From what I remember watching was in the first half there were almost no fouls called which allowed Meyer to play more physical on defense whereas the whistle began to blow at the start of the 2nd half. Quite a few blocks called right in front of the bucket. I’ve seen us fail in this area all year so I’m not necessarily blaming the refs; it seems like something that is either a miss by CKS or the post players just can’t get it through their heads what straight up & down is and where the semi circle is located. I wonder if Chicken’s ankle is hosed pretty bad and that’s why he didn’t play. Anyway, here’s to some off-season recruiting wins…
I’ll agree Meyer was good in the first half. But he was an absolute killer for us in the second half, and especially late in the game. If 23 was going to score anyway, why not put someone in who at least has a chance of scoring some points? Nkali does foul a lot, but at least he can jump high enough to block/alter shots and get a few dunks down. We can’t afford to have a center on the floor who, for an extended period of time (especially late in a game) can’t play defense, rebound or score. I’m looking forward to seeing what Valentine and Brady can do next year. It certainly can’t be worse than Meyer and Chicken underneath.
You want to ignore that SMU cheated its way to the top then be my guest. Sure, fans are fans. We don’t care how you do it, just win and we’ll shower you with praise - and money. Winning cures all ills.
No thank you. Integrity counts at some level. Sampson will get this program back to the top and we will still have our integrity intact.
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Cheated their way to the top? One recruit that never played a huge role who was already signed had a SMU aide cheat on an online course. No they shouldn’t have done it and deserved to be punished, but if you think that’s why they’ve been successful in recruiting and on the floor, you’re just being biased. You act like Brown had the Pony Express slush fund going again. It may be, but if so there’s been no evidence of it
Cheating is like roaches. If you see one roach, there are at least a hundred more in your walls.
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Smoo…wtf
So, can we at least demand some staff changes?
Sure, you can demand all you want. You can also demand for free health care. What’s that gonna get ya? I’m fine with Sampson running the program how he sees fit. Coach K had a losing season his first three years. People have no patience these days.
Should we give Penders another shot with the upgraded facilities then? Don’t answer. I’m being facetious.
I was at the UT-Arlington game last night as they completely destroyed Akron. First of all, they had 5,400 fans in there and the place was loud. I know we didn’t play in our own gym, but it was right across the street and there were shuttles set up so only getting 1900 did not look good (I believe it was the lowest NIT attendance this year). That is a longer story, but hopefully with a new arena we never have issues like that again.
As for the game, UTA out coached them and played with more confidence. The coaches at UTA really watched tape on that big boy Johnson and shut him down. They put a lot of pressure on the guards and made them uncomfortable and forced the other big Cheatham just settle for 3s. I know he is a good shooter, but no coach wants any 6’10" guy not name Kevin Durant settling for 3s all game. UTA’s best player wasn’t even scoring like he normally does, but other players were in attack mode and a lot of guys were going right at Johnson to get in his head. I don’t believe that UTA is a better team than us, but they do seem to prepare for big games better and now they are a game away from Madison Square Garden. We had the easiest road possible as our games would have been against the 6,7, and 8 seeds all in Houston. I drove home just disappointed as we blew a great chance to make a postseason run.
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It would of help the (UH) mens basketball team gained momentum towards next year had UH made a deep run in the NIT. When people asked me who else can UH get as a coach, how about UTA’s head coach. He pulled upset after upset this year including one at Texas with a lot less talent than what UH has. Makes you wonder, right.
They also have a better basketball venue to be fair. UH was so behind the 8 ball when it came to our basketball program. Luckily, the last 2 years there has been a slowly progress towards being good again.
If everything goes our way this Spring in recruiting & returning personnel, UH just may be back dancing in 2018.
Worse excused I heard already is that people are all ready setting up excuses for failure next season due to the remodeling job towards the new basketball arena.
I’m just hoping for the best.
Great point of view, Forth Worth. It’s really rare to read an unbiased piece of writing in here.
I’m all the way with Sampson, I just don’t think his assistants do anything. We don’t have an assistant that is really a great recruiter and I don’t see much player development.
I like Coach Cross at UTA, but I am not sure if he is the type to lead a top program as he doesn’t seem willing to get involved with AAU divas and I don’t think he can recruit highly ranked players.
Maybe because of the school he is at UTA, and the budget he has to spent among his assistants.
Preach.
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Cross has been rumored to OK State with Underwood leaving, but I’ve heard the same that he may not be a good fit for a large program.
Tough to tell sometimes when it’s one game and the team’s are somewhat level. We know Akron was motivated when they played us due to the heavy Houston connection and the thought that we are a higher level program. Were they similarly motivated last night? Don’t get me wrong, UT-A is a good program and that was a blow-out so all credit to them.
Just tough to point and say assistants are the reason for our failures because we don’t know what they do or who is the strong recruiter. Program, like most Houston programs outside of football, is mostly ignored by the media even when it comes to recruiting. Scout and Rivals guys have almost no basketball contacts and Sampson basically gives all interviews.
And the argument about player development seems to be getting these guys to play beyond their potential, but that requires the players to be able to do that themselves. I’d say the coaches have helped a lot of guys reach their potentials: Pollard, Dotson, Barnes, Gray. Before CKS got here and took them in, they weren’t complete players or had struggled to find footing. Now guys like Nkali, Meyer, Dupree, etc I’d argue reached their potential as well, they just didn’t have a high ceiling.
The one failing may be Chicken, but the problem with Chicken is finding a way to motivate him from game to game or practice to practice. Nice guy, tons of athleticism and highly ranked out of high school, but stars don’t measure heart sometimes and I’m. not sure Chicken’s heart was always in it. Not sure Sampson could be blamed for that one.
But Davis was vastly improved after his time at Indiana, G-Rob is coming along as a sophomore, Brooks showed signs as a freshman so I think development is going well. Just need the talent now.
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A student manager from a couple years ago told me Sampson is really hard on whichever coach is in charge of the bigs. Repeatedly called him out in practices for not having his guys prepared and failing to teach basic concepts like fighting over/hedging low post screens.
I would think that kind of “coaching the coaches” is SOP though fwiw.
Of course Sampson’s son is one of the assistants for whatever that is worth. Over the years I have watched a number of HCs and they each have their own way of handling the assistants. But some will “coach” an assistant as hard as they coach a player. That is, until the assistant either “get’s it” or moves on. Remember assistants come to a program with their own background and experiences and you just don’t know how that fits until workouts begin. As for recruiting, I’m not sure who really runs that part of the program for UH. I don’t trust job titles. One thing is for sure, SMU will have to get by without Maligi’s magic recruiting skills just like UH did. Kinda scares me that he is at A&M.
I like your optimism Pray, maybe I’m looking at it too critical. A few of the examples of development don’t really work for me. Davis wasn’t here until the fall so you would need to judge any improvement during the season which is hard to do with the injury and if you really want to be critical, he was a more efficient player at Indiana when you look at per minute stats and FG%. I didn’t see any improvement really between Pollard’s junior and senior seasons. Dotson got better shooting this year (we don’t have any shooting coaches so that was probably all him), but not much in any other area. Robinson didn’t really have the jump you would expect from a freshman to sophomore PG. He was inconsistent this year and really struggled to score, he is one that I have high hopes for so hopefully we see that big improvement next year. With the bigs we either just swung and missed on all of four of them or they did not reach their potential. All the bigs leaving had offers from good programs so something went wrong there or other teams were desperate for big bodies too (other than Chicken who was supposed to be a star).
Wes Van Beck is the big development success. Gray is another than has improved as I feel like he is one that Sampson really pushes. The question mark which will be very important for next year is Valentine.
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