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Game thoughts TCU

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It’s not letting me login into Alley.

I’m happy with the guards not named Joiner, Rachal, and Idowu.

Rebounding, shot selection, and corner defense killed us.

I won’t say we weren’t ready, but we have a ways to go. Defense is no as sharp.
 
Haith is slow out of the gate. Not surprises. We have more pieces to move around for the first time in awhile. There’s guys that are gonna ride the bench that would be featured stars on some of our past teams. It will take a little while for Haith to solve the puzzle, but he will. He will figure out who is best on the floor playing with whom. We might have to lose to both Wichita Falls Tech and Wichita State, but he will eventually get it. It’s early. I’m cool with it for now.

Exit observation: P5 schools have cool neck gaiters they don’t use.
 
Rachal great game. Joiner out of control and tries to do too much. Idowu had decent game on offense. Good hands. Better learn how to box out. The Keyshawns maybe our best players
Haywood and Ritchie not ready. Looks like 7 man rotation
Also, better figure out how to get urbanik in the game
 
Two reasons for the loss. Too many rebounds, especially offensive by Samuels (18 total ) and 7 threes from Todd, Farabello, and Miles when left wide open. Otherwise not a bad game for TU. I saw some good things from KES, RI, Rachal and Williams. Joiner had some really good plays to go along with some really bad plays and missed a bunch of free throws. Hated to see so little out of Haywood. Richie took one Horne shot and missed. Rachal might do better at the high post as he has a little trouble handling in traffic when he gets the ball out front.
 
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Turnovers is what killed us. Sloppy passing and ball mishandling did us in. The fight was there. The Keyshawn’s are going to be real good. We take care of the turnover problem we win that game. This team played today like a team that it was not their first game. If you look at the beginning of the year last year and the beginning of this year we played much better. Can we improve? Absolutely! Will we ever play a perfect game? Not in a million years. I feel better going into the South Carolina game then I would going into Liberty. They have a good team.
 
It hurts to outshoot a team 50% to 37% and lose. Rebounding killed us.
I think we have better overall talent & athleticism than TCU, which is encouraging. I hope we will force tempo more to take better advantage of our athletic guards & wing players.
 
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Rachal was really the only player with a good stat line with 19 points, 8 boards and 2 blocks but KES with 14 points in his first outing bodes well for the future. I really like the look of this team. We have a bunch of high level players. Even Manny looked much improved from last year. That spate of turnovers in the first half just as they caught fire from deep was what decided the game. With all the other things you’ll complain about, going from 10 up to 10 down in that 5 minute span was the deciding factor.
 
Sad thing is we keep losing games year in and year out that we should win so my disappointment is still there. Rebounding an shooting and unforced turnovers still continue to kill us yearly
 
Not going to blame Haith for this one. Didn't go crazy deep in subbing. Perimeter defense missing something from last year. Vegas had TCU -4 and they somehow seem to know. We needed Michael Ruffin or Jerome Jordan.
 
Not going to blame Haith for this one. Didn't go crazy deep in subbing. Perimeter defense missing something from last year. Vegas had TCU -4 and they somehow seem to know. We needed Michael Ruffin or Jerome Jordan.
I think we missed Lawson Korita in the zone. He seemed to keep everyone positioned last year. I was surprised how much man D we played but we definitely have the athletes for it.
 
Do the wackos and nut jobs not come to complain after basketball losses like they do after football wins. That must be refreshing.
 
Do the wackos and nut jobs not come to complain after basketball losses like they do after football wins. That must be refreshing.
What would be refreshing though is if we didn’t do the same things year after year like not hit shots or block out and rebound but I will say inbounding plays were ferocious.
 
I’d be disappointed if these guys don’t make the tourney. Lots to be positive about even in a loss. We played pretty poorly and our talent by itself kept it a 5 point game. So many guys who can be really good.
 
Disappointed but not upset. TCU was horns from 3 and their center killed us.
Really hoping to pop the Gamecocks tomorrow.

a much better first game than we have seen ever in the Haith era.
I like this team and enjoyed the game .
 
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Completely different team compared to recent years.

We will have to win with guard play and strong perimeter pressure.

I love seeing Rachal “back”.

If Elijah could consistently finish at the rim, he would be an All-American.

VERY happy with the Keyshawns.

Rebounding will probably be a problem most of the year. We’re undersized...and play a zone.

One of the 3 sharpshooters will need to find a way to contribute (including Haywood).
 
Did not watch... in Orlando and doing the Universal/Disney thing in full earnest.

Ugboh??? 0 boards???
Haywood??? 0 points???
Jackson??? Only 22 minutes???

That's messed up.
 
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Did not watch... in Orlando and doing the Universal/Disney thing in full earnest.

Ugboh??? 0 boards???
Haywood??? 0 points???
Jackson??? Only 22 minutes???

That's messed up.
You should be able to watch the ESPN3 replay. Rashal, Idowu, KES, Williams, Joiner, and Jackson were about all we had. Haywood, Richie, and Ugboh did not have stellar games but played. Beaten badly on boards and gave open 3's.
 
Ugboh - I want him to be so good so bad.

However, I just don’t think he has the foot speed to ever make a significant difference.

This was the perfect game for him a make a difference. Unfortunately, he wasn’t effective.
 
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Thoughts: Biggest bright spots were the facts that Embery was making plays on offense and that Haith trusts Williams enough to play him big minutes as a Freshman. Rachal tried too much in terms of shooting the ball, but he played with a ton of hustle and it showed on the stat line.

I thought Ugboh and Idowu played pretty decent defense but just got killed on the glass. Can't let that happen. Luckily, not many people in our conference have bigs of that quality outside of Cincinnati.

It feels like we need one or two more guys to really make plays than what we saw. If Haywood keeps playing like that then I'd want to see what Richie or Shumate could do with heavier minutes.

We need to be more disciplined on the back side of the zone as the ball rotates around. People just keep leaving that last man to provide excess help on a curling dribble drive and it really hurt us tonight.

All in all it's not a bad loss but in a year where we have so few non-conference opportunities it would have been nice to have that one.
 
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Ugboh - I want him to be so good so bad.

However, I just don’t think he has the foot speed to ever make a significant difference.

This was the perfect game for him a make a difference. Unfortunately, he wasn’t effective.
He managed one monster dunk somehow. If he were a freshman I would say there is some hope to develop, but as it is he is unlikely to do so.
 
Do the wackos and nut jobs not come to complain after basketball losses like they do after football wins. That must be refreshing.

Is the basketball coach walking around with a conference championship? What about multiple losing seasons in a row? Funny how that makes a difference.
 
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Considering all the new players and this being the first game at all, it is about what I expected. I would not be starting Joiner or certainly reduce his time somewhat when he is playing out of control.
 
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I missed most of the game, had a kid’s indoor game, is it worth a rewatch despite knowing it ends in a close loss?
 
I missed most of the game, had a kid’s indoor game, is it worth a rewatch despite knowing it ends in a close loss?
How much of a glutton are you? Just kidding. Yeah it's worth watching just to get a beginning point for the season.
 
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We got killed by #21. We started to double him in the low post & he would kick it out for a wide open 3. Even if it was missed, Samuels would somehow get the damn rebound. Our shooting will improve starting about noon today. Look for young Williams to get double figures, Embry-Simpson & Rachal, too. Defense will improve too since I didn't see any big for So. Car half as good vs Liberty as Samuels.
 
I’m rewatching the game since I didn’t see most of it, and I feel more comfortable with Idowu than I did from looking at the stat sheet. He’s outmatched vs Samuel but is in good position most of the time, just outsized and out skilled. Similar to how most teams felt against us last year against Igbanu.
 
HAVE TO limit offensive rebounds. Nearly impossible to win allowing 18 offensive boards.
 
Yeah, Idowu reminds me of a more bouncy Swannegan. That’s just fine.

Igbanu was a unique player. He rebounded like Anthony Price at times.

Samuel reminded me of what happens when we play Cinci.
 
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Overall I like the black uniforms (I think they’re different than last years?) but I HATE the blue names, they’re virtually unreadable.

We have some really good players:

Embery-Simpson
Rachal
Idowu
Joiner
Williams
Jackson

We need something more from Haywood, Ritchie, and Ugboh. For the two former, I’m hoping it is just first game jitters. Ugboh needs games against not really good centers.
 
Yeah, Idowu reminds me of a more bouncy Swannegan. That’s just fine.

Igbanu was a unique player. He rebounded like Anthony Price at times.

Samuel reminded me of what happens when we play Cinci.
Best thing about Idowu is that he has three more years due to the COVID rules and he should improve.
 
Well that was even easier than I thought it would be.


Are you surprised that a board full of Tulsa educated people would immediately point out how dumb it is to compare a guy with 20 years of overall success, one losing season, and a conference championship last year to a coach with no history, an overall losing record and multiple losing seasons?

Or that we wouldn't notice all the posts complaining about the same damn things (rotation, rebounding, turnovers, and scoring droughts) we have been bitching about Haith teams?

What part of your terrible take are you surprised immediately got an appropriate response?

Of course you don't want to talk about the actual issues do you? We should all just shut up and go along kumbaya because in the craziest season in our history we managed to win four games.

Any day on this take Babe. You're welcome to be happy about a bad coach.

I pay into this program, I hold season tickets, I make donations, I went to the school, I worked in the Athletic Department and volunteered there. Most importantly I am a fan and have as much right to bitch as you do to praise.

So get a better take or you can join the follower Gmoney and continue to get it when you don't have one.
 
Are you surprised that a board full of Tulsa educated people would immediately point out how dumb it is to compare a guy with 20 years of overall success, one losing season, and a conference championship last year to a coach with no history, an overall losing record and multiple losing seasons?

Or that we wouldn't notice all the posts complaining about the same damn things (rotation, rebounding, turnovers, and scoring droughts) we have been bitching about Haith teams?

What part of your terrible take are you surprised immediately got an appropriate response?

Of course you don't want to talk about the actual issues do you? We should all just shut up and go along kumbaya because in the craziest season in our history we managed to win four games.

Any day on this take Babe. You're welcome to be happy about a bad coach.

I pay into this program, I hold season tickets, I make donations, I went to the school, I worked in the Athletic Department and volunteered there. Most importantly I am a fan and have as much right to bitch as you do to praise.

So get a better take or you can join the follower Gmoney and continue to get it when you don't have one.

Bless your heart. You’ve become the easiest one on this board to rile up, and that’s saying something.
 
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Bless your heart. You’ve become the easiest one on this board to rile up, and that’s saying something.


Oh? You know you're welcome to put me on ignore.

I see you have zero answers when your worthless take was called out.

Any chance you might have something bad to say about a coach with two winning seasons in six? I didn't think so.
 
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