Pick and Pop!!!
Don’t forget about Marcus sasser a second year improvement.
I’d argue he has to be up there for the biggest second year jumps.
Sasser’s - Sophomore yr to Junior yr jump was crazy
Body type, i thought he was kinda similar his 1st 2 yrs. And then 2021-22 season, Game 1, it was like this guy is a pro. Ball handling, quickness all stood out
Shead, Sharp, Tugler 2nd yr jumps were huge.
Unfortunate that Mills, Mark, Arceneaux, 2nd yrs jump were all impacted by injury.
Thinking about what Nate Hinton’s leap from Sophomore to Junior year could’ve been
This is hilarious. I agree with you, Hinton would have been even more special if he continued at UH.
Kingston can take it to the rim also along with Milos
As far as legacy goes, Hinton probably made one of the worst decisions. Had he stayed all four years (5th if he used covid), he would have probably gone down as one of the GOATs of the program. There would have been debates about having his jersey hung almost immediately after he graduated. He wasn’t going to have the NBA career of a Olajuwon, but he would have been remembered in that same stratosphere for what he did for us on the college level.
He would have been considered a legend even if he didn’t improve at all from his sophomore year. If he just played like he did his sophomore year all four years or five years, he would have been a legend.
And it was almost a certainty that he was going to improve. He wasn’t going to stay the same. You can even look at his G League. A year or two after he left the program, he was putting up a 30-40 point game in the G League. He still had college eligibility when he was doing this in the G League.
Computer Polls starting to turn out. Kenpon and Evan Miya still not up yet, but www.parsedsports.com and www.barttorvik.com have us at preseason 1.
Parsed Sports has free bracketology up, with us losing in the second round to Indiana?
clearly an Indiana Fever dream wrote that
@pesik his sophomore yr, he shot (46 of 119), 38.7% from 3pt
My thoughts are:
1.Did he think being in college during Covid would hurt his development. Alot of quarantine & canceled games. That upcoming 2020-21 season alot of uncertainty.
2.The team he was returning to was stacked. So hes not option A next season. Its Mills & Grimes. Hes the 3rd option
3.Nate was born 6/8/1999. Meaning after his sophomore yr, he was already 21 yrs old. So he possibly felt staying an extra 1-2 yrs hurts his NBA chances
Nate didn’t get to have his NCAA tournament moment. But he still comes back to campus. Which i appreciate as a UH fan
Here some stats for yall:
*Last yr, Jojo Tugler committed 123 personal fouls.
That’s the most fouls committed by a UH player since the 1976-77 season.
Jojo: (3.075 fouls per game). Some players like Breaon Brady did have a higher avg. 3.2 fouls per game. Breaon 117 fouls his sr yr.
Jojo had 77 blocks last season. Most by a UH player since TaShawn Thomas in 2013-14 season
Fouls per minute would be interesting, Brady has to be that all time leader
Good point.
Jojo averaged 21.6 minutes per game last yr. 123 fouls.
Breaon averaged 13.9 minutes per game his senior yr. (117) personal fouls. Foul 
Brady would pick up 2 fouls in the first min of the game.
A hot take for me is Who was our biggest loss this offseason?
I don’t think it’s LJ, the All-American.
I don’t think it’s Jawan Roberts, the most winningest player in the program.
I think the biggest loss for this program next year is for this reason you stated above, which is Javier Francis. The drop-off from Jojo (as a soph) to Francis on a defensive level is not big, if any at all many people would think, if any at all. The difference from Jojo and Francis to most center defenders nationally is actually quite significant, actually immensely big .
And this was probably one of the most significant reasons of why we were such a good team. our post defense
If JoJo can only play 20 minutes a game, and none of our post players are to the level of JoJo, I think we could see a significant impact in our full game defense.
I know everybody thinks Khalifa is just going to be as good and looks the part, but I have such big worries about that because JoJo and Francis were extremely elite defenders before they ever stepped foot on campus.
Khalifa’s stats to me honestly aren’t that good from Sam Houston. Like, with the context of the level he was in, his defensive stats are not that impressive. McFarland is a mystery. He was a amazing shot blocker in high school, but he hasn’t played in two years, and we’ve already seen what Lath does, which is levels below Jojo and Francis.
Huh? My recollection is that Francis didn’t even start in high school and when he came to UH, he was still a work in progress.
He appeared a bit clumsy at first, but he seemed to develop better coordination each year he was in the UH program. Now yes, by his junior season at UH, he become a great rim protector and strong defender. If he continues to develop his offensive skills, he could have a long professional career.
Agree. He continued to get better even after losing his starting spot, and the guy was super-steady when he came into the game. He rarely got out of position on defense, never lost his man on the boards, and finally figure out how to put the ball in the basket at a high rate. And his FT shooting was huge - he was probably only behind the three starting guards in percentage.
He and Tugler were a true two-headed monster at the 5 - other teams never got a break unless the refs took them out of the game.
As a junior in Texas HS, he broke the record for most blocks in a single season in the state (Finalist for Guy V. Lewis Award)
he transfered to monte verde as a senior, where he got almost no minutes becuase MVE had 2 5star center including jalen duren
When I think of Francis at UH, I think of how he started and how he ended. Like night and day. You could tell he worked hard getting better and listened to the coaches. I was really happy for his success. I do think he will be hard to replace.