Bevo92

Agree. Contracts, buyout terms are the 'guardrail' for coaches.

The post by Bilas feels like it's something from 10 years ago before portal was launched in 2018, enabling ease of player transfers, etc. In today's college basketball, players are free agents and can evaluate coaches moves before they decide where they want to go play next. The post doesn't make any sense and why he chose to single out Texas' decision to fire Rodney Terry as his example, is illogical.

Jay Bilas typically has better takes than this. He comes across like an idiot. Might be one of the worst most bizarre takes I've heard in a while. Nothing about this makes sense. Both Texas and Xavier seasons are over. RT will be just fine with his $5m buyout. Portal opens on Tuesday. There was no question that CDC would be making a change afte Texas finished 14th out of 16 teams in the conference. Regarding Jay's rant against UT on the timing of the hire, Xavier was knocked out of tournament on Friday then news broke unofficially 2 days later on Sunday of Texas hiring Sean Miller. Many teams are hiring their new head coaches with similar timing. Most of those coaches are currently under contract thus a buyout is triggered. Am I missing something here? I might understand this rant if it were against NC State for interviewing/offering/hiring Will Wade while McNeese State was still playing in the NCAA Tournament. Wade did a good job of acknowledging the move and getting his team focused in first round for win. Maybe Jay doesn't want to slam another ACC school, given his personal allegiance. Btw, news broke this morning that Minnesota is hiring Colorado State head coach Niko Medved, barely 12 hours after Colorado State lost on last second shot to Maryland. No idea why he'd refer to this hire as 'tampering' or 'poaching'. Idiotic.

Love seeing the Horns play agressive full-court press on inbounds pass. WEAR THEM OUT!!! Hook Em Horns!! 🤘🏼🐂🧡

Awesome series win in conference against one of the best in country. hook em horns!! 🧡🐂🤘🏼

Great win. Clutch 5 runs in 7th and 8th. hook em! 🤘🏼🐂🧡

Thanks Jeff!

Dumb question. What website is best for seeing realtime scoring (hits, walks, errors, scores, pitches, etc)? Easy to view for mlb games on ESPN.

That hit was insane, scoooed 99mph fastball 8 inches off the ground for RBI!!! Wow!! hook em! 🤘🏼🐂🧡

Great inning for the Horns! hook em! 🧡🐂🤘🏼

Agree.

One additional question on the topic of TE usage anticipated in 2025. If Washington and Shannon both show strong progress through spring plus expectation for full offensive facelift as CJ put it this week on State of the Program, with more deep passing routes, more Arch running, etc will we likely see more 2-TE sets with both Washington and Shannon on the field together?

I trust what @Bobby Burton @Gerry Hamilton @CJ Vogel and @Jeff Howe see and hear when it comes to our Texas Longhorns far more than what the national media puts out there. Sharing the latest ESPN ‘Breakout Player’ predictions as something that will be interesting to file away and see as the season progresses. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/44315654/college-football-2025-breakout-players-top-25 It’s exciting to hear on OTF how strong Jordan Washington could potentially be at TE this season. More athletic and faster than Gunnar Helm with potential to be a favorite target of Arch’s. When hearing Spencer Shannon’s name mentioned, I recall hearing optimism as well but thought it was more as a blocking tight end (I may be mistaken or mis-remembering, 🤪). While reading this Top 25 list on ESPN (hope this preseason order holds with Ohio State 1 and Texas 2 in advance of big game on Aug 30), they predicted the ‘breakout player’ for each Top 25 team. Of all the Longhorn players ESPN chose from as most likely to ‘breakout’ in 2025 (Arch is too easy and Wingo probably doesn’t qualify given freshman performance, they could have gone with 10-12 different options from Jordan Washington, Jerrick Gibson, Jaime Ffrench, Parker Livingstone, James Simon, Trevor Goosby, Brandon Baker, Neto Umeozulu, Ty’Anthony Smith, Jelani McDonald, Warren Roberson, Kobe Black, Alex January plus the DL transfers like Hero Kanu). Instead, ESPN selected 6ft 7in Spencer Shannon as our most likely ‘Breakout Player’ this season and a favorite target of Arch Manning’s. Whether it’s Jordan Washington or Spencer Shannon that has a breakout year at TE this season, time will tell. Maybe they both have a breakout year. Either way, I’m beyond excited to see our young TEs play this coming season. Sounds like both guys have put in the work and taken big strides over the past year. It makes me really appreciate how Sark and Jeff Banks have completely turned the TE room around into a position of strength (and depth) on the 40 Acres. With Winston and Townsend just getting started this season, the TE position is well stocked for years ahead (barring transfers). Hook em! 🤘🏼🐂🧡

2 years in a row, they were pre-season #1 only to be exited early from the tournament . Kansas seems to have lost its way and their dominant mojo is gone. https://apple.news/AtHjyXV1bTE6J4MzHevijgg

After giving this more thought over past couple days, it seems clear the the answer is no, if solely looking at both schools history, fan support and living on the past success in Bobby Knight era. Looking forward at facilities, resources, likely NIL and other benefits from being at flagship in Texas, brand exposure, SEC trajectory, ability to recruit and retain best players, anticipated broader fan support once team starts winning (see women’s team), I’d argue Texas is likely to be a better coaching job over the next 20 yrs. Hook em! 🧡🤘🏼🐂

Crazy how quickly these professional sports valuations have ballooned over past 10 yrs. Great article on ESPN about the Celtics sale. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44328557/sources-bill-chisholm-agrees-buy-celtics-61-billion

These continued stories reflect the exact opposite culture and team discipline that Sark emphasizes. Not saying all our players are boyscouts or don't make mistakes in poor judgement at times, but the issues at Georgia go beyond simple 'poor judgement'. It's reckless and out of control. Feels a lot like what Urban Meyer had at Florida in the late 2000s. Proud to be a Longhorn. Keep doing it the right way Coach Sark!! Hook em!! 🐂🤘🏼🧡

CDC is gonna make the Texas MBB job a premier place to coach with combination of total comp for coaching staff, facilities, additional resources, NIL commitment, creative in growing fan support.

Schools are locking in with their new head coaches before portal opens on Monday. Will Wade to NC State. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/44318784/sources-mcneese-wade-take-nc-state-job-ncaas

Agree that Indiana fans care a whole lot more about basketball than Texas and also agree with @Hashtag that Indiana Basketball = Nebraska Football. They've both been in a very long drought. All that said, if Texas makes the investment in our basketball program with elite coaching staff and top 10 level NIL investment to secure quality players, Longhorn Fans would get behind the team and we'd see a significant surge in fan support. Looking forward to seeing how the next few weeks unfold. Scenario 1: Texas goes on a run and gets to Sweet 16. Unlikely but we haven't seen the team at full health with Mark at PG for many games so will be interesting to see if this could happen. Scenario 2: More likely, we lose tonight or against Illinois and RT moves on to USF or other similar program after CDC declares it's time to step up and make a big upgrade at HC. In either scenario, there's reason to be enjoy the moment. Hook em! 🧡 🐂 🤘🏼

While listening to Bobby, Gerry and CJ this morning on Coffee and Football, the discussion of Sark's NIL approach came up. Sark doesn't lead with NIL, like Oregon, USC and others. He leads with culture, the city, the university and wanting players who really want to be longhorns. The comment was made by Bobby or Gerry that it's easier to go with Sark's strategy of talking money later in the recruiting process when the Horns are playing elite football and making it to the CFP Semi-Finals in back to back years. Thinking back to 2022 when Arch committed to Sark and the Horns in late June of 2022 after our 5-7 season is even more impressive in retrospect. Then with Arch having many options to leave for significant money after Quinn decided to stay another year, Arch stayed true to his commitment. He wants to be a Longhorn. Arch had total confidence in Sark and the Horns back in 2022 that they were on the right trajectory before there was any proof to back up Arch's confidence. When teams like Georgia and Alabama looked like much safer (and maybe even smarter) choices 3 years ago, Arch shows that he really wants to be a longhorn and play for Sark. Can't wait to see his passion for the longhorns pay off in 2025. Hook em! 🧡 🐂 🤘🏼

Seems like a crazy question on the surface and probably is a bit crazy even as I type this but it seems worth asking, given the past 20 years of results plus recent winds that seem to be blowing in Texas favor. Prior to Texas joining SEC, the horns' new facilities and Indiana's continued decline the past 10 years, this wouldn't seem to even be a question worth asking. For the longterm history of both programs, it's no question Indiana has been basketball royalty and has one of the Top 10 most impressive basketball legacies with 5 NCAA Championships, the most recent being back in 1987 (third national title under Coach Bobbie Knight). But that was Indiana's last NCAA championship, nearly four decades ago. I bring up the question because it seemed a bit underwhelming to see Indiana hire Darian DeVries as their next head coach. Seems like a bit of a letdown hire compared to the idea of hiring Scott Drew away from Baylor when comparing both pedigrees or other potential candidates who were rumored for the job. In his 6 years at Drake, DeVries did nothing overly impressive, making the NCAA Tournament 3 out of his last 4 years only to lose each time in the first weekend then missing the tournament in year 1 at WVU with a pretty average team. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2025/03/18/darian-devries-indiana-basketball-west-virginia/82527944007/# When it comes to the Indiana Hoosiers, I became a big fan of Bobby Knight and Indiana basketball in 1987 after reading Feinstein's "Season on the Brink" my freshman year in college......Steve Alford, Darryl Thomas, Brian Sloan, Keith Smart, etc. Back then, it was awesome to watch Big 10 basketball overall. When players stayed for 3-4 years with the same team, the teams and the star players were so freaking dominant......Michigan, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan State, etc.... Rumeal Robinson, Steve Smith, Calbert Cheaney, Kendall Gill, Steve Scheffler, Glenn Robinson, Keith Smart, Gary Grant, Chris Webber, Glen Rice, the list goes on. Now, fast forward to the past decade. Hard to believe that Indiana has MISSED the NCAA Tournament in 7 of the past 9 Years and they haven't made it past the Sweet 16 in nearly a quarter century since 2001/2002 season when they went to the NCAA Finals and lost. By comparison, Texas has made it the NCAA Tournament each year over the past 5 years. In the past 2+ decades, the Horns have have made it six times to the Sweet 16, four times to the Great 8 and one final 4 appearance (since 2001). The Horns certainly aren't an elite basketball destination (yet) but neither is Indiana. All of this leads to the original question... Is Texas a better men's basketball coaching job than Indiana in 2025? Has Texas decided it's ready to pay for a big-time coach? DeVries was making $3M per year at WVU, similar to what Rodney Terry currently makes. Under his new contract, Indiana has committed to pay DeVries $5M per year for the next 6 years ($30M commitment). That's a big pay bump for sure but it's not money that will hire an elite coach in 2025. Not only is Indiana stepping up in its annual commitment but it's also paying approx. $5m in buyout to WVU. Will the Horns and Rodney Terry go on a run in the NCAA Tournament against Xavier, Illinois and potentially Kentucky for a sweet 16 spot? Would love to see it happen but hard to imagine a 3-game run against that level of competition given what's happened all season long. Will RT get another year or is it time for a change in HC? We'll know in the next week as Gerry and Bobby have stated. If RT is let go, the pool of available 'elite' candidates seems light this year. Indiana just hired a coach with minimal proven NCAA Tourney success. Florida State went to the NBA assistant pool in Luke Loucks. Miami went to the NCAA assistant pool in Jai Lucas (congrats to another former Longhorn). Curious what others think. Is Texas a better job than Indiana? Will the Horns step up and pay more than $5m per year? That would seem to be an obvious 'yes'. That's how much they paid to Chris Beard annually so they clearly are willing to pay north of $5m for the right coach. Will CDC look for a coach with significant track record as a HC in college or will he look for a coach with lots of future upside? Maybe an assistant from the NBA like Royal Ivey. Does Jay Wright come out of retirement for enough money? Seems unlikely. Grant McCasland plays an exciting brand of basketball at Texas Tech. Wouldn't that be funny to see it happen again? Hook em!

Makes sense that NC's performance throughout the season may not have justified making the tournament but they looked really good in their play-in game last night. Will be interesting to see how North Carolina does going forward in the tournament. Maybe all the hate from commentators earlier this week, saying they didn't deserve to make it in, serves as a motivator for the Tar Heels. Curious @Gerry Hamilton, do you have an opinion whose job is more on the line over the next two weeks between Hubert Davis and Rodney Terry? Both seemed to be hanging on by a thread. Do both head coaches save their jobs with 2 wins (play-in game and round of 64)? Assuming both coaches are completely safe if they make it to Sweet 16. Thoughts?

Makes sense re: NC. Even though our horns also barely snuck in, I’m hoping we are energized with full healthy roster and Mark now playing at point.

Glad Texas isn’t getting the hate but seems odd why so much negative hate solely on North Carolina for not deserving NCAA bid when Xavier looks similar as another team that barely snuck in, along with our longhorns. Xavier and NC both only won 1 quad 1 game and North Carolina Net ranking is 10 spots higher than Xavier. Other stats in favor of NC over Xavier. It does seem like WVI got screwed but you could argue Xavier is less deserving than NC. What am I missing? https://bballnet.com/teams/xavier https://bballnet.com/teams/north-carolina