OTF Premium Texas basketball 2026-27 season thread

[Rocky P]

Congrats Dylan Disu!!
 

 

[Gerry Hamilton]

 

[harveycmd]

@Gerry Hamilton Any update on Beckham Black commitment timeline? Is he expected to wait until spring to decide?

[Gerry Hamilton]

Just now, harveycmd said:

@Gerry Hamilton Any update on Beckham Black commitment timeline? Is he expected to wait until spring to decide?

Hearing spring .. but I'm a little cautious on that as it could change

[harveycmd]

Early returns on SEC basketball reclaiming a dominant position among conferences are not looking good. Of course, the criminal sooners are an embarrassment as a state, football program and, especially, as a basketball program. Alabama looked like pure cheeks against Sam Houston. Tennessee has looked horrible since exhibition play began. Missouri doesn't look good. Auburn is playing poorly as we speak. Georgia no bueno. On and on. Hopefully, these teams get it together quickly, otherwise the conference will suffer on Selection Sunday.

[BobInHouston]

1 hour ago, harveycmd said:

Early returns on SEC basketball reclaiming a dominant position among conferences are not looking good. Of course, the criminal sooners are an embarrassment as a state, football program and, especially, as a basketball program. Alabama looked like pure cheeks against Sam Houston. Tennessee has looked horrible since exhibition play began. Missouri doesn't look good. Auburn is playing poorly as we speak. Georgia no bueno. On and on. Hopefully, these teams get it together quickly, otherwise the conference will suffer on Selection Sunday.

...compared to all the others. 

Auburn managed to win by 33, so they get another chance.

[Gerry Hamilton]

9 hours ago, harveycmd said:

Early returns on SEC basketball reclaiming a dominant position among conferences are not looking good. Of course, the criminal sooners are an embarrassment as a state, football program and, especially, as a basketball program. Alabama looked like pure cheeks against Sam Houston. Tennessee has looked horrible since exhibition play began. Missouri doesn't look good. Auburn is playing poorly as we speak. Georgia no bueno. On and on. Hopefully, these teams get it together quickly, otherwise the conference will suffer on Selection Sunday.

Alabama doesn't have the team drug dealer back yet as he serves 1-2 more games of the suspension, and they have several injuries impacting them .. Jaxson Richardson minutes restriction coming off injury, same for Anderson Diaz and someone else.  

Tennessee has been bad so far for sure.

Auburn's nepotism hire is not going to end well. 

[harveycmd]

2 hours ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

Alabama doesn't have the team drug dealer back yet as he serves 1-2 more games of the suspension, and they have several injuries impacting them .. Jaxson Richardson minutes restriction coming off injury, same for Anderson Diaz and someone else.  

Tennessee has been bad so far for sure.

Auburn's nepotism hire is not going to end well. 

Thinking the same about Steven Pearl. Hope Missouri and Tennessee improve soon. Need them to get the SEC to eight top 25 teams. 

[Gerry Hamilton]

30 minutes ago, harveycmd said:

Thinking the same about Steven Pearl. Hope Missouri and Tennessee improve soon. Need them to get the SEC to eight top 25 teams. 

Tennessee is going to be interesting as the roster doesn't fit Rick Barnes, and lack of inside presence. NCAA Tournament team still, but they have long ways to go

[Gerry Hamilton]

Jay Bilas rankings

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/50382900/bilas-index-best-teams-men-basketball

[Sundancekid]

What’s up with John Clark? Is he hurt? They didn’t put him in last game.

[ClubWhatever]

44 minutes ago, Sundancekid said:

What’s up with John Clark? Is he hurt? They didn’t put him in last game.

I believe Miller said he hurt his foot

[Gerry Hamilton]

58 minutes ago, Sundancekid said:

What’s up with John Clark? Is he hurt? They didn’t put him in last game.

Broken bone in hand.. not back tonight either.

But before injury, his lack of consistency was an issue for him to get on the floor much.

Going to be interesting as Matas, Punch and Spears are going to play starter minutes. They cover 75-76 minutes of the 80 avaiible. 

[harveycmd]

8 hours ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

Jay Bilas rankings

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/50382900/bilas-index-best-teams-men-basketball

Wonder when pundits are going to drop off the Arizona hype train. Remarked several times over the offseason that they don't have an eligible PF and their backcourt is much worse than last season. This played out exactly to form against UCLA. They won't be a top 20 team without major improvement.

[GQ03]

8 hours ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

Broken bone in hand.. not back tonight either.

But before injury, his lack of consistency was an issue for him to get on the floor much.

Going to be interesting as Matas, Punch and Spears are going to play starter minutes. They cover 75-76 minutes of the 80 avaiible. 

Is it the same hand he broke in HS?

[Kelsomos]

How in the heck did we let Jordan Lee and Aaliyah Crump transfer!

[SL Xpress]

1 hour ago, Kelsomos said:

How in the heck did we let Jordan Lee and Aaliyah Crump transfer!

There was no letting them transfer. Some bad feelings on the women's basketball team at the end of the year. It's a mini disaster that Schaefer has to overcome. Probably should take it to the women's basketball team thread. 

Also, I don't blame it all on Schaefer. There's plenty of blame to go around. But the bottom line is that at the end of the year we had several star players that no longer wanted to play for him. 

[Gerry Hamilton]

1 hour ago, GQ03 said:

Is it the same hand he broke in HS?

Other one

[harveycmd]

I'll mitigate some of my combo guard criticism and admit Austin Goosby has looked good as a playmaker. Like to see more facilitating from Johnson, however. Questions will remain about their overall ball handling until they face higher lever competition. They'll have good tests against Baylor, UCLA (potentially), Miami and Louisville before conference play.

When it comes to post play, haven't seen that Matas has made significant improvement defensively in terms of moving his feet and playing vertically without fouling. It's still early, so maybe it's coming.

[harveycmd]

Forgot to add that Sterling has looked much better than I expected. Had doubts about the release point of his shot. Doesn't look like it's going to be an issue. Truthfully, he's been our third best offensive player after Matas and Isaiah Johnson. He can shoot the cover off the ball, and he's not bad defensively. Bring him off a pin down, put him in a split or staggered screen and he'll be able to score like gangbusters with that shot.

[SL Xpress]

8 minutes ago, harveycmd said:

I'll mitigate some of my combo guard criticism and admit Austin Goosby has looked good as a playmaker. Like to see more facilitating from Johnson, however. Questions will remain about their overall ball handling until they face higher lever competition. They'll have good tests against Baylor, UCLA (potentially), Miami and Louisville before conference play.

When it comes to post play, haven't seen that Matas has made significant improvement defensively in terms of moving his feet and playing vertically without fouling. It's still early, so maybe it's coming.

I think they really want Johnson to prioritize scoring. Not necessarily over facilitating, but not to its detriment, either. Both Miller and Johnson have mentioned that in the offseason. I don't think Miller sees Johnson as the only player on the team to facilitate. You can see Goosby playing a Swain-lite type role, where he's a fundamental facilitator even if he's not necessarily the main person bringing the ball up the court all game long. 

Matas looks to me like he's going to be able to be attacked defensively. I don't think significant improvement was ever a realistic possibility, but even incremental improvement is good. The nice thing is I believe the other 4 players on the floor with him are going to be much more athletic with more length than what he had last year. Simply having Punch and Spears at the 4 is a massive improvement. 

This team is not going to be a shut down defensive team. Their strengths are on the offensive end, and simply scoring at a rate that other teams are going to find tough to match. Frankly, similar to last year, but in different ways, with a better defensive presence and a more balanced offensive approach, with a lot more quickness and attacking. But the same kind of offensive efficiency.