Terry on-the-fencers, how you like him now?

What does the record of the previous team and the quality of the players on that team but gone have to do with what Beard inherited? Beard brought in, from the portal, the core of the team that made the elite 8. I hope RT can do the same but it does not look like that will happen.

 

Did RT retain the existing staff? Some of the existing staff? Or is he trying to build a new staff from scratch and recruit/retain players all at once? Not that every other new coach isn’t dealing with the same type challenges, but I’m just wondering if everything falls into place once RT’s staff is solidified.

 

RT took them to the Elite 8 or Beard did?

 

Texas Basketball: 2023-2024 roster tracker

 

Andrew Jones was a great college player, but is currently playing professional basketball in Germany.

I would be surprised if Cunningham makes the NBA.

Ferbes no longer plays basketball.

We will see what happens to Ramey. He was up and down at Arizona, like he was at Texas, losing in the first round to Princeton.

Beard did not start with much. The difference between Terry and Beard is Terry coached these kids and was able to directly recruit them to stay.

One update: It looks like Terry was able to retain Dylan Disu which is HUGE!

 

On a positive note, Terry seems to now be overcoming the initial blow of losing so many players and is recruiting again. Hopefully Terry can pull off some more surprises from the portal!

 

What I meant was that when Beard showed up, it wasn't like we were hurting for players, either recruiting-wise or through the portal. Beard was quick to capitalize on our brand to get guys like Allen and Carr to sign.

But the moment mid-December 2022 came around, one of the first conversations everyone had was "can we keep the current recruits?" and we're only batting .500 there. Call me naive, but I think RT spent so much time between December and March holding together the day-to-day operations that the player-personnel angle of his job fell apart. And some of that is on the AD for not making him the permanent hire until the day after the season ended. But recruits and transfers noticed. And shopped around while Texas didn't indicate who our HC would be either way.

We shouldn't be losing guys like Brumbaugh when he would have been guaranteed 20-ish minutes/night on an Elite-8 rebuild. We shouldn't be losing a 6'0" starting combo guard who regressed nearly all of his PG prowess in the course of an offseason. But we are, apparently.

 

@Horns11 Thank you for the clarification, I agree. Beard was on top of it when he came in. RT was not, but he hopefully is turning it around now. RT certainly has some ground to make up though.

 

Well, the PG you reference is returning, and at the same time we are retaining Dylan Mitchell too. Many people on message boards are often prone to vast overreaction to incomplete news stories.

I think our roster looks pretty solid again this year.

 

I've never seen that around here...

 

No hate, but... uh... eh....

 

Yet they listed ou.

 

Keep moving those goalposts.

 

So the Horns have no incoming freshmen while all those other teams do have incoming freshmen?!
WTF is that about?

 

The roster for next year is definitely not as worrisome with the return of Hunter and Mitchell. Both players will need to improve like Carr did over his last 2 years to make this team close to what they were last.

The recruiting is still a problem. Maybe next year isn't hurt so much but years 2, 3, 4 are hanging in the balance. Holland and Johnson would make the upside for those years way higher.

RT was a D- for next season's roster. I would say he is at a C+ now.

 

I agree with just about everything you said.The team exceeded my expectations after Beard was fired. RT’s portal performance was good but not great. Recruiting has devolved to a zero with no incoming freshman signed.
So a grade of C seems fair.

 

How so? Both those guys were supposed to be 1 and dones. Holland turned out to be zero and done. There is no long term upside to be gained from 1 and done players, except to demonstrate to the next crop how you developed the previous one.

In my opinion, given the rules in place today, a smart coach will carefully pick and choose among HS players, but will focus more on portal players to fill his roster. First, HS players can transfer anywhere, free, for any reason. Great ones could just go to the NBA after one year, or the G League (like Holland) without ever playing in college. Second, portal guys have college film and have shown what they can do at the NCAA level. Third, the portal guys can't just re-portal without consequence, so with underclassmen you are at least somewhat assured they will be around for a while.

 

Thank you for explaining the obvious to someone with who doesn't understand how this works. Bias much? The roster on paper is really solid, so now the "haters" like @Monahorns have to try to come up with something.

 

I mean... the roster on paper has literally three guards. Total. Playing for a coach who uses a lot of three-guard lineups.

2015: We regularly used 4 guards (Taylor, Felix, Holland, Yancy) in Barnes's last season with the early NCAA exit.

2012: Again 4 guards (Brown, McClellan, Kabongo, Lewis) on a really young team with little frontcourt depth too (sensing a trend with the early NCAA exits).

2009: Overachieving team with 4 guards (Abrams, Mason, Ward, Balbay) that nearly upset Duke.

2008: The last time we had a team that featured only 3 guards: Augustin, Abrams, and Mason. They combined for an average of 43-10-10 each night. They were supported by some of the better handling forwards we've ever had (Damion James and Gary Johnson). If we're going to replicate that kind of Elite-8 success, we'll need the following to happen:
1. At least two of the forwards to improve in ball protection and distribution.
2. Disu to basically play like an All-Conference star most nights.
3. Cunningham to kind of take on a "sort of swing guard" role on many nights.
4. Kaluma to sign on the dotted line because he can handle some of those responsibilities.
5. No injuries ever.
6. Terry to take the Coach K route: no team from year to year should be coached the same way. He's going to need to rewrite the script for 2024 and surprise opponents with just how different this team is from the 2023 edition.

 

The roster is solid. Not perfect.

 

What was That about "moving the goal posts" again? We are fortunate to have such a self proclaimed recruiting guru to educate the rest of us on the ins and outs of basketball recruiting.

 

I should have never clicked on "show ignored content"

 

Not really sure what all that was about but I see you are all in on rt. I hope you are right but his record does not support that position. I hated losing those recruits just like everyone else but we also lost guys on the team. I guess its just part of the portal world and buying players. Hope we have at least have a descent year.

 

As the recruiting and portaling season comes to an end, RT has signed an above average portal class, imo. We lost a talented kid to KU, but got a better overall guard, imo, from ORU.
We lost our top HSrecruits as they essentially went pro. And signed two 3 star (I think) incoming freshmen. Both very talented but raw.

Overall, looking at RT’s portal gains vs losses and the two late HS signees, I would give him a B+. I’m okay with that. And we shall see what happens in 23-24.

 

Welp. Its gonna come down to coaching.

 

Having a good true point guard should help run an offense. In recent decades, it seems to me that, for more years than not, we’ve either not really had a true point guard, or had mediocre point guard play.

 

rt took Beards team to the elite 8. He did not build the team, Beard did and rt just inherited it when Beard melted down. Yes rt was part of the process but does the equipment manager at Georgia or Alabama get credit for their championships? rt has a record on his own at other schools that show what he was capable of. Time will tell if he can duplicate what Beard did. For Texas sake, lets hope he is successful.

 

I knew! Beard’s fault we lost to Miami!

 

We got outplayed and out coached that day. Not having our big guy who was extremely hot in the tournament had a big impact on our outcome. Everyone has to deal with injuries and ours just came at a tough spot or I believe we would have been in the final 4. We were definitely on a roll prior to Miami.