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Houston Takes Down Texas A&M! + Thoughts from the Big12/Big East Challenge
131 Plays1 year ago
Welcome to Episode 9 of the No Conference for Old Men Podcast. The only year-round college basketball podcast focused on the Houston Cougars & Big 12 Conference. We're ecstatic to announce that we are now part of the GoCoogs.com network, the deepest & broadest coverage of Houston Cougars athletics coverage around!
The Houston Cougars are now 11-0, ranked #3 in the AP Poll, & just completed a grinding win over the hated Aggies in the Toyota Center! We start with a detailed analysis of the games played (focusing on the Texas A&M win), then move on to a quick preview the Cougar's upcoming game vs Texas St, & finally we wrap up by providing some thoughts on the Big 12's dominant 7-4 beatdown of the Big East in the 2023 Big 12/Big East Challenge.
- No Conference for Old Men is available for free via Spotify / Apple Podcasts / 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
Collaboration Announcement
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome, folks, to the ninth episode of No Conference for Old Men, the podcast where three old guys are talking Houston Cougars basketball with a bit of Big 12 conference coverage added in as well. We have some really exciting news to announce today. We've been picked up by the great folks at gocougs.com who provide the deepest and broadest coverage of Houston Cougars around bar none.
00:00:27
Speaker
What that means here is that our podcast, starting with this episode, will come under the umbrella of all the incredible content that Goku.com provides, and it will increase our ability to reach Houston Cougar fans everywhere.
Gratitude to Supporters
00:00:40
Speaker
It's also personally a really big deal for us three here on the podcast, because it really legitimizes what we've been trying to provide, as well as recognizes the great fan support you all have provided. Otherwise, who in their right mind would want to waste their time with us?
00:00:56
Speaker
So before we get into this episode, I just wanted to thank everyone, Ryan and Brad at Goku.com for the consideration and inclusion, Tom for providing and starting this endeavor with me, Bill for joining us over the last few weeks to enable what I always envisioned as a three person podcast. And most importantly is a big thank you to the fans that have supported us as we kick this podcast off this season. We're three old nobodies and we deeply appreciate the Cougar Nation support from day one.
00:01:26
Speaker
has far far exceeded our expectations we've got things started. So now on to today's episode.
Houston Cougar’s Victory and Challenge
00:01:33
Speaker
We just got through our marquee win so far, an 11th of the season over SEC opponent Texas A&M, but it was a costly one with sophomore six-man Terrence Arceneau potentially lost for the season with what is feared to be a torn Achilles tendon.
00:01:49
Speaker
We've got two games left this year to adjust to that loss and find out who's able to step up and fill the void before conference play begins versus West Virginia on January 6th. So pivotal two to three weeks ahead for coach to play with the puzzle pieces for this next phase of the season.
Hosts and Episode Overview
00:02:06
Speaker
And today, we are again fully staffed with Tom Lidiak, Bill Walker, and myself, Steve Chang, for this week's episode. And we'll start off with our usual summary of the two Houston Cougar games that were played with a primary focus on the Texas A&M game, move into a quick preview of the Texas State game, then do something a little bit different and provide a summary of the Big 12 Big East challenge results. OK, let's get right into it, gentlemen. In recapping the two games played, let's spend a few minutes on the Jackson State game.
Game Recap and Strategy Analysis
00:02:35
Speaker
then focus the vast majority of the time analyzing the Texas A&M game. So, Tom, what are your coaches' thoughts on our 89-55 win over Jackson State? Jackson State, they kept it closed for a half, and then in the second half, we did what we needed to do, and we just blew them out of the water.
00:02:53
Speaker
Jackson State team, I thought they were undisciplined. They talked a lot. I call that false toughness. Anybody can talk. Can you walk the walk? So we came out in the second half and then just blew them out of the water. But they gave us a game for about a half and then our culture and our discipline.
00:03:19
Speaker
and our talent took over after that. Yeah, exactly. Hey, Bill, what did you think from a player's perspective?
00:03:26
Speaker
Well, yeah, we were up only seven and a half and they did talk and they actually were, I mean, they kept it competitive for one half. Actually for the majority of the game, the rebounding, the field goal percentage, a lot of it was similar. The one thing that was not similar and not even close, and this is what enabled us to blow them out, were the turnovers.
Player Performances and Improvement Areas
00:03:51
Speaker
With four seconds left in the game, we missed a shot
00:03:55
Speaker
They rebounded it that allowed them to end the game with 25 rebounds and 24 turnovers. I don't recall ever attending a game or watching a game where a team had as many turnovers as they had.
00:04:09
Speaker
rebounds. I mean, that was the game. Yeah, that was. We turned them over. I mean, unbelievably turned them over. We created points off of the turnovers, more shots, and we ended up blowing them out. I mentioned to you earlier, Steve,
00:04:25
Speaker
I've got to imagine, A, we played Xavier, we played Utah. We clearly came out flat against Jackson State. We didn't look that good in the first half. I would have to imagine, without knowing, that Kelvin probably read them the riot act at halftime, and I would not have wanted to have been in that locker room.
00:04:47
Speaker
The second half was, I mean, it was a 180 degree difference. And they obviously responded well to whatever he had to articulate to them at halftime. And I've just never seen a game where a team turned the ball over as much as they rebounded. And that was the difference. They could not keep up with our defense for 40 minutes.
00:05:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the starters were Shed, Cryer, Sharp, Roberts, and Francis again. So we've had a steady dose of the same starting five. We won every quarter of the game, but we were only up eight at the half. Jackson State was a pesky team that played with a bit of attitude and chip on their shoulders. So it was a little bit contentious, which I kind of liked, kind of kept the attention of our team. It was actually pretty entertaining to get some of the juices going because they just didn't back down.
00:05:38
Speaker
But as you guys had mentioned, come second half cougars are just too much and ran away with it. If you look at the stats, I'm not going to burn too many cycles on this one. But we actually played a little bit below last year's standard on offense overall with our effective field goal percentage and turnover percentage a bit worse than normal. But we offensive rebounded like 51%, which is crazy. And our standard last year was 37% in Ken Palm.
00:06:03
Speaker
We were a little bit below standard on most of the defensive metrics as well, but as you hit a highlighted bill, we forced them to turn over on 35% of their possessions. That's nuts, right? And we were exceptional last year at 21%, but we blew that statistic out of the water.
00:06:23
Speaker
So anyways, next game and the one that we really want to focus
Challenges with Team Depth
00:06:27
Speaker
on. And that was the 70 to 66 win over Texas A&M at the Toyota Center in Houston. This was a highly anticipated non-conference game versus our nearby SEC team. But it was a costly one. So Bill, what are your thoughts on our gutsy win against Texas A&M?
Impact of Arsenault’s Injury
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, just horrified by Arsenault's injury. What happened to him? I mean, it sucks. He's gotten bigger this year. He's played hard. He's been better on the defensive end, rebounding. He clearly bought into Calvin's system. He's done everything that's been asked of him. I mean, it's just brutal to go down like that, you know, a non-contact
00:07:12
Speaker
injury and be done for the year. It's tough and it's going to mean that now the bench is going to be shorter and there are a couple of players that are going to absolutely have to step up quickly. With that said, we were the better team. Plain and simple, we were the better team.
00:07:31
Speaker
We were up 21. We outplayed them after their 7-0 start. We outplayed them. Cryer was great in the first half. Shed was great. We defended them. It was a great first half and beginning of the second half. Buzz Williams is a very good coach and he made a very good decision for them to go to a
00:07:52
Speaker
I thought it was kind of a 3-2 matchup. I mean, maybe it was just a 3-2, but with the stipulation that wherever Cryer is, you're not defending an area, you're defending him. And it worked. Our offense, which has had issues over the past few years, we go into lapses.
00:08:09
Speaker
we lapsed and they got back into the game and we struggled to score. With that said, I've read a lot. I've seen message board posts and people saying that there was the worst game that Shedd played and I could not disagree more.
00:08:26
Speaker
I'm willing to bet that in Calvin's history, no player has probably scored 26 points in one half. Taylor was unbelievable and it's not like he was getting open shots and just dribbling by shed or shed was just not playing well. He was hitting off balance to
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, there are a couple times when when shed went for steals and missed and Taylor hit shots But I Taylor was Unbelievable and he hasn't shot that well this year if if we play them again instead of going 10 of 22 from the field There's a good chance that he goes for of 22 from the field and he may do that against other teams He just he had a game for the ages and yeah
00:09:09
Speaker
Shed guarded him for most of the game. I was surprised. I thought that he was having to work so hard, Taylor, that is, to get the shots off that he may wear down and the shots would not fall toward the end of the game. But give him credit. He had an unbelievable game and sometimes great offense can beat great defense. And then that's just simply what happened. They came in as a statistically better rebounding team. We were even with them, 37 rebounds each.
00:09:38
Speaker
they got a transfer from duke got an offensive rebound off a missed free throw at the end and it turned into a three-pointer a and m is a good rebound very very good rebounding team i think number two in the nation we we stuck with them uh roberts was his typical solid solid self inside he got rebounds he did everything i thought uh
00:10:01
Speaker
Even though he had a little bit of foul trouble, again, Tuggler played well when he was in there. I thought he was good. And actually, he got two really quick fouls, and then he played well. He kind of played within himself the rest of the game and stayed on the floor. He ended up with four fouls, but he didn't foul out. He played intelligently the rest of the way. I think he only had three in the end, if I looked at the bottom. I thought he had four, but maybe I'm wrong.
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, look, we were the better team. We were simply the better team. I will argue that with anyone. Taylor just shot the lights out and he's he's not going to do that every game. Other players are not going to do that against us, although it happens, I guess, from time to time. But the only thing I'm concerned about is the depth and the productivity of of Arsenault not being on the floor going forward. And, you know, hopefully
00:10:54
Speaker
Dunn's the one that I keep thinking about in terms of stepping up. And now he really needs to. I mean, now it's critical heading into big 12 play. And we'll see what happens. Sharp was huge down the stretch. And I think he's going to continue to play well for us. And I think now that he knows that his role is going to be more important and more critical,
00:11:19
Speaker
I think that he's going to step up and play well. So overall, I'm pleased. It was they got back into it because because of an aberration. Wade Taylor went nuts. Yeah, no, great, great observations there. Bill, how about Tom? What do you think from a coach's view? Yeah, I don't know where to start. There's a lot to talk about.
00:11:38
Speaker
And Bill, Bill touched on a lot of those, but I think what's kind of concerning is that when Terrence went down, we didn't see Wilson or Ramon get any, any kind of, but with, with these two non-conference games going in before the West Virginia game, Kelvin and staff are going to have time to, you know, to figure this all out. But.
00:11:59
Speaker
I'm predicting that if Ramon gets consistent minutes, we're going to see the form that he had when he was a freshman. It's difficult as a player when you don't know going into a game how many minutes you're going to get or whether you're going to get in the game at all. And I think if he gets consistent minutes, he knows that he's going to be in the game. And I think we're going to see the old Ramon that was a freshman. So it's tough in his case when you never know when your number is going to get called and how much playing time you're going to get.
00:12:28
Speaker
But that's what I thought was concerning was even after Terrence went down, we didn't see Wilson or Ramon and we're gonna need one or both of those and big 12 play because you never know we might have more injuries. You just never know.
00:12:45
Speaker
I mean right now the bench is Tuggler and Dunn and Dunn didn't look the best I know Randy posted on Goku's that he came out the game with the best plus minus I don't know how the heck what whoever was doing this that's I don't think so not according to my stats. He had a terrible plus minus and
00:13:06
Speaker
Who on one should have been a minus 20 right there? Yeah. Yeah. We were down seven zero to start the game, but we finished on a 38 to 16 run. It was probably the best basketball we played all year. And then Bill alluded to, we came out in the second half and even, you know, extended lead from 15 to 21. And then.
00:13:27
Speaker
My last was in our offense set in. Buzz went to more, it's like when you witness an accident and you ask people that were there, they all have different take on what went on. And I did too because before I went back and watched most of the second half and looked at our offensive possessions,
00:13:49
Speaker
I thought it was, they went strictly zone and that's what, that's what hurt us. But I had our 14 possessions. I didn't get through the whole game, but out of the next 14 possessions, when they went to that first possession of zone, I had A&M playing man to man on eight of those 14 possessions. They did a good job, you know, disguising the 3-2 zone.
00:14:13
Speaker
They play a switching man to man, which sometimes looks like a zone, but you kind of tell whether we're in 3-2 or not because number 13 Washington was at the top, you know, he was at the top of the zone, but you know, and then we missed some shots with decent ball movement. Sometimes we miss shots without any ball movement.
00:14:33
Speaker
those 14 possessions, we got a couple of offensive rebounds. But for the most part, a lot of the possessions wasn't a whole lot of movement and got down late in the shot clock. We ended up hoisting some shots. But bottom line, yeah, we were the better team because we won. I'm trying to think of some other things I had down here. 63-63, we come out of a timeout and Kelvin runs one of his
00:15:03
Speaker
Favorite plays this hammer action where he throws the ball to on Jamal gets it back and he just drives like mad baseline and then you got a screen for LJ in the in the other corner and I think they and him had so much focus on LJ in the corner that they just allowed Francis to slip and nobody picked up got that dunk and they only had what two or three or two or three team fouls, so they had Filed the crap out of them, but they didn't have time to and and and Francis flush that one
00:15:33
Speaker
The big three by Sharp. Yep. No, what a whole lot of ball movement. It was like swing guard, guard, throw to Sharp and, you know, he pumped fake. Yep. And the guy got it up in the air and then, and knocked down the three. But Emmanuel's done that so many times in his career already hitting these timely, timely threes. Just cold blooded, huh?
00:15:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, you know dagger that yeah, it's the dagger I'm sure there's probably a metric somewhere about Kind of like in baseball when you have all these numbers and all these stats, you know about when you hit your threes That for that or or not, you know You can be a 32 percent three-point shooter and hit the key ones or you can be a 40 percent three-point shooter But when it comes to crunch time, you just nut up and miss, you know, yeah
00:16:22
Speaker
So yeah, big game for us on our schedule so far. And we won, but as you and Bill alluded to, it's a bummer losing Terrence because he was off to a good year and totally bought in. He was doing the things that Kelvin wants him to do. And yeah, now we have to have guys that are gonna have to step up going forward the rest of the year.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah for the Texas A&M game. Yeah, and Steve another thing is with Terrence playing some for when we went small and and our lack of depth with our big guys We're gonna see how effective, you know, I think to the small lineup is gonna be Going you know going forward much tougher right because Terrence was much longer than Walker right and more athletic. Yeah as well So we'll see
00:17:14
Speaker
And like that year where we lost Tremone and Marcus, it was around Christmas time, I think it was. We canceled the Cincinnati game because of, I'll call here, COVID.
00:17:30
Speaker
We've allowed us about a week to re-engineer our offense. Yeah. So, you know, this could be a time with these two non-conference games before West Virginia that maybe we do a few things different because of losing Terrence.
00:17:46
Speaker
Completely agree. This was a really strange game, but a fun and tense one in the end. Really a tale of two halves. And if you broke the game into quartiles, we really dominated the first two. And if you look more closely, we dominated two and a half quartiles of the game.
00:18:03
Speaker
We led by 15 at the half and even led by 21 as Bill had mentioned early on in the second half. Then we started taking the air out of the ball and ran the clock down on every possession. And that really gave the opportunity for Wade Taylor to do what I call his best Nigel Pack invitation from last year's NCAA tournament loss to Miami.
00:18:25
Speaker
hitting every inconceivable off-balance three-pointer out there when they even finally tied the game late. I think it was at the 1 minute 31 second mark that they tied it at 63 apiece. Our starters again were Jamal, Cryer, Sharp, Roberts, and Francis.
00:18:44
Speaker
A rotation, as you guys had mentioned, tightened up again against a tougher opponent. And it just became that much tighter with Arsenault's injury in the first half. And it's really just a terrible, terrible injury if what we've read is actually true. We played a seven-man rotation with only Tugler and Dunn, playing any significant minutes. Roberts, Sharp, and Cryer all played 36 or 37 minutes apiece.
00:19:08
Speaker
Shedd played 32 minutes in what looked like a total blowout at one point, became a really tight battle at the end. And Shedd and Sharp were really key at that end to pull out the win. With, as you had highlighted, Shedd's drive and drop off to Francis for the monster dunk, then Shedd rebounded off a Taylor miss and then feeding Sharp for the Killer 3, just sealed it for the Cougars.
00:19:32
Speaker
Taylor made another three, then Dunn actually made what could have been a crucial error with an out of bounds play to cause every kooker a heart attack at that point. But we held on after sharp ice things with two free throws. I'm really devastated as you guys are with Terrence's injury if that ends up being confirmed on Monday.
00:19:52
Speaker
he was really starting to come into his own feeling more comfortable playing a stretch four off the bench we were already short on size and this just makes it that much more difficult as we get ready for big twelve play and these next two games all of a sudden as you guys have both had mentioned become key
00:20:08
Speaker
because that's really the time where we figure out whether Ramon Walker and Damian Dunn have got what it takes to step up and fill the gap. I also believe that this game may have been the pivotal point where Tuggler will start to average more minutes than Francis going forward at the 5.
00:20:26
Speaker
He had four points, five rebounds, three block shots, zero turnovers in 21 minutes, disrupting passing lanes, and just bothering both Coleman and Washington when in the game, just due to his length, long arms, and his activity, quite honestly. More importantly, he was a plus minus 6.7 for the game, while Francis was a player box score plus minus negative 2.1, according to Bart Torevic.
00:20:55
Speaker
As you dig into the advanced analytics from Ken Palm on offense, our effective field goal percentage was too standard at basically just under 52%. And that was even with a terrible second half shooting performance by the team. We turned the ball over a little bit more than usual, especially in the second half again at 18.39% where we're typically around the 15%.
00:21:19
Speaker
And we offensive rebounded though above standard, which is really, really key against the number one offensive rebounding team in the country. So we offensive rebounded 43.24% of our rebounds versus our standard of 37%.
00:21:35
Speaker
On defense, we played the standard and were exceptional in the first half, limiting Texas A&M to 42.73 percent effective field goal percentage, forced them to 18.5 percent turnovers, which was just a tiny bit below our standard. And we limited three point percentage to 33.3 percent shooting. And that was a
00:21:57
Speaker
after that torrid second half by Taylor. And really key was blocking 35.71% of their two point shots. That was a huge difference for us. Basically we were stellar overall on defense except for Wade Taylor who just went crazy in the second half.
00:22:17
Speaker
So a great win for our Cougars, but a costly one with Arsenal's injury. Now let's just do a quick preview of the upcoming Houston, Texas State game. Tom, what do you think?
00:22:29
Speaker
Before you talk to Texas State, one more little tidbit about Wade Taylor. Sure. You know, I haven't read a whole lot of comments of anybody bashing sheds defense, but a lot of times when Taylor scored, it's in the pick and roll and it's a team defense, you know, so you can't just put it all on shed. And then I think there were about three times in the second half where Taylor just split.
00:22:52
Speaker
are pick and roll defense and that's that's probably on the big you know when Taylor's coming off the when he's coming off the uh the the screen he's you know he was split in shed and and whoever the big was so it's not always on you know the guy guarding guarding the defender because it's a team defense but yeah that's a great point Taylor probably had yeah as you and uh you and Bill alluded to Taylor probably had a career game in his his college career I mean he was the SEC player of the year last year I believe
00:23:23
Speaker
So was yeah, oh, you know, he's not chopped liver having said that I'm not trading Jamal shit for any other point guard chance and in the country because you know, we won the game Yeah, no, I agree. Okay. Yeah again again. It was Some of those shots that Taylor hit were completely off-balance. I mean they're they're shots that he's
00:23:47
Speaker
You go back, however many games they've played so far, he has not hit those shots so far. He came into the game not shooting well. Like I said, it was an aberration. And you're right, Tom, he did split the double team a couple times. I know he got by Tuggler a couple of times, and that's, you know, Tuggler will get better. Kelvin will certainly be on him about that. I want to say once in a lifetime, but that was something that we're not going to see again, I don't think.
00:24:15
Speaker
Yeah, the shots he shot were just it's not like he was getting himself in position getting set and just drilling straight on uncontested three pointers. I mean, shed was there most of the time he was off balance and he just had a game for the ages period. Yeah, the next game he he'll probably have the same shots and miss them all. Yeah, right. Exactly. Okay, let's go to the Texas State game.
00:24:41
Speaker
Who do you want to go first? See? Yeah, go ahead, Tom. The only thing I know about Texas State is they aren't very good. That's the only thing.
00:24:52
Speaker
They used to be called Southwest Texas State Teachers College and I think LBJ graduated from there. That's about, I don't know, a few more things. They won a couple of D2 football championships under Jim Wack back in the day. I had a bunch of friends go there and, you know, so I think they drank a lot and they floated down those rivers and...
00:25:13
Speaker
That's my scouting report on Texas State. I'd like to see what the rotation is going to be without Terrence in there. I think we'll get a chance to see because I think we'll have a comfortable lead and it's a lot easier to put in Wilson and Ramon when you're up 15 or 18 rather than put them in a game with A&M when you're only up seven or eight.
00:25:38
Speaker
Hopefully hopefully they can get some playing time and then they can they can build their confidence up because like we all said already in this in this podcast We're gonna need them in conference play. Yeah, exactly. How about you bill? What do you think? Well, they're currently five and five in the Sun belt. They've been
00:25:57
Speaker
in a 14 team conference, they're predicted as, I've seen them predicted as high as sixth place. I've seen them predicted as low as 12th. So they're not going to be most likely competing for the Sunbelt title, very likely a one bid league, but they're going to be competitive. They've had two games against known teams, decent teams. They lost by 19 at Texas. They lost by 39 at Oklahoma. So there you go.
00:26:24
Speaker
Their coach, he's been there three years, Terrence Johnson, he's 55 and 34. So he is winning games about 18 and 11 per year. I love this quote from him. Their defensive efficiency has dipped all three years that he's been there. And going into this year, he said the number one priority was making more shots.
00:26:48
Speaker
Well, that's, that's interesting. Yeah. If anyone listening wants to do their own scouting report and actually, I guess after you hear the podcast, the game will already have been played, but tomorrow night they've got a big game.
00:27:03
Speaker
They're playing the Latino Yellow Jackets, and I think it's on ESPN+. So there is an opportunity to scout them. I also noticed on their website, tickets are going for as low as $43, so you better buy them quickly. Yeah.
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah, I could go through some of their players. They've got one guy who's okay. His name's Caden Gumbs. He's a 6'2 point guard. He's let him in assists in seven of their 10 games. He's let him in scoring in a couple. They've had six leading scores in their 10 games, some of the players multiple times. So they don't have any dominant player. They don't have any really good player.
00:27:42
Speaker
Another great quote from Terrence Johnson was that he thought Gums could be one of the greatest players in Texas State history. And I thought, does Texas State even have a great player in their history? I mean, I certainly had to thought about it for a while. I can't even think of a single player that went there. So I'm not sure if that's how complimentary that is. But that's about all I've got on Texas State. It's going to be
00:28:09
Speaker
it's gonna be a, you know, if there's any letdown after A&M that could affect things a little bit, but I'd say U of H by 30 to 35. Yeah, good call. I mean, UH is still number one and Ken Palm at this point, Texas State is 171. So not the worst team, we've played far worse teams on the on our schedule so far. So I'd say
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, in the end, it's still going to be a huge margin of victory. We're 16th in adjusted offensive efficiency, where they're number 79 in adjusted defensive efficiency. On the flip side, we're number one in adjusted defensive efficiency. And if you're telling me that the coach's focus was on improving, making shots, well, they're number 276th in adjusted offensive efficiency. So I don't think he's doing a very good job this year.
00:29:00
Speaker
They're a terrible shooting team, ranked number 314th in effective field goal percentage, and a bad turnover team, ranking 301st in turnover percentage. Terrible, terrible combo. Then you match that up against our number three effective field goal percentage defense that defends every shot. And we're number three defensively in steals as well. It's just going to be terrible for Texas state. And on the other side, Texas state is only okay at defending shooters, ranked number
00:29:30
Speaker
88 in effective field goal percentage, and they don't defensive rebound very well ranking 207. It's so really the key is you guys have both mentioned as well is making sure that Ramon Walker and done get the minutes get going and regain some of that confidence from coach because we're really going to need them.
00:29:50
Speaker
Going into big 12 play. So now next let's get into a fun discussion and at this point in time We've finished the big 12 Big East challenge and guess what big 12 flexed its muscles and 174 we had Houston over Xavier Kansas over Yukon, which is a big win Baylor over Seton Hall TCU over Georgetown Kansas State over Villanova
00:30:17
Speaker
Iowa State over DePaul, OU over Providence, and the teams that lost. Probably the teams, if I had to pick some, UT lost to Marquette, which I was not too sad about. Tech lost to Butler. I'm not losing any sleep there. OSU lost to Creighton. And West Virginia lost to St. John's. Who wants to go first? Tom, you want to give some of your thoughts on the Big 12 Biggies Challenge first?
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah, and real quick, one little more snippet about Texas State. If we give up 50 points, Kelvin's going to have an aneurysm. And our team will wish they had died young boys if we give up 50. And then say injury free. I mean, these next two games, you can't control those things. You can't control injuries. But you just have to pray to the basketball gods that we don't have any more injuries.
00:31:11
Speaker
Getting back to the matchup, you know, the Big East, Big 12, I'm surprised with Tech giving up so many points. I haven't seen all their scores, but, you know, they were in one game, they gave up 89 and McCaslin, Grant McCaslin, the Tech coach, you know, his
00:31:27
Speaker
At North Texas, they were like one of the best defensive teams in the country. And that's what he hangs his hat on and oofed it. I mean, they've been getting up some points. And they were going to be one of my surprise teams in the Big 12 this year. But right now, it's not looking that way for them.
00:31:48
Speaker
Iowa State beatin' DePaul. DePaul's not very good. UConn in Kansas, I didn't get to see the game, but from what people were posting, Kansas, I guess, got the benefit of the doubt on some calls or whatever, but everything that loses always cries about the efficiency. That was a fun game to watch, though. That was NFTUC. Didn't get to see any of that, but
00:32:12
Speaker
Yeah, Marquette stomp in Texas. I didn't get to see any of that game, but I love the final score of that one. Yeah, those are my thoughts on those games and our Xavier game. You know, we rehashed that one already. Okay. How about you, Bill? What were your thoughts on the Big 12's kind of dominating performance over the Big East?
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah, I had, uh, someone, someone asked me to predict the games before they took place. And I had the big 12 winning six, five, the one I can't remember which one I missed, but doesn't matter. It played out.
00:32:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:06
Speaker
and I predicted Kansas would win. You guys didn't necessarily agree with me. And I don't want to take a lot of credit for that because that game could have gone either way and watching the game and really having no personal stake in it other than kind of wanting the big 12 to win, it helps us. Kansas was the beneficiary of maybe a few more calls than
00:33:36
Speaker
Yukon got, so I don't know that I necessarily did anything particularly well other than taking the team that was playing F-Fog Allen. So that helped. I didn't get to watch Texas Marquette, although I previewed it on the podcast a couple of times because I was at the U of H Rice game.
00:33:55
Speaker
We were kind of surprised. We kept looking up at the out-of-town scores and Marquette was up four, Marquette was up six. All of a sudden, Marquette's up 18 and then up 25. My God, what's going on here? I didn't get to see it. I was surprised that Texas got beaten that badly. One game that surprised me, and they were supposed to be better this year, was TCU
00:34:25
Speaker
A, they dribbled out of bounds and it didn't get called. That's right. And then they put up a kind of a wildish three that banked in to beat Georgetown by a point. Georgetown is abysmal. Yeah. So, you know, I don't know what and it's still and I've said this, I think probably three or four times in different podcasts, but it's still early in the season and teams are figuring things out. So I'm sure TCU is going to get better. But but that one
00:34:53
Speaker
really surprised me. And I saw a little bit of Baylor not be particularly challenged by Seton Hall. Yeah, I mean, I think I think the Big 12 proved overall, the top to bottom, they're better. And let me point out one other thing, my team, and this goes to our bet, Steve, my team BYU did not participate in the challenge. Yeah, because the Big 12 has more teams. And so three of the four newcomers
00:35:20
Speaker
BYU, Cincinnati, Central Florida did not participate in this. And so, yeah, BYU participates. Who knows? Maybe it's A3. They probably replaced one of the teams that won anyway. So maybe stays at 7-4. But, yeah, again, don't sleep on BYU. No, you're absolutely right. You know how John Rothstein will tweet insanity? Question mark? You know, just college basketball.
00:35:49
Speaker
Getting back to Marquette, Bill, because you're from Milwaukee, but they just boat raced Texas. And then the other night, with I think a minute and a half left, they're up by one on the University of St. Thomas, which is the Twin City area. Three years ago, St. Thomas was playing D3 basketball.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's nuts, right? Just crazy. Absolutely nuts. You know, when give Marquette credit, they had to hit some tough shots down the stretch and a couple of crucial free throws. Like Rothstein says, you know, insanity, you know, it's, it's college basketball. You just, you just never know. Yeah. I mean, these are still college kids, right? In the end. And so you, you can only control so much, right? And the pressure gets to everyone at some point.
00:36:38
Speaker
I mean, for me, quite honestly, I've been pretty sick of listening to all the East Coast media, seeing the praises of the Big East over the years and how they're the best in the land coming into the season with Yukon, Marquette, Creighton in the top 10. Villanova's back this year and St. John's is becoming a monster with Patino back into the Big East as coach.
00:37:02
Speaker
Though in general, the basketball experts have agreed that the Big 12 overall has been the number one hoops conference in the land over the last few years. But many questioned whether that would still be the case now with four newcomers coming in this year, including us and another four from the West Coast coming in next season. Would the Big 12 now be watered down? Many wondered.
00:37:24
Speaker
And so now with the holidays coming up, all the critical and big non-conference games having been completed, I thought it'd be perfect timing before conference play begins to do another assessment of conference strength at this point based on this year's current 10-POM rankings. But comparing conferences based on membership makeup last year, this year, as well as what it's going to look like next year. And some pretty interesting findings which I'll share with you.
00:37:54
Speaker
If we average out the current Ken Palm rankings of every conference at this point in the year, the Big 12 with four new members would still be number one with an average Ken Palm ranking of number 40 across all of the teams. And that includes the four newbies while still including Texas and OU within that count. Next closest is the Big 10 at an average of number 52 ranking. Then the SEC at third coming at 61.
00:38:23
Speaker
And then guess what? Big East isn't even in the top three. They're showing up at number four with an average ranking of number 67. Then it's the pack and finally the ACC bringing up the rear.
00:38:36
Speaker
at a lowly average of number 84. But you know what's even more interesting? If you took the four new members out of the Big 12 and base it on last year's membership, that 10 team current makeup of the Big 12 would still be number one, but their average ranking becomes number 44. So that's four points lower than the current
00:38:59
Speaker
makeup, which includes the four new teams and of course our Houston Cougars. And if you go one step further and look at next year's makeup with UT and OU out of the conference and four new pack teams added in, the Big 12 still remains number one with an average score of 42. A bit higher than the current 40, but still better than the original 22, 23, 10 team Big 12 score of number 44.
00:39:29
Speaker
So basically, this conference in the Big 12 is by far the toughest in the land. Last season, this season, or next season, the Big 12 in every iteration is truly No Conference for
Conclusion and Future Plans
00:39:43
Speaker
Old Men. So that's it for episode 9 of No Conference for Old Men podcast. Hope you all enjoyed it. And again, we'd really appreciate it. Folks would follow, subscribe, or collect our podcasts, depending on your podcast platform of choice.
00:39:56
Speaker
We should now also be available on the gocougs.com website under the podcast section for those that prefer to digest the content that way. We appreciate the continued support and loyalty from all that keeps us going and continues to reinforce our view that there's an appetite out there for the type of deep college hoops insight we're trying to provide for Cougar and Big 12 fans alike.
00:40:17
Speaker
Also, please give us a follow on our Twitter account, no conference for old men. Thank you all again for listening. And episode number 10 should come out sometime after the Texas State game. So please be on the lookout to listen, download the next episode. Thanks again, everyone, and happy holidays.