Texas Basketball 2024-25

[NBHorn7 260]

What Vinson needs is to put on some good weight and muscle, he doesn't have the muscle to bang with bigs that have the body he doesn't have. If he had the body that Onyema has, he would be great when brought up to speed.

 

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

8 hours ago, KingBobo81 said:

I don’t know if NC State is going to end up Q1 unless they go on a heater like they did last year - they do not look like a good basketball team.

We moved up to 52 in NET. UConn is 34.

They just have to finish top 75 in NET for it to be a Q1 win. 

If they just go .500ish in the ACC, I think they will. 

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

NC State is actually a perfect example of why NET rewards playing bad opponents and blowing them out.

They've actually been in 3 pretty close games against likely tournament teams (BYU, Purdue, and Texas) with 2 being on a neutral court. They aren't getting rewarded for it all. 

Meanwhile, Florida is #5 in NET by blowing out a bunch of really bad teams. This system rewards playing bad teams and just beating the shit out of them. 

[Herpa Derpa 6343]

Worry about NET or worry about getting prepared for March. I'll choose the latter.

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

Just now, Herpa Derpa said:

Worry about NET or worry about getting prepared for March. I'll choose the latter.

They aren't mutually exclusive. 

Higher seed normally = easier path in March. 

[HookEm 2509]

What in the holy hell are you talking about.

[HookEm 2509]

  

Quote

He needs to do two things, make more FTs and stop shooting 3's.

If you watch Shedrick play and that is your main takeaway, then we are just seeing things completely differently.

For a center at this level, his rebounding and defense are horrific.  I don't care what the stats say. Watch him actually play. He is so lost.  He floats out to the perimeter on both defense and offense and is just so ineffective.

[HtownHorn 15241]

22 minutes ago, HookEm said:

  

If you watch Shedrick play and that is your main takeaway, then we are just seeing things completely differently.

For a center at this level, his rebounding and defense are horrific.  I don't care what the stats say. Watch him actually play. He is so lost.  He floats out to the perimeter on both defense and offense and is just so ineffective.

You don't care what the stats say, yet posted stats to justify your post. There are stretches where he does what you say, but over the majority of his minutes he's doing what the coaches ask him to do, which is switch on the PnR on defense and set PnR and rim runs on offense. Which is why his stats look the way they do, but yes, please continue to watch with your eyes, because they are lying to you. You say he floats on offense, yet leads the team in ORB%, you say he floats on defense put leads the team in BLK%. I think you really don't have any idea what the coaching staff expects from him. He leads the team in FTr, by a large margin.

Texas has an elite two point defense, you don't have that without his rim protectio, which means other players need to rebound, mainly Kaluma.

So yes, he needs to shoot FTs better since he leads the team in attempts and gets fouled a shit ton, which is interesting for a guy that floats on offense, and he needs to stop shooting 3's because he sucks at them and it also means he's not drawing fouls in the paint.

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

Offensively, they just need to tell Shedrick to keep his ass on the low block. Do not shoot unless you're close to the rim. 

Dunks 15/15, close shots 27/35, far 2s 1/9, 3 pointers 0/6. Stop shooting unless you're at the rim. 

[Catdaddyhorn 3464]

19 hours ago, NBHorn7 said:

What Vinson needs is to put on some good weight and muscle, he doesn't have the muscle to bang with bigs that have the body he doesn't have. If he had the body that Onyema has, he would be great when brought up to speed.

 

I forget the game, but the last time he played he looked like he hurt his shoulder. I havent seen him since. 

[Catdaddyhorn 3464]

10 hours ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Offensively, they just need to tell Shedrick to keep his ass on the low block. Do not shoot unless you're close to the rim. 

Dunks 15/15, close shots 27/35, far 2s 1/9, 3 pointers 0/6. Stop shooting unless you're at the rim. 

No serious basketball team (on any level) keeps anyone in the low block. This isnt 1994. You want the lane open for your guards with the occasional dump in when you big has a little on him. 

[HtownHorn 15241]

1 hour ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

No serious basketball team (on any level) keeps anyone in the low block. This isnt 1994. You want the lane open for your guards with the occasional dump in when you big has a little on him. 

They use Shedrick to set screens on the perimeter and then rim run. He seems effective at this role and when executed with Pope or Larry it turns out to be good. I wish we would screen more off the ball.

[Catdaddyhorn 3464]

Same here. We dont have enough smart off ball movers (especially without Kent and Brock from last year) to run as open a system as we did the past couple years. We need a lot more structure and sets or else Johnson, Mark, and Kaluma will compete in a jacking competition all season long. 

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

We are much better when we put Kaluma as the screener than Shedrick. Teams just sag/over help on the guard because they know Shedrick can’t shoot. 

Also, we do not get to the rim much at all. Pope and Tre, in particular, live on the perimeter. Keeping Shedrick on the low block opens the game up for those type players. This isn’t 1994 but Shedrick setting screens up top is not good offense with this team. 

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

A big reason RT has gone so much ISO with Tre is because when he put him in action with a big it essentially ended up being him double teamed. 

Edited December 6 by Rickylovesweed

[Js1 87174]

21 minutes ago, Rickylovesweed said:

Also, we do not get to the rim much at all.

it would be nice if Weaver would do something when he drives instead of immediately forgetting how to play basketball and turning it over.

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

it would be nice if Weaver would do something when he drives instead of immediately forgetting how to play basketball and turning it over.

Losing Kent was a big loss. His game is cutting and getting to the rim. 

[ztejas 44223]

20 hours ago, HookEm said:

I don't care what the stats say.

You should care what the stats say. He's been fine this season. I was worried about him being our starting 5 coming in but the last few games he's really turned a corner. 

[Pancho 46258]

Karaban will probably be back for UCONN tomorrow

[Cairn Horn88 8502]

Is there a ticket exchange for basketball tickets?

[HookEm 2509]

Seatgeek is by far your best option, especially within a day or two of gameday. Otherwise you have to rely on the seller seeing that the sale was made and transferring you the tickets.  It happens automatically with Seatgeek.

[Pancho 46258]

Where the fuck is @Derka to give us a rundown of kenpom’s predicted sec schedule for us because I bet it’s brutal.

Usually I would say we can easily go .500 in conference play because of the home games but this entire league is crazy good. I remember saying last year we might go winless our first 7-8 conference games and it was an exaggeration. This year? I don’t know that we in exaggeration territory. 

 

[HookEm 2509]

Looks like we are projected to be 6-12 if we win all the ones we are favored in. And we are projected to be 8 -10 if you add the probabilities. Not good.

[Blotto 24011]

The SEC is gonna be nasty this season.   Based on what I've seen so far, I'd be fucking thrilled with 8-10, and mildly surprised if we even get to 6 wins. RT's squad is gonna have to find an extra gear or two.

So presumably our non-conf schedule will consist of losses to the two decent teams we played (12,36 kenpom), three wins over OK teams (83, 105, 107 kenpom) and blowout wins over straight garbage. So presumably no quad 1 wins to date. Yay 11-2!

 

[ChickenSandwich 9947]

We need to find a real rotation before conference play and i don’t think we will. 

[Pancho 46258]

2 hours ago, HookEm said:

Looks like we are projected to be 6-12 if we win all the ones we are favored in. And we are projected to be 8 -10 if you add the probabilities. Not good.

 

[Red Five 41703]

Tre Johnson is out today with a hip injury. 

[jimmyjazz 47123]

Let me just reiteratte ESPN+ and SECN+.  Actually logging in is a crap shoot.  I'm out.

[Red Five 41703]

Just now, jimmyjazz said:

Let me just reiteratte ESPN+ and SECN+.  Actually logging in is a crap shoot.  I'm out.

The other night I just got the rotating espn logo for two hours, even after logging out and logging back in. Today it's actually letting me watch the game, so that's nice. 

[jimmyjazz 47123]

10 minutes ago, Red Five said:

The other night I just got the rotating espn logo for two hours, even after logging out and logging back in. Today it's actually letting me watch the game, so that's nice. 

Oh look, I'm in.  Too bad.  I'm going Xmas shopping.  Radio/app audio is it for me.  Good luck, gentlemen, should be a blowout.

[Pancho 46258]

14 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Oh look, I'm in.  Too bad.  I'm going Xmas shopping.  Radio/app audio is it for me.  Good luck, gentlemen, should be a blowout.

You don’t need to watch this game, it’ll tell us nothing 

[closetojumping 65379]

49 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Tre Johnson is out today with a hip injury. 

Is he actually hurt or are they just not playing him in this scrimmage to give him a break?

[HookEm 2509]

My favorite center Shedrick had 2 rebounds tonight against a high school team. Meanwhile Weaver had 8 in fewer minutes. Yes, he had 14 points and hit a 3, but that isn’t what we need out of him.

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

10 hours ago, HookEm said:

Looks like we are projected to be 6-12 if we win all the ones we are favored in. And we are projected to be 8 -10 if you add the probabilities. Not good.

Crazy thing is 8-10 might get us in the tournament. We would be right on the bubble. The SEC is probably better than the Big 12 this year.

[Wulaw Horn 19579]

Haven’t watched a game which is unusual for me as I love UT hoops. I’m just out on the Terry era and the pre season schedule outside of a couple games was brutally boring and bad. Here’s hoping we can hit 500 in conference and make March madness or flame out big time enough to get a different coach. Will lock in after Xmas with conference starting for at least a bit. What have I missed?  

[Js1 87174]

44 in NET this morning. 11 place jump from last week

[Hookem2147 22011]

Moved up 20 spots in NET this past week from #64 to #44.

Auburn- 1

Tennessee- 2

Florida- 5

Kentucky- 7

Bama- 10

Ole Miss- 22

Mississippi State- 24

Georgia- 26

A&M- 28

Missouri- 29

OU- 41

Texas- 44

Arkansas- 47

Vandy- 54

LSU- 64

South Carolina- 99

[BurntOrange&White 41842]

20 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Is he actually hurt or are they just not playing him in this scrimmage to give him a break?

Gerry said precautionary 

[CTC2 2865]

On 12/15/2024 at 6:33 PM, Rickylovesweed said:

Crazy thing is 8-10 might get us in the tournament. We would be right on the bubble. The SEC is probably better than the Big 12 this year.

I think it’s universally agreed it is the best conference this year. I did read where  Lunardi thought so. 
I just don’t see us getting in the tournament this year.  Hope I’m wrong. 
 

[CTC2 2865]

On 12/15/2024 at 6:53 PM, Wulaw Horn said:

Haven’t watched a game which is unusual for me as I love UT hoops. I’m just out on the Terry era and the pre season schedule outside of a couple games was brutally boring and bad. Here’s hoping we can hit 500 in conference and make March madness or flame out big time enough to get a different coach. Will lock in after Xmas with conference starting for at least a bit. What have I missed?  

Nothing really. Trey Johnson I guess. That’s about all I’ve gotten out of it.  Maybe the candy striped coaches shirts which someone must have told them to stop wearing?

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

41 minutes ago, CTC2 said:

I think it’s universally agreed it is the best conference this year. I did read where  Lunardi thought so. 
I just don’t see us getting in the tournament this year.  Hope I’m wrong. 
 

Yeah, it's on pace to be the best Kenpom conference since 2004. 

 

[HookEm 2509]

On 12/15/2024 at 6:53 PM, Wulaw Horn said:

Haven’t watched a game which is unusual for me as I love UT hoops. I’m just out on the Terry era and the pre season schedule outside of a couple games was brutally boring and bad. Here’s hoping we can hit 500 in conference and make March madness or flame out big time enough to get a different coach. Will lock in after Xmas with conference starting for at least a bit. What have I missed?  

Here is a rambling synopsis:

We are very strong on the wings with three excellent players in Tre Johnson, Tramon Mark and Arthur Kaluma.  We take care of the ball and are #10 in the country in turnovers (vs. #173 last year).  And we are efficient scoring the ball: #9 in eFG% and #13 in 3PT%.  Our defense overall is good at ~#28 in defensive efficiency.

Tre Johnson is our "star". He is a 6'5 SG/SF who plays like a poor man's Ray Allen. He is a certain one and done lottery pick and plays with a lot of fire. That said, the team tends to stand around and watch him cook when he is in the game.  He also can try to shoot himself out of a slump so he occasionally has really bad nights.  He can be the best player on the court regardless of who we are playing on any given night.

Tramon Mark is a solid SG/SF who started the year hurt and is just getting his feel with the team.  He is a really good defender and can guard just about any position on the floor. He is a decent rebounder and really nice mid-range scorer.  He was all over a player out on the 3-point line fighting through a screen and he reminded me a little of a very poor man's Kawhi Leonard back in San Antonio. But he is definitely still shaking the rust off.

Arthur Kaluma is probably our best player. He is a SF/PF with range and impacts both ends of the floor. He is a good rebounder and is an efficient scorer and can create his own shot. 

All three of these guys have some dawg in them. We just haven't seen them all put it together.

Our best point guard is Jordan Pope. He has been very subdued and hasn't yet played to his potential.  On the plus side he doesn't turn the ball over and has been reasonably efficient. But he disappears for long stretches of the game. We need him to step up as a leader on the team.  Our other point guard is Julian Larry. He is a more active player than Pope and seems to create more offense. He is also a better defender than Pope.  But he is a little more careless with the ball.  Neither of these guys have really done much to separate from each other, so we get about 20 minutes from each of them.

Chendall Weaver is probably the most fun player on the team, much like last year. He has bulked up a little and does his best Russell Westbrook impression trying to take it to the rack and dunk on people at every chance he gets. He also flies around getting offensive rebounds.  He has improved in most facets since last year and is a key contributor.  Part of me would like to see him as our starting point guard with the above three wings. 

Our weak point has to be center. Shedrick.... well you just have to watch him and make up your own mind. Opinions on this board are mixed.  When he stays down in the paint, he can be an "ok" post defender. And he can score when he gets it down there. But too often he drifts out to the perimeter on both offense and defense.  I swear half of our opponents scores this year seem to have been when Shedrick is switching off on someone and gets beat for an open 3.  But I digress.

Onyema has shown signs of improvement. He is in better shape and is playing much more confidently. I generally like it when he is on the floor. He is a decent defender he is moving well.

We also have some solid young pieces in Nic Codie, Jamie Vinson, Devon Pryor. We also lost a huge key player in Jayson Kent, who would have been ANOTHER versatile wing player, and probably best rebounder on the team. I am starting to doubt we see him again this year. 

Overall the team is well constructed outside of our weakness at center, and even there we aren't horrid.  But the coaching remains a big problem.  Against weaker teams, we blow them out as we should. But in SEC play, we are going to struggle if Mark doesn't step up as an All-SEC caliber player and if Pope doesn't play to his potential.  It is frustrating because the pieces are there for this to be a Sweet 16 or better team. But the coaching is so bad that we could miss the tournament entirely.

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

On 12/16/2024 at 9:08 PM, Rickylovesweed said:

Yeah, it's on pace to be the best Kenpom conference since 2004. 

 

South Carolina beat Clemson and Florida beat UNC tonight

The SEC is likely going to end up being the best conference in nearly 20 years. 8-10 likely gets us in the tournament. 

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

On 12/16/2024 at 8:20 AM, Hookem2147 said:

Moved up 20 spots in NET this past week from #64 to #44.

 

The Ohio State result is killing us because Aaron Bradshaw has been out for a month due to a domestic violence investigation. Now, Meechie Johnson has been out recently due to some type of personal reason.

This Ohio State team is a completely different one than we played with those 2 out. 

[KingBobo81 568]

Injury update from Gerry - good news on Kent.

 

Spoiler

The Texas Longhorns (9-2) will be back on the court Thursday facing a New Orleans (2-7) team that won't provide a test. 

Texas is once again expected to play without star freshman shooting guard Tre Johnson (21.1 ppg). Johnson is expected back on the court after the Christmas break. 

Senior forward Jayson Kent will return to the Longhorns this season. After suffering a wrist injury, there was some thought he may take a medical redshirt if he missed enough of the season. That will not happen, as he is expected back on the court sooner than initially expected. There is the possibility Kent could play Thursday night, but if not a return December 29 vs. Northwestern State is looking very likely. 

 

[Js1 87174]

Oh that’s good news 

[Rickylovesweed 15450]

Getting Kent back would be huge.

[HookEm 2509]

I get your point, but that stretch includes the two time defending champion and another Final Four team from last year in addition to Syracuse, a top-25 historic program. The shitty teams are shitty though. Agreed.

[Hookem2147 22011]

Moved up 7 spots in NET overnight to #40. We are actually ahead of undefeated OU (#42).

0-2 Q1

1-0 Q2

2-0 Q3

7-0 Q4

Based on current NET rankings, 14 of our 18 SEC games will be Q1. Remaining 4 will be Q2.

[Blotto 24011]

All rankings according to Kenpom

We've played such an embarrassing bitch-ass schedule (356 out of 364) its hard to know what to think other than we will probably struggle mightily to get to .500 in conference. We played two "good" teams (#12,#35) and it never felt like we were in either game. Then we have 3 games against "decent" teams (#85,#94,#105)  that we won by 4-8 pts either on away or neutral courts. And we have a host of games beating up on utter dogshit that are meaningless to me. So our best win by ranking would be 4 pts @ NC State(#85).

The problem is every team in the SEC is currently ranked higher in Kenpom than our best win. I realize rankings are somewhat sketchy before conference play starts, but the lowest ranked SEC team is currently SCar at 68th. In the limited sample size of games against teams that are ranked similarly to our SEC conf foes, we didn't look great. We get Auburn and Tenn at home b2b in the first couple weeks of Jan, so we'll probably get a pretty good indication of how competitive we can be then, but as of right now I dont see us dancing in March. Prove me wrong Rodney. And lose those stupid fucking Whoopi Goldberg glasses for fucks sake.