bierce

Good switching by Johnson and Kaluma on d. Then Mark allows a blow by.

Really good play on d by Onyema. Stones the big man inside and still gets to the perimeter to challenge the 3pt shooter.

Kent is built like a basketball player. He moves like a guy with athleticism. Once again, he is a no-show so far today. Getting dangerous here. Really sloppy offense in our last 5 possessions.

Offensive basket interference by Kaluma.

Kaluma turned an easy pull up jumper into a hard one.

I have to think Golden is telling Chinyelu that he needs to foul Onyema as much as Florida coaches need to get with coeds.

Onyema is having a great game on the offensive end. Making good passes, hitting ft, finishing that drive. If he could bottle this AND stay out of foul trouble on defense, he could be a big help to a team that needs more in the paint than it has shown so far. But maybe it's four minutes on the court that will rarely, if ever, come back.

Great look by Onyema to Mark.

Florida on a pace for 40+ offensive rebounds. But we're up 4-3.

First possession by UF, two chances for us to get the defensive board, and we don't. Make it three before Kaluma finally gets a wild carom.

Bubble teams don't face must wins until late February. Of course, by that time we can play ourselves off the bubble in either direction. Looks like Toppin's ankle isn't bothering him much anymore. 19 points, 16 rebounds in a big win over Arizona.

I described Florida on another thread as a team that profiles like an uptempo Tennessee because it is so good at offensive rebounding and forcing misses from deep, and we hung with Tennessee all game and had our best stretch when the game when uptempo. There are plenty of differences between Florida and Tennessee, of course, like Zeigler being a prolific distributor and Clayton being much more of a scorer having to act as the primary point, but those two similarities are impossible to miss and highly defining of what those teams do. Kent has to rebound today. He just has to. Shedrick needs to rebound on both ends. He can't be shut out on the defensive end the way he was against Tennessee. And the guards need to hit the defensive glass as well, and I'm not just talking about Weaver here. Rebounding isn't supposed to be Mark's primary function in this lineup, but he can't put up a doughnut the way he did against A&M and Tennessee.

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

I hope the game goes into so many overtimes that ESPN finally decides to dump the broadcast off to the Ocho streaming hub, so ESPN can resume programming that means something.

It also might not be enough without something resembling a signature win in there. We have lots of chances remaining to get one of those, but we could get to 8 wins in conference by beating only OU, Arky, LSU, Vandy, South Carolina, and either Georgia or Missouri in Austin with only the road wins at Arky, Vandy, and OU winding up as q1 wins. LSU could easily drop out of the top 75, and either Georgia or Missouri (or both) could slide out of the top 30. That would also be a resume without any wins against the at-large outside of a home win over 8ish seed Missouri or Georgia and road wins against double digit seeds if Arky, Vandy, and/or OU sneak in. The bubble will be weak again this year, but it might not be so weak that we get in without at least one really good win. We had two of them last year (home vs. Baylor, @ Tech). My paranoid vision might require the development of a clear three tier conference with Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, A&M, and Mississippi State, and all pounding on everyone else in the conference, and that obviously won't hold true every day, witness Missouri winning in Gainesville and Georgia beating Kentucky in Athens, but those are the only two times so far this year that one of the projected bottom 8 has beaten one of the projected top 8. Meanwhile, the top 8 have beaten the bottom 8 16 times. I don't think our season will end with us not winning against at least one opponent of note. I also don't think it will end with us not losing to one of the bottom teams in the conference, so our final resume this year could look much like it did last year, but I tend to think we were gifted a 7 seed just to create the match-up between Barnes and Terry, and I note we finished .500 in the top ranked conference, had two road wins against tournament teams, two other road wins against top 50 teams, we beat a three seed in our place, and we were jobbed out of a win against a #1 seed. We have a lot of chances to create similar high points this season, but I think we'll need to cash a few of them in to get that kind of deference from the committee this year. Might as well start with that tomorrow. I think Florida will beat our brains out on boards, but Kent showed on the glass against OU for the first time in conference play, even if his ft attempts were ugly as hell. Florida profiles a lot like a much faster playing Tennessee (great at offensive rebounding and hampering opponents' threes), and we hung with Tennessee all game in Austin and even had our best stretch when the game greatly sped up in the first half. We still could really use Weaver out there.

We'll probably never know the real reason behind Cook being dismissed from UDub in 2 days, but I have to wonder about it. Drugs in the dorm? Positive piss test? Fight with teammate? Punched a coach? What? Players don't disappear from a program in just 48 hours without cause.

For s*s and giggles, I decided to look at Bracket Matrix. We were 5th on the list of teams left out before the games played 1/14 and 1/15. A majority of the brackets that were updated today include us, and the few that don't include us still have us in the first four out with one exception. Someone had us 65th before yesterday's games. He/she/they grudgingly bumped us to 53rd. The main takeaway is who is the competition for the last spots if the tournament was chosen today. Teams like Maryland, Iowa, Indiana, Arizona State, Vandy, Arky, all teams with 0 or 1 q1 wins at present. The bubble will probably be pretty soft again this year.

The tournament is a long, long way away, and we have a lot of work to do to make it, but I'll add one more point now to the discussion about making the tournament. We have 7 absolutely worthless q4 wins. If we finish 8-10 in conference and 19-12 overall, we would still be at best only 12-12 in q1-q3 games, and that requires New Mexico State (currently on a roll, having just crushed La Tech at home and UTEP on the road) to maintain its level of play. NMSU is currently safely nestled at 124 in Pomeroy and NCAA Net 130. If it falls to 161 or worse, then that becomes another q4 win. But a lot of people think the committee will refuse to give an at large bid to a team with a sub .500 record in q1-q3 games. I think some allowance might be made for a team that goes something like 0-7 against the top fifteen and 12-6 against teams ranked16-60. But I won't feel comfortable about our tournament chances unless we are 9-9 with a conference tournament win or 8-10 with two conference tournament wins.

BTW, the SEC tournament is structured with first round between teams 9-16, second round with first round winners against teams 5-8, and top 4 teams getting double byes. A team finishing at 9-9 has a very good chance to wind up in a first round game of little value as a win but a back breaker of a loss for a bubble team. It could even wind up facing Vandy in that game. In Nashville. Different arena, but still in Nashville.

I think I was suggesting 9-9 with a conference tournament win to feel comfortable. We can win 8 more regular season games but pick up only 2 more q1 wins in doing so. 3-11 in q1 games with only one win against a team earning an at large bid won't impress anyone. Of course, we could beat A&M, Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia in Austin, and Misery and Jawjah might finish in the top 30, and So Car and LSU might stay better than 76th, giving us q1 shots in those road games. If we get to 6 q1 wins, then we're looking pretty good. But I'm not letting last night define the season, and I certainly don't think the team is, either. Oklahoma is a bubble team at best right now. We have a few games left against tourney certs (Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, A&M), acouple of road games against near certs (Miss, Miss State), and a slew of games left against bubble teams (Arky, Georgia, Missouri, Vandy, and OU again). This season can go either way at this point. Getting Weaver healthy and our top 8 finally on the court for a long stretch of games could really help.

Ahh. You have my apologies. But for those who do question my history of supposedly not questioning our basketball coaches, I started threads on 247sports about who we should hire after Barnes lost in Maui to Chaminade and Smart lost to Radford in Austin. Both lasted 2 more seasons, and I cheered every win, even if I knew their time was coming. I want this team to succeed, not because I want the coach to be vindicated but because it is my team. Terry having success is just a side effect. I'm not blind to team warts, nor am I without reservations about the play on the court and the lineups. I would like to see more action away from the ball to get guys open for easy shots. I would like to see more passing and less ball pounding. I'd like to see Vinson and Codie get some PT. Kent finally got some rebounds for us, but I'm still wondering how Vinson and Codie can't do more than Kent and Onyema have in conference play. Mostly, I'd like to see wins. Pomeroy now says we are favored to win or will be in a one possession loss in 11 of our remaining games. The outcome of this season is still very much in question. And we have had all of our top 8 players available in only 2 or 3 games so far. Weaver is one serious bad-a** rebounder and defender, and he is very under-rated on offense. His ft went south this year, but he is a monster at attacking the paint and is a credible perimeter threat. If Texas is healthy in March, then it will be a team no one will hope to draw in an early round in the tournament. I hope we can make it there. I think we have to win 9 more games to feel secure of our chances, and getting there is far from certain, but I hope we get there.

But I'm not. I'm the guy who started "So...who do you want for the new basketball coach?" threads two years before Barnes was fired and two years before Smart was fired. I posted in the first half of the Auburn game that I didn't see any offense to speak of and that I was of the opinion that Terry would be fired by the end of the year. Now I'm not so sure. This team is coming together. This win alone won't get it to the tournament, but it is a starting point. We have 10 more games left in the season that Pomeroy predicted to be wins or one possession losses. How about we just root for wins?

And you can't credit him for getting his team to come out strong and build that lead. You just can't credit him for anything. We won a road game against a team that is projected to make the tournament. We won a Q1 game. Instead of celebrating it, you want to crap on it. There is something seriously wrong with you.

Such a poorly coached team to hit a breakaway inbound pass for a layup and get a steal to clinch it on the road. F every one of you jokers who want Terry to lose.

🖕