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A tight loss vs. Auburn, but Louisiana up Wed Night
72 Plays5 months ago
Welcome to a quick-hit Episode #32 of the No Conference for Old Men Podcast.
Our Cougars are 1-1 after a tough loss to Auburn at the Toyota Center, where both teams came out slugging in a March-like affair. Unfortunately, Auburn was just a little bit better in handing the Coogs a 74-69 defeat. But a quick turnaround awaits to right the ship vs Louisiana-Lafayette back home in the Fertitta Center.
Please have a listen as we continue to provide a detailed breakdown of UH's next game and track the team's progress throughout this season.
- No Conference for Old Men is available for free via Spotify / Apple Podcast / SoundCloud & the GoCoogs.com website; we're also available via the Republic of Football Podcast feed from the folks at Dave Campbell's Texas Football as their only basketball-centric offering
- Intro / Exit music: Ground Zero provided by FreeBeats.io
- Please follow us on gocoogs.com/old-men/
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode and Recent Loss
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome folks to the episode number 32 of the No Conference for Old Men podcast. The podcast where three old guys are talking Houston Cougars basketball with a bit of Big 12 coverage added in as well. And proud members of the Goku's.com network, the undisputed number one Houston Cougars content provider.
00:00:25
Speaker
So we've got a quick turnaround with another episode just a few days after our tough, tough loss in game number two versus now number five Auburn this past Saturday, because we've got a game tomorrow on tap versus Louisiana Lafayette. This will be somewhat of an abbreviated episode where we'll each go into the painful details related to the Auburn loss and then get into the preview of our one game this week versus Louisiana as the team attempts to course correct a bit Tom.
Analyzing the Auburn Game
00:00:54
Speaker
Why don't we get started off with your viewpoint from our Auburn 74-69 loss at the Toyota Center? Well, first of all, the guys, it was a heavyweight matchup this early in the season, you know, just ah two games into the season. We got off to a really good start. We were up by nine points, and I think in the last 15 minutes, I think we gave up. I think it was around four to three points. A lot of people want to talk about offense. Offense, you know, they get obsessed about that. but The game was one or lost on the on the defensive end. I think they shot like 57%, which is unheard of against a ah Kelvin team, usually at percentages around 37%. Don't wanna make excuses, but you know there's a lot of things that Kelvin's gonna go back and he's gonna look at. And I'm sure he was relishing the opportunity to have the film session and and tell his team is that, I told you guys last two months, you know
00:01:52
Speaker
I wouldn't say didn't listen, but I think now it's a learning process. ah Bill and I were talking before he came on the show, you know, the pick and pick and roll defense was really, I wouldn't say exposed and Kelvin said, we're not going to go back and reinvent the wheel. You know, you just have to do what you do and do it better. I thought in the pick and roll defense, our bigs didn't get up to the line of scrimmage. In other words, they didn't ah get up close to the ball handler.
00:02:19
Speaker
and make it uncomfortable for him to to pass the ball. The bigs are playing a little too far back and with their hands down, I call it dead hands and the Auburn's guards were able to then to hand a short roller. And then they end up with ah basically like a, like a four on a four on three. Pettiford had a huge game for, for Auburn. And once again, all we had on him besides his high school You know, film is the game against Vermont where he shot over for, uh, we did a great job on their other two shooters, mouse Kelly. And I'm not sure who the other one you had peg, uh, peggy weeks. And you had a few others, but did a really, did a really good job on them. But like I said, you know, it was petit Ford that, that, that killed us broom inside. He got some angles on our bigs, especially, especially Joe, Joe. And, you know,
00:03:15
Speaker
This is all on film. Kelvin's a Hall of Fame coach and he'll go back there and he'll take a look at the game. And he has a couple of days to work on that. But here's the deal. I'd rather have us play a team like Auburn this early in the year and kind of have these things exposed so Kelvin can come back and tell the team, you know, this is what we need to work on.
Expectations for Louisiana Game
00:03:38
Speaker
And then You know, get after it as opposed to playing nine or 10 cupcakes where a lot of your mistakes are covered up because you're going to win by four year 50 anyways, and it kind of falls on deaf ears. But you know, when you lose a game, it seems like you get the, the team's attention, you know, a little bit more and, you know, expect us to come out to tomorrow against Louisiana and, and, uh, and really play good. Yeah, completely agree, Tom. Bill, how about your take from the game?
00:04:07
Speaker
Well, I won't say it was a a tale of two halves, but but ah because we were still up nine into the second half, it it was certainly down the kind of down the stretch. But yeah yeah we we could have we could have been up pretty big at halftime. We were up five, 33-28. We held them to 28. They shot three of 13 from three in the first half, 23%. And two of those three were banked in.
00:04:37
Speaker
and and and And I'm not you know i'm not a lip reader, and I couldn't hear it, but I'm quite sure that neither one of those was called. So you know they were a little fortunate. We had a tough time running the offense, and they're a really, really good defensive team. And we talked about it in the preview, that you know how strong they are defensively. We also missed free throws in the first half. And and so it could have been we We could have been up big. We we played ah exceptionally well defensively. And, ah you know, the second half, having you know been at the ah at the game at the Toyota Center last year against against A and&M, watching Pettiford late in the second half, it kind of reminded me of us versus Wade Taylor, yeah where he was he was hitting everything. and
00:05:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it it was somewhat unexpected. ah you know He's coming in as ah as a five-star high school recruit out of New Jersey. and ah you know great player and and and is going to step up, but based on that 0-4 versus Vermont and and you know not being you know especially involved in the offense, you just don't expect that. you know that Like Tom said, we were talking about the pick and roll and and I agree with Tom about the guard when we would go out, typically it was Tuggler going out to double the guard and
00:06:11
Speaker
It seemed like they were getting rid of the ball quickly. The the double team wasn't as effective as as I'm sure it will be. But the other thing that that that I picked up on watching the game was that Broome would get the ball and and And he wasn't entirely uncontested, but it but it was almost like he was oftentimes. I think the weak side help was was a little slow in getting over, and and that that was something that that I really noticed. One thing, though, that really wasn't mentioned during the game, and and it's been talked about a little bit afterwards, is that Francis only played nine minutes. He still hurt.
00:06:51
Speaker
you know If he's there to to step up from the weak side, that makes it an awful lot more difficult for Broome to get to the basket. So yeah you know take everything for what it's worth.
00:07:04
Speaker
I mean, b Broome was 10 of 15 for the field. He didn't shoot that well, I don't think in the first half, but he 10 of 15 from the field, 20 points, nine boards.
Addressing Critiques and Season Perspective
00:07:14
Speaker
Pettiford, seven of 12 from the field, 21 points, five of eight, as we talked about from from three.
00:07:22
Speaker
And then a guy who who doesn't do much of anything, ah Johnson would had 11 points and 10 boards. he was He was really their entire offense in the first half. or and yeah And he doesn't do much of anything. So, you know, we we we took seven more shots than they did. We held them, but ah we weve excuse me, we forced them into 10 turnovers in the first half, only two in the second. So, you know,
00:07:46
Speaker
Bruce Pearl made made adjustments at halftime. They came out, they their're their pressure defense, ah you know full court, um at least defending the inbounds pass was there. The entire game made us work hard. Their their perimeter defense is good. They're long. they're the Their perimeter players, they're athletic. you know it was It was a tough game, but it's but like Tom said, it was a great early game to play.
00:08:11
Speaker
I'm thrilled that we played that game, win or lose. Obviously, I wish we would have won, but it's great to play a game like that because that's going to prepare us ah for everything down the road. you know they they just Down the stretch, they were a better team. and Is it horrible to say that? I think absolutely not. They're number five in the nation right now. They were number 11 coming into the game. but plague ah really good team and and sometimes they're going to play better than you do. and and Down the stretch, they they did. and I'm not going to get into this, but yeah I encountered online and some people who
00:08:53
Speaker
We're saying that Calvin needs to change the way he does things. Calvin's not the right coach to lead us to a championship. Calvin can only get us to the Sweet 16 if you've watched us for the last few years. ah that's oh please That's insane. and And saying that we're nowhere near a program like Connecticut, we play ugly games and and we can't win playing ugly games. And and I pointed out to the guy where you at all paying attention last year when during the the big 12 Big East challenge that Yukon went into inda Lawrence and lost 69-65 in an extraordinarily ugly game. So how is it you using your, and I'm using air quotes, logic, that Connecticut could win the title if if they play ugly games as well? ah you know what What I should have realized was not everyone is
00:09:52
Speaker
as intellectually up to speed as as they might be. he He could have even been ah a four-year-old that that got on his parents' computer. and you know So i should I should be a little more empathetic, I guess. But I was a little irritated after the game. and and And to start just attacking Calvin specifically just set me off. So I'll be a little better controlled going forward.
00:10:21
Speaker
well i always come back to the
00:10:26
Speaker
basketballs like church many attend but few understand so yeah very true very true we're one and one we're two games into a what could be a 40 game season or at least a 35 game season. It's the second game. It's not the end of the world. The sky isn't falling. It's like, yeah come on. And everybody needs to look at their calendar. Yeah. It's ah four months from selection Sunday. Yeah, it's still a long road. Yeah, this this was definitely a tough loss and actually a really strange one from the analytics perspective. If you just look at the full game ending stats,
00:11:06
Speaker
Because if you look at the the final stats, we limited Auburn to 46% effective field goal percentage, 30.4% from three, really right at our number two ranked standard from last season. So we played great defense overall for the game. We also forced them to turnovers on 20% of their possessions, which is a bit off from last season, but to be expected with a team of the caliber of Auburn.
00:11:32
Speaker
Now on offense, we didn't shoot as well as our standard from last season. We ended at 46% to our standard of 50%, but not that far off. But we did offensive rebound even better than we did last season at 45.5% of our misses.
00:11:49
Speaker
So pretty good, but it just appeared from the full game stats that Auburn did just a little bit better than us on both offense and D. But then when you look more closely, it tells a slightly different story. We actually led at the 15 minute mark, 41 to 32, and we're in total control of the game at that point.
00:12:09
Speaker
And then I actually went through all the game stats. And if you look at the stats right at that point when we were leading by nine with 15 minutes left, Auburn's effective field goal percentage was down at 26% and only 18.75% from three. And we were having a stellar game on D. And being very disciplined on offense like we normally do. And if you look at the stats, we were pretty consistent on offense the entire entire time we didn't really hit a terrible, terrible stretch at all. But in the final 15 minutes, Auburn turned the switch on offense and we lost our way
00:12:50
Speaker
I'd say on defensively defending at the top on the perimeter, which in turn opened things up down low for broom. Last 15 minutes Auburn's effective field goal percentage was a staggering 73%, which is crazy. And they were 57% from three point range.
00:13:10
Speaker
while our three-point shooting, if you look very specifically, went cold, especially with Cryer. And this is actually, I'd say, the perfect example of what you, Bill, have been emphasizing all offseason long with what we would be missing without shed on top on D. Pettiford, the freshman, ended with a game-staggering player box score plus minus plus 26.5 in 24 minutes.
00:13:39
Speaker
while Uzan was at a negative 0.4 for the game. Oh, and Auburn's game one versus Vermont, Pettiford had, as you guys had highlighted, zero points, fouled out in 19 minutes and ended with a player box score plus minus negative 10.4. Right? So there's no way you could have planned for the kind of explosion that he had for this game.
00:14:03
Speaker
And you know this is where we miss someone of the caliber, obviously, of shed up top to cool down a kid that is abnormally hot for the game. And unfortunately, no one else was able to step up and and really bother him or or get him off of his rhythm at that point. So lots for the team to work on. It's only November, folks, right, as you guys have mentioned as well. And what I really like is that Samson now has game tape and some analytics to reinforce his messaging to the kids. so
00:14:35
Speaker
And I'll say specifically Uzan, now he's got a much better ah understanding of the expectations this team has for the point guard position and on defense as a program. So I'm really looking forward to have the team develops. I'm expecting a jump up in how we play with only one game and a full week of practice to iron things out this next
Previewing Louisiana Lafayette Game
00:14:57
Speaker
week.
00:14:57
Speaker
So with that, let's talk about tomorrow's game versus Louisiana Lafayette. Bill, what's your player's take on this matchup on the heels of the Auburn loss? And what are you expecting to see versus Louisiana? Louisiana is a good team. They they come from a really good conference, the Sunbelt, a really good mid major conference, people from Wisconsin,
00:15:22
Speaker
University of Wisconsin people, and and others around the country know James Madison all too well. that They've been very good. This this is a good mid-major conference. ah Their coach is Bob Marlin. He's in his 14th year, and he has not had a losing record since 2014. So it's been 10 years of success.
00:15:45
Speaker
This may sound familiar to U of H fans, but Marlin coaches a very high pressure D that defends the three exceptionally well. ah They led the nation in three point field goal percentage allowed last year at a meager 28%. And they were 25th nationally in turnovers forced. You know, they're, they're playing a, uh,
00:16:10
Speaker
once again, ah largely a mid-major schedule, but but still kind of a U of H light, if you will. They were 19 and 14 last year. They kind of fell apart down the stretch. They were fifth in the Sun Belt. They were 10 and eight. They were predicted this year anywhere from three to five that I've seen. However,
00:16:34
Speaker
This is where everything turns on its head for Louisiana. Their best player, their big man, first team all Sunbelt, ah Hosanna Katenge, suffered a non-contact injury and is out for his senior year.
00:16:53
Speaker
oh He is gone. And so they they just lost their best player. This is going to hurt them throughout the entire year. And it's going to hurt them badly. They've played two games so far. They lost at home to Kent State. And and you know you might think, oh, Kent State. Well, once again, a really good team. Kent State's predicted anywhere from two to four in the yeah the mid-American. And another Conference that that wins games in the NCAA tournament. They lost at home 7066 and then they ah They annihilated not surprisingly UT And that would be UT Dallas Yeah, 82 65 so they're they're one-and-one right now without Katenga
00:17:44
Speaker
I mean, that that's really hurts them. They become a ah small team, probably their best player. His name's Kentrell Garnett. He's a 6-1 shooting guard, very good shooter, and an exceptionally good on-ball defender. Their point guard, Michael Thomas, he's he' solid, he good defender, but but solid. He only averaged six points to assist last year. A couple people that they brought in, and I'm only going to mention four players on this team because There's no need to mention any more. Caron Davis, a 6'6 shooting guard. He originally signed with Louisville. He never played a single game for them. There there were no discipline issues. there there Nothing like that. you know He was fully vetted before he came to Louisiana and and no issues. He he scored 24 and led them with four assists against UT Dallas.
00:18:41
Speaker
Garnett, by the way, led him with 14 against in the loss to Kent State. And then ah the the last one I'll mention is Zeke Cook. He's a 6'6 power forward from ah the team that we played two games ago, Jackson State. He's a solid inside player. He grabbed eight boards against Kent State, nine boards against UT Dallas. So he he's their inside guy, but he's 6'6". This is not a big team. Without Katenge, they're small. They're a good perimeter defensive team. They're not a good offensive team, especially.
00:19:19
Speaker
They just got killed by the Katanga injury. They're still going to defend well, because they've still got their perimeter players, but they're not going to rebound well against us. And I think that they're going to have real problems, their perimeters and guys scoring against RD. I think coming off the Auburn game, I've got to imagine we're going to be pretty fired up playing in the Fertitta Center.
00:19:43
Speaker
and Whereas if Katangue was playing, I'd say this is maybe a 14-15 point win. Without him, I think we win this game 80-47. 80-47. Oh, wow. Okay. How about you, Tom? What's your coach's perspective on the game?
00:20:00
Speaker
Well, the first thing I'd like to mention is this is one of Malik Wilson's old schools played for Texas Tech and make also played for Louisiana. Ooh, la la. So, uh, I'm hoping, hoping Malik gets some, you know, good playing time and, and has a good game against his, his former school. Like Bill mentioned, uh, when you think about, uh, Louisiana, you think about their coach, Bob Marlin.
00:20:24
Speaker
He coached at Sam Houston State for several years. And I remember during one of our coaching search searches, I can't remember which one it was, but there's quite a few people who were lobbying for us to ah give Bob Marlin a look. And then he left Sam Houston State and then he went on to ah Louisiana. Like Bill mentioned earlier, you know they they like to hit the throttle, ah push the ball, shoot shoot lots of threes.
00:20:51
Speaker
Here's my coach's take on this. Kelvin has had, will have had three days of practice plus the practice before the game. You know, I want to call it a shoot around, but our shoot around is not a shoot around. It's like a, it's like a full out hour.
00:21:09
Speaker
Practice, you know on on on game day, you know, it's it's none of this. Okay, let's go five on zero and walk through our sets or whatever You know our guys are our guys are getting after it. So you put those three practices plus practice on game day And I think you're gonna see a lot of a lot of improvements in our pick and roll defense I think we'll moths through the post better there were a couple of situations in the game on on Saturday where We had our guards posted up and our five men supposed to come over and both times it happened, it ended up in an Auburn bucket. So I'm sure our monster will be better, pick and roll defense will be better and our transition defense will be will be better too. A couple of times we got beat in transition. I'm sure Kelvin has looked at film and I'm sure he's chewed on the team collectively and I'm sure he's chewed on a few players individually that that need to step it up a little bit on the defensive end.
Coaching Strategies and Player Updates
00:22:06
Speaker
Yeah, completely agree. So from an analytics perspective, looking at 2024's season ending numbers, as everyone knows, we were number 19th in adjusted offensive efficiency. Louisiana ended the year at 140 in adjusted defensive efficiency. On the flip side, we were number two in adjusted defensive efficiency, while Louisiana was a dismal 183rd in and adjusted offensive efficiency. On offense,
00:22:37
Speaker
Louisiana is really not that good at anything, ranking beyond number 165 in both effective field goal percentage as well as turnover percentage. And to make things worse, they also don't offensive rebound very well, ranking 108th last year in Ken Palm in offensive rebound percentage. Then you match that up against our number two effective field goal percentage D that defends every shot. And I'm expecting an ugly outing for Louisiana tomorrow evening. On the flip side, Louisiana Lafayette's D You know, it's not great ranking one 40th, but you know, bill is you had mentioned they're actually elite at turning teams over ranking 25th in turnover percentage. And as you'd also highlighted number one in the country at defending the three point shot.
00:23:21
Speaker
However, unfortunately, they were also a lowly 317th in defending the two point shot. So expect a feast for big men inside and guards getting to the hoop tomorrow endlessly. Agreed. I totally agree. Yeah. So based on the metrics. Yeah. Oh, if you get through Steve, I'd like to remind me, I'd like to make a comment about what you just said about the guards.
00:23:48
Speaker
Okay. Okay. I mean, based on the metrics, this is projected to be a 23 point win for the Kooks at home by Ken Palm. I think it's going to be one of those metrics, busting wins, especially after an Auburn loss. So I've projected a 92 to 59, 33 point win.
00:24:07
Speaker
And I'll be posting that on Goku's.com. on No, we've got the same same margin of victory. just yeah You're expecting a little more offense. Yeah. But I think in the end, you're probably right. I think it's going to be lower scoring. So why don't you go ahead, Tom?
00:24:23
Speaker
ah Yeah, I'm not sure if anybody heard Kelvin's interview. I think it was yesterday morning or maybe the morning Yeah, I can't remember which morning was it was the one where he met with met with some? ah reporters Duarte Chris Gardner, I don't know if Ryan Ryan was there or not, but Kelvin did talk about him and his staff. They're gonna look at some stuff and they wanted to Get better spacing on offense and he said I'm not gonna tell you what I'm gonna do because I don't think anybody didn't know but ah it'll it'll be interesting to see ah what he comes up with you know right now we've used two bigs with three guards or wings where you want to call them you know the best way to space the floor probably the optimum way to space the floor is with four players you put two in the slots two in the corners and then you have a your big place like what they call the ducker spot We'll see how they base it. The only other thing I can think of is Robert Stuggler sometimes stepping out, you know, to the three point line, whether they shoot it or not, just create some more space and we get some double and triple gaps to drive. But I thought it was interesting that Kelvin mentioned that. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what he has in store. Yeah. I mean, Tom, I think in the same interview,
00:25:37
Speaker
He had also highlighted two other things that were related to personnel that he was going to figure a way to get Mercy Miller in some more as well as Arsenault in some more. And I think both of those things also kind of lend to that, that perspective of getting better spacing for the kids.
00:25:57
Speaker
And on arsenal, I don't know if you guys caught this, but he didn't go back in in the second half because his Achilles got stiff. Yeah. And they said normally at practice and the Fertitta, there's a treadmill yeah where he gets on the treadmill and he keeps it warm. But they didn't have a treadmill at Toyota Center for for some reason. And, you know, the Achilles kind of kind of got cold, stiffened up and yeah and he didn't go back in the game. So.
Episode Conclusion
00:26:22
Speaker
ah People who might not have heard about that, you know, we're wondering how come he didn't he didn't play much after I can't remember what what point it was about 13 14 minutes I think it was so yeah, hopefully Everything progresses for him. We see more of more Terrence tomorrow because, you know, he did get off to a really good start that first game. It's always good things. And but if you all remember who was our best in Kelvin's own words, who was our best rebounder last year before he got hurt? Yeah, that's our Sinnoh. It was Terrence.
00:26:53
Speaker
and That hurt us also in the game on game on Saturday night plus another thing that hurt us Milo's getting his fourth foul Yeah, so it was a big factor in the game Saturday to uh, I know one was pretty chintzy. It was a guy coming off a flex cut and Milo's just kind of bumped him in a little bit he flopped Auburn guy just like threw his body into the basket stanchion and I picked up his I think it was his third or fourth on that one, so Looking forward to the game tomorrow looking to see some of the ah the bench players get in. Looking for a Coug victory. Yeah, completely agree.
00:27:30
Speaker
So that's it for our abbreviated 32nd episode of the 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 via the Republic of Football podcast feed from the folks at Dave Campbell's Texas Football as the only basketball-centric podcast, or at the gokooks dot.com website for those that prefer to digest the content that way.
00:27:57
Speaker
We appreciate the continued support from all and please give us a follow on our Twitter account, doconference for all of them. Thank you all again for listening and be on the lookout for next week's episode to download and listen. Take care, of everyone.