utisdabomb12
V.I.P.
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2013
- Messages
- 8,338
I was talking with a good friend before the tournament started, but this was some type of ride for Shaka in year one.
Lost his leading scorer and rebounder in late December, his starting PG was dealing with plantar fasciitis since about January, Holland was mentally checked out the first half of the season dealing with stuff back home, Yancy's concussion, the China trip, the Bahamas trip, new system and so on. All of that in the middle of arguably the toughest schedule in the country. I have no doubt this had to be Shaka's most stressful coaching job so far.
Honestly, I thought we were headed to the NIT once Ridley went down. Will I call this season a success, probably not based on Texas standards. But, we were only going to go so far with the limitations outlined above. Call it an excuse, whatever, it's just the reality.
As for next year I have a few thoughts.
1) It would not surprise me if Yancy transfers. The 3 FR (Roach, Davis, Mack) were all getting more run this year.
2) Cleare is a decent player, but not a starting caliber big. Way too slow in this era of basketball. Stretch bigs just abuse him. When other teams see Cleare they immediately go to the pick and roll game.
3) Which brings me to my next point. We need to find a PFish mold via transfer that can play some 4/5. Someone similar to Mo Allie Cox for VCU. This is something we were desperately lacking this year and what makes Shaka's system go.
4) I would love for Taylor to return but Texas will be perfectly fine with Andrew Jones and Roach manning the point next year. Of course having Taylor return would be huge as this would allow someone like Roach/Jones to play off the ball.
5) Eric Davis is this real deal. He hit a FR slump late in the year, but he's a shooter and we need shooters.
6) We need to sign Jarrett Allen. Even with Allen we need to go get another PFish/C mold via transfer.
7) If we are looking at other transfers, a slashing wing would be ideal.
8) I expect us to go much smaller next year. A lot of 4 guard lineups similar to what OU ran at times this year.
9) There will be a talent upgrade with Davis, Jones, Roach, and Mack stealing minutes from Holland/Felix.
10) This team can be very good with a PF that can pick, pop and roll. The problem this year was Ibeh setting a lot of screens in the pick and roll game allowed teams to sag off. Getting a PF is critical.
11) Ibeh/Cleare just didn't give us enough offensively to justify playing big IMO. Ibeh was obviously an asset defensively at times.....but when you are only getting 8 points in a game from your bigs when you are actually a pretty big team, that's a problem. That was kind of the issue this year with the roster. The roster was too overloaded with bigs that can't score (Ibeh/Cleare). Texas was better suited to go small like it did tonight where it played Lammert at the 5. While not ideal, it can work really well if you get a legit mold like Mo Allie Cox.
12) Texas is fixing to have shooters/scorers on campus. Holland and Yancy just don't have enough juice on the offensive end unfortunately
Lost his leading scorer and rebounder in late December, his starting PG was dealing with plantar fasciitis since about January, Holland was mentally checked out the first half of the season dealing with stuff back home, Yancy's concussion, the China trip, the Bahamas trip, new system and so on. All of that in the middle of arguably the toughest schedule in the country. I have no doubt this had to be Shaka's most stressful coaching job so far.
Honestly, I thought we were headed to the NIT once Ridley went down. Will I call this season a success, probably not based on Texas standards. But, we were only going to go so far with the limitations outlined above. Call it an excuse, whatever, it's just the reality.
As for next year I have a few thoughts.
1) It would not surprise me if Yancy transfers. The 3 FR (Roach, Davis, Mack) were all getting more run this year.
2) Cleare is a decent player, but not a starting caliber big. Way too slow in this era of basketball. Stretch bigs just abuse him. When other teams see Cleare they immediately go to the pick and roll game.
3) Which brings me to my next point. We need to find a PFish mold via transfer that can play some 4/5. Someone similar to Mo Allie Cox for VCU. This is something we were desperately lacking this year and what makes Shaka's system go.
4) I would love for Taylor to return but Texas will be perfectly fine with Andrew Jones and Roach manning the point next year. Of course having Taylor return would be huge as this would allow someone like Roach/Jones to play off the ball.
5) Eric Davis is this real deal. He hit a FR slump late in the year, but he's a shooter and we need shooters.
6) We need to sign Jarrett Allen. Even with Allen we need to go get another PFish/C mold via transfer.
7) If we are looking at other transfers, a slashing wing would be ideal.
8) I expect us to go much smaller next year. A lot of 4 guard lineups similar to what OU ran at times this year.
9) There will be a talent upgrade with Davis, Jones, Roach, and Mack stealing minutes from Holland/Felix.
10) This team can be very good with a PF that can pick, pop and roll. The problem this year was Ibeh setting a lot of screens in the pick and roll game allowed teams to sag off. Getting a PF is critical.
11) Ibeh/Cleare just didn't give us enough offensively to justify playing big IMO. Ibeh was obviously an asset defensively at times.....but when you are only getting 8 points in a game from your bigs when you are actually a pretty big team, that's a problem. That was kind of the issue this year with the roster. The roster was too overloaded with bigs that can't score (Ibeh/Cleare). Texas was better suited to go small like it did tonight where it played Lammert at the 5. While not ideal, it can work really well if you get a legit mold like Mo Allie Cox.
12) Texas is fixing to have shooters/scorers on campus. Holland and Yancy just don't have enough juice on the offensive end unfortunately
Last edited by a moderator:
