BillySee58

Draper just 2-14 on threes in the last four games. Really hope he can get back in a rythym. Good thing is he isn't taking many bad shots.

As of now, his pace would put him at 4th. He'd have to average 710 points a season to catch Ratliff at 3. He's at 656 on the year. But depending on how far we go, that could go up quite a bit with the finals being best 2 of 3.

Smart has now passed Chris Davis' 01-02 season to move into 3rd most points scored in a single season in North Texas history. Also, he's only 12 threes away from moving into top 10 in NT history for CAREER threes made.

So what we've learned through this tournament: - Duffy should have been playing instead of Lawson all year - Michael Miller had been shooting his jump shots with the wrong hand all year

Well, this is about the most film I could find on him. My thoughts: Anytime a player under 6' tall is ranked this high and has this many offers, it usually means a few specifications are all or mostly all met. 1. Shoots the ball well 2. Has good point guard skills 3. Is a good on-ball defender with quick hands 4. Is quick/hard to stay in front of. • Shoots the ball well - He absolutely has the form to be a plus shooter at the D1 level. Very good looking shot. Averaged 13.5 points/game as a freshman according to Maxpreps and appears to have since taken more of a pass-first PG role. • Point guard skills - Such a short video and harder to gather this than it is to analyze shooting form in a small sample. However, according to Maxpreps he averaged 5.5 assists per game this season. He also shows the ability and quickness to create his own shot and create shots for others. Seems pretty solid here. • On-ball defense - Again, short clip to analyze something that needs a bigger sample size, but according to Maxpreps as well he has averaged over 2 steals a game in his freshman through junior seasons. At his height you would prefer not to rely on him being able to guard more than one position, but he does appear to have the makings of a good defensive point guard. • Quickness - I think he checks this box as well. Not just quick, but explosive. He dunks the ball with ease, which for a guy under 6' gives you a pretty good idea on how dynamic an athlete he is. He kind of reminds me of a Dennis Smith Jr lite, plus about 4 inches shorter. Definitely has the skill set to take guys off the dribble. This is obviously a very impressive get for Mccasland. It kind of reminds me of the shift from Mccarney's offensive recruiting to Littrell's. Under Mccarney we saw him go after prototypical-sized linemen, receivers, and QBs but they often had little to no other offers, because they weren't actually good players. Under Littrell he has opted for the recruits who don't have prototypical size but are good football players. And we obviously see how that has worked. Mccasland looks to be doing something similar. Benford often recruited players of prototypical size who were either not very skilled, never made it in, or could not stay out of trouble. Mccasland is opting for the route of getting as much skill and the best players on the court as possible, even if he has to sacrifice size. I think that's a great idea at the CUSA level and I'm excited to see what else he and the staff have in store for the 2019 recruiting class.

What a day. Got a commit from a top 200 national high school junior and beat a 26-win team on the road in postseason play.

Side note, Smart has moved into 4th place on the single-season scoring list at North Texas

My brutally honest opinion, Lawson has been hindering this team offensively all season. We're seeing Mccasland trying out Duffy as the third guard, and he has already offered two JUCO players to compete/fill that spot next season. I think Lawson can still add value to this team, but it would be off the bench and with a much lower usage rate on offense.

Man, if only Duffy could've been healthy all year. His ability to shoot and take guys off the dribble is a really good compliment to Woolridge and Smart. Good thing we get him back next year!

Good stuff. I fully expect Mccasland to sign the best recruiting class we have had since the 2011 class. They have been working hard on this 2019 high school class since they got here. Would be huge if Mccullar was a part of it.

We have offered JUCOs Wendell Mitchell and Tremell Murphy recently. Mitchell is a 6'3"-6'4" combo guard who signed at Baylor when Mccasland was there and Murphy is a 2/3 at 6'6". Think they're trying to upgrade that third guard spot next to Woolridge and Smart. Not sure if they intend to part ways with anyone with eligibility remaining or if they are just going to sign one guy with Temara's spot and not put Draper on scholarship.

http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/jalen-jackson-tx https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2019/jalen-jackson-3516 https://247sports.com/Player/Jalen-Jackson-46051853

5'10" pg from Wagner High School in San Antonio. Also held offers from MTSU, UTSA, Tulsa, Sam Houston, and UTA. 3-star composite recruit, top 250 national recruit (234) according to 247 composite and ranked 163rd overall in the country and 10th in Texas according to 247 (not composite). Committed to us. https://247sports.com/Player/Jalen-Jackson-46051853 http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/jalen-jackson-tx https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2019/jalen-jackson-3516

Committed to Texas A&M

6'3" combo guard from Trinity Valley Community College. Originally signed with Baylor out of Rockdale (Texas) in 2015 when Mccasland was an assistant. Redshirted at Baylor, then played sparingly last year. This season as a redshirt sophomore he averaged 19.8/5.9/6.5, with shooting splits of 48.9%/36.5%/83.8% while making 1.8/4.9 threes per game. Ranked number one on the JUCO recruiting top 100, and holds offers from Georgetown, Cincinnati, Memphis, Oregon, and NC State among others. https://247sports.com/player/wendell-mitchell-57928

Interesting. Offer is pretty telling that Mccasland is looking into adding another wing who is better at shooting than Lawson to take that spot.

Exactly

Mercifully, this season ends. Watching this offense and free-throw shooting has been very difficult all year. Caught up with us down the stretch. Really hoping we can fix the offensive product over the offseason. Good news is we only lose Temara if everyone comes back. Bad news is we only lose Temara, if everyone comes back. This team really needs another perimeter scorer and a rim defender. Really would be ideal if someone who is a shooting and scoring threat can take Lawson's spot in the starting lineup. J Simmons, Tikhonenko, and Gibson should really help but I feel like we need a JUCO or grad transfer perimeter scorer and a JUCO or grad transfer rim protector, so we don't have to rely on those guys to turn this team around, as they will still only be underclassmen. Would have to make room for that, especially if Draper is put on scholarship.

Not sure how three-way tie breakers work or how the tie-breaker would work between us and FIU, since we split against each other. Hoping they both lose and we win, then we'd be tied with UAB and hold the head-to-head advantage over them.

Go finish the sweep of UTEP and root for WKU and ODU to knock off UAB and FIU

This is very refreshing to see. Also, we still have a shot at the 6 seed if we get some help on Saturday and win.

Good first half. One of the biggest areas of improvement that this team needs to have this offseason is inbounding. Especially Woolridge and Holston

That's my concern too. Way too many minus offensive players out there right now. And those guys aren't giving us nearly good enough defensive play to offset their offensive shortcomings. I like to think Gibson and Tikhonenko will give us big boosts, but they'll also be Redshirt Freshmen. This team needs a stud JUCO or grad transfer. I would look into Damiyne Durham if he decides to grad transfer, as he signed at Baylor when Mccasland was there and would give another perimeter scoring option on the wing that we don't have outside of Smart right now. If we could upgrade our post play by as much, then sure. But I'm fine going into next year with Tikhonenko, J Simmons, and Holston at the 4 and Z Simmons and Arikawe at the 5, if our perimeter play is better. Another? We don't have finesse big outside shooters unless you count Temara, who hasn't been much of a shooter, and is gone after this year anyways. It's pretty clear Mccasland wants a stretch 4 more than a traditional 4. Tikhonenko appears to be a legit stretch 4, and I think that can really help this offense out given how bad our offensive production has been at the 4 this year.