Game 24: Houston 2/6 6:00 ESPN2

[leo from jersey]

In all fairness, that was a pretty darn good team we played. TBH, I am amazed we are even middle of the pack.

We also looked bad against a D2 team. There was no football games on tv last night. The cats embarrassed themselves to most of the sport watching nation. JD must sit. I don't care if he is from a local family. Mike S. needs to sit too. I realize there would be little depth, but they need to think on the bench. Both are out of control.

[Greg7173]

This team is just painful to watch. It they are not hitting 3's they get blown out. No defense, no offense up close, constantly outrebounded. I'm not really sure what can be done now.

[Gmann]

Yes. The whole program to a hit yesterday being the only game on at that time and getting thoroughly dominated. If I'm a player considering a program I'd like to know that team competes and can make me better. This coaching staff has no clue on how to that. CWM's approach may work at the mid-major level but he's in over his head so far at this level. I know it's early and we need to give it some time. I would like to see some indication things are moving in the right direction though.

[bba_1979]

Yes. The whole program to a hit yesterday being the only game on at that time and getting thoroughly dominated. If I'm a player considering a program I'd like to know that team competes and can make me better. This coaching staff has no clue on how to that. CWM's approach may work at the mid-major level but he's in over his head so far at this level. I know it's early and we need to give it some time. I would like to see some indication things are moving in the right direction though.

Hey Gmann, just wondering - were you saying the same thing in Year 1 of Coach Luke Fickell? I'm not saying Wes is the answer, but you need to let him get a couple recruiting classes in before really knowing if he is it or not. This group he is working with is really a mish-mash of players, not necessarily a group put together with a purpose in mind. Personally, this group has exceeded my expectations. I do agree that JD and MS need a readjustment.

[Gmann]

Hey Gmann, just wondering - were you saying the same thing in Year 1 of Coach Luke Fickell? I'm not saying Wes is the answer, but you need to let him get a couple recruiting classes in before really knowing if he is it or not. This group he is working with is really a mish-mash of players, not necessarily a group put together with a purpose in mind. Personally, this group has exceeded my expectations. I do agree that JD and MS need a readjustment.

That comparison is not lost on me. The thing that disturbs me is the lack of discipline and effort which are not necessarily related to talent. I'm not advocating throwing in the towel on Miller I'd just like to see some sign that there is a plan. It's not evident from what I've seen.

[bearcat1518]

Zero 4 or 5 star recruits on roster last night for Houston...#6 in country and play lights out.

Sampson gets a helluva lot out of his players. Fabian White and Josh Carlton were not very good for the first four years of their careers...and look at them now. Foot work, shooting, intensity, no pouting on the floor.

[Jeff Burk]

Coach Sampson made a point to have a brief conversation with J Hensley during post game handshake. Curios as to what he said.

[Lobot]

I saw something yesterday that made me think a bit. Kelvin Sampson has gone and basically recruited the type of guys we used to recruit under Huggins and to some extent under Cronin and coached them way up. They remind me of UC in the 90s. They play as a team on offense and they pass the ball extremely well. They rebound well and defend well.

They did that us last night with two of their best players out for the season. Regardless of who was on the roster for UC, they would have beaten us last night. Houston shot over 50% on the road and 38% from 3 and that was after they cooled off from 3. We, on our home floor, shot 34% and 20%. You don't win many games shooting that poorly, home, road or neutral. The score would have much more lopsided if David Dejulius hadn't gone to line as often as he did. Without that we were probably looking something close to last year's tourney blowout against UH.

Also, between starters Newman and Ado, we got 3 pts and 2 rebounds. Total. I like these guys but they can't start if they 're going to have limited impact like that. Newman in particular is a guy who doesn't always show up on the stat sheet with the stuff he does, but he can't start over Oguama if he's not going to rebound.

Mike Saunders Jr. got 24 minutes last night on 1-6 shooting and took some very questionable shots. And it's not that he wasn't open on a lot of them, he just didn't make them and that's why no one guards him out there. Until he can make an outside shot reliably, teams are going to guard him to drive and make him one dimensional in the half court. Being the fastest guy on the floor doesn't matter if you can't put the ball in the hoop or find the guy who can sink shots.

Davenport plays with energy and emotion and I like that about him. His shooting is extremely streaky. Last night he was off quite a bit. They say shooters shoot and he definitely hoisted a few extraneous shots last night as well as a few that he shouldn't have taken.

I like that the offensive flow for UC is better than it was under some of our previous coaches but sometimes that early open look can hurt you if you miss them and we were missing them last night. I don't have the Houston transition stats but in particular Davenport likes to take early 3s in the shot clock. When he's on, it's great and when he's off like last night, it starts the fast break in the other direction because no one on this team can rebound the miss. They haven't even gotten position under the glass yet.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401377749

[BorisTheCat]

My statement of the obvious is that... we just don't have enough good players. We got out-rebounded by 13... We once again got nothing out of Madsen and Koval. For me, the focus/goal of the rest of the season really needs to focus on the guys that will be eligible to come back next year. In my mind, its not out of the realm of possibility that the roster may be upgraded via transfer or JC players. The current configuration of the roster will not work long term.. it was a stop gap.

[leo from jersey]

I watched the Miller/Sampson interchange after the game. To say it was brief was stating the obvious. A slight shake and a lowering of the eyes by KS. It is hard to judge by a picture so brief, but I didn't see much respect from KS to WM and no words of encouragement. KS did pause longer with some assistants. KS knows an undisciplined team when he sees one. He has all those 20 win seasons by demanding and coaching teams to be disciplined.

[leo from jersey]

BTW CLF's early teams while lacking talent, had some discipline and progress was seen even in defeat. Go back and listen to his after the game comments. There was I don't know why, but talk on how they were going to improve.

[Gmann]

BTW CLF's early teams while lacking talent, had some discipline and progress was seen even in defeat. Go back and listen to his after the game comments. There was I don't know why, but talk on how they were going to improve.

That's my concern, Leo. When I listen to Miller talk pre-garme I hear how good their practices are and when I hear post game there is not the level of concern there should be. It's more talk of how good the other team is and trust me (outside of Houston) they are not all that good. Just watch the level of play in other conferences. The players seem free to do anything they wish out there with no consequence. I think right now the team's record is better than their actual play. The arrow is definitely pointing downward.

[Rufus]

Lobot, your observations are spot on and unfortunately its been the very same observations since the Ark. loss. I especially took notice of "Being the fastest guy on the floor doesn't matter if you can't put the ball in the hoop or find the guy who can sink shots".

I know everyone was all in on Mike S. return when He went into the portal as was the case too with MM but seriously what contributions are they and Koval making to the team at this point. Im not disparaging certain players but His only contribution (speed) is on the minus side of bringing the ball to our side of the court only to give it to the opposing teams quicker. He's always out of control and I'd venture to guess that MM has less than 80 points total for the season as the 6th man and less than ten rebounds and were at game 24, 25? It has to be obvious to all the coaches that the tournament is a non factor at this point in the season. Lets take a vote, find out who's going ans who' s staying get the players who are going to be here next year some game experience. Also I know McGinnis was hurt earlier and he still may be but if hes not and JD and MM are throwing up bricks in these games then put McGinnis in. It cant look any worse.

[coach]

I saw something yesterday that made me think a bit. Kelvin Sampson has gone and basically recruited the type of guys we used to recruit under Huggins and to some extent under Cronin and coached them way up. They remind me of UC in the 90s. They play as a team on offense and they pass the ball extremely well. They rebound well and defend well.

They did that us last night with two of their best players out for the season. Regardless of who was on the roster for UC, they would have beaten us last night. Houston shot over 50% on the road and 38% from 3 and that was after they cooled off from 3. We, on our home floor, shot 34% and 20%. You don't win many games shooting that poorly, home, road or neutral. The score would have much more lopsided if David Dejulius hadn't gone to line as often as he did. Without that we were probably looking something close to last year's tourney blowout against UH.

Also, between starters Newman and Ado, we got 3 pts and 2 rebounds. Total. I like these guys but they can't start if they 're going to have limited impact like that. Newman in particular is a guy who doesn't always show up on the stat sheet with the stuff he does, but he can't start over Oguama if he's not going to rebound.

Mike Saunders Jr. got 24 minutes last night on 1-6 shooting and took some very questionable shots. And it's not that he wasn't open on a lot of them, he just didn't make them and that's why no one guards him out there. Until he can make an outside shot reliably, teams are going to guard him to drive and make him one dimensional in the half court. Being the fastest guy on the floor doesn't matter if you can't put the ball in the hoop or find the guy who can sink shots.

Davenport plays with energy and emotion and I like that about him. His shooting is extremely streaky. Last night he was off quite a bit. They say shooters shoot and he definitely hoisted a few extraneous shots last night as well as a few that he shouldn't have taken.

I like that the offensive flow for UC is better than it was under some of our previous coaches but sometimes that early open look can hurt you if you miss them and we were missing them last night. I don't have the Houston transition stats but in particular Davenport likes to take early 3s in the shot clock. When he's on, it's great and when he's off like last night, it starts the fast break in the other direction because no one on this team can rebound the miss. They haven't even gotten position under the glass yet.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401377749

The bottom line with where they are right now is they have to get a talented 4 or 5 who can give them 12 to 15 pts/8 rebounds. Until they get help inside it's really hard to judge the other players. When you are this limited offensively, and are not able to rebound or score well inside it limits much of what you can do. Houston has very good athletes and they can take away guards unlike a lot of other teams. It's not real hard when you have their talent and we are not a threat to do anything inside. Ado, Koval and Vik are just either not offensive inside threats or not ready for D1 play inside right now. You couple that with playing JD who is not a good jumper or quick and they're severely outmanned. I hope they bounce back Wednesday down South and win a game they have a shot at. However, tournaments and conference contention are on hold until they fix this roster.

[leo from jersey]

MS is fast, but no Puffy. "I was a defensive point guard," said Puffy, who also scored 1,002 points in his career, including 14.5 a game his senior season. "I was real quick, played for Ed Badger, we basically played man to man most of the games. I used to bring my man up and watch the ball and when guys would pass it I would just shoot in front of them." Held the steal record for well over 30 years. I watched him practice for the Dallas Mavericks in pre-season. He was a very nice guy. He also played under control. David Kennedy one of my favorites.