Man, UH has a damn good team. From my understanding, yall beat us even worse last year in a closed door scrimmage.
I understand completely why Beard is so adamant on playing UH/Sampson in an exhibition or noncon game every season. He wants to be exposed in every way imaginable so he can figure out a way to stop it from happening again.
I can’t imagine what a fully health Caleb Mills would add to the mix.
My biggest takeaway wasn’t how easy it was for UH to slice up our vaunted no-middle defense… it was Beard’s reluctance to play any of our big guys in the second half. And I don’t think that was really a choice he was making… it was something that UH was dictating on us.
I’m no expert, but something that UH was doing made Beard scrap basically a third of our roster. Including many guys that we are expected to rely on to be a factor in the Big 12.
I’ve never seen such a big discrepancy on catch-and-shoot jump shots the last 2 seasons under Beard. Tech normally gets a ton of open ones, and allows very few. Per Synergy, UH attemped 17 open CnS jumpers; Tech attempted 6. Meanwhile, Tech attempted 8 “contested” CnS jumpers; UH attempted just 1 (Grimes made it, by the way).
You guys would have scored a lot more points if Sampson didn’t make the wise decision to start clocking possessions the last 10 minutes or so. If that was a tight game, whatever yall were doing the first 30 minutes in all likelihood would have kept working.
Hopefully, for Tech’s sake, UH is as good as they looked on Sunday (even better really, with Mills 100%). And Tech is able to figure out something to do differently if we ever see you guys again.
Welcome to the board Hunter! Intelligent and logical discourse are always welcome…so based on that, you’re quite a bit further ahead than most of our posters (lol)!
Good points to consider coming from the viewpoint of the other side. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in all things Coogs…it’s refreshing to get a solid and respectful take from opposing fans. Thanks for that…and don’t be a stranger!
Appreciate the viewpoint and logical take. Definitely wouldn’t worry too much about your team going forward. Something people are starting to understand is Kelvin Sampson is probably a top 5 coach schematically in the country. His time in the NBA has really sharpened his skillset.
Coach Beard is still an elite coach and just ran up against another elite coach. Seems like you guys are still finding your identity on offense with a handful of new players.
Big props to Tech Hoops Guy. Welcome to CoogFans. I am a TT fan from here on out in 2020-2021. Coach Beard has talented kids on his roster and he will mold them into a championship team. The Red Raiders did not fold or quit. They competed, found some mojo in the second half, and I hope that Houston made them a better team. In my opinion, TT made my Cougars a better team. Good luck the rest of the season.
Something I was thinking about… Looking at the UH team from the last couple years, I couldn’t help but think about how that roster is sort of what the “dream” scenario for Tech used to look like when we were horrible.
Texas HS guys that were developed within the program, supplemented with the occasional transfer from a former Texas HS guy. You can really create some talent this way.
Beard has us in the living room of pretty much anyone in the country, and we don’t quite have the Texas nucleus that we used to.
It probably helps UH in some ways that only two of Tech’s main contributors from Sunday hail from Texas. It seems counter-intuitive, but the rise of Beard has almost made it easier pickings for Sampson to find all these Texas guys that are really freaking good.
Lol I wish Beard would stop recruiting TX period so we stop losing recruiting battles to him. You guys beat us for Tyreek Smith, Mccullar, Peavy and Jaylon Tyson. I do think you have to be careful when you’re recruiting elevates not to lose the identity of the program bringing in bigger names. Btw what’s the deal with Burnett? He is a 5 star kid but he didn’t play much.
Texas is producing so much good talent every school is trying to come into get players. UH staff recruits for fit and has leaned heavily into development. We have gotten some good transfers and stole a few recruits like Mills out of NC. Overall its mostly finding the right fit and developing them. We still have trouble getting high level bigs.
Yeah, Nimari might have a little bit to go. He’s certainly got some physical traits that make him intriguing, but Sunday was kind of a reality check for him.
Actually, I thought he held his own defensively. That surprised me in a good way.
And Beard can’t land HS bigs either. We’ve pretty much abandoned the notion of signing a HS big and developing him. And would rather a revolving door of grad transfer bigs instead and using our remaining scholarships on position-less wing types. It’s a more efficient way to build your team, because the wing hit rate is so much higher and they can impact a Big 12 game so much quicker than a HS big.
Tech Hoops Guy, It was great hearing from another school’s fan that was objective! I agree that CKS and Beard not only really like each other but have very similar coaching philosophies. I was impressed with the fight in your guys! I don’t necessarily think it was totally a bad thing that we did not have a fg over the last 12 mins. b/c we were spreading the floor to create driving lanes, which sent us to the free throw line a lot! Good luck to ya’ll the rest of the season & don’t be a stranger!
I was thinking Tech had a lot of transfers but then I was reminded that Jarreau, Gresham, Grimes were all transfers and start for the Coogs. How quickly I forget that UH benefitted from the transfer market as well.
I know we played a good bit of 4-guard rotations but I don’t know how many minutes. That may have something to do with Beard not playing his bigs as much. Few bigs could keep up with our guards.
I think we will play a lot with 4 guards this season with the height, quickness & toughness of our ~6’ 5" guards like Jarreau, Grimes & Mark - along with Sasser, Mills & Shead. Don’t really know too much yet about Tyson - other than he’s reportedly a sniper.
