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Big WVU Win to Open Big 12 Play, then a Reality Check in Ames
79 Plays1 year ago
Welcome to Episode 11 of the No Conference for Old Men Podcast. The only year-round college basketball podcast focused on the Houston Cougars & Big 12 Conference.
The Cougars are now 14-1, ranked #2 for now in the AP Poll, have played 2 Big 12 games, & have now experienced life on the road in the Big 12. Truly No Conference for Old Men! We begin this episode with a summary of Houston's 1st 2 conference games, highlight a few other Big 12 games we watched, then transition to previewing the Cougars' upcoming conference games this week vs TCU & Texas Tech, and wrap up with a few other conference games of interest.
- No Conference for Old Men is available for free via Spotify / Apple Podcast / SoundCloud.
- Intro / Exit music: Ground Zero provided by FreeBeats.io
- Please follow us on https://gocoogs.com/category/podcast/no-conference-for-old-men/
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Hosts
00:00:01
Speaker
you
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome folks to the 11th episode of no conference for old men podcasts where three old guys are talking Houston Cougars basketball with a bit of big 12 coverage added in as well. And proud members of go Cougs.com network, the group that provides the deepest and broadest coverage of Houston Cougars content around conference play has begun gentlemen. And it was the tail of two games in our first two out against conference opponents. We pummeled West Virginia 89 55 at home in our conference opener.
00:00:36
Speaker
giving Cougar fans around the opportunity to puff out their chests with great pride to kick things off, but being part of No Conference for Old Men in the Big 12.
Analytics Approach Shift
00:00:46
Speaker
Reality comes quick as we travel to Ames, Iowa three days later in the middle of a bitter cold snowstorm for a tough close loss 57 to 53 to the cyclones in a game we almost pulled out. We're also at the point in the season where from advanced analytics perspective, I will begin to use our current season's statistics as our baseline to measure our play versus using last season's stats as I've been doing up to this point.
00:01:14
Speaker
So today we are all here again with Tom Lidiak, former coach, Bill Walker, former player, and myself, Steve Chang, analytics guy, for this week's episode. And we'll start off with our summary of the initial two conference games played by our Houston Cougars.
Episode Structure Overview
00:01:30
Speaker
Each highlight some key Big 12 games we watched as well.
00:01:35
Speaker
then move into a deep preview of the TCU and Tech games coming up this week, and finally highlight some other Big 12 games each of us will be paying attention to as well. Okay, let's get right into
Houston vs. West Virginia Analysis
00:01:47
Speaker
it. Lots to cover this week as we kicked off conference play. In recapping the two games played, let's start with West Virginia game. So Tom, what are your coach's thoughts on our 89-55 win over West Virginia?
00:02:01
Speaker
It was a blitzkrieg. Bill and Steve, we came out and it's like West Virginia had never seen this type of defense before. At one point we had a 68 to 29 lead. I wouldn't say West Virginia wasn't prepared. I know they're trying to mix in a lot of new players. Kirk Risa was just coming back. He had not been back very long, but it looked like they were.
00:02:26
Speaker
totally unprepared mentally against our defense. West Virginia didn't look connected at all. They kind of looked like a team, you know, that just assembled and, uh, Hey, you know, Hey, we're going to do this and let's go see if it works. But it was tough to see an identity that West Virginia had tough to see any type of role definition or cohesive, cohesiveness on offense or D you know, it doesn't help when you're trying to, you know, coach Eiler.
00:02:51
Speaker
Doesn't help when you have all these new players and you're trying to figure it out against our defense. That was not a good recipe for West Virginia. A few notes here. I actually thought when we played Texas State and A&M Corpus Christi that they played tougher D than West Virginia did. Even though we beat Texas State pretty good and A&M Corpus Christi pretty good, they put up a battle. I just didn't think West Virginia.
00:03:15
Speaker
I hardly put up any fight. I did like to see Xavier slam the ball. It was kind of the first time we see him this year when he got the ball in there. He had a chance to just go up and slam it, he did.
00:03:28
Speaker
That was good news. We're up 48, 22 and a half. Like I mentioned, a couple seconds ago, we got up 68 to 29. From then on, it was, I wouldn't say it's garbage time because there's no garbage time in a great program. But it's kind of hard to sustain when you're up by that many plane hit the rest of the world. Couple more notes I had here.
00:03:47
Speaker
At 6.30 in the first half, West Virginia goes to a 2-3 zone. And I heard Coach Sampson on the radio the other day mentioned that they had done a lot of prep for the 2-3 zone. I went ahead here and I charred it. We scored on the first seven possessions when West Virginia went to a zone. We were seven for seven, 10 total possessions. So we scored on eight out of 10 possessions. So very good job against their 2-3. Great job on a Raquan battle.
00:04:17
Speaker
just forced him into some really hideous shot. Yeah. You know, he did, I think he ended up with like four points. One was a slam at the end of the game, uh, on a breakaway. And he gave a stare right on that, that he gave a stare down after that dunk. It was like, uh, really? He only had dude scoreboard, man. Scoreboard did a great job on Noah Farrakhan. Matter of fact, he was introduced to the nation of defense. Yeah.
00:04:45
Speaker
And then I had a note here.
00:04:48
Speaker
It might be, you know, worth looking into as the season goes on, but I thought West Virginia was a lot better without Kirk crease in the game and Slazinski in the game. And I know the game was no longer in doubt. And sometimes those things are different. You know, once you get like a 40 point lead, you know, you might psychological, you might just not play as it's tough D or whatever, but totally in the game without creasing. So it's been skiing a lot better. So, you know, going forward, it might be something to see how coach Eiler
00:05:18
Speaker
deals with that situation. Cool. How about you, Bill? What were your thoughts on the game? Yeah, I thought, and it's a little difficult because Westford, at least right now, I think they will be good as they go forward. I think when they get Jesse Edwards bad, they're big guy. I think, yeah, I think they're going to be competitive, but this game was not start out with the defense as, as always. I mean, it was just tremendous sharp and done. Emmanuel started on battle done played him as well.
00:05:47
Speaker
They were all over him and he shot one of nine from the field. This is a guy that was scoring almost 20, around 28 a game coming into our game granted on over three games once he got his eligibility. But he, this guy averages about a half an assisted game. He does not pass the ball. He takes a ton of shots.
00:06:09
Speaker
We held them to only nine shots and he did have some fun, but three points for the game. And we held them overall to 32% and we held their starters to 29%. The defense was, as you said, it was, yeah, I'd mentioned that I thought this game would revert a little bit back to the norm and turn, turning them over. And, you know, with,
00:06:30
Speaker
Good ball handlers with Creesa, Farrakhan, Slazinski, who plays on the perimeter and passes. They only committed 12 turnovers for the game, five in the first half. So like I said, it reverted a little bit back toward the norm. And I think that's going to be more of the case as we get in the big 12 play and we play against better balls.
00:06:51
Speaker
We out rebounded him by six.
Houston vs. Iowa State Analysis
00:06:53
Speaker
I just thought played well, basically at both ends, but I definitely like to highlight the against because we don't talk about it as I thought we were, we were unbelievably good offensively. And, and this plays into what you were regarding how just mediocre defensively.
00:07:09
Speaker
They played primarily man, as you mentioned, they did play some two, three, and it just didn't. We took them apart. Cryer was his usual self. Francis, as you mentioned, he went right up with the ball. There was no hesitating. He went up, he dunked the ball, which is what he needs to be all the time. Dunn shot the ball well when he wasn't forcing the issue as much. And he was getting passes behind the arc off of Shedd's penetration.
00:07:39
Speaker
shot the ball. Well, Tuggler played an aggressive game. He had just the play of the game by far, but he had that Tomahawk off the pass from shed, which was awesome. I'm not expecting this to occur all that often, but we shot 53% from the field, nine of 18 from behind the arc, which was unreal. 12 of 14 from we just absolutely dominated them at both ends. The one guy didn't mention was sharp in terms of
00:08:08
Speaker
offense. He only shot the ball four times. He hit three, but he led us with seven boards. And once again, he was in battle's face the entire time. Incredible day. Yeah. And Eilert actually referred to us afterwards. And if you recall the last time I said that Eilert fully expected them to finish in the top half of the Big 12. And once again, I'll say what I said the first time. Good luck. Yeah, I completely agree.
00:08:36
Speaker
The starters were Shed, Cryer, Sharp, Roberts, and Francis again. As you guys said, team was zeroed in and we started fast and never looked back. Though Cryer was statistically the MVP of the game from an advanced analytics perspective with Ken Palm, I wanted to highlight two guys that really up their game in our first conference game.
00:08:56
Speaker
that was Javier Francis and Damien Dunn. Both were focused, not overwhelmed by the stage of Big 12 play, and the light just seemed to go on for both of these guys, continuing their great play from the previous game versus Penn. Cryer and Shed were statistically the stars. Cryer had 20 points for 7 from 3 point range and a plus 19.3
00:09:19
Speaker
Player box score plus minus went on the court. Shed had eight points, 11 assists, only one turnover and was a plus 20.3 player box score plus minus. But Francis was also a plus 10.8 and Dunn was a plus 12.3. Just fantastic contributions from both.
00:09:40
Speaker
Now from an advanced analytics perspective on offense, our effective field goal percentage, as you both highlighted, was off the charts good at 60.2% versus 50.8% for the season. And we protected the ball extremely well with a 7.7% turnover percentage versus our norm of 14.8% for the season.
00:10:02
Speaker
And we offensive rebounded a little bit below standard at 27.5% versus our norm of 41.4% this season. But that was because there were so few offensive rebounds to be had in this game, given how well we were shooting. So offensively, you're right. I think this is based on the opponent and our statistics, best offensive game of the season. Now on D, we played at a stellar level all game long.
00:10:30
Speaker
limiting West Virginia to 35.7% effective vehicle percentage, and that's well beyond our standard. Force them to 18.6 turnover percentage, which is below our standard, but probably what we should expect to see as you highlight it as well, Bill, given we're now into Big 12 play.
00:10:49
Speaker
We limited their 3-point percentage to an anemic 17.4%. And that's even lower than what we've been allowing all season long at 26.1%. And we're the third best 3-point defensive team in the country.
00:11:06
Speaker
And we blocked a staggering 27.3% of their two-point shots versus our standard during the course of this year at 20%. So as much as people were claimed, we patted our stats in pre-conference, feasting on weak teams. We exceeded almost every defensive stat from our number one ranked defense in our initial Big 12 game. Just incredible stuff.
00:11:29
Speaker
Okay, so now after that high that we had the game at ISU, which we didn't get the chance to preview. This was our first big 12 road game this season. And boy, was it a physical grinder of a game. Bill, why don't you kick us off and tell us what your thoughts were on our first loss of the season, 57 to 53 at Iowa State.
00:11:53
Speaker
Yeah, I'll talk a little less about this one because I was, I was on my feet from about, yeah, I sat during the 14 0 start and sharp hit the first three and I got up on my feet and I'd never sat again other than for it's at halftime.
00:12:12
Speaker
After the game, I was planning to do a little prep work for tonight. And I was just, pardon the language, I was so pissed off. Screw basketball for the rest of the night. I'm done. Give Iowa State credit. They played well. They played great defensively. They hit shots early. And they're freshmen who, by the way, is from just west of Milwaukee, from Peawake. If you're a Texans, where JJ Watt hit
00:12:39
Speaker
what could almost be considered a miracle shot. I mean, he's a great shoot, but now that was a... Yeah, two guys on him too.
00:12:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Turned out of the double team and shot it up. And Tom, you certainly would know this. It's tough as hell. The positives from the game, Sharp, from the minute the game started or very early on, Sharp did not seem to be the least bit intimidated by the atmosphere on the road, you know, at Hilton.
00:13:09
Speaker
He was ready to go from the beginning. He played a really solid game. He shot well. He saved us in the first half. He was great. And then shed, who had his poor a half, as I've seen him play, he came out in the second half and he was not going to let us lose. He played out of his mind in the second half.
00:13:30
Speaker
He blocked shots, he created turnovers, he hit shots. I mean, he was unbelievable in the second half. We shot, I think, exactly the same as they did. I think both teams shot 38%. The threes were similar. In the end, the difference was they were 18 of 22 from the line. We were 8 of 12 from the line. As much as that kind of irritates me when there's a big discrepancy,
00:13:56
Speaker
do foul more. And so you have to expect that we're so aggressive defensively, especially when we double and going up to block shots. And of course, we're playing on the road in the big 12. So it's something that you almost kind of have to expect. And
00:14:12
Speaker
Be prepared we averaged nine turnovers on the season. We had 11 in the first half 21 points scored in the first half I mean it looked to me like the team was just lost and there was no offense and by that I don't mean scoring even though there was no scoring 21 points, but it looked like we just abandoned running anything and prior shed, you know, we're putting the ball on the floor and
00:14:39
Speaker
trying to force their way to the basket and we turned the ball over. We didn't score at all inside. We didn't go inside at all. And it was tough. Even Sharp, who was hitting his shots, they weren't particularly coming out of the offense. He dribbled forward, dribbled backward, dribbled, create a little space and put up the shot and fortunately was hitting them. I mean, we had eight assists for the entire game. Yeah.
00:15:06
Speaker
Couple more players to mention since I'm in on the negatives right now. I think Dunn was completely overwhelmed by that. He just looked lost, which was a little bit frustrating, actually a lot frustrating. And then.
00:15:21
Speaker
Our one player who's won a national championship and has played in these games, Cryer, he just kind of didn't show up. If he shoots the ball well, if he just comes to play, I think we win the game. With that said,
00:15:39
Speaker
Yeah, I had mentioned last time that we're going to lose some games and you can't think the sky's falling and we're going to die. I mean, this is actually as poorly as we played in the first half. I think this is a great game to learn from. I think Calvin will have a lot to work with these guys on. And, you know, we're a smart team. We play well, we respond well to
00:16:02
Speaker
Calvin's coaching. I think this will be a positive run, I hope, and we'll bounce back. Yeah, agreed. I want to at least leave it on a somewhat positive. Yeah. How about you, Tom? Oh, boy. I got a lot to talk about.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, you were actually at the game, right? I was, yeah, I was actually at the game, uh, made the trek down there through the conditions, uh, you know, road conditions. Um, I'm still glad I made it. Uh, my nephew is a senior at Iowa state, so went to the game with him and he was telling me all about the Iowa state players and all that. So I got a little scout report on them and stayed over his apartment overnight. So I didn't have to drive back, but you know, from the get-go.
00:16:45
Speaker
It was almost like we were shocked at somebody coming after us. Like we come after them. Uh, I'm not sure what, what the deal was. Uh, we thought we just want to come in and Hey, we're number two in the country. You know, we're undefeated and it's almost like we got sucker punched and took us a while to recover. We held them to 57 points and you take away a couple of breakaway layups due to our offense.
00:17:09
Speaker
We hold them to the low 50s, so defensively it was there, but our offensive ineptitude wasn't enough to carry us, tough road atmosphere. The road atmosphere could have been worse. Iowa State students aren't in session yet, so they have two sections for them behind the backboard and it goes all the way up to the upper deck.
00:17:31
Speaker
Normally, I'd say that's probably 2,500 to 3,000 students at the game. And so those tickets went to the general public. So I'd say there was only about 60% capacity last night. Could have been even a rougher.
00:17:45
Speaker
road environment, but first couple of possessions, you know, we couldn't even run a dribble handoff with our big guys. I would say just blew it up one time, went off sheds knee, I think it was, and ended up being a transition bucket on the other end. I don't know if, you know, how we do our dribble handoffs, if the big man is supposed to dribble at them and kind of set a screen, but we just allow the defender to get in between our big man on the dribble handoff and our offensive player.
00:18:12
Speaker
You know, the second time we ran one sharp, almost traveled, Iowa state. I haven't watched the whole game. I'm going to go back and I'm going to rewatch the whole game, but.
00:18:21
Speaker
I know Iowa State, they might vary their coverages on the pick and roll, but they started off in what's called drop coverage where on the pick and roll, if you're guarding the big man, he, he drops down the kind of into the paint. And if you're guarding the ball, you know, you go over the top and you apply pressure to the back and we just didn't handle that very well. There's three, four, five different ways you're going to attack that drop coverage and none of them really worked. You know, our bigs.
00:18:48
Speaker
They're not really good short rolling, you know, you could short roll them and, and get the ball of them kind of in the middle of the floor and then have to make a play. But that's just not the type of offensive players, you know, we have, as far as our bigs go, we recruit bigs first to play defense, you know, pick and roll, defense and rebound.
00:19:05
Speaker
You know, a lot of times it comes up to matchups and just the way other teams play. And maybe this was just not a good matchup for us. Just the way I would say played, but I thought we were just like shocked and surprised several times. You know, we were kind of dribbling aimlessly and they came over and they trapped us. And we had basically three, four guys just kind of standing around and that's what we do to teams hats off to Iowa state. You got to give credit to them too, but I don't think we played like we
00:19:35
Speaker
Like we normally do. LJ now is 0-4 at Hilton. My nephew tells me, uh, you know, he was 0-3 as a Baylor bear and 0-1 as a Houston Cougar at the Hilton Coliseum. Oh, at last shot by LJ. Some people are saying maybe sharp shed.
00:19:52
Speaker
I should have had the last chance on that shot, but I don't know if he was supposed to do it, but I don't know if Joanne was supposed to screen L.J.'s man, but he didn't screen him, and maybe if Joanne screens L.J.'s man, he doesn't have to rush his shot as much. I reran that play about 10 times, and my guess is that Joanne is supposed to screen L.J.'s man, and he just ran right by him, and nobody screened L.J.'s man. I thought he kind of had to rush the shot, but it is what it is.
00:20:21
Speaker
Tough loss for the Cougs. Gotta give Iowa State credit. I watched a little bit of their Oklahoma game and it was tough for me to see how good both teams are.
00:20:31
Speaker
But now we know. Yep. Yeah. By the way, I'm sorry. By the way, they're the number four defensive. I mean, we're now prepared in case we go up against them again, say in the big 12 tournament, but we're not going to face something that aggressive again.
Upcoming Games Preview: TCU and Texas Tech
00:20:48
Speaker
Agreed. They're not against a team like Kansas. Yeah. Sorry to butt in, but you know, there's, there are some things that happen in the game that maybe don't happen in a normal game. Uh,
00:20:58
Speaker
Second half. I can't remember what the situation was, but there was a loose ball. I thought we were going to come up with, and Lipsey came up with it and hit a tough shot with a guy in his face. Kind of the elbow. Rob Jones, their big guy, flip a coin on free throws. He's like a 50, 55% shooter. Hit them all. He makes all four of his foul shots. Somebody said, I would say fans were joking that
00:21:24
Speaker
you know, he got hit hard on that and hit his head and he forgot how to miss free throws. Trey King, Trey King in the second half, he hit a big three and that might have been his, that might have been his first three, first made three of the year. Yeah, that was a killer. And then of course, and then of course the, the shot by mom, mom Salova. I can't pronounce his name. It's just, I don't know. I got another name for him. I can't say on this show, but
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah. You know, we had shed on him and they threw it into him. And then, you know, Roberts comes over to the double team and he just turns away from, from Roberts and hits that tough shot. Yeah. So what could you do? Right? I mean, it is what it is. Yeah. Give, you know, give Iowa state credit. They held serve on their, on their home court. It's a tough pill to swallow. You know, Ryan said,
00:22:17
Speaker
Coach Sampson looked kind of bummed at the press conference and it's on to the next. You can't sit and dwell on individual plays in the game. Players are taught that when you make a mistake, it's over. You got like 0.001 seconds to get it out of your head. The same with this game here. We got TCU, the sellout crowd on Saturday coming up.
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, for this one, no surprise around the nature of the game. It was a slow grinding defense first style for both teams. And they were motivated after losing to OU and a close one in their conference opener. Then they come back and find out they were the underdogs at home in the next game versus us. So the motivation was there.
00:23:00
Speaker
Starters remain the same for us, Shed Cryer, Sharp, Roberts, and Francis. I will note, though, to start the second half, surprisingly to me, Tugler started, yeah, in front of Francis, which I wasn't sure because as I'm going to get to, I thought Francis played a great game, right? Especially given the stage and the opponent.
00:23:21
Speaker
We started super slow, as we all know, going down 14-0 to start off the game with four turnovers in the process of doing so. We appeared to be shell shocked, quite honestly, turning the ball over throughout the first half and just appearing flustered.
00:23:37
Speaker
Dug such a deep hole to kick things off that it just became a slow slog Trying to chip away at the lead the rest of the game if you break the game into quartiles like Ken Palm does first quartile Killed us we steady the ship in the second quartile of the game Caught up in the third quartile and just made some key mistakes and misses at the end to lose a close one
00:24:02
Speaker
Emmanuel Sharp I would say was by far our top player of the game and I thought he had an exceptional game. He was a plus minus plus 16.9 player box score plus minus for the game and was the primary player that kept us within reach throughout the game.
00:24:20
Speaker
Those shed contributed a key 14 points and was a plus six player box score plus minus. He also contributed five turnovers and his running mate. Cryer only had five points and was a minus.
00:24:35
Speaker
5.4 player box score plus mine done is we've highlighted wilted a bit under the constant pressure of Iowa state. He was a negative 15.2, but the kid I will highlight really coming through playing well for us, you know,
00:24:51
Speaker
Beyond Sharp was Javier Francis with some inspired play, three games in a row now for him, and he came in at a plus 8.7 in a tough physical game. As you dig into the advanced analytics from Ken Palm on offense, ISU stifled us.
00:25:08
Speaker
and doing to us what we've been doing to others. Our effective field goal percentage was an abysmal 45% versus our norm of 50.8% for the year. We did not protect the ball well with a turnover percentage at 26.4% when our norm is just under 15%. And we offensive rebounded a little bit below standard at 32.4%. And to top it off, we shot
00:25:36
Speaker
26.4% from three, well below our 35% norm. But you know what, guys? On D, we played another stellar game. I mean, we limited ISU to 41.5% effective field goal percentage, which was to our number one ranked standard this year, right? We limited three point percentage to 20%, which is even below our number one ranked 26.1% rate this season.
00:26:06
Speaker
We forced them to a pretty good 19.2% turnover rate. We blocked 15.6% of their two-point shots, which maybe not to our standard, but would still be ranked number 10 in the nation this season. So basically, we played to our number one defensive standard and then some. But at the end, it was the turnovers and missing a few point-blank shots towards the end that really did us in.
00:26:33
Speaker
So a tough loss for our Cougars, but some really positive play in one of the toughest environments around from Emmanuel Sharp and Javi Francis. I'm still feeling really good about how the kids are playing in general and believe we'll learn from the tough D that we faced and will adjust. But tough upcoming games at TCU next and hosting Texas Tech this coming week.
00:26:57
Speaker
So for week one, I guess before we start previewing our upcoming games, what other game did each of you watch in big 12 play? And what was some of the key takeaways? I'm going to interject here real tough, but with nine 47 left in the game, UCF is beating Kansas 52 to 47. Really? Wow. Yeah. Right.
00:27:22
Speaker
Kansas probably pull it out, you know, but with some, some of their usual calls that they get, right? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They'll call out their calling card. Anyway, I'll go first on this one. Are we talking about the game we watched or the game you watched in big play? I watched the first half of Iowa state, uh, Oklahoma's game. And now that we've played Iowa state, I'm going to go back and watch that game a little carefully. I want to see how OU.
00:27:49
Speaker
attacked ISU's drop coverage because OU scored 71 points on Iowa State. So I'm going to go back and take a little bit better look at that one and just see how OU attacked it and see where they're hurt Iowa State and see what Coach Sampson does the next time we play Iowa State. But I was watching that game and it was so early in the season, it was kind of hard to see what
00:28:14
Speaker
what each team has and how good they are. Well, now we know how good Iowa state is. OU is on the road tonight. They're playing, I believe it's TCU. So let's see how they can play on the road. But, uh, that was my summarization of the game I watched. Okay. How about you, Bill? Which game did you watch?
00:28:34
Speaker
Well, I watched it toward the end because it was somewhat coincided with TCU CAN, questionable Kansas. With TCU's up 8179, TCU's son Ernest Yuda, he's the transfer from CAN.
00:28:50
Speaker
gets a rebound with under a minute left, Hunter Dickinson's kind of battling for it as well, and gets a completely incidental, non-intentional hand to the face, and he just crumbles to the court, writhing in pain. If he doesn't fall, the game is not stopped. It's a five on four for TCU, up two points. Instead, the officials stop play. They go to the monitor at Fog Allen, by the way.
00:29:18
Speaker
And a flagrant one is called and Dickinson hits the two free throws. They get the ball back. They work the ball down to three and a half seconds left. 3.4 seconds is when Dickinson hit the shot.
00:29:32
Speaker
But if you watch it, it looked semi-obvious that he kind of shuffled his feet before putting up the winning basket. And is there a call at Fogg Allard? Of course not. So TCU ends up losing the game 83-81. You know, TCU, from what I watched second half and then saw the box score and we were paying it to the score during the
00:29:56
Speaker
They played well, they shot well, which is sort of their trademark this year. They're not very good inside. Dickinson scored 30, McCullough and Adams.
00:30:08
Speaker
Adam scored 18, McCullers scored 16. That's really been what Kansas has done all year. They've got three players who kind of carry them in scoring. They don't have much more in terms of contributions. And I think that's going to come back to haunt them. The other thing is they are just not, and Tom, you've alluded to this before, Kansas is soft. They've got big players, but they are soft. They're not defending well.
00:30:37
Speaker
I'm actually looking forward when we play them. TCU was led by a player who hadn't, I think he may have transferred in from A&M Corpus Christi, Travion Tennyson, six of eight, three pointers, 24 points. He's a guy that Jamie Dixon, the TCO coach, likes a lot. Miller there, who will talk about their best player was. TCU is
00:31:00
Speaker
almost not quite, but kind of a polar opposite of Iowa State. So it'll be an interesting game. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And for me, I zeroed in on the Texas, Texas tech game in bill. As you know, we have that standing bet on whether tech or BYU will end the season higher in the standings with me picking tech. I will, I will say hadn't been feeling great about my choice lately, but conference play allows hope to be renewed.
00:31:30
Speaker
Tech won their first two conference games while BYU lost both of theirs. So I'm pretty happy about my pick again at this point But kind of on to the tech Texas game that I watched Texas started fast and ran out to a 17-10 lead Then the wheels came off with Toussaint scoring
Big 12 Games of Interest Discussion
00:31:48
Speaker
at will against a Smith's
00:31:51
Speaker
who was playing soft D and tag team with Pop Isaacs to help the Red Raiders take a 37-33 lead at the half. Then it was pretty close the rest of the way with Tech pulling away on the road in the fourth quarter of the game. Though Joe Toussaint played a major role,
00:32:06
Speaker
in that stretch that got them back into the game, the key players for tech were Pop Isaacs and Warren Washington. Now, one game doesn't define a season, but this is what we all kind of talked about in the preseason, where the big question we had with UT was, hey,
00:32:23
Speaker
Could Terry kind of maintain the intensity and effort on D that we saw last year built by Chris Beard? So far the season beyond just this game we're seeing them devolve into a mediocre team, right? So there are like 39th overall in Ken Pong and then especially on D where they've dropped to number 54 in adjusted defensive efficiency and then you compare that to
00:32:50
Speaker
They're just a defensive efficiency ranking of 14th last year and 13th with beer present. So again, there's still the rest of the season, but it's only going to get tougher for them. So I'm actually looking forward to the UT game, quite honestly. Now let's get to the game preview for the upcoming UH TCU matchup. Tom, you want to kick off and tell us what you think? I don't know a whole lot about TCU. Matter of fact, I haven't seen them
00:33:18
Speaker
played this year I just know that coach Jamie Dixon's he's an excellent coach I hear it's gonna be a sellout crowd it's a road game TCU's got a tough one tonight they're at home against
00:33:32
Speaker
Oklahoma. Be a good chance for Coach Sampson and his staff to watch one game, to focus on a game here tonight. Look at TCU in person, plan for this one. They'll give him coaching staff Thursday and Friday to prepare individually, specifically for this TCU game. So you guys probably know more about
00:33:53
Speaker
TCU than I do bill watch that game and just so but it's gonna be another you know What is the Kellen column street fights? Yeah, you know every row games a street fight rock fight. I expect us to come back and Bounce back from the the tough loss at Iowa State and to come out loaded for bear having said that and we talked about done earlier and
00:34:16
Speaker
For this team to really take off, we need some productive minutes from, from done and from Ramon to, and even, even Malik Wilson. We just can't go out. I just don't think we can go through this season relying on six guys. Yeah. Agreed. I mean, Bill, what do you think? Well, once again, TCU is going to be.
00:34:38
Speaker
a lot different than what you just alluded on because they play about 10 people. Nobody on the team plays more than 30 minutes of the top 10. They all play at least 10 or more. This is a deep team. It's a very, very new and it's led to some interesting games so far. I know I've previously mentioned the impressive one point win at Georgetown when they really lost the game, but banked the three at the end of it.
00:35:04
Speaker
after dribbling out of bounds. They're 0-1 in conference with the one loss, and I'm doing air quotes right now, being the loss. They're 11-3 overall. Interestingly, Jamie Dixon going into tonight has 498 career wins. So if he beats Oklahoma, he'll be going for number 500 against us. But they're in a just a brutal stretch. I mean, at Kansas versus OU, and then they
00:35:33
Speaker
finalize that three-game stretch by playing us. So we catch them, I think, at a reasonably good time. They lost to Clemson. They lost to the services. Their best player, and I mentioned him versus Kansas, is Emmanuel Miller, 6'7", forward. He was honorable to mention all Big Ten where he's a 50% shooter. Their whole team are good shooters. He's a good rebounder. He's
00:35:54
Speaker
He's a three-year starter for them. He's a good player. They've got another forward who's now coming off the bench, who's their second leading. Jacoby Coles, he's just a solid player. And then a third, six, seven player guard, Micah Pete, transfer from Tech. He's their third leading scorer. Shoots over 50% from, again, they're not great three-point shoots, but
00:36:16
Speaker
If they're left alone, they'll hit their shots. The three other starters, Avery Anderson, 6'3", transfer from Oklahoma State. He's
Final Thoughts and Invitation to Subscribe
00:36:25
Speaker
their point guard. He's shooting 48%, leads men assists. Travion Tennyson, who I mentioned, who had the 24 against Oklahoma, 6'4", 2 guard from A&M Corpus, really, really good shoot. And then their center is the transfer from Kansas. McDonald's All-American, Ernest Yuda, and he is
00:36:43
Speaker
going to play. He's 6'9", he's a big guy. He is not going to step outside of the three feet from the basket. He rebounds, he scores inside exclusively and so he's not going to be like Slazinski or some of the big guys we've played recently move the ball. They're a high scoring team. They've
00:37:04
Speaker
They've eclipsed 100 three times this. They're a good shooting team, good offensive team. The lowest scoring game they've had is 65 in a, and it was a 14 point. Like I said, they've got a lot of new players. It's still been a little up and down for them. They're not a good inside team other than, you know, you dad, but not much off the bench and he's not really an offensive threat.
00:37:28
Speaker
but they're deep at guard, deep on the wing. And I think teams that have good guards typically struggle against our defense, struggle against shed, struggle against prior. And, uh, I see about a 78 to 70. Okay. Now that's good. I mean, looking at the advanced analytics, Houston is still number one in Ken Palm versus TCU at number 29. If you look at from an adjusted offensive efficiency perspective, Houston's number 17th.
00:37:56
Speaker
while TCU is number 41 in adjusted defensive efficiency. On the flip side, we are number one in adjusted defensive efficiency while TCU is number 40 in adjusted offensive efficiency. TCU is a better shooting team than us at number 38 in effective vehicle percentage and an excellent offensive rebounding team ranked number 20th in offensive rebound percentage.
00:38:20
Speaker
Plus, they try to score quick in transition with the tempo at number 37 in the country. And they're number two in quick points off steals and number five in quick points off offensive rebounds based on Haslam metrics, a trend we've seen with TCU these past two seasons in terms of speeding things up from a style of play perspective. They also emphasize the two point play versus the three ranking number 12 in percentage of points from the two point range.
00:38:50
Speaker
Then you match that up with our number one effective vehicle percentage D that defends every shot and our number one ranked defensive team and defending the two point play and block percentages. And I think our D actually matches up well with how TCU wants to play offense. On the other side of the ball, TCU is good at defending shooters, ranking number 83 and
00:39:14
Speaker
defensive effective field goal percentage, but really elite at forcing turnovers, being number 11th in Ken Palm and steel percentage ranking fifth. So another challenging day for our Cougs trying to protect the ball on offense. Based on the metrics, kind of like what you said, Bill, this should be an eight point type of win.
00:39:35
Speaker
But being on the road again against a Tufti that's just below our excellent threshold at number 41, I'm expecting something a little bit closer, like a four point win. But I think we're going to try to slow things down to prevent their ability for transition points as they like to do. So now let's go to the game preview for the upcoming Houston Tech matchup. Bill, why don't you kick things off and let us know what you think. OK.
00:40:04
Speaker
Right now, they're 13-2. The two losses, Villanova, they lost to Butler by 8-0. I know you guys have mentioned Grant McCaslin, that he's a good defensive coach. In that Butler loss, admittedly, it went into OT. They lost 103-95. They've been giving up points this year. They're not the same. McCaslin's in his first attack. He's got different players, and it's not quite
00:40:30
Speaker
playing out that way. Their best win, I think, clearly is the win at Techs that they just had. Here's where I think, Steve, you're going to be in trouble with our bet. And this is because Tech only plays six players, and I think they're going to wear down this season. They played seven quite a bit, but they've got a forward who led them in sport a few times early in the season. Devin Cambridge blew out his knee versus the University of Omaha. He's done for the year.
00:40:59
Speaker
They're really down to playing six players and that's it. As you mentioned before, Pop Isaacs, he's their guy. He's, you know, 17 points a game. He's 6'2", two guard. Joe Toussaint is a six foot point guard. He's, uh, he's their second leading scorer, 14 men assists. They're the two best players. Warren Washington, you mentioned Steve, he, I would say he's number three, seven footer, but he's not a, and he, and he grabs about
00:41:29
Speaker
eight boards and blocks a couple of shots a game, but he's not a really physical presence, but he's a good player as well. And they play a, you know, it's, it's, it's Washington and then it's for Gar. It could be a good matchup for us. They do not turn the ball over.
00:41:46
Speaker
Their guards are all capable of scoring. They're 2-0 on the conference right now. The UT road win, and then Oklahoma State, they annihilated it. All four of the guards, I think they all put up double digit shots. One of them may have put up mine, but if they've got the shot, they'll take it. Once again, they're led by Isaacs. And with the exception of maybe Walton,
00:42:12
Speaker
If they're left open, they're going to hit things. That's Kerwin-Waltz. You know, look for Isaacs, Toussaint, I think to be kind of contained much better than they have been in any of their previous games by Shed and Cryer. And I think, you know, that's a trendy thing to say right now is the head of a snake. Well, their guards, Isaacs for sure and Toussaint, would be the co-heads of this. And I think going up against Cryer and Shed,
00:42:39
Speaker
that's going to neutralize them. And I also think with them only playing six players, our defensive pressure is going to wear them down. And I think we end up winning by, you know, 13, 14, 77, six. Okay. How about you, Tom, from a coach's perspective? Yeah, Bill mentioned about
00:42:58
Speaker
You know, Grant McCaslin coming from, uh, was it North Texas? Uh, I just kind of figured technically be playing games in the fifties and low sixties. They've been scoring a lot of points, but they'd also been giving up a lot of points. It's probably going to take him a couple of years to get the roster that he wants. I thought it took coach Sampson his third year to, to kind of get the roster that he wanted, you know, player one through 13, uh, the fittest culture.
00:43:26
Speaker
So yeah, I'm kind of surprised at the amount of points they're scoring and the amount of points they're giving up. Bill alluded to that game against Butler where they gave up. You know, Pop Isaacs, I know he's got some allegations against him. And I guess we'll just have to see what happens with that. But if they lose him, you know, Bill said they're only playing six guys. So it's going to be tough for Tech. But as it is right now, you're innocent until proven guilty. And they're just allegations. So it kind of looks like they're going to let everything go through the courts. And they're going to go from there.
00:43:56
Speaker
but they're a good team. It's going to be a, be another rock fight. Yeah, completely agree. I mean, if you look at advanced analytics, UHS, we've stated we're number one and Ken Palm still tech is number 26.
00:44:08
Speaker
So they're right up there. If you look at it from an adjusted offensive efficiency perspective, we're number 17. And even though we're saying tech is not as good defensively as North Texas State was, and that is a true statement, they are still ranked number 43rd in adjusted defensive efficiency. So that's just below our threshold of excellence.
00:44:30
Speaker
On the flip side, adjust to defensive efficiency. We're number one. And then on the offensive side, tech is number 29 in the country. Tech is an even better shooting team than TCU at number 36 in effective vehicle percentage, but are not that great of an offensive rebounding team at number 99 in the country.
00:44:50
Speaker
They're very similar to us in slowing things down on offense while playing tough D. From a solid play perspective, they also emphasize the three-point shot in free throws more than the two, ranking 278th in percentage of points from two-point range. Then you match that up against our No. 1 effective field goal percentage D that defends every shot, and our No. 3 defensive team in defending three-point shot and block shots.
00:45:18
Speaker
I think our D is prepared to handle what Tech will throw at us on offense. On the other side, Tech is good at almost everything on D, but not great at anything, quite honestly. Nothing hitting our excellent threshold of top 40 in the country. They're number 83 in defensive effective field goal percentage. One error they don't focus too much on is stealing the ball with a steal percentage rate ranked
00:45:43
Speaker
number 230th in Ken Palm this year, so the coup should have an easier time protecting the ball on offense against Tech. Based on the metrics, this should be around a 12-point win, similar to what you were
00:45:56
Speaker
espousing Bill. Though playing at home, I believe tech is now getting into form playing a bit better than early on. So I'm expecting an eight point win with another grinded out physical game like against Iowa State. But hopefully this time with a foul calls going a bit more our way this game. So now.
00:46:16
Speaker
Why don't we take a look at other big 12 games in the coming week that fans should pay attention to this week that are of interest? And Tom, why don't you go first? Any game that you're zeroing in on in particular? Yeah, I was looking at OU at KU. The game's on Saturday. OU is tipping off right now at TCU. So if Oklahoma can win that game, they'd be 2-0 heading into Fog Allen. And I think that would be a great game.
00:46:46
Speaker
As you guys know, to beat Kansas at the fog, you've got to be about eight to 10 points better on that particular night. We know what happens at the fog. So, but I'm looking at this. Kansas is down 63 to 57 to UCF with 40 seconds left, guys. Awesome. That's awesome. Love it. And you know what? You know, I'll put it mildly, but I'm sick and tired of these KU fans on social media.
00:47:15
Speaker
They just, you know, they just appear in everybody's feeds and, you know, they talk about our cupcake schedule and all this. Well, you know what? You're about to get beat by UCF. Hey, Tom, you know, I actually take it the other way. I'm not offended at all. Cause we're in KU fans' head right now. They are commenting on all of our feeds these days. It goes back to the five slamajama days. They were the most arrogant.
00:47:44
Speaker
fans you know i don't know what it what it was i just remember greg dryling shooting a turnaround jumper and a team just like shoving it down his throat you know i'll never forget that game at hawthines where we we just obliterated kansas so i don't know what i i can't
00:48:05
Speaker
I can't stand Kansas fans. If there's any Kansas fans to listen, I'm sure they're not. But they're too arrogant to listen to us anyway. Hey, that's what makes great rivalries. I'm looking forward to our two games this season versus KU. Hey, how about you, Bill?
00:48:20
Speaker
What game are you searing in on? Yeah, I was looking at tech against Kansas State. One, because we've got tech coming up, and I like to take a look at our coming opponents. Awesome. We haven't talked much about state. For tech, there's not a whole lot to say that hasn't already been said. It's Pop Isaacs, it's Joe Toussaint, it's Warren Washington, four guard offense, and they've got no doubt. I think against us, that's going to hurt them. And I think against Kansas State,
00:48:49
Speaker
it could hurt. Kansas State, just real quickly, they're 2-0 in conference, but the two wins are by 25 over UCF, which bodes even better for Kansas, and they beat West Virginia on the road.
00:49:05
Speaker
their best player he's let him in scoring six of the 15 games is Tyler Perry the 511 lead he's let him in assists 11 times so he's a really good player their leading scorer is a 6-3 two guard Cam Carter and he's let him in scoring half a dozen times Arthur Columas let him in scoring a few times he's good player 6-7 forward and David Nagesen 6-9 for lead seven they've lost
00:49:31
Speaker
They're three games they lost to Miami, they lost to Southern Cal, they lost at Holmden. And their two best wins are Providence and Carter plays 36 minutes a game, Perry plays, Kaluma plays 35 minutes, Negresson plays 28, and they've got a couple others that play 21 and that's it.
00:49:50
Speaker
It's six guys that play for them, and that has nothing to do with injuries. That's just, you know, they've got six pretty good players and no bench. And, you know, they lost to 17 plus point per game scorers last year from last year's team that made a deep run. Mark East Noel and Kiante Johnson, they just laughed. The game's at tech.
00:50:14
Speaker
think that Tech will hold on only because they're playing at home. And I see them winning 75-70. Okay, very cool. But it's going to be Perry and Carter versus Isaacson Toussaint, which I think will be a really interesting and fun matchup. Yeah, I completely agree.
00:50:30
Speaker
So I'm picking the Baylor Cincy game Baylor started 2-0 with wins over Oki State and a close one and BYU at home while Cincy is 1-1 with wins at BYU and a last-second loss to Texas Unfortunately, but this should be a good game with strength versus strength Baylor is the best three-point shooting team in the country at 45% from three-point range but are not that great of an offensive rebounding team and
00:50:58
Speaker
And while it will be a challenge for Cincy's defenders on the perimeter, but on misses, Cincinnati is number two in Ken Palm for defensive rebound percentage. On the other side, Baylor has become only good on D since drum tank left for KSU.
00:51:13
Speaker
But best attribute on that side is defending the three-point shot where they're ranked 54th in defensive three-point percentage defense. The issue is, Cincy focuses more on the two-point shot and getting quick points off offensive rebounds, ranking 10th in Haslam metrics. So this should be a fun one. Based on the metrics, this should be around an eight-point win for Baylor at home, but I also believe Cincy is now getting into form and playing better than early on.
00:51:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's gonna be a real close one maybe a three-point win by Baylor So that's it for this episode 11 of no conference for old men podcast Hope you all enjoyed it and again would really appreciate it if folks would follow subscribe or collect our podcast Depending on your podcast platform of choice. We are also available on Goku's calm under the podcast section or SoundCloud as well if those that prefer to digest the content that way and
00:52:07
Speaker
We appreciate the continued support and loyalty from all and we're going to keep trying to provide the type of deep college hoops insights for Cougar and Big 12 fans alike. Also, please give us a follow on our Twitter account, no conference for old men. Thank you all again for listening and episode number 12 should come out next Friday morning. So please be on the lookout to download and listen the next episode. Thanks again, everyone.