Congrats on a fine run over the last three games. Glad the Horns have made a positive statement in the NIT. Hope they are able to keep up the defense, and then pile up some points in the Championship game. Hook em Horns!
Man, espn doesnt have a single story on either NIT semifinal on its basketball page. Not even at the bottom. Nothing. Ouch.
Frankly, it beats losing in the first round of the Varsity tournament. A four game win streak and a chance to win something, even if it is just the JV tourney, provides good positive momentum heading into the offseason.
Because it's the NIT. It's filled with a bunch of mediocre to bad teams and the tournament is insignificant. Texas definitely needed this positive mojo considering where we were and where we we're headed. Congrats Horns on making the final!
They beat TCU earlier this year...gonna take a lot more than 58 points to beat the Bison. They don't just nip at the heels like those stupid little terriers...
But...it also means that we have to REALLY hope that UCLA takes Shaka. Not an unreasonable hope given that Texas had gone for him on the strength of one tournament showing. We can hope UCLA also only looks at one tournament...
Last night was fun to watch but frustrating as hell too, if Roach doesnt get suspended for last five games, if Horns play with intensity they have shown these past four games, if they had beaten TCU on senior day the way they did last night, if if if if if. They should have won 20 games in regular season not gotten to 20 by winning four NIT games and they should have been in the real tournament not the consolation prize tournament. All that said these past four games have seen an emergence of Sims and some of the younger players and if they win on Thursday they have a lot of momentum going into what otherwise could have been a polarizing off season because like it or not the money alone says Shaka aint going anywhere for at least one more year.
Yeah but its still college basketball with D1 teams playing in it, and its the last 4 in Madison Garden. ESPN could have at least mentioned it at the bottom of the page. Pathetic.
Getting great practice time and games against non Big Boy teams.....doing ok but how would they have performed vs some lower NCAA tourn teams..... Have they played better without Hayes?....sure gave much more meaningful minutes for Sims and Liddell as well as more for Jace
Texas is a 1.5 point favorite in the championship game. Should be a good game, need to keep that D going.
One way to view winning the NIT is the winner could be considered the 65th best team in college basketball, since 64 made it to the big dance excluding the play-in game losers. This season, Roach's shenanigans and the 5 game suspension hurt the Team. As to Shaka, I'm not sold on him continuing to be the HC if he wins the NIT. But, as has been pointed out, Shaka's buyout is pretty hefty, and we would be having to pay the new HC's salary at the same time.
I would say the winner of NIT is firmly in 69th place in the league. The play in teams still technically made the bracket.
I remember losing to Radford, at home. Radford finished 22-11 on the season. That was a new all time low for the modern era program in my humble opinion.
If true, Chris needs to quickly schedule a game this weekend with Prairie View; beat them, and we can all get t-shirts proclaiming, " WE'RE 68TH"
The Horns play tonight against the David Lipscomb Bisons of Nashville, Tn. Looks like they have won decisively many of the games against conference foes, but their "signature win" was against SMU, NC State or possibly in their semifinal game against Wichita State. None are really fantastic wins. They score a lot of points at 83.6 ppg being ranked 7th nationally at 48.3% fgp ranked 14th nationally. They don't shoot the 3 as well, but still ranked in the top 50. I'd say the keys to the game is for the D to lock them up down low and force them to shoot the 3 and then offensively don't suck tonight. Do those things and I think we win comfortably and hang a new banner in the FEC. Stand around on offense jacking up 3's and we lose in embarrassing fashion.
Lipscomb has looked good so far in the tourney. The Horns can botch easy layups, and I agree, they don't need throw up 3s as much as I've seen them do.
They ALSO beat TCU, a team that Texas managed to lose to not once, but twice this year. While Texas played good defense in the third game, there was a lot that was lacking on the offensive side of the ball. Texas was definitely helped by the 28% shooting mark TCU posted, some of which can be bad night for players and some of which is good defense. The question is HOW MUCH of that 28% was attributable to the defense. Backing out the 3pt (4-21) shooting, TCU was 13 of 39...can we really expect Lipscomb to ALSO be 33% inside the arc? Bad games can occur for anyone, but I don't envision the Bison shooting that poorly. Over/under on the total is 143, with Texas giving a point and a half. This suggests that the line-setters are calling for something along the lines of 72-70. I question whether Texas can get into the 70's. This is something that they failed to do in more than half of their games this season. I believe they will be in trouble if the Bison can turn this into a track meet. Texas needs Osetkowski to continue being the force in the paint that he has shown the flashes of during the tournament. Additionally, I believe Texas needs to be up by double-digits at the half. If this comes down to free-throw shooting, Texas is in trouble.
Agree. And I find it very interesting, and positive, that Liddel (sp) and other younger players are finally giving the starters needed rest. Hamm is getting much needed experience too. All these guys will get better with playing time. Both physical play, but the mental part of the game too, e.g., morale, focus, finishing near the rim, staying out of foul trouble, etc.
Heck of a win and great way to end season. Still, its hard to not be frustrated that they put this run together in the NIT and not at the end of the regular season when it would have meant a tourny berth and maybe a run in the NCAA's but that is now water under the bridge. Happy for seniors that they get to end on this note but for rest of team and Shaka in particular this championship will only really mean something if it leads to bigger and better things next year with these younger players who got a ton of extra playing time and practice. The Horns should have minimum expectations next year of a winning record in conference, 20 plus wins in regular season and more than just a token appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Not sure how much was actually defense versus poor shooting. Make no question that the defense had more than a few moments, but early in the second half, the Bison could not get ANYTHING to fall despite having had many good looks. And since that was going on at the same time Texas was struggling, Texas was fortunate to maintain that double-digit lead. Once the three point shots began falling, it was clear Texas felt they had it in hand and began actually having some fun. If only they had played that way all season long...
