just seems like these Terry teams miss some fundamentals. 

He just lets them play, which I think bodes well for late in games, but without the fundamentals to go with it they just don’t execute very well on offense or defense. You could always see the fundamentals on the floor with Beard teams. 

[SL Xpress 7505]

On 11/5/2024 at 2:07 AM, Derka said:

here’s to hoping that the likes of @Wulaw Horn and @SL Xpress are active posters this year. sadly,  longhornmatt appears to have gone the way of tpe and whoootex. that’s a shame. i always enjoyed his takes.

Thank you for the mention. I have a tough time with Terry as our head coach. He's recruiting well enough. I'll give him that. I follow the team, but it's tough for me to be excited about the program, and I don't really like it when I'm posting as a Debbie Downer all the time. 

I'm with you on Wulaw Horn and longhornmatt. I've disappeared for long stretches before. Hopefully longhornmatt makes a return appearance. I'm heading to Eugene this weekend to watch the Oregon Ducks men's basketball team take on Montana. I didn't even know they were playing. I arranged the trip to see my niece around the Nebraska Oregon volleyball game and the Maryland football game on Saturday and she tells me yesterday she can get us in for free (she interns with the athletic department while she plays lacrosse and earns her master's), so I said "why not?" 

[Funk Doctor Spock 12105]

Tre Johnson is the absolute truth. I don't care about the loss, that kid will dominate. We should get bet better and better as the season moves along. We have the players. Terry just has to get them in the right spot. 

But damn, 29 points for Tre is like KD level if he keeps it up. He may end up the 2nd best player we've ever had when the season is done. We have work to do, but this team has the ability and guys to make another elite eight and maybe more. Yes, I know, it's just one game, but even Shedrick looked decent. 

[Derka 5989]

2 hours ago, Funk Doctor Spock said:

He may end up the 2nd best player we've ever had when the season is done.

[gsoda3 3238]

4 hours ago, Funk Doctor Spock said:

Tre Johnson is the absolute truth. I don't care about the loss, that kid will dominate. We should get bet better and better as the season moves along. We have the players. Terry just has to get them in the right spot. 

But damn, 29 points for Tre is like KD level if he keeps it up. He may end up the 2nd best player we've ever had when the season is done. We have work to do, but this team has the ability and guys to make another elite eight and maybe more. Yes, I know, it's just one game, but even Shedrick looked decent. 

I know others will differ but for me it's 

 

1.) TJ

2.) KD

3.) Mihm

4.) T Rencher

 

It would take a lot to crack the top 4.

[Derka 5989]

Tre will have his work cut out for him to be considered better at Texas than TJ, KD, Travis Mays, Mike Wacker, Aldridge, PJ, Jay Arnette, Jim Krivacs, Lasalle Thompson, DJ Augustin, Mihm, Rencher, Johnny Moore, Jordan Hamilton (people forget about him because of how that season ended), Damion James, Ron Baxter, AJ Abrams, Larry Robinson, and i’m sure many more who i’m not thinking of right off the top of my head. we’ve had some really good players throughout the history of Texas Basketball. it’s just been awhile since any of them stayed very long and won anything of import.

Edited November 7 by Derka

[Pancho 44584]

 

[Js1 85161]

[ztejas 43380]

15 hours ago, Derka said:

Tre will have his work cut out for him to be considered better at Texas than TJ, KD, Travis Mays, Mike Wacker, Aldridge, PJ, Jay Arnette, Jim Krivacs, Lasalle Thompson, DJ Augustin, Mihm, Rencher, Johnny Moore, Jordan Hamilton (people forget about him because of how that season ended), Damion James, Ron Baxter, AJ Abrams, Larry Robinson, and i’m sure many more who i’m not thinking of right off the top of my head.

Marcus Carr. Shit, Disu was awesome just couldn't stay healthy. 

[Herpa Derpa 6117]

58 minutes ago, Pancho said:

 

Should be no need for him over the next two weeks so let him heal fully before New York.

[Blotto 23460]

15 hours ago, Derka said:

Tre will have his work cut out for him to be considered better at Texas than TJ, KD, Travis Mays, Mike Wacker, Aldridge, PJ, Jay Arnette, Jim Krivacs, Lasalle Thompson, DJ Augustin, Mihm, Rencher, Johnny Moore, Jordan Hamilton (people forget about him because of how that season ended), Damion James, Ron Baxter, AJ Abrams, Larry Robinson, and i’m sure many more who i’m not thinking of right off the top of my head. we’ve had some really good players throughout the history of Texas Basketball. it’s just been awhile since any of them stayed very long and won anything of import.

It depends on how you compare them, because we likely only have Tre for a season. But I'd be willing to bet Tre's freshman year stats will easily surpass the same from the majority of players listed in the last few posts.

Without even looking, I'm gonna guess a good number of them didn't score 29 pts one time in their entire freshman season. Seeing Tre put up 29/5/4 on 50% shooting against a decent P4 opponent leads me to believe his fr stats will beat most of those guys. If you're gonna hold the fact that he won't stick around til his Sr. season against him, well that's a different argument.

[Derka 5989]

59 minutes ago, Blotto said:

But I'd be willing to bet Tre's freshman year stats will easily surpass the same from the majority of players listed in the last few posts.

yea he probably will, but whoever started this discussion didn’t say he’d have a better freshman season than a lot of guys,  he said that tre johnson could be be the second best longhorn hooper ever, and in order for that to happen he’d have to have an NPOY type season at minimum, and i really don’t see that happening.

[Funk Doctor Spock 12105]

18 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

I know others will differ but for me it's 

 

1.) TJ

2.) KD

3.) Mihm

4.) T Rencher

 

It would take a lot to crack the top 4.

Fuck! Totally forgot about TJ! Mea culpa

20 hours ago, Derka said:

Yep, forgot about TJ. I'm an idoit

[Hookem2147 20954]

Our next 3 games are against teams KenPom ranked (out of 364):

356- Houston Christian

327- Chicago State

364 (dead last)- Mississippi Valley State

It is stat padding time and Cole Bott should be checking in with 5 minutes left in the second half in every one of these games. The NET system is set up to benefit the teams who blow out the awful teams (Chris Beard staple) and it will punish you if you win a game by 18 that you should have won by 30. Aside from that aspect, I would really like to see Pope and Larry get comfortable initiating the offense.

Edited November 7 by Hookem2147

[Rickylovesweed 14211]

Mississippi Valley State is 5-27, 2-26, 2-22 in the last 3 seasons. Is that good? 

[Hookem2147 20954]

2 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Mississippi Valley State is 5-27, 2-26, 2-22 in the last 3 seasons. Is that good? 

They committed 24 turnovers in their opener against Iowa State. Iowa State had 16 steals. 

[CTC2 2755]

1 hour ago, Hookem2147 said:

They committed 24 turnovers in their opener against Iowa State. Iowa State had 16 steals. 

Oh good, we get to pretend we are good. Yay!

[Red Five 40701]

20 hours ago, gsoda3 said:

I know others will differ but for me it's 

 

1.) TJ

2.) KD

3.) Mihm

4.) T Rencher

 

It would take a lot to crack the top 4.

Mays > Mihm and Rencher

[Derka 5989]

[Underdog 28476]

Jim Boeheim would stroke out on that schedule with all those NC road games. 

[jimmyjazz 45621]

16 hours ago, Derka said:

yea he probably will, but whoever started this discussion didn’t say he’d have a better freshman season than a lot of guys,  he said that tre johnson could be be the second best longhorn hooper ever, and in order for that to happen he’d have to have an NPOY type season at minimum, and i really don’t see that happening.

Yup, we have exactly two Wooden Award winners, and that to me is the bar to clear for Tre if he wants to be talked about being in TJ or Durant's orbit.

[hookem48 4684]

Could we just come out of a timeout and run a play and say damn, that was a good play.

[txhorns 2409]

I’m heading to the game tonight, never been to the Moody Center.  Where should I park?  Also if anyone has 3 tickets they aren’t using let me know.

[realgreggym 835]

On 11/7/2024 at 3:36 PM, Blotto said:

It depends on how you compare them, because we likely only have Tre for a season. But I'd be willing to bet Tre's freshman year stats will easily surpass the same from the majority of players listed in the last few posts.

Without even looking, I'm gonna guess a good number of them didn't score 29 pts one time in their entire freshman season. Seeing Tre put up 29/5/4 on 50% shooting against a decent P4 opponent leads me to believe his fr stats will beat most of those guys. If you're gonna hold the fact that he won't stick around til his Sr. season against him, well that's a different argument.

It's impossible to compare most of these players because of when they played.

For example, some of them who were my teammates had to play freshman ball

because freshman before 1972 couldn't play varsity ball. Some 

of those kids never played with a 3 point shot, possession arrow,

shot clock and dunking as illegal. Just enjoy their athletic abilities.

[CheesePie 238]

4 hours ago, realgreggym said:

It's impossible to compare most of these players because of when they played.

For example, some of them who were my teammates had to play freshman ball

because freshman before 1972 couldn't play varsity ball. Some 

of those kids never played with a 3 point shot, possession arrow,

shot clock and dunking as illegal. Just enjoy their athletic abilities.

You can compare how the players stack up against their competition. It was mentioned up thread, only two longhorn basketball players have won the Wooden award. The ‘03 team made the final four, the aughts saw a few conference titles, hence many from those teams get mentioned as all time UT greats. You cross compare generations by evaluating how they collect accolades against their respective competition. If Tre can win a national award or lead Texas to an SEC title or final four run (ha, I know), then by all means lump him in with Durant, Ford, etc… It’s fun conversation. We all know Slater Martin was not allowed to shoot threes.

[jimmyjazz 45621]

It should be noted that the Wooden Award debuted in the 1976-1977 season.  Prior to that, I'd guess the All-America team would be the benchmark, unless there was an earlier version of the NPOY award I'm not aware of.

[HookEm 2450]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'd guess the All-America team would be the benchmark

Here are our national award winners for reference:

National Player of the Year (Wooden / Naismith)

• TJ Ford - 2003
• Kevin Durant - 2007

All American - 1st Team

• Clyde Littlefield - 1916
• Abb Curtis - 1924
• Jack Gray - 1935
• Chris Mihm - 2000
• TJ Ford - 2003
• Kevin Durant - 2007
• DJ Augustin - 2008

All Americans - 2nd Team

• John Hargis - 1947
• PJ Tucker - 2006
• Jordan Hamilton - 2011

If Tre Johnson can make an All-American team that makes him one of the top-10 BEST UT players of all time, if not higher.  That doesn't mean it gives him a top-10 UT career.

[HookEm 2450]

It will be interesting to see how the lineups shake out as the season moves along and we get Mark integrated into the team.  To me it is clear that (so far) Tre Johnson and Arthur Kaluma are our best players and need 30+ minutes a night.  I assume that Mark is going to need 30 minutes a night as well.

I think Kent is a winning player and needs more minutes at the expense of Shedrick.  A "small" lineup with Kaluma and Kent at the 4/5 needs to see the floor 10-15 minutes a game.  Onyema doesn't need to see the floor at all.  Kent and Kaluma are solid defenders and also very active rebounders. Given our guard/wing size, we can afford a little less size down low. Shedrick is an "ok" post defender, but I have seen him get exposed bigtime when he has to switch off on smaller players or step out and try to defend the perimeter.  If there is a wide open 3, chances are Shedrick was responsible.  That doesn't happen with Kaluma and Kent.

In the end we should have an 8-man rotation with:

Starters:  Pope, Johnson, Mark, Kaluma, Shedrick

2nd Unit: Larry, Weaver, Kent rotating in to give whatever composition we need.  If we need another big body, bring in Vinson.  That's it. Unless we are up by 25, nobody else needs to see the floor.

Pope really needs to get it together.  The dude is a bigtime scorer, averaging 17+ ppg in the PAC10 last year. He is a career 37%+ from 3 and an elite free throw shooter (88%). This year he is averaging 20% from 3 and hasn't even gotten to the line once.  If he plays like he is capable, it will completely transform the team.  If I was Terry, I would spend a game or two making sure that Pope gets fed and see if he can get going.

If not, Larry needs to start getting more time.  He seems to be a much better defender than Pope. He is also a better distributor and protects the ball well.  It might ultimately be better to start him and let Pope come in with Weaver for a spark off the bench.

Weaver is also getting too much playing time. I suspect that will change dramatically when Mark gets healthy.

[ztejas 43380]

1 hour ago, HookEm said:

It will be interesting to see how the lineups shake out as the season moves along and we get Mark integrated into the team.  To me it is clear that (so far) Tre Johnson and Arthur Kaluma are our best players and need 30+ minutes a night.  I assume that Mark is going to need 30 minutes a night as well.

I think Kent is a winning player and needs more minutes at the expense of Shedrick.  A "small" lineup with Kaluma and Kent at the 4/5 needs to see the floor 10-15 minutes a game.  Onyema doesn't need to see the floor at all.  Kent and Kaluma are solid defenders and also very active rebounders. Given our guard/wing size, we can afford a little less size down low. Shedrick is an "ok" post defender, but I have seen him get exposed bigtime when he has to switch off on smaller players or step out and try to defend the perimeter.  If there is a wide open 3, chances are Shedrick was responsible.  That doesn't happen with Kaluma and Kent.

In the end we should have an 8-man rotation with:

Starters:  Pope, Johnson, Mark, Kaluma, Shedrick

2nd Unit: Larry, Weaver, Kent rotating in to give whatever composition we need.  If we need another big body, bring in Vinson.  That's it. Unless we are up by 25, nobody else needs to see the floor.

Pope really needs to get it together.  The dude is a bigtime scorer, averaging 17+ ppg in the PAC10 last year. He is a career 37%+ from 3 and an elite free throw shooter (88%). This year he is averaging 20% from 3 and hasn't even gotten to the line once.  If he plays like he is capable, it will completely transform the team.  If I was Terry, I would spend a game or two making sure that Pope gets fed and see if he can get going.

If not, Larry needs to start getting more time.  He seems to be a much better defender than Pope. He is also a better distributor and protects the ball well.  It might ultimately be better to start him and let Pope come in with Weaver for a spark off the bench.

Weaver is also getting too much playing time. I suspect that will change dramatically when Mark gets healthy.

One thing RT does well is not stick with guys that aren't getting it done. He wasn't afraid last season to shake lineups up or put guys on the pine. 

[Braff Zacklin 13474]

5 hours ago, ztejas said:

One thing RT does well is not stick with guys that aren't getting it done. He wasn't afraid last season to shake lineups up or put guys on the pine. 

Eh ... I feel Terry gave Horton way too many minutes last season.

[ztejas 43380]

3 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Eh ... I feel Terry gave Horton way too many minutes last season.

Probably right. He gave Weaver more minutes as the season went on, though. 

In the tourney Horton played 25 mins, Weaver played 55.

Just saying I'm never terribly concerned about Terry putting the wrong players on the court. I haven't loved how he manages bigs that are in foul trouble game-to-game but that's a little different. 

Horton was just a straight up miss in the portal, which is something RT could definitely stand to be better with. 

[jimmyjazz 45621]

Kinda hard to argue against Weaver's minutes, though.  The guy was an energy boost and pretty much outplayed most of his teammates.

[HookEm 2450]

Weaver should have gotten even more minutes last year because of how bad Horton was. He was slow, didn't play defense, wasn't in shape and was 38% from the floor. Horrid.

This year though, I think we have enough depth that he doesn't need to be getting 32 mpg.  If he could run point, it would really open up some interesting lineups. He shot 40% from 3 at UT-A, so I know he has the ability if he will slow down a little. His best future would be playing a 2012 Russell Westbrook style of PG where he can use his athleticism to get to the rim, rebound from the guard position, and just out energy everybody. He has put on some muscle in the offseason, so he is starting to look the part.

What would be wrong with this lineup:  Weaver + Mark + Johnson + Kent + Kaluma?  Everybody can defend. You could play somewhat positionless basketball on offense and switch everything on defense.

[HtownHorn 14573]

Mark and Johnson would handle the ball before Weaver in that lineup, both are good enough to do it.