Cool, just what we needed. Personally, I felt like this basketball season was already enough of a disaster.
At 7-9, 1-3, with WVU, BU, KU up next, uh looks like 7-12, 1-6 after that. I just don't have much fun watching this collection of players, note I didn't call them a team. Have seen previous Horns teams lose games, but still with some entertainment value. This group? Meh. Sorry to post that, but there it is.
I thinking that after his reaction after the final buzzer he went off on the whole team including the coaches.
Funny you say that, I have felt the same way about this team. I sort of felt that way about the 2012-2013 team, but not to this extent. It is just not fun to watch everyone in this group do their own thing, not play together, make incredibly stupid decisions and make incredibly stupid mistakes. It is like we are stuck watching the disfunctional team at the start of every sports movie that plays like how Texas is currently playing before a new coach comes in and gets their act together. I am really ready to move on from this part of the movie and see Shaka do the getting their act together part.
Texas played together and as a team for a time this tear in the first half. Crisp passing, not dribbling into the defense or traps, and finding the open man. My wife and I commented that it was the best we had seen Texas play this year. We also commented that we hoped we didn't jinks the team. We must have. They reverted back to a group of players trying to go one on five.
Quite honestly, I'm happy to see some passion and someone that really cares about winning. I've seen far more passion about winning and disgust about losing from Mack than anyone else on the team, including the coach. They won't win until no one accepts losing. I hope he pissed off a number of people.
2012-13 squad was all underclassmen with the exception of two seniors that averaged less than 2 mp. I think the Kabongo fiasco derailed what should have been a good season for this team. IMO.
It sad to say, but for whatever reason, this team is noticeably better since the Mack suspension - regardless of the record. I don't know if it was a wake-up call, or if he was causing issues that were distracting from the team concept, or if just meant guys had to step up.
The 2012-2013 Texas team lost in the CBI. Before the 2013-2014 season, Texas lost Sheldon McClellan, Jaylen Bond, Kabongo, Julien Kewis and Ioannis Papaetrou. The 2013-14 team won a game in the NCAA tournament and the next two Texas teams made the NCAA Tournament under two different coaches. Sometimes (not all the time) some players are problems and it really is addition by subtraction. I do not know what Mack's status is. Hopefully he will come back and get with the program. If he is not going to work out here and will be a problem, I am glad Shaka booted him. As said above, we seem to be playing better. If you boot players and play better, then that shows they were a problem and needed to be booted. Like i said, see 2012-13 and 2013-14.
Barnes had a real problem with Mueneke, anger issues, but by the end of the year Gabe was an asset. Maybe Shaka will be as good/lucky with Mack. To paraphrase a saying: "It's easy, the Xs and Os, what's hard is dealing with the Jimmies and the Joes."
On a related note, I was watching a replay of a KU game in Austin from probably his senior year. He had a couple of times where he took someone off the dribble and practically destroyed a rim in the halfcourt set. I'd forgotten that part of his game - always thought of him more as a rebounder/enforcer/garbage guy.
http://texas.247sports.com/Bolt/Tevin-Mack-posts-message-to-fans-thanks-Texas-51548711 Classy exit. Glad nothing too ugly or negative around this story came out. I'm sure we'll never know the details surrounding this situation but let's thank Mack for his contribution to the program and wish him well. I'm sure he'll land somewhere that will be a good fit.
