Texas Tip-Off Thread

[Aaron Carrara]

Previewing the men's and women's hoops team at Gregory tonight.  Decent crowd, good music and a bunch of student-athletes that look like they are ready to start the season.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

View attachment CCC1E47A-6D28-4347-8E47-87174E7FBF76.MOV

 

[Aaron Carrara]

The Women’s team is scrimmaging right now....  and the threes are raining.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

Danni Williams is looking good for Karen Aston's squad. Fluid and can shoot.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

After the Women's scrimmage - couple of quick stats:

White defeated Orange, 29-27.

Grad transfer Danni Williams is as advertised.  She went 3-5 from beyond the arc and 3-6 from the field.

Senior guard LaShann Higgs finished with 5 points.

Chasity Patterson led everyone in scoring with 14 points.  #Lit

Karen Aston's group looks like they could be a tough opponent this season.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

Dunk Contest featured Jaxson Hayes, Royce Hamm and Kerwin Roach.

Winner: Royce Hamm

 

[Aaron Carrara]

Texas men about to get things going here tonight.  

Dylan Osetkowsy has a fresh cut - really short and no more corn rows.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

Kerwin Roach looks healthy with no signs of any lingering issues related to his surgery in August.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

And PSA: Freshman Jaxson Hayes can jump.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[Aaron Carrara]

 

[longhorn_mig]

@Aaron Carrara I thought that was you at the media tables.

Some thoughts from the tip-off:

(1) Is there any chance we can have the women's team give some shooting lessons to men's team? Seriously, there are some legit shooters on the women's team. Aaron is not joking. They were raining down threes.

(2) There is clear improvement in Matt Coleman's game, especially with his shooting. Also, Kerwin looks great following his knee surgery. These 2 guys will drive this team and they are clearly our best players. We will go as far as they can take us.

(3) This team is big. Seeing Dylan, Jaxson, Jericho, and Kamaka standing next to each other during free throws made this clear. But they're also really agile for their size. Jaxson is a ridiculous athlete and has the potential to be special with some coaching and experience. Jericho made a great spin move on the baseline that led to any easy dunk. Hoping to see that move a lot this season. I was pleasantly surprised to see how developed Kamaka was and think he can be a legitimate contributor this season.

(4) Now for some real talk. Although the spacing on the court was clearly improved, there were still some shot making deficiencies. I was looking forward to seeing an improved Febres jump shot, and unfortunately, it did not look good. Hopefully it was an off night for many of these guys, especially Febres, but it does raise some concern for the upcoming season.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

@longhorn_mig Good sneak preview of Texas last night at Gregory. Shaka is excited about this season and he should be - best roster he has had in his time on the 40.  Agreed that Snoop looked great - especially for coming off knee surgery 2 months ago. Found out after the scrimmage that he is still being limited in practice, but he feels his knee is close to 100%.

On Coleman - Shaka was very public with Coleman last season as far as his expectations.  That hasn't changed this year, but Coleman is definitely more confident and mature as a player and person.  One thing he mentioned is that his attitude has changed. Said his personality has changed a bit - players and coach said he is "too nice." Coleman said they tell him he needs to "say it" with "more salt than sugar."

Last night was a small sample of the team, but fans should be encouraged by the speed and size of the team.  They should stretch the court this year.....

Of note, last night Snoop talked about his dabble in potentially leaving early for the NBA Draft and said the draft analysts gave it to him "cold blooded." Said the biggest thing they told him to work on was his shooting and bing consistent.  He also mentioned the NCAA's and said the goal is to enter the tourney as a 3 or 4 seed.

 

[longhorn_mig]

Also, Danni Williams (grad transfer from aggy), you the real MVP:

“I feel like people at A&M, they just hate Texas so much,” Williams said. “But Texas people, I haven’t heard people talk about A&M. I feel like they’ve kind of moved on, and A&M is still a little… mad, I guess you could say.”

https://www.burntorangenation.com/2018/10/18/17993320/danni-williams-texas-am-aggies-texas-longhorns-rivalry

 

[longhorn_mig]

On Coleman - Shaka was very public with Coleman last season as far as his expectations.  That hasn't changed this year, but Coleman is definitely more confident and mature as a player and person.  One thing he mentioned is that his attitude has changed. Said his personality has changed a bit - players and coach said he is "too nice." Coleman said they tell him he needs to "say it" with "more salt than sugar."

This would definitely fall in line with what we saw. It seemed like he was carrying himself as more of an alpha dog and a leader last night. Also, Ramey not scoring last night was all about Coleman. He played great defense and shut the freshman down.