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KSU & WVU Up Next + How Good is This Season's UH Defense?
61 Plays4 months ago
Welcome to Episode #38 of the No Conference for Old Men Podcast.
Our Houston Cougars are now 11-3 & 3-0 in the XII after blitzing both BYU & TCU. Houston's standard suffocating defense & newfound balanced offense were both on full display in the destruction of both teams. Next up are Kansas St & a tricky West Virginia. The 3 Old Men preview the games & then provide their thoughts on "How Good is This Season's UH Defense"?
Please have a listen as the 3 Old Men weigh in & discuss the topic of the week, as well as provide some quick-hit game summaries and previews. And as the Old Men evolve this podcast, this is our very 1st AI-edited episode! A little choppy compared to manual edited, but saved hours in editing time.
- 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
Podcast Introduction & Houston Cougars Highlights
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome, folks, to episode number 38 of the No Conference for Old Men podcast, 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 dot com network, the undisputed number one Houston Cougars content provider.
Cougars' Defensive Consistency & Upcoming Matches
00:00:24
Speaker
Well, another week and another pair of destructions of Big 12 opponents as the Cougars introduced Kevin Young to Big 12 defense in an 86 to 55 blitzing of his BYU Cougars, and then turned around for a big Monday shellacking of TCU, 65 to 46 to pay back one of only three losses in conference last season. and After now keeping the last seven teams under 55 points each since Vegas,
00:00:50
Speaker
This Cougars team tries to keep the momentum going with another pair of games this week at Kansas State this Saturday and then returning home for a tricky game versus West Virginia.
Game Reviews: BYU & TCU Clashes
00:01:01
Speaker
With two games to review, plus another two to preview, no formal topic for the thrill men to debate this week.
00:01:08
Speaker
But if we have time, perhaps we'll share some thoughts on how good this Houston and Cougar defense has been this season, from a coach's, player's, and analytics perspective. So let's get into it, guys. And looking at our two Big 12 wins this week, let's begin with a post-game analysis of the 86-55 intro for Kevin Young to Houston and Cougar's basketball, and then our payback 65-46 win versus Jamie Dixon and his TCO squad, both games at home. Let's start with you first, Tom.
00:01:38
Speaker
What were some of the recurring themes you saw from a coach's perspective?
Defensive Highlight: Limiting Yegor Damen
00:01:42
Speaker
It was just total domination, both offensively and defensively. Put the clamps on Yegor Damen. You know, he's the much ballyhooed freshman. There were like 37 NBA scouts to watch him. I'm sure our players got wind of that. They had a little extra four for the Russian because he was just a non-factor.
00:02:05
Speaker
We had good Malik on offense last couple of games. He's he's he's been inserted into the game a little bit earlier and that seems that to help him. It's very reminiscent of last year toward the end of the year when we had all those entries and we needed Malik on the um on the floor and he seemed to play with a little more confidence on the offensive end. you know he's he's you know He's pretty consistent defensively or he wouldn't be on the floor, but ah we're're we're seeing something offensively from Malik that we didn't necessarily see
Kevin Young's Adaptation Challenges
00:02:38
Speaker
all the time last year. I mean, there were glimpses last year, but he's had two really solid offensive games ah this past week.
00:02:46
Speaker
You know, we're up 39, 22 and a half. It was just another masterpiece on defense. um I got a kick out of watching Coach Kevin Young at BYU. He was with the Phoenix Suns for 20 years. I've got a sneaking suspicion.
00:03:01
Speaker
He came to BYU and he thought he was going to show these, these, uh, Hicks in the college. Um, you know, how much smarter he is. Uh, he had us a little play sheet in his, in his hand, the first like five possessions or whatever. BI BYU was, sitting they looked like, uh, you know, five cats trying to hump a basketball offense. They were turning the ball over.
00:03:26
Speaker
I think about it as Kevin Young is going to realize that it doesn't matter how much of these X's and O's and set plays you have, college basketball is going to be defending and a rebounding. Yeah, different. Kelvin coached in NBA six years. So, ah you know, he's Kelvin, there's nothing new under the sun. I just kind of had a feeling.
00:03:47
Speaker
um Kevin Young was a little bit arrogant coming into this ah ah bey b BYU job. Yeah, agreed. Supposedly he made the comment that if he heard how tough Houston basketball was one more time that he was going to throw up. and ah I think i think kvin pro i'm i'm sure Kelvin got calvin had a little extra on the sideline. yeah He was actually smiling at the end of the game. and yeah i think I think that might've had something to do with it. Offensively, ah we had no problem getting great shots. I know. i mean Everywhere, right? Everywhere on the court. Yeah, we just shredded. We just shredded BYU's so-called defense. So yeah, just the master class was in session and Kelvin taught Kevin Young a few lessons there. Yeah, no kidding. How about a summary of the ah the TCU game as well?
TCU Game Defensive Strategies
00:04:47
Speaker
do see you game won me go ahead and do that one steve yeah another great start similar to the byyu game you know we're up fifteen to four and then we kind of hit the the doldrums like it kind of appeared that That lull in our offense kind of came when we made some substitutions. We also had some shots that we just flat out missed. And that could explain you know that, finished a half up 29-22. So once again, 22 points at the half. And people are looking at our offense, and like I said last week, they're they're pointing out the bunion on Miss America.
00:05:25
Speaker
Yeah. But you, the way the game was going, you just knew there was going to be a stress there where LJ or Emmanuel are going to hit a couple of threes and when i put the dagger in. And that's what happened. We had, I believe, I believe it it was one, uh, one scenario there where, uh, Oozan tipped the blade. We were double teaming after the pick and roll and Oozan tipped the ball.
00:05:51
Speaker
And then I think TCU got possession of it. They drove in and JoJo comes out of nowhere and he blocks it. It makes an outlet past the milos. He throws it to LJ. LJ throws like a no look past a manual and the manual drains like a like a 25 footer. And it was just, you know, that right there just sums up Houston Cougar basketball. I got goosebumps watching, watching that play. But yo, TCU was tough. They just had a tough time scoring 46 points.
00:06:19
Speaker
But you gotta give a lot of credit to TC. they They were fighters, but they just happened to run into a you know a really good U of H team. Yeah, exactly. How about you, Bill, from a player's perspective?
BYU Game Player Performances
00:06:31
Speaker
The BYU game, I mean, that's as well as we've played. Even Calvin said he doesn't know if we'll play as well as complete a game that the rest of the season. It was just outstanding everywhere. I mean, literally the only criticism I could possibly find were that ah that of our 11 turnovers, Tuggler and and Roberts each had three. So they had six of 11 turnovers. That's it. The one big stat is the rebounding. We out rebounded them 37-24. I mean, we're more athletic. We're more aggressive. It absolutely showed on the boards. 15 of those 37 were offensive.
00:07:10
Speaker
They're just not as athletic as we are. They brought in some athletes. They brought in, and I mentioned them during the preview, catchings and deming. I liked some of the stuff I saw from Deming. He shot the ball terribly. He was one of six from the field, and he only scored three points. But he handled the ball pretty well for a 6'9 guard.
00:07:30
Speaker
He found open open players, moved the ball to the right players, and nobody hit shots. I wasn't entirely disappointed with him, but he there was no way he was going to take over yeah offensively. And it was really Sharp and Uzan who were guarding him. So it was a better matchup for Uzan than then uh... some of the other point guards particularly the one that i'll mention in the next game but but yeah every everyone played well if you've h made one hit one additional three pointer they shoot fifty percent from the field from both the field and from three yeah and we held by you to thirty seven and a half percent from the field a third of their they hit a third of their threes
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah, we've forced them into a fair number of turnovers, 15, and that turned into 24 U of H points. And once again, that's A, the defense, and B, the the superior athleticism. Really yeah nothing to criticize. It's just great game, great win, a huge blowout. I will say this about BYU's coach. You know, he's all that arrogant coming from the NBA to BYU. I'd mentioned when we did the conference preview that he's a Mormon and he's wanted to be at BYU for a long time. He was quick to jump to BYU when the offer came. This is where he wanted to be and um now I don't he was anywhere near prepared for what U of H threw at him and that's obvious because I mean we were a 10-point favorite and we we won by 31.
00:09:11
Speaker
and just put it to them defensively and offensively. the I do think that he's... No, he's arrogant. pretty Bill, I would agree with with the whole second half bitching at the refs. It's like, dude, coach coach your damn team. You're getting your ass kicked. well bits Yeah, if you saw the interviews,
00:09:36
Speaker
preseason, right after he got introduced did exactly as Tom put it, he was like, Oh, come on college basketball, I've been in the pros, I don't want to hear about the defense in the big 12. So it was like, well, he's specifically said that not not verbatim, but but like, like what, ah what Tom had said, he did say to the effect that and I don't know if it was referencing Houston specifically or Big 12 defense or whatever, but he did make that comment about throwing up if he was going to hear it one more time. Well, obviously it was something that I mean, I'm sure he's not the only coach that wants to throw up when he hears about how damn good U of H his defense is because I want to see his play sheet. Turnover, turnover, turnover, turnover. Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:27
Speaker
but What would you go to the I will say though in terms of Tommy had mentioned his arrogance being kind of a I guess a byproduct if for lack of a better term of from all the bitching at the referees he did if that's the case then this next game would indicate that Jamie Dixon is the most arrogant coach of all time because all he did the entire game was scream at the refs. I not seen anyone get on the refs as as much as frequently. yeah know he I mean, he was just over the top. So by that equation, he would have to be the most arrogant coach of not only in the big 12, but maybe of all time. He looked like he was on something on the sideline. I mean,
00:11:16
Speaker
The guy was wound. Yeah, but he's been like that since his pit days. So right in the be big East, he was pretty fiery back then as well. Well, he is a former child actor. So that's right. Yeah, he had commercials. Yeah. commercial Yeah. Yeah.
Preview: West Virginia vs Houston
00:11:31
Speaker
Bill, why don't you go through that game as well?
00:11:34
Speaker
The second game, it was a 65-46. That's a tough, hard-nosed game, but which makes sense. You've got the number one versus number 25 defensive teams in the country. So not entirely surprising. ah ah TCU scored one more point than I thought they would. So I was kind of kind of OK scored. I thought we would score more and i don't I don't attribute that necessarily negatively to us because we really didn't shoot that poorly. ah We didn't.
00:12:07
Speaker
have a ton of turnovers, although, and I mentioned it to Steve when we were watching the game, that that it it concerned me a little bit that we had seven turnovers in the first half, which is a fair number, but we turned the ball over very little in the second half. I just think it's a TCU, TCU plays tough, hard-nosed defense, and We got a lot of shots off late in the shot clock. it wasn't a quick We weren't taking quick shots and the result of a lower scoring game. No, I'll take that shooting. If we can maintain that level of shooting for the rest of the season, I would be ecstatic. Yeah, I mean, we didn't take bad shots. Sharp sharp took a couple that
00:12:48
Speaker
You can't call him bad because the shot clock was about to expire and he was way outside and he hit him. So it turned out to be great shots defending the drip penetration. i I thought that they played a lot better defensively than I expected them to against us, even though they are one of the top rated defensive teams.
00:13:11
Speaker
ah you know the the the one got it that hurt us was noah reynolds the point guard from wisconsin yeah although wisconsin green bay transferring from u knowg green bay he was good I was impressed her ah her ah he really beat us off the dribbles that they had three assists for the entire game that they weren't moving the ball and creating shots they were scoring off the dribble and but nobody assisting on anything
00:13:43
Speaker
and we had a lot of trouble
00:13:50
Speaker
Number one, we found out listening to Calvin's press conference, Steve, you and I were sitting in the car listening to it. And Calvin had mentioned that Cryer almost didn't play. And Steve, you and I, maybe we'll debate this later, because I think we disagree. I think Cryer has been our best defensive player, and him being ill probably didn't help in defending Reynolds. However, the person that came in and played a lot of the second half, Myleak Wilson, was the one player that was able to not entirely shut down Reynolds, but really contain him. And I just thought Wilson played a great game and, you know, he's he's not going to end up ever being the player of the game at Fertitta because
00:14:39
Speaker
both Sharp and Roberts scored more and played more. But I thought Wilson just played great on the defensive end. He hit some shots offensively. You can see he's getting more comfortable shooting the ball. I was really impressed with Wilson. So he would he was the one that I wanted to make sure I mentioned in terms of the the ah TCU game. Okay.
Houston Cougars' Game Strategies & Stats
00:15:02
Speaker
Hey, guys, before we move on, a ah couple of comments I just ah remember about TCU game. First off,
00:15:07
Speaker
So you don't think Noah Reynolds want to play for Doug Gottlieb at Green Bay? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and the next one, yep. ah but maybe Gottlieb turned him down to be on his podcast that he continues to do. Yeah, that's nuts. But but from a coaching standpoint, I just remember i had I don't have my notes in front of me. But ah you know we started off the game against TCU, trying to establish the inside game with Juwan, having the offense go through Juwan. And TCU was giving us a little taste of our own medicine because they were coming. They were monitoring. Not right away when he got the ball, but they were coming with a late trap.
00:15:48
Speaker
They kind of, they kind of stymied their offense a little bit, but Kelvin made a slight change in the second half. TCU was like blitzing the pick and roll kind of like we do. And Kelvin put Robertson to pick and roll so he could short roll. And now, now he's getting the ball.
00:16:07
Speaker
on the short roll in the middle of the basket. And now we're playing four on three. And, uh, that was like a little small, little detail there, but, uh, we ended up kind of loosened the game up a little bit. Uh, so Roberts in the floor in the middle being a playmaker, either going to the basket, taking shots or kicking the ball to somebody else. So really good move by Kelvin makes me wonder how can we don't do that? Put into one and pick and roll. We usually have JV and Jojo.
00:16:35
Speaker
Uh, in, in that role, but I really, I really liked that. They weren't just double teaming the post. They, they were coming out and I mentioned it to you, Steve at the game, they were jumping out at whichever guard had them. They were doubling anyone and everyone. And, and both, both Dixon and Calvin addressed it in their press conference and said that it became kind of a apparent how, how TCU wore down in the second half and that, uh, that we were able to take advantage of it.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, no, great call out guys on the the adjustments to the defensive calls from TCU. From an analytics perspective, looking at the BYU game, another textbook execution of Coach Sampson's game plan where the Cougars actually controlled all aspects of the game, both offensively and defensively in their 86 to 55 win.
00:17:26
Speaker
On offense, this was the type of ball movement and inside-outside bounce we need to see more of going forward. We ended up 62.7% effective field goal percentage, 47% from three, 52% from two-point range, with Roberts and Francis leading the way inside while Arsono and Sharp bombing from long range. On defense, we took away everything BYU liked to do, with no easy looks inside, shooting an abysmal 45.83% effective field goal percentage,
00:17:56
Speaker
41.7% from two point range where they were shooting over 60% coming in and blocking almost 30% of their inside shots. We added to that by harassing them all game long, accumulating nine steals and forcing turnovers on 23.8% of their possessions. So we're resounding wind to kick off our home conference slate, knocking the smug look off of Coach Young's face. And as I had said earlier,
00:18:23
Speaker
his somewhat arrogant NBA experience brush off when he was asked coming into the season on how he would adjust to college. Now for the payback game versus TCU, from an analytics perspective, it was a continuation of the same formula.
00:18:36
Speaker
shutting down TCU's favorite offensive tendencies and reinforcing that balanced offensive take in the 65 to 46 win. On offense, we continued the stellar ball movement and inside-outside balance against a much more feisty top 30D. We shot extremely well for the second game in a row. We were at 55.6% effective field goal percentage. And I mentioned that earlier. If we can maintain that level, I will be ecstatic Uh, to end the season to that, I believe will bring us into the top 12 and adjusted offensive efficiency for the year, which is where we need to be to win the national championship. We ended up 42% from three point range, 51.4% from two point range with Roberts as the man yet again, leading the way inside while Sharp continued his devastation from long range.
00:19:27
Speaker
On defense for a TCU team that valued protecting the ball this season, given their limited offensive options, we first forced turnovers on 31.5% of their possessions with 11 steals and all. We also shut them down from three, resulting in their shooting only 45.7% effective field goal percentage and a stunning 16.7% from three-point range.
00:19:52
Speaker
TCU did make 58.6% from two-point range after hitting numerous, what I would consider, off-balance last-second shots inside with defenders in their face. Otherwise, it would have been even uglier for them. So a perfect 3-0 in Big 12 play to start off the conference slate, and we move to two games this coming week. At KSU and then a trip back home versus tricky West Virginia, Bill, why don't you kick things off with a brief preview of both games from a player's perspective.
00:20:22
Speaker
Yeah, Kansas State, they're 7-7 right now. They're 1-2 in the Big 12, coached by Jerome Tang, who I respect, but he he just doesn't have the horses this year. They're right around 100, I think, in in Ken Palm.
00:20:39
Speaker
ah I don't think that they're terrible at anything, but I don't think they're especially good at anything either. yeah they They do turn the ball over a fair amount and they're not a great rebounding team, but ah but offensively and defensively, okay to slightly less than okay. They did beat Cincinnati and that was at home. They lost at TCU by one.
00:21:07
Speaker
the same TCU team that we just beat, that I predicted us to beat by 34, and they also lost at Oklahoma State by 13.
00:21:19
Speaker
yeah they the The Cincinnati game, to me, is a bit of a surprise but if if you look at who they've played and how they've done they've actually played pretty well in manhattan
West Virginia's Growth Under Coach Darren DeVries
00:21:32
Speaker
this year so it's it's going to make it a little more challenging for us and the blowout won't be quite to the extent that i might otherwise think it would be that they do have four players and double figures right are double digits right now scoring all between ten and thirteen points a game they play
00:21:52
Speaker
only seven players. They're kind of guard-heavy, no real center height. ah Actually, they've got a few guys with some height that play and have performed reasonably well. One guy, their leading scorer and rebounder, David Nagesen. Last year when we previewed this game, I had mentioned him as as maybe being their best player and ah looking for him to be a challenge i think we held him maybe to two points
00:22:24
Speaker
ah maybe it was four i mean we absolutely shut him down just like we do with ah for the most part with every team's best player. he ah He's at 13 points. He's the leading scorer, eight boards. He's shooting 66% from the field. That's not going to continue against us. They've got another senior, big guy, 610, Coleman Hawkins, 10 points, seven boards. He commits a bunch of turnovers, three three plus a game.
00:22:53
Speaker
ah does the does ah dish out four assists, which is not bad for a big guy, but he's only a 40% shooter. ah Brendan Hawthorne, he's their shooting guard. He's their three-point shooter. He's really the the lone guy to watch on the perimeter. He's averaging 12 points. He shoots 41% from the field, but 40% from three. so he's the And he shoots a ton of three. and And then they've got a solid point guard, Doug McDaniels, 5'11",
00:23:25
Speaker
Ten points four assists forty percent from the from the field, but he's absolutely no threat from outside They play much much better in Manhattan than they do on the road where they're really pretty poor and the Cincinnati win kind of echoes that they Barely lost at home to Drake who's been playing well this year So this game should, in the end, be relatively easy for us. i'll I'll lower the margin of victory a little bit since we're in Manhattan, and I'll say we win $77.57. Okay. How about West Virginia? West Virginia.
00:24:04
Speaker
This is an interesting one. They're 11 and three right now. They're two and one in the Big 12. They've had some and everything's well, we'll get to it, but they they won by one at Kansas. They won by eight at home against Gonzaga. They beat Arizona by seven in a non-conference game. So they've got three good wins. They lost by 24 on the road to Pitt and they lost at home by 19 last night to Arizona. That was a shocker. What's that? That was a shocker for me. i didn't Well, it's it shouldn't be a shocker. And I'll tell you why in a minute. yeah This is a brand new team.
00:24:47
Speaker
They've got five brand new starters, a new head coach, Darren DeVries, who came from Drake, ah where he's 150 and 55 in six years, which equates to 25 and nine per year. He's a damn good coach.
00:25:00
Speaker
but They're right around 50. I think in Ken palm. They're solid offensively, but he's got them playing very good. Very good defense, but they're also a turnover machine. Uh, their best player is Javon small, the six, three guard. He transferred from Oklahoma state. He's averaging 19 and a half points, five and a half boards, five assists.
00:25:25
Speaker
3.1 turnovers. ah He's not a great shooter, but he is a scorer. Here's why you shouldn't necessarily be surprised, Steve. Darren DeVries' son, Tucker DeVries, who scored 26 in the win over Arizona, a 6'7 swing man, transferred from Drake, came over with his father.
00:25:48
Speaker
yeah Right now for the year, 15 points, five boards, three assists, 41% from the field and 47% from three. But here's, here's the thing. He sat out last night's game and that was the sixth straight game that he sat out. He's got a, it's being called an upper body injury. If he doesn't play, they're in trouble.
00:26:13
Speaker
And it's it's right now he's listed as questionable for the game with us. Yeah. So if he doesn't play, that's a big problem for them. If he does, they're a different team. Yeah. I think the reason I was surprised was, I mean, they'd still been winning even without him, surprisingly. I mean, they win the KU game in Lawrence without him, which was a big wow, quite honestly. Yes, I agree with you there.
00:26:38
Speaker
And I won't I won't turn this into a Kansas analysis although I kind love it if I did it would echo a lot of what he's said previously, but we'll save that alone that two other guys that Will contribute especially if DeVries is out Toby O'Connie is six eight forward eight and a half points four and a half boards He's a mediocre shooter And then Imani Hansberry, another 6-8. He's a power forward. He's about 2-40, 2-50. 10 points, 6 boards. Again, he can't really shoot, ah but he's big, he's physical, and he can score inside.
00:27:18
Speaker
yeah They're not a great rebounding team, and when DeVries is playing, they are very limited offensively. The the win against Kansas was 62-61, so DeVries has them playing really, really good defense this year. They're one of the top teams in the entire country.
00:27:37
Speaker
ah I think if they could protect the ball a little better, they'd be much better. to But they are a good defensive team. And what I'll say is if Debris plays, and again, we're playing at Fertitta, Debris plays, we win 77-60. If no Debris, 81-50. Okay, good. How about you, Tom, from a coach's perspective for the two games?
00:28:03
Speaker
Well, the first game of K-State games played in Bramalege Coliseum, nicknamed Octagon of Doom because of its shape. I don't know if the students are back at K-State. If the students are back and they they pack their section, it could be a boost for K-State. But I think unless Coleman Hawkins plays like Connie Hawkins, I don't think K-State's going to win, but nothing's easy on the road.
00:28:31
Speaker
ah You never know where these surprises come from. ah They're more than capable of winning at Bramledge. Somebody once said oh there's no upsets at at home. I don't know if I believe that wholeheartedly or not, but in the end, I think we win ah because we're a tough team. And to win on the road, you have to be a tough. I think we win.
00:28:55
Speaker
Jerome Tang. I know, Steve, you kind of thought that Jerome Tang was responsible for Baylor's defense when he was the assistant there. Just a quick note about Jerome Tang. ah Some of you guys know I graduated from North Shore High School in Houston. Well, Jerome Tang did too. But he wasn't on the basketball team there. They had a really good basketball team along with their football team. But Tang's a Houston native. um On to the next game, West Virginia.
00:29:24
Speaker
Bill touched on head coach Darian DeVries. Here's another little tidbit about them. Darien DeVries grew up in Aplington, Iowa, was about two hours from from where I'm at. And he played for Aplington Parkersburg High School. um And they in the late 80s, early 90s, they had really, really, really good football teams coached by a guy named Ed ah Thomas, who and unfortunately was shot and killed one day in the weight room by one of his former former players. but
00:29:55
Speaker
Arians, little brother, if you can call him little, 6'4", 275 was Jared DeVries, who played defense in for the Lions. So athletic background from the DeVries had a lot of success at at Drake. Game's at home, it's a Fertitta center. And about two weeks later, then we go to Morgantown and play them. So we got West Virginia ah two times in a span of about a week and a half or so. We hold serve at home.
00:30:21
Speaker
um You know, once again, it could be another tough one, but like I said, toughest team wins. I i do think we win both of these and we roll into Kansas.
00:30:33
Speaker
Well, it's seven and oh, I believe I'm kind of putting the heart before the horse. But yeah, I think we go into Kansas ah ah seven. Oh, we got road games at UCF and then a home versus Utah. But yeah, the next game on the same is the most important game in its case state. So this is the most important game of the year. Yeah, I completely agree.
00:30:53
Speaker
seven and oh, on our way to 18 and two. Ha ha ha. We'll see. I hope so. Although now I might change the, I'd said two and a half and the half was tech. Despite the Iowa state tech quick turnaround, all of a sudden I'm becoming less concerned with tech and maybe a little more concerned with Arizona, but that's it. Yeah, we'll see for another time. Speaking of Iowa state, since I live up here.
00:31:22
Speaker
and We're flying under the radar. I know some Iowa State people and they're like, you guys any good this year? And I see it lost like three games. And then in my mind, I'm saying, do I waste my breath trying to tell them who we lost to and the circumstances of that? And do you guys have anybody coming back this year? I know you lost shed. ah Do you have anybody?
00:31:45
Speaker
so um i like hair I like the position we're in, Gar. Apparently we're not underrated to everyone because a couple of people that watch the TCU game on TV on ESPN2 said that ah Fran Fraschilla said that it's, and I'm probably not quoting him directly, but said that it's utterly insane that we're ranked number 12 right now and it's just a brutal ranking. so You know, Fran's a former coach. He's not green with envy of Kelvin. I think he admires Kelvin. So he knows, you know, he knows the score. He knows who. now Seth Greenberg on the other hand, I called him Seth Green with envy because I think Seth is envy of Kelvin Sampson because he could never get his teams
00:32:31
Speaker
to play like, uh, at Kelvin's teams. He's always ragging on the offense or whatever, but, uh, Oh, another thing, uh, some Iowa state fans will say, and they'll say, you guys have a good coach. It's I'm thinking good coach in the conference, right? How about that hall of fame? How about hall coach? Yeah, no kidding. I mean, from an analytics perspective, Kansas state has been getting slowly worse each season under drone tank.
00:33:00
Speaker
going from 21st in Ken Palm and 23 to number 70 last season. And now they're coming into our game at 94 in Ken Palm. KSU's number 112 in adjusted offensive efficiency and exactly 100 in adjusted defensive efficiency. And as you guys know, we're now at 16th in adjusted offensive efficiency and number two in adjusted defensive efficiency.
00:33:25
Speaker
Kansas state is shooting the ball a bit better on offense this season with some of the new kids that they've got on board number one or two and effective vehicle percentage, but they continue to turn the ball over way too much ranking 226 and twenty six in turnover percentage on D where Kansas state has been able to hang their hat on the last two seasons where they were top 30, both seasons. They have dropped off precipitously down to a hundred and Ken Palm.
00:33:52
Speaker
Only area there are anywhere near our top 40 threshold for being great on defense is defensive rebounding, where even there, their number 48 in kid bomb. So a key point for us on offense will be continuing our recent ball movement and balance and continue to get comfortable while raising our effective field goal percentage.
00:34:11
Speaker
And in my mind, 55% is kind of that magic number we need to get to as we head into March. While on D, pick on their weakness and turn them over where we can continue to up our quick points off steals, where we've actually raised our level back up to last year's levels, coming in at number 32 in the country in Haslam metrics. Based on the metrics, this is projected to be a 12-point win for the Cougs on the road by 10-pom.
00:34:37
Speaker
Casey's lost their last two games on the road. So I think they should be focused and motivated now that they're back at home, but I think we'll still be too much for them and project a 76 to 60 16 point win. Now onto West Virginia. They're much, much better this season under DeVries as head coach, having beaten the Zags, Arizona, Georgetown, and Kansas already this season.
00:35:03
Speaker
They come in ranked number 21st in the AP poll and number 48 in Ken Palm after the loss to Arizona. Now they're 98th in adjusted of often offensive efficiency and number 18th now in adjusted defensive efficiency. So much better than last year's team.
00:35:20
Speaker
and the toughest D we'd have faced so far in the Big 12. West Virginia doesn't do anything exceptionally well on offense, but everything's relative where they've improved from basically in the two hundreds on most of the key metrics on offense to at least within the 100 rail.
00:35:38
Speaker
in all key metrics, ranking 139 in effective field goal percentage versus, let's say, 235 last season. Biggest improvement is in protecting the ball, where they've improved their turnover percentage to the number 117 in the country. Still not great, but much, much better than last year. On D, this is where West Virginia has become elite this season, particularly at challenging every shot, ranking number eight in effective field goal percentage D,
00:36:05
Speaker
number 10 from three-point range and number 13th in two-point range in Kenpong. So expect a bit of a slog trying to score on them. I believe that will smother West Virginia with our D, similar to how Arizona did so this past game. On offense, as I had mentioned, this will be our biggest challenge in the last nine games to score. But at home, I think it makes the difference and I expect Arsenal to be the X factor. Based on the metrics, this is projected to be a 13-point win for the Cougs at home by Kenpong.
00:36:35
Speaker
West Virginia got killed by Arizona in the rematch at home, which was, as I mentioned earlier, a bit surprising to me. So I still think it will be slightly bigger win than what Ken Palm projects. So I've projected a 70 to 55, 15 point win at home. Now, looking at the time, since we've got a little bit of time left today, how about we all weigh in on up to this point, how good this defense has looked so far for our Cougs?
Houston's Defensive Evolution
00:37:04
Speaker
Many fans have continued to reference last season team as the benchmark during the Samson era for our best defensive team ever. And rightly so with shed in a senior year leading the charge at the top with Roberts down low.
00:37:17
Speaker
But how does this team compare to last season or quite honestly, any previous Kelvin-Samson UH team on D from a coach's players and an analytics perspective? Tom, I'm going to let you go first and kind of from your coaching take, have you seen any tweaks scheme wise and you know how does this year's D compare to what you've seen in previous years?
00:37:42
Speaker
Well, Steve, as you know, you're a huge analytics guy. ah you know I don't pay a whole lot of attention to analytics. ah when i When I watch a game, all the time just go by the eye test and then the results. ah ah You can't always go by ah point, you know, as an indicator of how well you're playing defense because some teams play faster pace and they have more possessions and some teams play a slower pace. I do think though that teams that play fast shoot quicker in the shot clock. ah It affects their defense, their toughness on the other end. I just think there's something mental there if you're a team that
00:38:16
Speaker
but likes to rush it up and shoot quick in the shot clock. You get back down defense and you got five guys thinking about their next offensive possession. But there's something to be said for teams that are patient on offense, ah are usually really, really good. They're really patient on defense. so You can be impatient on offense on defense, just like you can be impatient on offense. yeah So our our pace is slower. We pick our spots, ah you know, went went to run. We just don't give up any transition buckets. That's interesting. I was reading a little bit of ah Kelvin's book today way back from his Oklahoma days. Well, actually man Montana Tech, and he made a comment that, you know, he developed his philosophy.
00:38:58
Speaker
ah Back at Montana Tech that they weren't gonna give any transition buckets. They were gonna give any any buckets They're gonna hack the crap out of somebody that wasn't easy bucket And if you had a breakaway layup not gonna try to hurt the guy or a cheap shot him whatever but make him earn on the foul line But getting back to your question defensively. There's more than one way to skin a cat obviously with Jamal past past couple of years he had that a Pit bull at the, you know, as the first line of your defense, you know, Jamal can get down to stance and the guy was quicker than the cat covering up crap. And he could just make a life miserable for the other teams, other teams point guard. Uh, we just do it in different ways now, but like I said, there's different ways you can do things to get the same result. As far as a coaching ah scheme, I'm not sure cause I'm not privy to practice.
00:39:52
Speaker
But we still monster the pose. We still like blitz the pick and roll. but A couple of comments from Kelvin. I think it was after the Butler game when they held their leading score. I think he was averaging 20 points a game. We held him to like three or four points, but Kelvin mentioned something that. ah We changed up ah who, who we were going to double team, where, you know, where the traps are going to come from. um So I think there's so some subtle differences there and the scouting report based. but That's why it's so important for our players to know the scouting report also and yeah.
00:40:27
Speaker
Uh, you know, sometimes players, uh, maybe don't look at the scout report, uh, like they should. And in that case, it they don't end up playing, but, um, overall just an amazing string here, these last seven games of, uh, of our defense. So we're so connected. We got everybody backs it for, uh, for Milo's, uh,
00:40:49
Speaker
You know, the the team really moves all at once. Five guys in a stance, five guys moving at once. Just the connectivity on defense is is unreal, unreal. I was talking with a coaching friend of mine last night, and he says, he goes, how does Sampson get those guys to but play like that? And I said, well, you know, if they don't do it, they don't play. And they know that coming into the program, they they know they're not going to play a defense.
00:41:15
Speaker
They're not going to, they're not going to see the court. So I guess bottom line, if you, if I force you to compare this year versus last year overall defensively, which one do you think is, is better? Uh, hard to say because we haven't played the whole whole schedule yet. agreed you There were some games last year where our defense wasn't the greatest so Oklahoma on the road was one. It ended up more of a shootout. We had the, the Kansas debacle, you know, so far, uh,
00:41:44
Speaker
I don't know if we had one of those games yet this year, you know, the Auburn, Alabama games, you can't say our defense got shredded like Miami did. And the, was it the sweet 16? Um, so right now I have to go with this year's team. Okay. It's important to have rim protectors too. Yep. You know, when we Joe, Joe's a year older and then we got JVA and we have, uh, you know, Juan back. So.
00:42:08
Speaker
You know the rim protector is so important in our defense too. Yeah, I agree. Have a cheap bill from a player's perspective. The defense has been very good. Obviously it's good every year and it's been very good as as usual as expected last year.
00:42:26
Speaker
I know we had better defense at the point, picking up their their point guard because shed was so good. yeah And, but I will say that I think the rest of the team, you know, as I've argued, the, the shed debates that we've had.
00:42:43
Speaker
I think the rest of the team, everyone has has stepped up. by you know I don't have the statistics, but I think that the I will. ah Yeah, I'm sure you will. But I would imagine just from watching that I feel like we're we're getting more deflections this year. I feel like we're in better position, you know, passing, especially around the lane. I think we're deflecting. It seems like anyway that we're deflecting a lot more balls.
00:43:12
Speaker
i'll say this so far and and again i was gonna say the same thing that you said tom that it's just too early in the season to really accurately compare this year to last year but so far i'd really like are transitions a little better work we're not giving up and again we've got we've got some good offensive teams to go up against kansas arizona uh...
00:43:38
Speaker
but a Baylor, but I think we're transitioning better from double teaming. I think getting back of the opposing team gets the ball away from the double team and there's not a turnover. I think we're transitioning back to the players and not allowing as many open threes. I like the way we're moving the big guys get out to double team and then they get back quickly and you know We're not giving up ah much of anything inside, so I like the team defense right now. I would say the one area, and I've only seen it twice, where it's really been a little detrimental, ah Alabama and ah two nights ago.
00:44:21
Speaker
the ah the dribble penetration and not surprisingly Sears killed us ah when we played Alabama and then Noah Reynolds a couple nights ago killed us off the dribble even a let who isn't much of a score you know, beat us off the dribble for for TCU a couple of times. But that that'll lead me to the compliment. And in terms of last night, I will argue, and Steve, we may argue this, that I think that Cryer's been our our best defender, and he was sick two nights ago, so it may very well have prevented him from from playing against Reynolds much more.
00:45:03
Speaker
but I like the fact that Wilson's coming off the bench and I think he's a perfect compliment for Yuuzhan. I think his athleticism, his desire to play defense, he looked great playing against Reynolds and he in all areas he's just been better recently.
00:45:21
Speaker
and showing that he's going to be a factor for us down the stretch but defensively i really like him playing against opposing guards especially ball-dominant garden and uh... so i'm i'm really pleased with how how wilson's playing right now and uh...
00:45:37
Speaker
Yeah, i again, too early to to to make a definitive comparison to last year, but but no arguments at this point. But are you thinking it's comparable? or Granted, we know it's early right now, but do you view overall If you compare it to the last season, are we as good? Yeah, I think the team defense, I think the team defenses is, like I said, is better. The transition is better. Okay. Everything. And I think that's going to continue. And I think that that's going to be the difference for us in some of the games that we thought were, were potential toss up.
00:46:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. And it's interesting. So from an analytics perspective, last year's team was statistically the best defensive team of the Samson era.
Spotlight on Uzan's Defensive Prowess
00:46:20
Speaker
Number two in Ken Palm adjusted defensive efficiency at 87.7. Next closest one of the Samson era was the 22 team that lost to Villanova.
00:46:30
Speaker
and They were number eight in Ken Palm and adjusted defensive efficiency, and that came at 89.1. This season, granted up to this point, we are number two in Ken Palm, adjusted defensive efficiency of 86.6, so even better than last season so far.
00:46:49
Speaker
which is incredible, right? And now some may argue as well that we haven't played our full conference slate yet, and we've been beating up on the Patsy's, but we've actually improved our raw adjusted defensive efficiency numbers since conference play has begun. So it's still early, I know, but we've improved our effective field goal percentage D, our defensive rebounding percentage, and lessened our fouling, if you can believe that.
00:47:15
Speaker
Looking deeper at defending shots, we've improved on both three-point percentage and two-point percentage field goal percentage D as well. We're slightly lower on ceiling the ball, but we've actually upped our block shots with Tuggler playing more minutes to almost blocking 20% of all two-point shots now, which is an incredible stat.
00:47:36
Speaker
Now, when you even look at individual players this season, and I know, you know, we're talking about in debating a bit offline around, right, who's our best defender and granted, it's impossible to replace shed. But all of our other returning players have up their defensive player box score plus minus numbers from last season, which is great. Then you add on Jojo's growth.
00:48:01
Speaker
and contribution this season. And it's been individually a huge jump defensively so far. And here's the shocker that I'm going to throw out to you guys. You know who has been the highest defensive player box score plus minus? And again, that's the player box score rating strictly on the defensive side of the ball. Do you know who her highest score is on that side?
00:48:25
Speaker
Let me take you guys, Milo. If it's going to shock us, I'm guessing you're going to say use that. Yeah, it's, it's you said, how about that fans? When you, when you hear that now granted, you know, he's had a few games where he hasn't played, right? Cause a foul trouble. And then quite honestly, we've also talked about, you know, what we saw as adjustments with Uzan now starting to guard maybe the third wing and not really the point guard, but we have like crier or sharp kind of alternating.
00:48:54
Speaker
on that side to keep Uzan out of foul trouble. But that's still amazing. I mean, he's still playing great team defense to have the highest defensive player box score plus minus. So folks, basically what I'm saying is if we keep this up, and I believe we will, this will end up being our best defensive team of the Samson era.
Podcast Conclusion & Social Media Call-to-Action
00:49:14
Speaker
So that's it for our 38th 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 a 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. We're at the Goku's.com website for those that prefer to digest the content that way.
00:49:39
Speaker
We appreciate the continued support from all. Also, please give us a follow on our Twitter account, no conference for all men. Thank you all again for listening and be on the lookout for next week to download and listen as our next episode drops. Take care, everyone.