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Hindsight is 20/20- The 2019-20 Texas Longhorns thread


Goo Punch

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I continue to like what i'm hearing from/about the assistants, as well as hating what i'm hearing from/about Shaka. Hearing Febres say that Shaka has tried to pound it into his head that, "you're the best shooter in the country" every day since he's been here and that eventually he needs to start believing it is stupid. Fuckin really stupid. 

Jase Febres (career 35% 3-point shooter) knows he isn't the best shooter in the country (or the state, or the conference, and maybe even his own team), and just yelling at him that he is isn't going to suddenly make it true. Shaka continues to display that the very backbone, crux, and essence of his coaching style is to simply spout platitudes at his players, expecting that to change things. you gotta learn to fucking coach at some point dude. F all of this striving for "better tomorrows" crap; how about some good old fashioned teaching, coaching, and basketball acumen thrown into the mix?

Edited by Goo Punch
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I'm somewhat interested in seeing Baker and Cunningham on the court together... they played together in high school and should have some sort of familiarity with and confidence in each other... add in an improved Hepa and a significantly recovered Jones and that could make for an excellent spread-the-floor 2nd unit (assuming Jones is not a starter).  I'm interested to see what our new assistant coach (Yak) can do to make Hepa and Febres defend better than last year and what the new strength/conditioning coach can do to build Jones back from his chemo-related weight and strength loss. 

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Brock and Will also played AAU together and have known each other for a really long time. Will be interesting to see how much PT they get together and what kind of chemistry they have. 

Here's what's really got me interested about this season: last season Texas finished top 30 (maybe even top 25?) in both AdjO and AdjD, and yet we somehow went 16-16, which is unheard of. We return Berry, we add Hudy, and we add Yaklich- we should once again be rated fairly highly in both AdjO and AdjD- but will we see it make a difference in the win column? Hopefully our super weak pre conference schedule will help us gain some momentum in that area before heading into conference play. 

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2 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

I continue to like what i'm hearing from/about the assistants, as well as hating what i'm hearing from/about Shaka. Hearing Febres say that Shaka has tried to pound it into his head that, "you're the best shooter in the country" every day since he's been here and that eventually he needs to start believing it is stupid. Fuckin really stupid. 

Jase Febres (career 35% 3-point shooter) knows he isn't the best shooter in the country (or the state, or the conference, and maybe even his own team), and just yelling at him that he is isn't going to suddenly make it true. Shaka continues to display that the very backbone, crux, and essence of his coaching style is to simply spout platitudes at his players, expecting that to change things. you gotta learn to fucking coach at some point dude. F all of this striving for "better tomorrows" crap; how about some good old fashioned teaching, coaching, and basketball acumen thrown into the mix?

Too early for this much negativity...

C'mon GP.... 😀

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i mean our shitty rebounding is on Shaka- it's been a staple of our teams since he got here. From what I understand Coach Yak's defense eschews offensive rebounding in favor of getting everybody back on D. if that's the case then i wouldn't expect any marked improvement in rebounding. 

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6 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

I continue to like what i'm hearing from/about the assistants, as well as hating what i'm hearing from/about Shaka. Hearing Febres say that Shaka has tried to pound it into his head that, "you're the best shooter in the country" every day since he's been here and that eventually he needs to start believing it is stupid. Fuckin really stupid. 

Jase Febres (career 35% 3-point shooter) knows he isn't the best shooter in the country (or the state, or the conference, and maybe even his own team), and just yelling at him that he is isn't going to suddenly make it true. Shaka continues to display that the very backbone, crux, and essence of his coaching style is to simply spout platitudes at his players, expecting that to change things. you gotta learn to fucking coach at some point dude. F all of this striving for "better tomorrows" crap; how about some good old fashioned teaching, coaching, and basketball acumen thrown into the mix?

that strategy worked for troy daniels.....& from what i hear its working for true freshman donovan williams.........

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11 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

i mean our shitty rebounding is on Shaka- it's been a staple of our teams since he got here. From what I understand Coach Yak's defense eschews offensive rebounding in favor of getting everybody back on D. if that's the case then i wouldn't expect any marked improvement in rebounding. 

Eschewing offensive rebounding has been a Shaka staple since day 1 so Yaklich isn't changing anything there. Remember, during Shaka's 1st couple of seasons on the 40 he rarely lined up more than one player on the box when we shot free throws (which was fucking crazy).  All of the above, along with jacking 3s as though we get paid by the shot, are part of Shaka's over reliance on analytics. The prevailing view is that the marginal benefit that can come from sending guys to crash boards on the offensive end is negated by the fast breaks given up, and upsetting overall defensive balance which can lead to open shots in the 2ndary break. Additionally, in our offensive alignments, the bigs are often 20 feet away from the basket, which obviously destroys our chances on the offensive boards .

That being said, lack of offensive rebounding hopefully won't have that big an impact on our overall improvement in that area. Solidifying our defensive rebounding is what I'll really really be watching for.  I've often said that our deficiency efficiency numbers over the past few years are a bit of fool's gold. We give up way too many extra possessions after the initial stop, which helps our defensive efficiency numbers without the benefit of actually stopping the defense.  So yeah I'm actually looking forward to maximizing our improvement on the defensive end of the field by actually ending opponent's possessions with a possession of our own. 

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12 hours ago, smakashart said:

anyone have this story

 

Here you go: 

Spoiler

AUSTIN, Texas — Workout time was at 6:30 a.m. Everyone on the group chat for the Texas men’s basketball team knew this, and everyone knew this was non-negotiable. And yet not everyone was present. Kamaka Hepa, a sophomore forward, could not be found on the premises. Texts went unanswered. Calls went unheeded. Hepa most likely had slept through his alarm (two, as it turned out) and he would probably miss the workout. Worse, it was likely to represent the sort of insidious preseason slippage that undermines things before they start, and this Texas team could not abide that, not this season, especially.

So Matt Coleman got in the car.

He arrived at his teammate’s door at 6:23. He pounded the hell out of it. That got Hepa up. After grabbing a tank top and some shoes for the ride back, and a bit of locker-room quick-change, Hepa somehow stepped on the floor at 6:28. This was not a simple crisis-aversion or a point guard assist of another kind. This was Coleman, the group’s uncompromising alpha, reminding everyone of a standard they had no choice but to meet. “Yeah, I did that a couple times for a couple of guys,” Coleman says, sitting in a quiet film room a few weeks later. “I don’t see why you wouldn’t. I put myself at risk for being late too, but it’s OK. I know in the long run, I’m going to need them and they’re not going to forget that.”

It’s a big season, you might have heard, for this particular college basketball operation. None of the previous four under Shaka Smart have ended ideally. There have been no NCAA Tournament wins. There have been no championships besides last spring’s NIT title, a run that did reveal some best practices for this year … but was nevertheless an NIT run. There have been three straight first-round NBA Draft picks, which is good, but also adds to the puzzlement. After a couple of days of in-person inspection, there’s enough to like about this year’s personnel and some new and important voices leading it. Still, until the results begin accumulating with a Tuesday opener against Northern Colorado, the Longhorns will keep everyone waiting.

Auspiciously, at least for Texas, Matt Coleman has run out of patience.

He is probably the player most tethered to Smart, a top-50 in-state point guard personally pursued by the head coach from the jump to help execute a vision. That, in turn, binds Coleman to the general idea of finally delivering on the promise. He has started 71 of 71 games and logged nearly 2,300 minutes and endured two seasons of inconsistency that entitle him, as Smart puts it, to “hard-won wisdom.” (Yes, the Longhorns coach admits he stole that from “Hamilton.”) It’s applicable to everything from pick-and-roll orchestration to reaming teammates who don’t toe the line, or pounding on their doors at 6:23 a.m. He’s what Texas needs now, after not quite being that before.

The argument goes that the new Matt Coleman is not the same as the old Matt Coleman, specifically because he is an old Matt Coleman. “His maturity has doubled, tripled almost,” junior guard Jase Febres says. “Night and day from just last year to now. I’ve been saying this for a minute now: Like, his approach, just how much he keeps everyone accountable, has been a really big thing. He’s ultimately being that leader coach brought him in here to be. He wasn’t trying not to be a leader his first two years. Now he just understands it completely.”

Rebirth doesn’t sound quite right for a player who averaged 10 points and 3.7 assists per game over two years, even if last year was a slight backslide in nearly every offensive category. Remodeling is more like it. The foundation and the structure were good; Matt Coleman, basketball player, has good bones. A little fixing-upping was in order.

Laying out the blueprint for that did require a thorough inspection. After the 2018-19 season finished, Smart and Coleman embarked on a shared homework project: Each would watch every possession of every minute Coleman was on the floor in Texas’ 37 games. But they’d do so separately, mostly, and along the way they would make and share and compare notes about what they saw. Coleman jotted in a notebook and Smart took pictures of his handwritten musings and sent them to his point guard. “We were seeing the same things,” Coleman says. At the end of the project, they created a physical document featuring about a dozen common themes, to which Coleman could refer every day moving forward.

They’re mostly basketball shorthand, like “20 Paint Touches” or “Get Jase shots” or “DPOY.” But Coleman is obviously keen to the deeper meaning in each bullet point, and that led to some redecoration in his endeavor. All of this, and more, is collected on a sign on a wall.

At the top, it features a picture of Coleman next to some of the habits he and Smart discussed, with the words “Constant Presence” etched in bold beneath. Beneath that are Texas’ records, overall and in Big 12 games, in Coleman’s first two seasons. The consecutive 8-10 conference marks catch his eye the most. There’s an ellipsis after the spot where 2019-20’s record would be, followed by one question referring back to the struggles of Year 1 and Year 2: What are you going to do to change that? “I mean, I have started 71 games since I have been in a Texas uniform, and that itself is wisdom, knowledge from experience that you can’t fake,” Coleman says. “Now you got to express that, and use what you’ve learned. The stuff that did not go well and then stuff that went well, just apply that to now, to everybody.”

The idea that a point guard must be a vessel for the head coach is not new. It just feels more emphatically crucial at Texas. Coleman and Smart are essentially symbiotic at this stage. The player’s growth in Year 3 is the key driver to the coach showing marked progress in Year 5, so it is no surprise that the two are shoulder-to-shoulder, regularly and sometimes literally.

Before a Monday afternoon practice, Coleman sits in the meeting room adjacent to the practice floor and rubs a vibrating muscle recovery device on the inside of his thigh. Smart sits on the other side of the desk, then shifts to the right with his MacBook as Coleman moves his chair to the left for one-on-one film review of the Longhorns’ secret scrimmage against Ole Miss. Before they dive into the clips, though, Smart has a question. He has been pondering how to teach and deploy a pick-and-roll action. “On your drags,” the Texas coach asks, “you already have your dribble — do you like them to set it or slip it?”

“Set it,” Coleman replies.

“To get you an advantage?”

“Yeah.”

This doesn’t turn into a symposium on ball-screen actions, but it’s indicative of how Coleman’s relationship with Smart has evolved beyond merely being a translator for his head coach. Smart thinks he knows what he’d like to incorporate into the offense and he also wants to know what the person running the offense thinks. Later in the meeting, Coleman chimes in to note that any time Texas throws the ball ahead instead of dribbling up the floor, it much more frequently forces the defense to shift and then gets into its stuff easier. “It’s more of a back-and-forth conversation,” Coleman says, “instead of him saying something and just me saying, ‘Yeah, I got you.'”

For most of the 20-minute session, Smart’s comments orbit around the theme of Coleman staying on the attack. He tells Coleman that going north-south is better than east-west because it’s harder to guard. He warns Coleman against taking too many floaters, an in-between shot he considers a “last resort” for his point guard. His emphasis on “violent, aggressive plays” recurs throughout.

In no context, really, does the Texas staff shy away from invoking some basketball belligerence with Coleman. New Longhorns assistant and not-so-de facto defensive coordinator Luke Yaklich assesses what a team can do on that end based first on what its point guard and 5-man can and can’t do. “The head and the tail,” he says. And if the head is a headache? “It makes everything else very difficult,” Yaklich says. “All defenses, you’re covering for your deficiencies at some time or another. But having a point guard that can’t get through a ball screen, or has significant trouble guarding the ball, is a problem.”

That Yaklich declares Coleman to be an “elite” defender just a few months into the job suggests any problems will be the exception rather than the rule. He lauds Coleman’s lateral quickness and knack for not getting caught up in a screen, which limits how much time a big is in jeopardy or a bad spot in a help situation. Yaklich says Coleman’s “defensive shape” allows him to avoid bad fouls, because he’s usually in a stance and in the right spot. He’s studious, going to film to analyze why he surrendered something and adjusting accordingly. And then there’s the intangible part — “Simple, but not easy: He plays hard every possession,” Yaklich says — around which pretty much everything else revolves.

As important as Coleman being all of these things is that he very much wants to be all these things. He has a mantra he repeats every time he is on the floor, mostly as a callback to that sign hanging in his room and mostly to himself, but it is loud enough for everyone to hear.

DPOY, he says. I’m the DPOY.

“I’ve always noticed teams in our conference, teams that win, they always have guys that are on first-team defense or defensive player of the year,” Coleman says. “And that’s the goal. I want to win. I want to be a top team in the conference, and I want to help my team do that. One of the ways I want to help them is just by being an ultimate defender. It’s just a pride thing. Just flying around, a lot of talk and just being relentless.”

What Coleman says to his coach in a meeting room and to himself under his breath, is, of course, all well and good and relevant. What Coleman now says to the other guys in Texas practice jerseys could be the most important piece of all.

There is the requisite shit-talking, yes; when he slashes baseline and rises up for a monster dunk in the Monday practice, he turns and points to freshman Donovan Williams, the victim in this scenario. “That’s twice!” Coleman barks. “That’s twice!” It’s certainly one way to be straightforward, but not the version that will help Texas the most. “He’s learning the difference between leadership and friendship,” Smart says of Coleman. “He’s understanding that his job is to tell guys the truth and that means being brutally honest when something hard needs to be said.” It’s understandably difficult to do when you’re a young player. Coleman is the son of a coach and evidently arrived with an idea to be a point guard uniter. To just be kind of nice.

And less-than-nice is occasionally necessary.

“He cared a little too much what people thought,” Febres says. “He cared too much if a teammate was mad at him because he told them the right shit to do. He didn’t really want to step on dude’s toes who had been here. Guys like Andrew (Jones) — he could be league-bound. Maybe not talking to him. Maybe not stepping up to Mo (Bamba) like, yo, you need to do this better, his first year. Or his second year, maybe getting on (Kerwin Roach’s) ass more, getting on my ass more. Matt is a likable guy. He wants you to like him. But now he doesn’t really give a fuck. It’s like, I’m going to say what you need to do. If you aren’t doing it, you ain’t going to play.”

If Coleman wasn’t good or solid or reliable, or anywhere near the best player on the floor, Texas would tune this out and the whole endeavor could implode before the Northern Colorado game tips. But over two days of workouts, there’s a pretty striking distinction between the things that happen with Coleman on the floor and the things that happen when he’s not.

Early in a Tuesday workout on the Erwin Center floor, Coleman takes a wrong step. He tweaks his right knee. In one moment, he’s wincing and trying to wiggle out the discomfort as the practice reps continue. In the next moment, he’s on the sideline in a folding chair with a massive swath of ice wrapped around the joint.

He’s removed from the action for the day and, pretty clearly, it is not a dynamic he is inclined to accept. He chimes in from the sideline repeatedly; when one unit must shoot a 3-pointer according to the rules of a certain competitive drill, Coleman shouts “Go black! Go black!” to the players in the defensive huddle, directing them into the proper coverage scheme for the situation. Still, it’s a slog of a practice overall. With sophomore guard and spark plug Courtney Ramey in-and-out as he recovers from a bone bruise in his wrist, and Coleman relegated to spectating, the energy plunge is notable.

It’s a sign of how much Coleman means to Texas — “When he is out, we kind of go to shit offensively,” Febres says — but also a sign of how far Texas has to go. After practice, Smart gathers the group and notes that the vibe deadened once Coleman went down. “So I guess we gotta play him 40 minutes?” the Longhorns coach says, with the usual barely detectable-but-there Shaka Smart levels of snark. He reminds the group that it is in fact a team. That there are 12 good players surrounding him. That Texas’ depth should be a strength, but depth isn’t only a matter of talent; someone else can and should fill any voids of any kind.

The Longhorns are still learning. They’re also not oblivious to the reality hitting hard that evening. “Matt can’t be the only guy that’s going to bring energy and make sure guys are held accountable,” Hepa says, “because when he’s not in the game, what are we going to do?”

It’s a question Coleman ponders in the film room later that evening. There’s no trauma to the knee and he’ll be fine in short order. But he’s clearly irked when it’s suggested his coach wasn’t too pleased with that afternoon’s practice.

“Neither was I,” Coleman deadpans.

That will bug him generally. But also it bugs him specifically because he knows the perception of Texas is one of a maddeningly inconsistent team. One night it looks like it can beat anyone, and then other nights have folks wondering when spring football begins. “What Texas are we going to get tonight?” is the way Coleman puts it. And at least in this particular week, a decent day on Monday was followed by a Tuesday lull. That’s the one pattern Texas would like to break.

“I’m curious how hard we can compete on a every-night basis, and then give ourselves the opportunity to win the game,” Coleman says. “I know we are going to compete, but I want to know when it really gets tough, are we going to be able to pull it off when it comes to those long, gritty games? Are we going to be able to find a way to just get over that hump and finish?”

The next day won’t offer a chance at redemption, because it’s an off-day. And depending on how the knee comes along, Coleman has time to ponder how he’ll approach this. He can’t permit the apathy to linger. He can’t abide any slippage at this early stage. As he walks out of the building with Ramey, Coleman probably doesn’t have a plan to address it formulated totally. The sure thing, though? He will be the one who knocks.

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What is the consensus on starting lineup and rotation? I know Shaka likes a short bench, or has so far in his time at Texas. I guess with Yak coming over, that Havoc is completely dead.

If Jones is truly back to what he was his sophomore year, that would be a great help. I would probably bring him off the bench though. I love balanced teams, like 60/40 starters vs. bench scoring. I feel that we are lacking that one true glass eater and that is what ultimately is going to end up costing Texas this season.

 

I think Shaka is a shitty coach, but love the diversity of his staff. Maybe they can up lift him from his poor in game management tendencies. One thing for sure, there is nothing to be taken from tonight's likely blowout win over Northern Colorado, but @Purdue should provide some real insight into the team.

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4 minutes ago, HtownHorn said:

What is the consensus on starting lineup and rotation? I know Shaka likes a short bench, or has so far in his time at Texas. I guess with Yak coming over, that Havoc is completely dead.

If Jones is truly back to what he was his sophomore year, that would be a great help. I would probably bring him off the bench though. I love balanced teams, like 60/40 starters vs. bench scoring. I feel that we are lacking that one true glass eater and that is what ultimately is going to end up costing Texas this season.

 

I think Shaka is a shitty coach, but love the diversity of his staff. Maybe they can up lift him from his poor in game management tendencies. One thing for sure, there is nothing to be taken from tonight's likely blowout win over Northern Colorado, but @Purdue should provide some insight into the team.

I imagine the most likely starters will be Coleman, Ramey, Febres, and Sims to begin the season, with Liddell, Hepa, & Baker, and maybe even Jones starting at different points throughout the season. Who knows maybe Baker overtakes Sims' spot at some point if Sims' past history repeats itself. 

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7 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

I imagine the most likely starters will be Coleman, Ramey, Febres, and Sims to begin the season, with Liddell, Hepa, & Baker, and maybe even Jones starting at different points throughout the season. Who knows maybe Baker overtakes Sims' spot at some point if Sims' past history repeats itself. 

Good thoughts, but expect Cunningham to make significant contributions starting tonight. Dude is smart, tough and has really been shining throughout off-season scrimmages. 

RS579094-20180307-a-GX2-5503-mar-780x405  

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5 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

 

5 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

from the article: "when he's not on the floor our offense kinda goes to shit." 

Jase Febres, re: Matt Coleman 

get ready for some minutes Matt. 

 

In these non-conference games against directional and Baptist colleges, I hope Shaka plays Coleman just long enough to establish he's conditioned and has his timing and court sense attuned... let him get his "40 mins" against schools that might sniff a postseason game of some sort when we need him on the court to win.  We lose him to an high ankle sprain when we are up 18 to some shit school and we'll be in a world of hurt for PG depth when we really need it.   As for everyone else, there are a lot of interchangeable parts and there shouldn't be any favorites or guaranteed minutes.  It will be interesting to see who wants playing time the most.   And, if Coleman plays shitty, his starting spot should be up for grabs to Ramey (do we have a 3rd guy who can play PG?).

If guys like Febres or Hepa are gonna stand in the corner on offense waiting to heft a 3, they better make better than 33% and show something more than last year's turnstile level defense to get more minutes than the rest of the pack.

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3 minutes ago, RockyMountainHighHorn said:

Anyone know why Cunningham started over Baker? Haven’t followed the bball threads like I usually do so if it’s been covered, my bad. I see that baker didn’t have a good game statistically but thought he’d definitely be higher in the rotation. 

Word was that Cunningham had played great in the scrimmages and practices.  Under the bright lights, he was rushing things and a bit skittish, like Coleman.  Baker and Cunningham both looked like freshman stepping up in competition.  Baker (and/or coach) was intent  just setting a high pick and standing outside for the 3 point shot on offense.  I recall only one time when he set up to receive the ball in the paint. 

Cunningham showed a glimpse of being able to bring sine fire and energy that only Ramey currently offers.  If he can harness it and make an outside shot or two without turning the ball over, he has something to offer this team.

Baker is a large, plodding kid.  He showed he has good hands, can go after a defense rebound, and is confident passing without hesitation.  He just needs to get his ass in the paint on offense occasionally to make the opposing defenders work and respect him.  

Shaka had them both on fairly short leashes.

They both need more minutes to show what they have to offer and how they react to adversity.

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Man I did not know what to expect from Luke on this staff. It was interesting and weird to witness but I have to give Shaka credit, he did not seem bothered with how active & vocal Luke is on the sideline. When Luke barked orders, he had the players full attention. Shaka looked comfortable being more of a fatherly figure. Effort was there for the most part, a few guys were immediately singled out by Luke when they failed. 

That was good fun.

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