Honest Thoughts about the Team

The biggest issue is the very big bet on Jojo progressing offensively (and fouling) which obviously he has not done. If he was even some semblance of J’Wan or Javier we’d be fine right now. But right now teams can harass high and basically play 5 on 4 in the half court.

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Remember when we were promised he’d start hitting corner 3s?

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Anyway we can bring in Olajuwon to coach up Jojo on some post moves?

I feel like teams will leave him on an island knowing he won’t do much.

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Damn I wish CKS would read Coogfans. We would never lose again.

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aside from that, McCarty and Harwell only stand at the 3 point line waiting to shoot. Uzan and Flemings trying to penetrate to dish.

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He can go to the UH rec center and YMCA and learn some offense lol

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UH played in the NCAA Championship game last year. That alone should have been attractive to big men with basketball skill. Sampson runs a guard-oriented offense, so eliminate big men who want to be the focal point of the offense. Then eliminate big men who want to start. Then eliminate players Sampson feels is not a good culture fit. Because of the NIL expense of your four freshman and your returning players, your have a very modest amount of NIL available for a backup Center. Welcome Kalifa Sahko.

I think for what is expcted of him, Sahko has performed well.

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I mentioned this in another chat:

I did a quick analysis from last season and as other posters have mentioned we never replaced:

  • Cryers off the ball elite shooting
  • Roberts’ post game
  • Strong veteran bench players (Wilson and Francis)

Example: Against KU away last season, Roberts’ had 24 points 9 rebounds!

We turned to him 1v1 in the post every time we desperately needed a bucket.

With our elite shooting (Cryer) and post game (Roberts), teams gave Milos and Sharp more space.

Surprisingly our defense this season has more length and athleticism.

This season, our biggest issue is that we can’t keep consistently scoring.

Last season, we always kept the score ticking with 2s and 3s.

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Again another post from different chat:

My wishlist for the end of the season to give us a shot for a deeper run in the big12/ncaa tournament is:

  1. Try to develop any semblance of a post game (Cenac, Sakho, and jojo) - will need it desperately when the game is tight

  2. Find a way to get another elite off-the ball shooter on the floor, Milos and Flemings are ball dominant guards. We need to find a shooter (who doesn’t need the ball) and can punish opponents that are doubling up on Milos/Flemings and reduce the pressure on Sharp to keep making 3s.

Now the team balance is off, since both Uzan annd Flemings are at their best with the ball in their hands to drive, score, and create….

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They were recruiting KF long before we knew Milos would even be here. They recruited KF because he is such a good player. If Milos left we were going to bring in a portal guard; we actually had Pop Issacs ready to go, then Milos stayed.

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Maybe, but our resident expert said our D would have suffered
Most fans really don’t notice Defense as well. I have a friend who knows basketball and he keeps asking why Harwell gets ro play

Our Defense is fine. Maybe below last year but not bad.

Playing at home Iowa St scored 70 and Kansas scored 69.

Arizona just scored 87 on Baylor. They scored 73 against us.

We have scoring problems including horrible droughts.

The staff obviously liked Pop enough to potentially bring him here. I never thought he was good enough. The last time he was a starter for a season, he shot 29% from 3. This year in 20 mins per game off the bench, in a chuck it up all O no D system, he is shooting better. This board was melting down thinking Pops was gonna be one of our starting guards, prior to Milos coming back. And (at least in the handful of times I watched him), he was a bad defender.

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He’s a terrible defender. :laughing:

And if he were really a “better fit,” then he wouldn’t have transferred to a place where he could get PT.

If someone wants to make the case that he would fit better offensively than Uzan, that’s possible. But his lack of defense would keep that from working out unless he just completely revamped his game. Even with the Aggies, he barely gets 20 minutes a game off the bench.

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Yeah, I still fail to picture any scenario where an undersized 2-guard made of wet tissue paper and matchsticks with a known aversion to playing defense would have fit in on a Sampson team. I trust Sampson but I am still absolutely baffled by our pursuit of Pops. I almost wish it had come to pass just to see how the f*ck that would have played out lol

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Negative

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I wonder how Flemings and Miller would look or work out in starting lineup?

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My honest thoughts are that the past few seasons we’ve had Elite Defense and Elite Rebounding which covered for Below-Average Offense. This year, neither our Defense or Rebounding is Elite and, while our offense is improved, it is exposed for being Below-Average overall. Sampson is known and respected by all for his defenses and rebounding, can he adapt at this late stage and coach them up to an Average offense to help make up for less than Elite defense and rebounding? We shall see.

Go Coogs!

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Arizona just gave up 80 points to lowlife Baylor and won anyway.

Their Offense carries them.

Last April in The Final Four we scored 70 and 63.

That is 67 per game. Our defense was great, but again missed a National Title.

I think our Defense is good enough.

Offense…not good enough.

The # in the color bar represents where UH ranks amongst 365 teams.

Last year’s #s