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100% agree Gerry - a tournament appearance is house money this year (anything beyond the first four is exceptional). The expectations are absolutely ridiculous for people who have not cared about the team before Beard got here. 0% chance we win in Fayetteville. Have to hope you get an OU win and favorable draw in SEC tournament to take one more.

I'm on YouTube Premium and haven't seen a political ad in years...just my two cents

We need that, plus other top finishes from our highly ranked programs (M Ten, rowing, beach volleyball, etc) to be in the running with Stanford. My biggest concern right now is track and field. Both are ranked in the mid-teens currently. We need that or better to stay competitive. And then, it also depends on Stanford. Both basketball teams are on the bubble - we need both to miss the tourney. What about Stanford baseball? They haven't had a strong start to the year. We need them to miss the post-season as well.

They could potentially go after Texas Tech for tortuous interference if they induced him to break the contract. Now you’re talking big money.

I was able to scroll down and figure out who this is but you forgot to include the name of this prospect in this post.

Todd Golden at UF: year 1: not in NCAA Tournament year 2: Round of 64 Florida fan base thought he was a bust after year one. Danny Hurley at UConn: year 1: not in NCAA Tournament year 2: not in NCAA Tournament UConn fan base wanted him gone after two years. There are others very similar. It's the fan bases you are referencing, not the recruits IMO. Fan bases want super duper, hyper speed instant gratification these days. Recruits are all about NIL at the high-end level or portal. It's simply a transactional business. They want to go where they can get paid, and hopefully fulfill the dream of playing pro. Being brutally honest, a lot of these guys are cool with making the tournament and if they make a run with a team is icing on the cake. But so many of these guys don't live and die with the NCAA Tournament anymore. So the key questions is striking that balance if you aren't a blue blood or have the NIL spend of a blue blood (Louisville and Arkansas two in that type of category). You want to build a program the right way, which still takes time. But the fan bases these days have absolutely zero patience for that. And from an NIL perspective, where do you sit in line. You may have to build it in a slow advancement way (or try to) - but fan bases will move away from a coach before he builds the program in that scenario.

Youre Back!!

My pushback with this is if you are round of 64 or NIT next year you have not shown any type of improvement that you cant build a program. Recruits will not want to come here if at the minimum we dont make the tournament and with one game. To build a program you have to show improvement to some extent each year to sell toe players to come here. I dont think miller came here knowing he wont have a good enough budget to build a roster next year thats at least good enough to make the tournament and thats what u are making it seem with your comments.

Better than I thought but some of these guys are just not capable of playing good defense. I think it's more actual inability of skill vs. lack of effort / motivation

This is why I've been saying NCAA Tournament isn't a guarantee in year one First year high-major coaches making the NCAA Tournament in the portal era... 2017-18: 2 of 6 (high-major schools) 2018-19: 1 of 6 (high-major schools) 2019-20 (covid year no tournament) 2020-21: 0-1 (high-major schools) 2021-22: 6 of 14 (high-major schools) 2022-23: 6 of 14 (high-major schools) 2023-24: 2 of 9 (high-major schools) 2024-25: 6 of 14 (high-major schools) That was a blue blood or near it carousel (Kentucky, Louisville, Arkansas with Cal, etc…) 23 of 64 total. When you take away the blue blood/near blue blood (with blue blood NIL ability) changes on this list … those numbers go down even more, and considerably. This year as of today looks like … 5 of 11, with 4 in the balance

Bobby, I totally agree. Can banish the people doing this? John Lauber and Hook’em

Don't stress on baseball tickets, you'll be able to find them the week of the game for better prices on SeatGeek or a secondary markets. Prices will come down.

I saw a stat the other day about how efficient Texas is at scoring despite the fact they don’t shoot that well from three point land. They are in a group of four, three of those could win the national championship. Coach Miller is a master at getting players in the right place to score. Swain is not the best perimeter shooter. Most of the time he looks hesitant to even shoot it. Despite that, they still can’t stop him. Every time I hear Coach Miller talk I like him more and more. Texas has their coach. They didn’t have to spend millions of dollars to get him. Texas has the coach. And I think that is where the few of us that love watching men’s basketball get frustrated. Give the man a chance to build a team. Stop making him go all over the world to find players that will take less money and help Texas win. There are only so many brother or sons of former Longhorn football or basketball players talented enough to be on the team. Man I am just asking for them to spend more on ONE GUY! I heard the starting price for a point guard in this year’s portal is three million. I don’t care if a kid gets that amount. I care that some school gives it to him. These kids want NBA rookie first round money when they are second round draft picks. Every body that can’t play in the NBA is trying to come back and get paid. Texas should not have Kentucky, North Carolina or Duke NIL. If you give this man just enough, I truly believe he can get this program rolling. I just hate that they don’t do that.

Not that anyone cares, but these stories chip away at my college sports fandom every day.

At least part of the problem is the contracts the players are signing tend to be onerous and read more like employment agreements rather than NIL deals. That leaves enough wiggle room for lawyers to leverage the situation.

I feel personally attacked.

No, I’m with you. I have always said tournament team this year would be nice, but it doesn’t kill me if they aren’t - I just want a reason to be invested on that first Thursday and Friday. I also don’t think it’s any secret that basketball is third-wheel at Texas (by a large margin), but I would push back on the big recruiting wins, not necessarily because we win them today, but where the program was in the 2000’s, we were a top 10 program during that run. Boosters would have given money to Barnes to make things go forward because Barnes showed that he could do it. There were tangible results. As you know, JT Toppin wanted to be a Longhorn, but money in Lubbock is just as green (and double) the money in Austin. Part of me wonders if we had Beard, whether the boosters would have coughed up what we needed (I think so). At the end of the day, you are correct that we operate mid-table in the SEC on NIL funds (not near enough to win anything meaningful, unless you get creative).

Not saying you ... but many people in these threads say Texas can't shoot, or doesn't have shooters from three ... and that tells me people aren't realistic or don't truly watch/follow college hoops ... Texas is 35.4% from three ... Arizona 35.4% BYU 35.3% Michigan State 35.2% Tennessee 34.9% DUKE 34.8% Kentucky 34.8% St. John's 34.2% Gonzaga 33.9% UNC 33.7% Miami 33.7% Houston 33.6% Georgia 32.9% Three-point shooting isn't actually a weakness. I think for some reason there is an expectation that the best teams fire 38-40% from three. There isn't a top team that is at 40% this season. A couple in the 39%'s, but most are under 38% and closer to mid-36%'s to 33.5%

I'm not saying Texas will move on from Miller. Texas literally can't hire a better coach IMO. Miller was brought in to legitimately build a program ... not just chase as many seniors as possible (as some others have done in year one's). The fan base, however, will be totally out by year three if it's a NIT and Round of 64 first two years. I said in another thread the other day ... the NIL era Texas wouldn't have signed KD (would have been AJ Dybansta NIL level), Aldridge (nearly same as KD), Tristan Thompson (nearly same as KD), Avery Bradley, Corey Joseph, etc... Texas isn't in that NIL playground. Texas only got Austin Goosby because he's a UT family and took half to turn down BYU and Duke. That wouldn't have happened with any other the guys mentioned above. Unless things change on an NIL front for Texas basketball, they have to play in a different sandbox in terms of building a roster the correct way. He's going to have to likely catch lightening in a bottle a few times in the tier 2-3 NIL world of college hoops. The problem with the job at Texas is there is an expectation of signing the top high school prospect, or a couple in the state on annual basis. Those are expensive, and will take away from portal NIL funds on some level. A Texas A&M doesn't have that expectation on the HS level, so they can approach things differently. Imagine if Texas had decided to not go on Austin Goosby and save more for portal NIL ... reaction would have been pretty negative. Texas is expected to be right there for Marcus Spears Jr. ... the pressure will build to sign him, and it won't be cheap. That could well hurt Texas total roster build for that year, as things currently stand. It's why I'm so frustrated with these threads ... the expectations are truly out of whack in year one, and maybe over time. Why do people think Sean Miller didn't bring Swain and Ryan Conwell with him? Only had the juice for one of them. L'ville NIL'ed Conwell for 2.4 mill plus a signing bonus. Texas doesn't have near that level of NIL to work with to invest up to 6-7 mill in top three players, and still be able to retain or truly build a program.

I share the same disdain for the political themed thread. I come here for football. I do however wonder if you keep the same energy of calling people who you don’t know but disagree with Betas in person as you do from behind your keyboard/phone. Politics, name calling, and categorizing people as inferior are all things/content I can get anywhere if I want to. I’d prefer not to get any of it here.

Yep + A&M will throw whatever money Elko asks for. Florida and Auburn have the “honeymoon phase” with Summerall and Golesh, so they’ll get big money. And Kirby is Kirby.

In theory, I don’t disagree. But I also watched this same program keep Shaka Smart for 5 years when he did nothing to deserve to stay that long. RT got 2 years when everyone knew nothing was being “built.” While I think you’re right that Texas, as a fanbase, is way too impatient, I think basketball is a sport where a trigger won’t get pulled prematurely. Now, the problem will be NIL support (if donors think program is stalling), but I also think CDC is good at circling the wagons and making sure coaches get what they need (why he’s one of the best). Miller has already shown he can find gems (Swain), also shown he can sign and develop high-star recruits (Gordon, Ayton, etc.) People have also seen what this team can be, hell, we saw it for 35 minutes tonight. While I agree there is an instant gratification, I think most people (donors included) see that there is *something* there. The only thing that will threaten Miller, IMO, is if A&M takes another step next year (which I don’t think happens).

Recruiting in the Peach State is even more interesting now. Florida is going to hit the state incredibly hard. They are in on all those guys (except Albright), Travis Williams at Texas A&M is going to be a potential problem in recruiting, and he's all over the state (recruited the state hard for a decade and good at it). Muschamp and Kenny Baker all over the state, and Auburn's new staff is absolutely all in on the state as always Georgia will get the majority of guys they want, as long as Kirby is there. Then it comes down to which schools can snag the right guys.

I want all of em need to put a padlock on Deep South recruiting