Texas vs LaTech

7-0 us decent start

 

Cool. Someone else is actually watching the game after the Michigan debacle.

 

Dylan having a nice game.

 

Bamba didn't start the second half, out again w/ 4 fouls w/ 15 min left in the game. If he can ever keep out of foul trouble, he could become a force

 

18 turnovers

 

This team won very ugly today. Watching the game, the players got away from passing down low to the bigs, made 15 turnovers; and got into foul trouble on the bookends: Bamba and Coleman! What's up with this.

Had one lob to Bamba. We need to do that 3-5 times a game. Coleman had his worst game for the first 35 minutes. He redeemed himself in the last 3 minutes hitting clutch FTs, and protecting the ball.

La tech is a very mediocre team. We let them stay in the game way too long.

The best thing I can say about the game is that Young made his first start, scored in double figures and handled the ball well. He should start every game Jones is out

Osetkowsky had his best game. Without him this team is below .500.

Bamba got back into the game in the last three minutes, and he sparked the win.

Shaka needs to really work this team to teach and insist on an offense that makes its living in the paint. We cannot win from the ark. If Jones comes back and picks up where he left off, and Osetkowsky's 3 point shot is for real, then we can finish in the top half of the B12. they are our most consistent shooters. I hope Young can help the offense. Without shooting help to take some pressure off our bigs, we are sucking hind t-t again.

 

Cary, I try to be optimistic too. but I am finding it harder. OU beat Wichita State today and their Young looked fantastic. Deadly from 3 and hits all his free throws. TCU looks very good in only the 2nd Year under Dixon. TTU is ranked with a very good Non conference record. West Virginia is solid again, is Carter in his 6th year of eligibility? Same for Lattin at OU. OSU beat a ranked FSU on the road. Kansas is not Kansas this year but looks better than us. They always look well coached. Baylor is always ranked and at the top of the conference. That leaves us and K State as the door mats.

I do not see much improvement at this point of the season. Why can we not get anybody that shoots threes and why can we not hit free throws. Seems like we only recruit players than are going to one and done based on their potential because they don't show it on the court here. We are not Kentucky.

Davis is such a mystery. I thought he was a very good 3 point shooter his freshman year and thought that with a point guard this year he would get back to that form. He has not. Most of his threes now are air balls. I know we miss Jones and he is gone after this year as well as probably Bamba. With our luck, Coleman will probably transfer or turn pro too. Roach wants to, but I don't think he would be drafted. We seem to have to start over every year.

I hope for the best but expect the worst.

 

This ^^^ is pretty much what worries me. Not seeing enough improvement to give me the confidence to believe we can beat the top 4 teams in the B12. Our best win, arguably, is the exhibition win over a&m, which doesn't count as a "real" win. Butler and vcu are ok, but after that we are very good at losing close games.(duke, zags, mich).
We have got to beat Bama at their place. Very important to build confidence and momentum going into conference play.

 

Sorry, not happening with this team. Bama is better than Michigan and it's at their house. Here we are again with yet another top 10 recruiting class playing mediocre basketball.

 

Aside from Bamba, who did you expect was going to walk in as a freshman and light it up? This is a strong class because it has a foundation and guys who can/will (we hope) develop. This team is very clearly better than last year's team, without Bamba. So to say we're not making strides is just wrong.

I'm at a loss as to why we aren't shooting well from 3, but I was glad to see that the team finally stopped (mostly) trying to force it. Lots of issues with sloppy play in this game, but it was an improvement over the Michigan game from the standpoint of what they were trying to do on the floor.

 

I get what you're saying, but why is it every year it's "what did you expect because.......". The problem with thinking we are building a foundation is that every year guys will leave early and leave us trying to develop someone new.

This team is better than last year, but a big part of that is the new talent. What happens next year when the talent moves on and new talent comes in and we are in the exact same place as this year? Will you just ask what did i expect?

 

I like the optimism about the team's potential, and how it is better than last year. The talent is certainly better, and it should develop into a better team next year: Coleman, Osetkowsky, Young, Roach, Sims, Banks, etc should all be better. Bamba and Jones, our two best players, will of course be gone. A new group of talented kids come in. Yea!
My concern is with the half court offense. Shaka's teams here don't seem to know to play it. Cuts, lobs, pick and rolls, posting up hard, finishing at the hoop--all these don't seem to show up in tough games where we need it the most. The kids seem confused and not well coached to deal with the pressure of a tough half court defense. This worries me. It is a problem. I don't see much improvement in this area over the last two years. This should get better with Coleman; it should already be better with Roach and Davis, but they only seem to be at ease on the fast breaks.

 

Hopefully I won't have to. It assumes that the freshmen and sophomores that Shaka brought in won't develop, and I think they will. Aside from Bamba, none of those guys are going anywhere, so the constant turnover you're talking about isn't going to happen with this group.

Ultimately as I've said, we're stuck with a class that Barnes brought in (and Shaka completed) which IMO has been not great. Of Roach, Davis, and Mack, only Roach is contributing, and his greatest strength so far has been on defense with very limited offensive skill. But then, he wasn't recruited as a shooter, and that's been proven out.

Five freshmen on the current roster, and Coleman has been about as advertise, and Febres looks like he's working his way into the lineup, so that's good. But neither of those guys were projected as NBA talent. Sims and Hamm were both projected to be more of sophomore/junior contributors, and Sims might be a little ahead of schedule.

Sophomores: Jones is an NBA talent and playing like it, Young is a role player that's starting to progress, but he wasn't a guy we should have been counting on immediately either. Banks was also a second- or third-year contributor.

So basically, most of the lineup that Shaka has brought in is about where you'd think it would be. With Bamba and Jones, this is a very strong team that has weaknesses shooting but has potential to be pretty good at it.

Basically, people are freaking out because they think we should be Kentucky.

 

There have been points where they've done a nice job with it. I've seen some examples of good ball movement, efforts to get the ball inside, and efforts to get into the middle of a zone and create shots. The problem has been that if those things don't work after three or four tries, everyone runs out of ideas, and we start passing around the perimeter until someone gets bored and shoots. That's going to be a real problem in conference play. (Well, I mean it's a problem now, but moreso.)

 

Wellll, not so much. I think we (at least me) are hoping to be like TCU. Or even BU the last few years. Or maybe ISU. In other words, in the top 4 of the B12 and soon to compete with KU.

 

Basically I'm freaking out because Texas can only beat Tennessee St by 1 point at home while looking like an absent team. I have no expectations to ever win a championship here, but I do have an expectation to compete in the conference. If this team continues down this path we'll be lucky to win 6-8 conference games. In year 3 the team should not be playing TSU to one point at home while looking absolutely awful.