Too Early Big 12 Deep Dive (26-27 season)

Basketball
266

i have faith in Mercy … i oddly think the lack of minutes will actually push him to be better than his predcessors…
our depth kept him from playing as much as other guys… but his per possession stats were just as good as Sasser, grimes, sharp etc during their sophomore years

but his lack of minutes has pushing him to be better. ive seem 3 interviews with mercy , where he has noted he has to have the offseason of his live…according to his brother social media (the rapper romeo) he post on social media 2 days ago that mercy has modified his shot to have a quicker release… with a video of hims making 25 of 29 3s

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267

Something that’s also minor, but I think could drastically alter our season next year, is McCarty shooting on the move.

Sampson, for the last two seasons, has noted that McCarty is just as good of a shooter as LJ and Sharp. He even noted the elite shooting today in the presser. His live-game percentages don’t tell that same story, and to me, it’s clear on film that it’s his ability to shoot on the move.

When he has time to take a set shot, he is that shooter. But in real games, you don’t get constant set shots. Against defenses that cause him to rush his shot, some of them weren’t even close. He has to either improve at shooting off-balance (like Sharp) or become more disciplined about always shooting with proper form, even when rushed (like LJ).

He started last year 3-for-18 from 3. That can’t be the case this year.

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268

Mercy will play as long as he gets the defense. Thats my only worry. Mercy can score.

Its kinda hard to judge last year without a post player. Chase should have more set shots this year with post play, a huge big and several penetrators. Even Harwell would have fared better had we had a low post presence. You just get a better look when a big is causing problems and he kicks it out there instead of having an additional wing bringing extra defense and less space on the perimeter.

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269

According to some poster here, “context matter.” lol

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270

I’m coming in late on the Rob-turned-us-around question, but I just want to note that that 29-8 season two years earlier was bigger than younger fans might think, because the NIT still meant something, and we made it all the way to the finals in NYC, which got plenty of notice. Plus Birdsong was a consensus first-team all american, so the program still had some glitter on it when Rob was being recruited. Then too, neither Drexler nor Olajuwon was a big recruit when they came in; it was pure luck that they turned into superstars. So I can’t see Rob as a magnet who turned a program around.

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271

Birdsong? WHO’S HE?

:sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile:

/s

272

The NIT still matters today. Relevance isn’t an ON/OFF switch, it gradually declined. There was a time when the NIT meant as much as the NCAA Tournament, but by this era it had already become the clear secondary tournament. Even more recently, when Penders was making NITs, an invite was basically an auto-accept. Today, blue bloods regularly turn them down.

Regarding Rob, both the ESPN Phi Slama Jama documentary and a TV special from about 20 years ago had players saying they came to Houston because of Rob. As they put it, “it wasn’t cool to come to UH.”

  1. Recruiting rankings were also very different. There were no modern recruiting services. One of the main national gauges was the Parade All-America team, which recognized roughly 40-50 players. Olajuwon was always going to be untouted, but guys like Drexler, Micheaux, Rose, and Young were probably closer to 4-stars by today’s standards, although we can’t know for certain.
  2. More importantly, lack of hype doesn’t mean lack of options. Look at Galen. He was a relatively unknown 3-star, a UH legacy, and played in Houston, so on paper he should have been easy to land. Yet he said everyone told him not to go to UH, and he almost didn’t. His main options were Creighton, still a low-major then, and a really bad K-State team. Without the legacy connection, we probably don’t even land Galen, which is crazy.

So even if those Phi Slama Jama players weren’t highly touted nationally, they likely still had other options. Rob helped make Houston a place those players actually wanted to come to.

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273

Reminds of UHLaw, thinks he wins if he gets in the last word but he already lost

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274

Pesik you’re showing your age. “No modern recruiting services”? Ever hear of a guy named Bob Gibbons? Obviously not and I’m not going to bring you up to speed on who he was. Maybe you’ll hear about him in a documentary one day.

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275

That was more of a coaching/scouting tool than something that shaped public perception. Even at its peak, Gibbons only had a ~5k subscribers , most of whom were coaches.

That’s like saying Synergy, one of the top scouting tools used by coaches today, is comparable to 247/ESPN recruiting rankings. The context of this conversation was national hype and how highly touted these players were publicly.

For those unfamiliar with Synergy, it has film on most top players, along with highlights, advanced metrics, and player evaluations. Coaches and scouting services use it extensively, but that doesn’t mean its evaluations reflect national public perception.

Random fun fact aside: Young and Drexler were featured highly by Gibbons. Interestingly, he was actually higher on Drexler than Rob as recruits, which was the opposite of everywhere else. If anything, that shows Gibbons had his own evaluations, not that he was dictating national public opinion.

276

It was not pure luck that Drexler and Hakeem became stars. Recruiting was far different then and local kids didn’t get near the exposure that young players do today.
Micheal Young was a star at Yates and he got coach Lewis and Donny Schverak to go watch Drexler. The rest is history. Guy V took those guys and coach them into stars.
Our recruiting had fallen off big time after we recruited Birdsong and frankly we had fallen off entering the SWC in 1976 because star players didn’t think very highly of the conference.
Meanwhile SWC schools actually started recruiting better when we entered the conference.
Birdsong was the last star that we signed before we locked in Rob. He was the key recruit followed by others.

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277

I know UH had a lot of interest from the #1 recruit the year he came out, Moses Malone Sr., from Petersburg, VA. Malone’s father lived in Texas. I believe Guy Lewis’ Assistant Coach, Harvey Pate, was the contact with Malone. Malone ended up committing to Maryland, but never enrolled, opting to go directly from high school into the ABA

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278

I think it was Malone’s grandma who lived in Houston…
I know Moses really liked Otis Birdsong and it was down between us and Maryland. He committed to Maryland but eventually went pro.
Harvey Pate and Donnie Schverak told a funny story about Guy going to visit Moses late in the process but I better leave it be lol

279

Posted the below on the big 12 thread. But if MJ get eligible on September 22nd, then UC guards are absolutely stacked.

But still need another big unless they plan on going small and skilled

UC just landed a late commit.
Javonte Campbell of BGSU

18.4 ppg
5.1 assists
Insanely great at drawing fouls!

Mac defensive player of the year

Lead the ncaa in steals with 3 a game!

Wasnt iowa state In on this guy?

280

ill point to the hypocrisy in your posts lol
things all of sudden become good when UC gets them, but you highlight it as a flaw when other teams have them

you just went on a rant at hadnot for being a mid major. then celebrate get a mid major guard (surround by other mid major guards) as to why you are “stacked” at guard

for us non haters lol, a steal artist is probably going to be a great for a team trying to push the pace on offense

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281

Huh?

I have no issue with Hadnot other than he needs to prove it against good competition. Same for Campbell

I think UC might be overloaded with guards but they each serve different purposes.

Both Hadnot & Campbell played minimal amount of tier A&B teams but Campbell maintained his offensive rating in those games whereas Hadnot dropped 15 points.

Leading the nation in steals means something tho.

UC depth at guard is now really diverse and talented:

MJ Collins (Utah State) 18ppg on a top 30 team, pure scorer from all 3 levels.

Tylen Riley (Tulsa) 15/4/4 on a good Tulsa team, 39% from 3, draws a lot of fouls

Myles Colvin (Purdue/wake) 6’5 athletic freak, 12ppg in ACC, 36% from 3

Akai Fleming (GTech) 6’4 averages 10.4 ppg as true freshmen in ACC, but averaged 14ppg the last 10 ACC games.

Javontae Campbell (BGSU) -DPOY (led ncaa in steals), 18.4ppg, 5.1 assists, draws a lot of fouls

Trevion Carson (NDSU): all summit 1st team, 12ppg. 7rpg, 38% from 3, great defender/glue guy

Elijah Perryman: (Utah st): high up side pass first PG with 35.6 assist rate as true FR

Eric Mahaffery: (Akron) : 6’6, Mac All freshman team,
8/6/2 as a freshmen,

Collins, Riley, Colvin, Campbell & Carson are the vets

Mahaffery, Perryman, Fleming all the ability to impact now but at minimum future high upside pieces

282

Outside of Collins the volume for 3 is pretty low … that’s my big worry

Driving point come harder in the high major… even drawing fouls is harder…(post penetration prevention)

But if the defense is decent should be enough guard offense

283

I’m not worried about the 3 point shooting. Calhoun runs a beautiful offense that will create a ton of open looks from all 3 levels.

Utah st was 10th in 2 point FG% last year. While only shooting 34% from 3. They pretty decent in drawing fouls too. Just a multi faceted offensive approach.

Also expect to see a lot of 3’s coming from the 4 spot with Elamin & Tejada. And in certain lineups Allenpspach will fire them too.

This is the deepest best group of guards at UC in a long long time.

But like I said. My issue is still around toughness and rebounding in the paint. Allenspach won’t provide anything in those areas in the big 12… a lot will fall on a redshirt freshman (who Calhoun really believes in and brought from Utah st) and Hastings who is an high level defender but can get in foul trouble.

My guess is that UC rotates Hastings, iweze, and Allenspach all at the 5… and Elamin & Tejada manning the stretch 4… Elamin has NBA potential and looks to really shoot it more. Both can also play the 3 too.

284

from a preseason perspective your guards last year looked deeper

Day Day Thomas
Jizzle James - projected breakout star
Shon Abaev - mcdonalds all american
Kerr Kriisa - former starting PG on a top 3 team, #1 seed,
Sencire Harris - arguably best perimeter defender in the big 12
Keyshaun Tillery - top 50 recuit
Jalen Celestine* - starter on a ranked tourney team
Jordi Rodríguez - notable international add

from a preseason perspective … last years guards look far better than your incoming guards .
blind test im taking your guards last year

285

Disagree. Wes knew Jizzle and Dayday didn’t work and still ran it back.

And transfer ratings from 247 show that as well.

Jizzle is graded as 90
Tillery an 89
Jordi is unranked
Abaev is a 90
Sincere Is 87

New comers are:
Colvin is 92
Collins is 93
Riley is 93
Mahaffery is 90
Fleming is 90
Carson is 88
Perryman is 87

UC upgraded its guard room but downgraded its bigs.

https://247sports.com/college/cincinnati/season/2026-basketball/transferportal/?institutionkey=24031