Ncaa Basketball is evolving

Cougar Basketball
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There is no question that CKS is one of the best HC in the Nation if not the best. Against Duke everything that could go wrong went wrong. Barkley made a valid point at half time. We started fast but we should have been up by more than six points. Jamal got hurt and our old “demons” came back. We could not make FT’s. Then our 3 pts shots went cold. To put an exclamation point on it our big men did not “show up” Besides all of it we lost by three points.
Now look at these stats:
Duke vs UH – Team stats
Duke Blue Devils Houston Cougars
FG 20-49 20-49
Field Goal % 40.8 40.8
3PT 6-17 2-8
Three Point % 35.3 25.0
FT 8-12 9-17
Free Throw % 66.7 52.9
Rebounds 34 30
Off Rebounds 13 11
Def Rebounds 21 19
Assists 14 10
Steals 4 4
Blocks 0 4
Houston Cougars Roster 2023-24 - Team Roster
Active players 6’9” and above
Cedric Lath2 C 6’ 9" 265 lbs FR Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Duke Blue Devils Roster 2023-24 – Team roster
Active players 6’9” and above
Neal Begovich20 F 6’ 9" 230 lbs SR San Francisco, CA
Mark Mitchell25 F 6’ 9" 232 lbs SO Kansas City, KS
Stanley Borden52 C 7’ 0" 241 lbs JR Istanbul, Turkey
Kyle Filipowski30 C 7’ 0" 248 lbs SO Westtown, NY
Christian Reeves21 C 7’ 1" 261 lbs SO Charlotte, NC
Ryan Young15 C 6’ 10" 238 lbs SR Stewartsville, NJ

So from looking at these stats we see the obvious. 2-8 for 3’s and 9-17 at the FT line. What is ironic is the huge difference in size. Duke looked like green bean giants vs our bigs. Surely we should have seen a big difference on the rebounds stats. We did not.
Instead what we saw was their big men hitting the 3’s and passed the ball effectively. This is where our bigs did not do well.
Now look at the eight teams, then four teams remaining. There is indeed a common denominator. What has been true to this season are the following:
6’10" to 7’+ shooting the ball on the outside supplemented by a true power forward.
Multiple 6’10" with weight.
I can’t remember a season when this has been so crystal clear.
UConn Roster 2023-24 - Team Roster
Active players 6’9” and above
Samson Johnson F 6’ 10" 225 lbs JR Lome Golfe, Togo
Donovan Clingan C 7’ 2" 280 lbs SO Bristol, CT

Purdue 2023-24 - Team Roster
Active players 6’9” and above
Caleb Furst F 6’ 10" 225 lbs JR Fort Wayne, IN
Trey Kaufman-Renn F 6’ 9" 230 lbs SO Sellersburg, IN
Zach Edey C 7’ 4" 300 lbs SR Toronto, Canada

NC State Wolfpack 2023-24 - Roster
Active players 6’9” and above
DJ Burns Jr. F 6’ 9" 275 lbs SR Rock Hill, SC
Mohamed Diarra F 6’ 10" 215 lbs JR Montreuil, France
Ben Middlebrooks F 6’ 10" 240 lbs JR Fort Lauderdale, FL
Ernest Ross F 6’ 9" 200 lbs JR Alachua, FL

Alabama 2023-24 - Team Roster
Active players 6’9” and above
Grant Nelson F 6’ 11" 230 lbs SR Devils Lake, ND
Nick Pringle F 6’ 10" 230 lbs SR Seabrook, SC
Mohamed Wague F 6’ 10" 225 lbs JR Bronx, NY

Clemson 2023-2024 Team Roster - Clemson beat a ton of 7’ from Arizona.
Active players 6’9” and above
Jack Clark F 6’ 10" 207 lbs SR Cheltenham, PA
Bas Leyte F 6’ 10" 225 lbs SR Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands
Chauncey Wiggins F 6’ 10" 210 lbs SO Grayson, GA
PJ Hall C 6’ 10" 238 lbs SR Spartanburg, SC

Tennessee 2023-2024 Team Roster
Active players 6’9” and above
Jonas Aidoo F 6’ 11" 241 lbs JR Durham, NC
Colin Coyne F 6’ 9" 239 lbs SR Fredericksburg, VA

Illinois 2023-24 - Team Roster
Active players 6’9” and above
Dain Dainja F 6’ 9" 270 lbs JR Brooklyn Park, MN
Coleman Hawkins F 6’ 10" 225 lbs SR Sacramento, CA

Again all of the above schools were in the elite eight. Is it a coincidence that you either have multiple 6’10" players or a combination with a 7’ and a 6’10? Does this tell us that our roster should be evolving with either of the two? I trust in CKS. He is our leader and has proven to each of us that luck plays a major role in winning Championships. Sasser then Shead IMO never got injured because we have high intensity practices. That in itself is stupid and absurd. By having high intensity practices it actually makes you stronger mentally and physically. What concerns me is seeing these combos of big men. It is either one or the other…It seems…True for season.

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Why does it matter how long someone is to the top of their head? If we have players like Tugler and Francis with a huge standing reach, who are longer with their hands up than a guy who is 6’10" but their head is 2" lower, what issues does that cause?

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Hey I am just bringing up facts. This is not an opinion piece. I was surprised how clear that is. Believe you me I am 100% for recruiting players like McFarland or Tugler.

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Like me, you just broke the Coogfans rule concerning our Big Men. They are above the Law. Cannot simply post facts. Not allowed. The Sampson way or the highway.

By the by, here is another fact. Last November we began our Season with, not one, but two 18 year olds as Big Man backups. Lath and Tugler both were 18.

Lath turned 19 in January and Tugler does so in May.

Sampson often comments on “not getting caught young”. On purpose he started 2023-24 with two 18 year olds to spell Francis and Roberts.

Kudos to Sampson for almost getting away with it. He won 32 games, an incredible accomplishment!

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Based on coach’s comments Lath wasn’t supposed to play this year. It is very rare for a freshman to get minutes at UH, and the fact that Tugler was playing as much as he did shows me that coach thinks very highly of him.

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Roberts had 13 and 8 against Duke. This whole diatribe on basketball evolution is fun for a message board, but to me a better reason for UH falling short would be injuries. There’s been nothing wrong with our rotational bigs the last 5 years.

Tugler was a backup 4/5 and Arceneaux was a small ball 4 and then Walker was the same. Going into the season, why would you think you need more than that? We beat everyone in the Big 12 at least once.

Winning a national title is hard and you need luck as well. Sampson is as good a coach as we have ever had. Don’t get mad because Cindy Crawford can’t make an omelette.

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But Matt we have a guy who claims he’s posting “facts” and if you refute it that means you are some sort of Sampson lackey.

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Yet somehow your facts are stating opinions. How do you do it?

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Did you even read each roster that was posted?
Did I invent these numbers?
Did I invent these rosters?
I posted it because it is startling. I can’t remember that we have eight Teams that have two distinctive types of rosters. What do we get in the final four? Tow of each of these rosters that in itself is fascinating. You don’t have to like my post. I am not asking you to like it. Got it?
Sampson lackey?
We were this close to making it in the Elite Eight if not for Jamaal to get injured. In fact watching the replay I would go further as writing that Jamaal was pushed and he should have gotten a foul. He got nothing and hyper extended his tendons instead.
It would have been fantastic that our Team and roster would have been the outlier.

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WVU had a 7 footer who scored 15 per game and a 6’10" player. How did they do?

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Not quite:
Edwards is 6’11" he did average 15/game but did not perform with three pointers.
Akok Akok at 6’10" averaged…3pts/game.
Size alone does not do the job. You have to be a good player.

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So we are now down to two teams. Further interesting data:

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Key take aways:
10-25 3PT vs 5-19
FT 9/10 yes 9/10
Total rebounds domination
Remember the “three headed monsters?”
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VS.
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The “three headed monsters” disappeared.

Now let’s look at the other semi final.

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Albama personal stats:
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Only one of their F’s showed up.
UConn?
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Both of their “bigs” responded to the challenge.

Similar data?
FT both were at the line quite a bit more than their opposition.
Rebounds clearly both winners dominated.
Both in the plus side especially UConn
and think how both of the semi final winners distributed the ball…

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Sampson had the honor of coaching Chuck “The Chuck Wagon” Hayes. Proving hustle and body position out dominates a tall player out of position. I forget the roster but in 2011 the rockets only allowed 6,459 points which is absurd for the NBA

On 5427 field goal attempts, which again is absurd. Also like to add that when CKS was the Rockets assistant coach they held opponents to 44% fg% and under 50% 2-point fg%. Since his departure, the Rockets have had had .504, .522, .519, .532, .544, .570, and .540 from 2point fg% (2016-today)

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The facts are the final 4 teams have height. Lots of it. You guys are funny to gaslight that.

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We don’t need a 7 footer but I would like to have bigger guards similar to what UConn has.

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Nobody gaslighting here, clearly edey dominated ncstate. But that center also was no chuck hayes

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Would’ve only been 3 had Shead not rolled his ankle

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Well I would be mad if we hired Cindy Crawford to make an omelet.

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We had that in Tramon Mark

He would have been the guy to guard Newton from UConn if we had made it and if Mark stayed.

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Should be getting back to that with McCarty and Miller both are listed a 6’4+. Hopefully they lose any inches when they get here lol