The man is a Houstonian. Played at Villonava but grew up in Houston, played H.S. ball in H- Town n has always brought up Houston the city in his studio settings.
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Thatās what they said when we played Louisville in the semi-finals of 83. Turned out it wasnāt.
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I went to Clear Lake - Chris played at Milby. He was a good HS player - Clear Lake was a lot better than his team.
and now we wait all week for our next game. ughā¦ going to be a very long weekā¦
āDuke has an NBA team, Houston is a nice college teamā
Screw that guy - maturity beats talent most of the time
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im rocking my red UH Jās today at the office!
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To me, this is the biggest part of the game. What Dukeās guards did to Sears was absolutely criminal. He had no answer for their length. The other thing I noticed in that game was taking Bama out of their 100% 3s/ATR approach. Iāve never seen Bama shoot so many mid range shots because the 3 and ATR were not available. Dukeās game plan against Bama was the best Iāve seen in the tourney on their opponent.
What I think does play favor for Houston is they are not an analytical team on offense. They donāt take a lot of shots ATR and are comfortable taking midrange shots. They donāt make a high %age of them, but itās difficult to guard and game plan for.
Where Duke does scare me a bit are mismatches. Knueppel is not going to be an easy assignment for Sharp. And, of course, the best 1-v-1 offense on defense matchup between JoJo and Flagg. Flagg pulling JoJo away from the basket could really give you guys some 2nd chance opportunities with Maluach alone with JāWan.
Duke has good passers, but nothing like weāve seen with Nembhard and Braden Smith. They really did a number on our MONSTER double off the high screen. Flagg is the one where if he does get downhill, he can be lethal finding the open man.
Duke is comfortable playing at a slow pace. One of their slowest games was against Baylor and they hung 89 on the Bears. On the flip side, they lost to Clemson who was a much more physical/deeper team than Baylor.
Hereās what Iāll say about Dukeās very impressive wins against Baylor/Arizona/Bama. They were all impressive and awesome to watch; however, their opponents had flaws. Baylor was not deep and lacked size/atheltism down low. Arizona gave Duke fits, but they lack defensive discipline when the pace is high. Bama playing a very analytical game at such an intense pace with one day rest is setup for a team like Duke to exploit.
Weāre an experienced team thatās been in these moments. Weāre older and have the more experienced coach so I think we can keep Duke in the high 60s/low 70s. It will come down on how we exploit their length and inexperience while on offense.
Should be an epic game.
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Waiting on @pesik matchup thread again for this game
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Hopefully there will be 2 more matchup threads from him
Typical milby teams - relied on outside the zone talent so they never could get a complete team - they always lacked a player or two when they had a star
Walker shouldāve been at kashmere
Milby had great teams in mid-late 70s.
Coach Honea.
Edit- Rob Williams- all time great UH PG, brother Ken Williams, other kid during that era( 76 or 77) came to play at UH ā¦ name escapes me, help me out @bigmccoog ?
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I see it as an opportunity to prance around proudly and basking in the glory of making the FF. Making sure to say hello to tech fan coworkers lol
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Great assessment, now yāall have me waiting for this Pesik matchup breakdown to see what theyāre gonna say!
Duke does not have a true lead guard like Smith from Purdue. This may kill us against the hard blitz on the ballhandler ā we normally have the length to pass over or around this, but yāall are so disciplined and always in the passing lanes.
Another few factors to watch out for: Can Houston generate live ball TOs and any early offense against Duke? Both of our teams are in the top 10 in D1 in terms of defensive possession length. We both love to grind it out. If you can generate any easy transition offense against our defense, it will go a long way.
It will help you a ton if Uzan in particular has it going from the midrange, as this gives you a release valve that most teams donāt have against us in reliable jump shooting.
And yes, as others have mentioned above. If Duke cannot get separation from Houston, will they fail to execute in the critical possessions? Our losses against Kansas and Kentucky were due to TOs from our freshmen in crunch time. I wouldnāt pay too much attention to the Clemson game āFlagg and Maluach had the flu and I can promise Clemson is better than whatever they showed against McNeese.
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Zona played them pretty close. Idk much about Duke, but is it the particular matchup between us and Duke? Seems most people and Vegas are going with Duke but I would suspect we play them better than Az did? They were within 5 late
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Yeah, just like the Louisville game.
Iām watching ESPN and Stephen A really is a clown. He said heās rooting against Houston because doesnāt want to see an āuglyā final 4. I do because itās what basketball should be! I like seeing great defense.
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We donāt typically generate many transition points. Our āchaosā or āunscriptedā points typically follow offensive rebounds (put backs or kick out 3s). I do agree Uzan is likely the x-factor here. His floater and mid-range have become very reliable. But Sharp and Cryer also have good mid-range jumpers. Like others have mentioned, my biggest fear as a UH fan is a tight whistle, especially given how much Flagg likes to drive. Heās a bit of a unicorn and Iām not exactly sure what our plan is to defend him. If Tugler and/or Roberts get in early foul trouble, weāll be in trouble. Maybe @pesik can enlighten us.
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You just brought out the odds & ken pom as your argument points lol. May as well ask AI whoās going to win.
What is your opinion from knowledge & expertise because i see a Duke team that beat up a lot of mediocre ACC teams. UH has been tested already and have played tough games virtually on the road vs Purdue and Tennessee in a dome during this tournament.
Itās like Mike Tyson once said, how will you react when you get punch in the face. Knowing how UH plays.
UH has more experienced with their core guys.
Defense beats offense especially in a half court playoff game.
UH is more athletic, faster & longer overall.
CKS>>>Scheyer as a coach.
The game is in San Antonio. UH will travel well.