The basketball season opened with a good win over a Top 10 team and a lot of hope and optimism.......and has gone straight down hill since.....we've gone from maybe making it to the Sweet 16 to probably not even making the tournament......boy, it was a fast basketball season!!! There just isn't much excitement for basketball now!!

Thank goodness we have football.

I'm going to say something here that is a bit controversial so please forgive my "frankness" (no pun intended). But I've never been sold on the way FH coaches the players he inherited. And I haven't been sold on how he subs those very talented players. We have a team that begs to run and gun with speed noone I see on the schedule can match. So if I were the coach, I'd put down the clipboard and press at every opportunity and fast break on every single rebound we get. But FH only does that on occasion because, like many coaches, he wants to be in control every step of the way. IMO that holds us back "at times" when we could put the game out of reach.

But there is a bigger problem. I think we have hired a mediocre coach who makes so much money he will be very hard to fire if the need arises. That is on our AD. In another thread I posted what he "evidently" makes per year and the salary of the coach who just beat him with less talent. We have an experience advantage, a talent advantage and a program advantage, yet a team beat us on our own floor that out worked and out performed us and an opposing coach that outcoached us.

Tulsa! We have a problem.

IMHO

I think you are right.......I have said for years Tulsa is not going to get the players to slug it out with Michigan St type teams, in a 54-50 game.....but Tulsa can get the players that can out run and wear down teams like that. Tulsa should be a fast break team that is shooting before the other team gets their defense set up 90% of the time......our best teams were always like that. It should be considered a bad game if Tulsa doesn't score at least 80 points. Again, even a bad team can beat you if you are only scoring 60 points, they have a good game....you have a bad one.....you get a bad lost.......bad teams don't score 80+ points.

Bingo!

You guys are plum dumb.

This senior laden team can't shoot it's way out of a wet paper bag. Haith has recruited shooters galore coming in after they graduate. I also fear these seniors are soft and don't have alot of heart.

Blaming Haith is ridiculous.

TU has never had a bad/average basketball coach.

John Phillips
JD Bartnett
Doug Wojcik

The effort isn't there from several of the players... Just like we've seen the previous two seasons. I'm not ready to throw frank under the bus until I see his recruits and how they fit with his system. If he gets his guys in and we still suck, I'll be right there with you, but if you watch closely, you'll see several of our guys that really look like they don't give an eff.

(12-08-2015 06:46 PM)goldenhurricane2 Wrote:  The effort isn't there from several of the players... Just like we've seen the previous two seasons. I'm not ready to throw frank under the bus until I see his recruits and how they fit with his system. If he gets his guys in and we still suck, I'll be right there with you, but if you watch closely, you'll see several of our guys that really look like they don't give an eff.

Maybe, just maybe there is a little truth in all our positions (napats, yours and mine). But I think "effort" CAN also be a coach thing as well as schemes and preparation. I of course can be wrong and certainly have many times, but I don't get the big bucks for winning. I just think that for the money we are spending, we could have gotten "perhaps" a little bit better product on the floor.

I gave up on TU basketball for a few years when DW was the coach and really didn't like anything about Barnett and was indifferent with Phillips who IMO had seen his best days pass before he became head coach. When DM was hired I came back. But in his two years FH has taken a battle tested team who went to the NCAA's as sophmores and went two and out in the NIT under him and now has been beaten in three straight ganes with a senior laden team. Are we getting any bang out of the bucks we pay this guy? IMO NO!

But believe me, I hope my opine is premature and things turn around. But we just got outcoached "bad" on our own floor by an oponent coach that doesn't make anything close to the salary ours does. Our bar should be higher than that.

IMHO

It's a little unfair to compare the ncaa run under manning in cusa to what's going on in the AAC. The conferences are night and day different. Our guys could have probably won cusa last year and this year and been in the dance... So that means we'd have wins against conference opponents like utsa and middle Tennessee as opposed to games against Uconn, Memphis, Cincinnati, smu and so on.

Sure we are paying Frank the big bucks and you are correct that sutton makes a small fraction of what Frank makes. However, would you want to trade places with them? I for one am happy to be in our new conference and gain national exposure and attention than be buried in the world of bottom feeder conferences over at 81st and Lewis.

At the end of the day we should have won the games against yooler and oru. There is absolutely no excuse for what we saw, but I'm very interested to see the talent Frank brings in over the next 2 years - hell maybe even ACTUAL basketball talent... Something we haven't seen here in quite some time (outside of one or two guys).

I can agree with almost everything you are saying. But I just haven't seen that much out of FH and his staff. I guess I'm looking for a Nolan, Tubby or Bill who didn't have a glitzy resume' to show TU when they were hired. Its imperative that TU have a good MBB program along with our quickly improving FB program now that we are in this tremendous conference. We have the MBB facilities, tradition/history, talent base. We are obviously doing some things right, but there is just no excuse to get beat on our own floor by a team 10 miles away with an athletic budget that is miniscule compared to ours and its been done now two years in a row. And we shouldn't be beat by these Oklahoma directional schools either - EVER!

And speaking of Nolan and Tubby who didn't get to play in the Reynolds Center which I consider a premier MBB/WBB facility and one envied by several schools in the AAC conference. That alone should mean something over having to play games in the Civic Center when we were winning the NIT, and going to the Sweet 16 under those other guys mentioned, who made a pittance compared to now. IMO there is talent on this team and its underperforming - thats at least partially the coaches fault. FH knew what he was getting and getting into. He didn't have to take the TU job, but its my guess he took it "because" of those players who lost AGAIN to ORU.

But thats my opine and thats all it is.

This team is a TERRIBLE shooting team. You think our coaches don't tell them to practice free throws? Yea, let's blame frank for the missed layups, open shots, and free throws missed. Notice the guys he's recruiting? Most if not all shoot high % from the floor and the foul line.

Now continue yelling at the wall.

(12-09-2015 02:17 PM)nepats288 Wrote:  This team is a TERRIBLE shooting team. You think our coaches don't tell them to practice free throws? Yea, let's blame frank for the missed layups, open shots, and free throws missed. Notice the guys he's recruiting? Most if not all shoot high % from the floor and the foul line.

Now continue yelling at the wall.

I agree we are not a great shooting team, but as a coach, you have to adjust your scheme to fit the players. We should be pressing the whole game and pushing the ball in transition at EVERY opportunity. In the half court, we stand around too long and rely on shaq too much to create his own shot. Haith also had two years to find a JUCO big man who had a low post game and didn't. I think this team still has an opportunity to be special, but Haith will have to make the proper adjustments.

On a side note, Taplin is going to be really good.

IMO changing the shot clock to 30 seconds has changed the game more than most good folks thought. It is doing what it was designed to do which is increase scoring and speeded up the game even more than before (with more overall posessions). That means we should have adapted by now with more full court ball pressure and a clear cut fast break philosophy from the rebound point of posession. We do that on occasion, but its just not a part of our designed game imo - possibly out of fear of getting us in foul trouble. But FH just seems to be a little too much of a control freak for my liking. WO a great 3 pt shooter, we are at a disadvantage unless we use our great guard play and ball handlers. We have the quickness and speed to play up tempo, but where are all those 90 pt games?

(12-12-2015 12:56 PM)T-Town Cane Wrote:  

(12-09-2015 02:17 PM)nepats288 Wrote:  This team is a TERRIBLE shooting team. You think our coaches don't tell them to practice free throws? Yea, let's blame frank for the missed layups, open shots, and free throws missed. Notice the guys he's recruiting? Most if not all shoot high % from the floor and the foul line.

Now continue yelling at the wall.

I agree we are not a great shooting team, but as a coach, you have to adjust your scheme to fit the players. We should be pressing the whole game and pushing the ball in transition at EVERY opportunity. In the half court, we stand around too long and rely on shaq too much to create his own shot. Haith also had two years to find a JUCO big man who had a low post game and didn't. I think this team still has an opportunity to be special, but Haith will have to make the proper adjustments.

On a side note, Taplin is going to be really good.

6'10" committed today

Please explain how Haith has had two years to find a Juco big man? I would love to hear your explanation...since Haith hasn't even been here for 2 years.

I'm waiting.

Still waiting.

Stop yelling at the wall.

Waiting.

(12-14-2015 10:45 AM)nepats288 Wrote:  Please explain how Haith has had two years to find a Juco big man? I would love to hear your explanation...since Haith hasn't even been here for 2 years.

I'm waiting.

Still waiting.

Stop yelling at the wall.

Waiting.

This is his second year as a head coach, he got announced as head coach April 17, 2014. He has had two recruiting classes. The first year he signed Littlejohn, Rusic and Dew. Rusic never even made it on campus and Littlejohn and Dew both transferred. In his second year, he signed Birt, Brown and Taplin. His second class was a lot better and I think all of those guys will contribute in some way, but we needed a big man and didn't get one.

(12-14-2015 10:45 AM)nepats288 Wrote:  Please explain how Haith has had two years to find a Juco big man? I would love to hear your explanation...since Haith hasn't even been here for 2 years.

I'm waiting.

Still waiting.

Stop yelling at the wall.

Waiting.

Try decaf

IMO finding good/great big men is always a huge problem for most schools outside the Big10/Pac10/ACC/SEC/BE because there is a physical component that is extremely rare - height and bulk. We can sign a kid who is 7-0, but doesn't have developed skills or is "rail thin" or physically weak. So any coach who coaches outside those above mentioned conferences may have to adapt their game to a different style than the traditional double post pick and roll etc. Our last really skilled big was probably J Jordan who was lightly recruited and developed almost exclusively at TU. But I actually like our bigs right now except for Big E who IMO will not be anything more than a roll player. DW and BS I think are decent players who on occasion can win games for us, but are still average in the league we play and of course are seniors and gone next year. So if we continue to play the style we are now, we will have problems down the line.

So given what I just said, is FH able to change to the talent he will have next year when our lack of experience also becomes a huge problem? That is the question. But my concern is that FH won't be able to "evolve" his style of play when this set of nice senior players are gone. I hope I'm wrong. TU will and always HAS recruited good guards and small forwards, but can FH change his style to take the pressure off the bigs. We are being schooled by teams that don't have great posts and that is alarming to me. If our posts can't dominate ORU's, and if we can't replace our posts with better ones next year, we will be in trouble when we lose JW, SH, RR etc. We don't seem to have the game that will transition.

But I hope I'm wrong of course.

IMHO

Frank's system needs good shooters, his recruits coming in all seem to be good shooters. This senior class isn't good shooters. It's not hard math.


Proceed to yell at wall.

If we press and fast break effectively you don't require "good shooters" since most baskets only require what our players CAN do - make layups. Thats what most of us are saying, not whther we have better shooters or not. We know shooting is a liability if its done from the perimeter with this group. Our stykle of play needs to fit the talent we have. Thats the point being made.