UTSA (12/22/2022)

[Andrew]

44 minutes ago, BigWillie said:

Eady, so far, has been the biggest bust.

At least he and Khai are seniors, but I would say Ruben has been a letdown so far. He and Scott need to get to work on the offensive end, but cannot complain too much when we are winning…

[NT80]

24 minutes ago, BigWillie said:

I do agree with this, but..... we are 10-2 and we have seen Grant's system work time and time again. If it ain't broke...

It will bite us when we play another defensive team like UNC-Wilmington.  Or when nobody on our team is having a great shooting day and we limit ourselves to fewer shots.

[CMJ]

You can get pretty far just playing lockdown defense with limited offensive production.  I feel like that's how Lon Chaney's Temple squads usually played and he made four Elite Eights.

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, BigWillie said:

I do agree with this, but..... we are 10-2 and we have seen Grant's system work time and time again. If it ain't broke...

Eh, that saying is very flawed. What if something is breaking? Do we wait until it has fully broken to address fixing it? What if just a part of something is broken but it doesn’t prevent the whole system from working?

Our offense is probably the thing holding us back from being a legit top 25 team. Doesn’t mean we need to fire Mccasland or change everything up, but maybe consider a little bit of tinkering instead of ignoring players coming here and becoming much less effective offensively just because we are winning.

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

At least he and Khai are seniors, but I would say Ruben has been a letdown so far. He and Scott need to get to work on the offensive end, but cannot complain too much when we are winning…

Kai and Rubin. I believe Kai still has another year of eligibility. He is listed as a senior, just like Perry who has another year. The guys listed as “5th” or “6th” are the guys in their last year of eligibility due to currently utilizing their extra year of eligibility due to COVID.

[aztecskin]

It is not just a system thing, but a familiarity thing. NT incorporated Hamlet easily, but it took him a second to adjust. NT incorporated Perry easily, but it took him a few games to adjust. NT is bringing in Eady, Martinez, and Huntsberry while also trying to heal up Rubin Jones and Perry. 

I think all of this is normal and fine. I don't expect NT to be clicking the way they were last year, and we have seen that. I had hoped we'd push it a little more, but they are sticking to the tried-and-true and waiting on guys to get in rhythm and knock down shots. I don't hate it and I am not panicking. 

[greenminer]

22 minutes ago, aztecskin said:

I don't hate it and I am not panicking. 

Are you optimistic it will happen?

We saw it with Hamlet and Perry.  Any reason to think it is not going to happen with our current guys?

[Andrew]

29 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

Kai and Rubin. I believe Kai still has another year of eligibility. He is listed as a senior, just like Perry who has another year. The guys listed as “5th” or “6th” are the guys in their last year of eligibility due to currently utilizing their extra year of eligibility due to COVID.

Well that’s not confusing at all 🤣

 

I really thought they had to re classify already. College sports is all sorts of messy lately with the NIL, players getting extra years, and conference jumping. Confusing 😕 

 

And Eady? I wouldn’t mind having engine back but some new younger blood wouldn’t hurt either. Just don’t wana lose Ruben, Abou, and Scott. 

[GrandGreen]

15 hours ago, NT80 said:

Those were ESPN-hired announcers.  They weren't using the video displayed time or score as it didn't even display until about 5 min into the game.  Courtside announcers use the official scoreboard and clock.  I was watching the ESPN website online score/time along with the ESPN+ video and it was very accurate with the live game.

The point I was trying to make is that the announcers did a good job of covering up the many UTSA presentation flaws.  Obviously they had access to the right stats or they couldn't have corrected the numbers presented. 

[greenminer]

2 hours ago, BigWillie said:

I do agree with this, but..... we are 10-2 and we have seen Grant's system work time and time again. If it ain't broke...

Or, we iron out these wrinkles, and we go from squeaking out CUSA 'ships, to T25 and competing for a S16 appearance.

[BillySee58]

40 minutes ago, aztecskin said:

It is not just a system thing, but a familiarity thing. NT incorporated Hamlet easily, but it took him a second to adjust. NT incorporated Perry easily, but it took him a few games to adjust. NT is bringing in Eady, Martinez, and Huntsberry while also trying to heal up Rubin Jones and Perry. 

I think all of this is normal and fine. I don't expect NT to be clicking the way they were last year, and we have seen that. I had hoped we'd push it a little more, but they are sticking to the tried-and-true and waiting on guys to get in rhythm and knock down shots. I don't hate it and I am not panicking. 

Seems to me like we are clicking the same way we were last year. Grinding teams down defensively, not being pretty offensively. I know you’re referring more to team chemistry but it feels like we are where we were last year at this point (maybe a little ahead), but the biggest difference to me is that we have more capable players who seem to be playing below their proven offensive capabilities.

Last year’s team it felt like we had as good a season as we possibly could have had with that group (save for the CUSA tourney). This year it feels like we have some space between where we are at and our ceiling. So I don’t think it is so much panic as it is seeing how scary we can be if guys like Huntsberry, Eady, and Rubin just start hitting at the same clips they had been at historically.

Edited December 23, 2022 by BillySee58

[BigWillie]

12 minutes ago, greenminer said:

Or, we iron out these wrinkles, and we go from squeaking out CUSA 'ships, to T25 and competing for a S16 appearance.

 

58 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

Eh, that saying is very flawed. What if something is breaking? Do we wait until it has fully broken to address fixing it? What if just a part of something is broken but it doesn’t prevent the whole system from working?

Our offense is probably the thing holding us back from being a legit top 25 team. Doesn’t mean we need to fire Mccasland or change everything up, but maybe consider a little bit of tinkering instead of ignoring players coming here and becoming much less effective offensively just because we are winning.

Fair points, I am all for tweaking the offense some to become an even better team. I just don't want that to be at the detriment of our defense or overall system.

Edited December 23, 2022 by BigWillie

[BillySee58]

4 minutes ago, BigWillie said:

 

Fair points, I am all for tweaking the offense some to become an even better team. I just don't want that to be at the detriment of our defense or overall system.

Agreed

[aztecskin]

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

Are you optimistic it will happen?

We saw it with Hamlet and Perry.  Any reason to think it is not going to happen with our current guys?

 

1 hour ago, BillySee58 said:

Seems to me like we are clicking the same way we were last year. Grinding teams down defensively, not being pretty offensively. I know you’re referring more to team chemistry but it feels like we are where we were last year at this point (maybe a little ahead), but the biggest difference to me is that we have more capable players who seem to be playing below their proven offensive capabilities.

Last year’s team it felt like we had as good a season as we possibly could have had with that group (save for the CUSA tourney). This year it feels like we have some space between where we are at and our ceiling. So I don’t think it is so much panic as it is seeing how scary we can be if guys like Huntsberry, Eady, and Rubin just start hitting at the same clips they had been at historically.

yeah I know that Grant said he wanted to push the pace more, and they haven't really. I imagine that is because of something they are seeing in practice/games where they want to get that right before doing other things. I suspect that not gelling early (because of injuries) means they are relying on the tried-and-true. I don't know that they will run n gun, though, because they deliberately chose to value each possession as a program tenet and that is kind of the DNA.

I feel the new guys have to get used to where their shots are coming from and will come from and they will drop for them. When you adapt to a new system, you can be over thinking sometimes. "I'm supposed to screen, then pop, then pass the ball here, and then cut" and you don't get into the rhythm of when your shot will come and play with comfort. I think that's what we are seeing here. 

I agree we have more offensive talent and I touched on the journey of roster construction in the hoops preview here. 

[golfingomez]

16 hours ago, CMJ said:

It's really not that great - the pictures give it too much credit (they do have a nice paint job though).  It is better since 2014, I remember when I saw it for the first time a few years before that when I was dating a girl in grad school at CSUN I couldn't believe that was an arena for a D1 school.  

 

It's still pretty subpar.

This was a really long way for you to set up a story about you dating a grad student at CSUN

[CMJ]

31 minutes ago, golfingomez said:

This was a really long way for you to set up a story about you dating a grad student at CSUN

LOL, I mean why else would I visit their basketball arena?

[Censored by Laurie]

4 hours ago, Andrew said:

At least he and Khai are seniors, but I would say Ruben has been a letdown so far. He and Scott need to get to work on the offensive end, but cannot complain too much when we are winning…

ok. now you're just trying to misspell our player's names. 

as always, you're still providing terrible sports points...so at least there's some consistency

[2020 Sucks]

7 hours ago, Andrew said:

At least he and Khai are seniors, but I would say Ruben has been a letdown so far. He and Scott need to get to work on the offensive end, but cannot complain too much when we are winning…

Have you ever torn an acl and fast tracked the rehab to try and compete at the pace that Grant runs defensively?  Didn’t think so!  Rubin was always going to be a slow takeoff!  And I’m not sure what games you watch, but we probably have 7 wins instead of 10 without Scott’s production.  When will you realize that we are never gonna have 4 guys in double figures on this team?

Do you just hate to see your team win or what?

[NT80]

6 hours ago, BillySee58 said:

Our offense is probably the thing holding us back from being a legit top 25 team. Doesn’t mean we need to fire Mccasland or change everything up, but maybe consider a little bit of tinkering instead of ignoring players coming here and becoming much less effective offensively just because we are winning.

It does looks like our free throw shooting has improved.  I don't know if they were coached to practice them more, or guys are just more comfortable shooting them now?

[Andrew]

26 minutes ago, 2020 Sucks said:

Have you ever torn an acl and fast tracked the rehab to try and compete at the pace that Grant runs defensively?  Didn’t think so!  Rubin was always going to be a slow takeoff!  And I’m not sure what games you watch, but we probably have 7 wins instead of 10 without Scott’s production.  When will you realize that we are never gonna have 4 guys in double figures on this team?

Do you just hate to see your team win or what?

We will always need a 3rd and 4th option. We can’t expect Perry and Abou to carry us every game. Scott is producing better than he was last year, but the hopes of many was he would fill Bell’s shoes and this dar he hasn’t on the offensive end. Other aspects of the game he is defiantly a contributor and would say he is a top defender on the team. Jones numbers are down. Obviously coming off am injury is going to take time, but missing open shots is still frustrating and Jones offensively is struggling. That’s just a fact. Nothing I said was anti North Texas basketball. I was just stating what I have seen and most would agree. Scott and Jones should be able to produce more offensively. As they year goes on I am assuming they will. 

[BigWillie]

56 minutes ago, Andrew said:

We will always need a 3rd and 4th option. We can’t expect Perry and Abou to carry us every game. Scott is producing better than he was last year, but the hopes of many was he would fill Bell’s shoes and this dar he hasn’t on the offensive end. Other aspects of the game he is defiantly a contributor and would say he is a top defender on the team. Jones numbers are down. Obviously coming off am injury is going to take time, but missing open shots is still frustrating and Jones offensively is struggling. That’s just a fact. Nothing I said was anti North Texas basketball. I was just stating what I have seen and most would agree. Scott and Jones should be able to produce more offensively. As they year goes on I am assuming they will. 

Honestly, I would be fine if Scott was not a huge contributor of offense. He does so many other things that don't show up on the stat sheet, that's why he gets so much playing time and you need those type of guys.

With that said, yes, you do need at least 3 offensive weapons. Right now that is TP, Abou, and Kai, however Kai is just starting to play better offensively. 

If we get one more, Eady, Stone, etc. We will be very dangerous.

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

It does looks like our free throw shooting has improved.  I don't know if they were coached to practice them more, or guys are just more comfortable shooting them now?

It’s all about who goes to the line. When it’s Perry and Huntsberry getting to the stripe, we’re going to have a good percentage. When it’s Martinez, Scott, and Abou, it won’t be as pretty. That being said, Abou has taken a good step forward there lately. His form is decent. Just seems like he’s more in rhythm. In the past he has gone up too fast. Now it looks more smooth and in sync between his top half and bottom half of his body.

[Andrew]

16 minutes ago, BigWillie said:

Honestly, I would be fine if Scott was not a huge contributor of offense. He does so many other things that don't show up on the stat sheet, that's why he gets so much playing time and you need those type of guys.

With that said, yes, you do need at least 3 offensive weapons. Right now that is TP, Abou, and Kai, however Kai is just starting to play better offensively. 

If we get one more, Eady, Stone, etc. We will be very dangerous.

Stone is really getting going. He was making hustle plays but the last few games he is finally getting his shot to drop. I am just thinking for betterment of Jones and Scott’s futures they will want to improve offensively. Even if they are simply wanting to play overseas. It’s best to be well a rounded player. 

[NT80]

52 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

It’s all about who goes to the line. When it’s Perry and Huntsberry getting to the stripe, we’re going to have a good percentage. When it’s Martinez, Scott, and Abou, it won’t be as pretty. That being said, Abou has taken a good step forward there lately. His form is decent. Just seems like he’s more in rhythm. In the past he has gone up too fast. Now it looks more smooth and in sync between his top half and bottom half of his body.

Yes, that's mainly who I noticed.  He is taking his time and his free throw shots are more smooth and consistent.  I feel like our team shooting percentage has gone up at the line as the season has progressed, but I haven't done the stats.  Maybe that's because everyone is healthier now unlike early in the season?

[GrandGreen]

22 hours ago, NT80 said:

It will bite us when we play another defensive team like UNC-Wilmington.  Or when nobody on our team is having a great shooting day and we limit ourselves to fewer shots.

Strongly disagree with the point.

A team that plays defense first and second is a lot less likely to get beat on bad-shooting nights not the opposite.