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Reality Check in Lawrence + a Smashing Recovery Win Over OK St
104 Plays1 year ago
Welcome to Episode 15 of the No Conference for Old Men Podcast.
The Cougars are now 20-3, 7-3 in the Big 12 & still a 1/2 game ahead atop the conference standings, after a reality check pummeling at Kansas along with a quick turnaround smashing of Oklahoma St at home to get the bad taste of losing out of our mouths. We begin this episode with a summary of the Kansas & OK State games, highlight the other Big 12 games each of us identified last week, then transition to previewing the Cougars' upcoming conference game this week vs Cincinnati, and wrap up with a new set of Big 12 games of interest.
- 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 https://gocoogs.com/old-men/
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Transcript
Episode Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome, folks, to the 15th episode of No Conference for Old Men, the podcast where three old guys are talking Houston Cougars basketball with a bit of Big 12 coverage sprinkled in as well, and proud members of the gocougs.com network, the number one Houston Cougars content provider around.
Houston Cougars in Conference Standings
00:00:21
Speaker
Now into February, our Houston Cougars have hit the midway point of conference games and are still in sole possession of
00:00:29
Speaker
first place in the conference standings, even after dropping a game in Lawrence, Kansas and going one in one for the week after yesterday's win at home versus Oklahoma State.
Episode Structure Overview
00:00:39
Speaker
Lots to talk about in both our loss to Kansas as well as our blowout win over Oklahoma State.
00:00:45
Speaker
So today, it's all three of us back again with Tom Lydiak, former coach, Bill Walker, former player, and myself, Steve Chang, analytics guy for this week's episode. Same format where we'll start off summarizing Houston's two games this past week.
Kansas Loss and Oklahoma State Win
00:00:58
Speaker
Each of us will then provide an update on the key Big 12 game we individually highlighted, then move into a deep preview of the one upcoming Cincinnati game coming up this week. And finally, identify some additional Big 12 games each of us will be zeroing in on.
00:01:14
Speaker
OK, let's get right into it. Brutal loss in Lawrence and a turnaround shellacking of Oklahoma State a few days later, but with its own drama as well. Quite honestly, I'm still trying to get used to the quick turnaround with the games here where there really are just no gimmies.
Analyzing Kansas Loss
00:01:32
Speaker
In recapping the two games played, let's start with a breakdown of the KU game. So Tom, what are your coaches thoughts on our 78-65 loss to Kansas?
00:01:41
Speaker
My first thought, y'all, was, do we have to talk about this game? Y'all have listened to a couple of podcasts. I've read a bunch of stuff on social media. It's hard to say anything new that hasn't been said, but I'll give the old college try here. This game, it was never in doubt for Kansas. They shot close to 70%. And as a coach,
00:02:07
Speaker
You hear fans say, well, they were just shooting the lights out and all that. But I'm sure Kelvin, as a coach, he might not say it publicly, but he knows that the effort wasn't there. Maybe the attention to detail wasn't there as much as it should have been, because they were hitting all kinds of shots. They were hit rhythm shots. They were hitting back doors. They were hitting turnaround shots. They were hitting post-ups.
00:02:34
Speaker
You name it. I just think that we could have done something better as far as an effort area. But it is what it is. Kansas, it's hard to beat at home. I don't know who the people were in Vegas or whatever that made us the favorites in that game. But that was, I don't see how they could have done that. It's very hard to win there.
00:02:56
Speaker
From what I hear, the people were at the game. I think Fran Fraschilla said it yesterday on the broadcast. That's the best atmosphere he's seen this year in college basketball. That was the loudest he's had in the arena. Fogg is historic. And they're, like I said, they're
00:03:13
Speaker
tough to beat. I get a sense that Bill Self and his staff did a lot of prep for this game. Most definitely. They might have cost them in the K-State game. They might have put all their eggs in one basket when we're super prepared for this one. Self is a Hall of Fame coach.
00:03:32
Speaker
There's reasons for it. He was able to use what we do defensively against us, especially Monster in the Post. I noticed when I was watching the Iowa State game, I went back and watched the first half. And they also monster Dickinson. But when Dickinson came down the floor, Rob Jones for Iowa State, whoever else was guarding Dickinson, they were able to push him down below the block. So when Dickinson caught the ball and he was doubled, he was behind the backboard. That's a tough angle to make passes.
00:04:02
Speaker
In the Kansas game, Dickinson was getting the ball higher up on the block. So when he did get monsters, he had vision to pass cross court to the corner.
Unexpected Outcomes Discussion
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, it was just a total butt kicking.
00:04:17
Speaker
and you got to get props to the Kansas for that. We just never seemed to have an answer. I never got the sense that we could get the stops to get back in the game. I think we cut it to 10, but we were basically kind of trading baskets. I think Kansas did turn it over 18 times, but... They did.
00:04:35
Speaker
The shots were just coming too easy, as opposed to our other games that we play where some teams just have difficulty getting a quality shot off. And basically it came down to, okay, they're going to get a good shot. Hopefully they'll miss. Another area that it was tough for us was offensive rebounding.
00:04:54
Speaker
I didn't think we made second, third efforts on the boards when we have Sharp and Cryer and shed in the game. Anytime Sharp shoots, we only sent two guys to the boards. That would be our two bigs. I went back and watched the first half of our game. And just about every time the ball was shot, Kansas had great blockouts. We just kind of ran to their back.
00:05:13
Speaker
and then just kind of gave up. An interesting thing is, even though we were only sending two and getting three back when Shark took a shot, they were still getting the rebound and then beating us down in transition. That was the surprising thing for me. But like I said, hats off to Kansas for their play that day.
00:05:32
Speaker
I don't know if they can play any better this year than what they did. Another thing I noticed on defense, we had our heads turned a whole lot on defense and we were giving up quite a few back doors. Uncharacteristically, we didn't come up with the 50-50 balls. Usually, U of H, they're not 50-50 balls, they're usually like 80-20 balls that we come up with. But in the long run, it's one game.
00:06:00
Speaker
It'd be the same as losing at the buzzer. It doesn't go down as three losses. It goes down as one.
Analytics and Coaching Strategies
00:06:05
Speaker
And then we had a nice bounce back game against Oklahoma State, which we'll talk about here in a minute. And then Kansas, two days later, they get beat at the octagon of doom. I was sad to see that. I was sad to see that. It broke my heart. Nice. How about you, Bill? What did you think of the game?
00:06:25
Speaker
Well, I'll disagree with you a little bit, Tom. I certainly understand why we were favored. You know, they had only beaten West Virginia at home. No, I've taken it back. It was Cincinnati. But they only beat Cincinnati at home by five in a tight game. They lost, albeit on the road to West Virginia and to UCF. They had not played like the better team coming into this game.
00:06:50
Speaker
However, this was certainly not what I or anyone
Oklahoma State Win Recap
00:06:54
Speaker
who follows the Cougs expected. I think to your point, Tom, I mean, they were prepared. They were fired up. The crowd was fired up and they took it to us from the opening tip. I thought the way they attacked our defense looked very similar to what UT did against us in the second half of that game when
00:07:15
Speaker
They put up 40 points. I thought they spread the floor. They got the ball into the post to Dickinson or whoever was, and they moved the ball quickly. They didn't hold it and let the double teams really get to them and affect anything that they got rid of the ball quickly. And.
00:07:38
Speaker
They were able to get shots. The rotations weren't as probably as quick and as crisp as they have been. They took it to us. And of course, what makes this strategy work is when you're shooting 69% from the floor. I mean, their worst shooter for the game was Dickinson, who shot nine of, their worst starting shooter was Dickinson, who shot nine of 15, which, you know, 60%. And he was their worst,
00:08:07
Speaker
field goal percentage starter. That's just something that's not going to happen to us pretty much ever, other than this absolute aberration. Fervy, who went crazy against us, if you saw him against Kansas State, he barely hit a shot.
00:08:27
Speaker
And he's a good shooter. He just, you know, he had a tough night against Kansas state, but the entire Kansas team didn't shoot all that well against Kansas state in the loss. They couldn't miss. And I do agree with you, Tom. A lot of it had to do with our defense. We were, I think, a little slow.
00:08:50
Speaker
My basketball coach in high school said you shoot your guns. You're basically pointing your fingers when you're playing defense. You're pointing them at the ball and at the man you're guarding, so you don't lose sight of either. And I felt like that may not have been the case throughout the Kansas game. And that led to the back doors and some easy shot, easy scoring opportunities inside.
00:09:16
Speaker
They were throwing darts on their passes. Yeah. They, they moved the ball really well and they moved it really quickly. If you had told me.
00:09:24
Speaker
before the game or without me knowing anything about the game that we would have committed three turnovers for the entire game. And they committed 18. I would have said, this is exactly how it should have played out. We wear them down because they're not a deep team and we win easily. But it wasn't quite the case. And we
Officiating and Ejection Issues
00:09:48
Speaker
only shot 36%.
00:09:50
Speaker
I think from inside the arc. So it it just wasn't a good game. I mean, you know, it happens. You're not going to win every game. Nobody's won every game since Indiana and 76. And this just was not a good game on either end of the court. Quite honestly, had cry or not scored 21 in the second half, this would have been a hell of a lot uglier. Yes. And
00:10:15
Speaker
I was happy to see that he did come alive, you know, albeit, you know, after the game was completely decided. But, you know, he struggled and it's nice to see him hitting shots. Shed had nine assists. He didn't turn the ball over at all. But I would say that this was probably his worst game overall. And he came out last night and played like he was coming off his worst game. He was entirely different in
00:10:44
Speaker
you know, that's kind of the way it went. You know, it was a tough atmosphere. I thought Roberts was solid, 11 points, 13 boards, two steals. And then quite honestly, there just really wasn't much else positive from the team. I mean, Francis, unfortunately, only played the four minutes prior to getting hurt. And
00:11:05
Speaker
I think our interior defense, rebounding effort, everything with Francis out just kind of sunk and we were sunk. You know, they had a 40 to 24 rebounding average. I think that means absolutely nothing because when you're making every shot, it's not like we have many opportunities to rebound.
00:11:30
Speaker
Coming out of this game, the one thing that I could say is that I cannot wait for March 9th. Yeah, agree. And I think that's it. Really, that's about all I have to say in terms of the. Hey, hey, guys. Yeah, real quick. Did you notice that in the first five or six minutes of the game, we had given up more points than we had given up like in a half to some teams? Yeah. Yeah. No, it's crazy. They're so efficient. They had like what?
00:11:59
Speaker
20, 21, 23 points in the first, I don't know, seven, eight minutes of the game. And that's like, normally that's what we've been giving up in a half. Well, and they came out and shot even better than the 70, 69% that they shot for the game. I mean, they just, they came out and just could not miss. I mean, it was ugly. It was really ugly.
00:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the starters were the same. And like you guys said, no way around it. Kansas put on an offensive clinic in this game. They started fast, never looked back, doubling up our score 23-11 in the first quarter title of the game. And then we're leading 43-28 at the half. We made it semi-respectful as you guys had highlighted in the fourth quarter title of the game with some inspired play by Cryer. But Kansas basically coasted in the second half
00:12:51
Speaker
A lot of fans, as well as Coach Sampson, were critical of
Strategic Plays and Insights
00:12:55
Speaker
the defensive effort in this game. And I know both of you guys have kind of highlighted that as well. I'll tell you what, I'm actually far less so. I watched the game three times, if you can believe that, just to see what was going on. I thought there were some brilliant coaching tweaks that self put in place that really impacted us.
00:13:13
Speaker
I mean, to start off with, he put the taller athletic macula on Shedd, the entire game, dogging him and bothering him with his length. That really slowed down our, whatever you want to call it, head of the snake, as they like to say a lot this season with Shedd. And it worked. It bothered him. He was way more tentative trying to take it in with a longer athletic guy on him.
00:13:37
Speaker
They played through their bigs in running the offense with both KJ Adams and Dickinson leading the way with 12 assists between the two of them, from the high poster out of the monster. As you had also highlighted, Tom posting up, they had decided to post up just a bit further away from the basket, making us pay the price in being late recovering from the monster
00:14:04
Speaker
in the post to their three point shooter where Fervy took advantage with 17 points, three or four from three. I mean, all it takes is that fraction or an additional step to get there. And it makes you look like the effort isn't there, but I didn't. I mean, quite honestly, I felt like the kids were putting at the effort, but we didn't adjust.
00:14:25
Speaker
right when they were starting to make those tweaks. We didn't adjust. We did exactly the same thing. We monstered right away. We're out of position. And there's no way you can make up that distance.
00:14:36
Speaker
Anyways, I mean, I thought it was brilliant coaching by self in preparation for this game, and it's really up to us and our coaching staff to adjust going into the game at Furtita Center. Cryer, as you guys had highlighted, was a lone bright spot for University of Houston with 24 points, 6 of 12 from 3, and a player box where plus minus 18.7 for the game. Both Roberts and Tuggler had their moments, but let's be honest, we were blasted this game.
00:15:06
Speaker
Now for KU, from an advanced analytics perspective, it's ugly. On offense.
00:15:11
Speaker
It was miserable. Our effective field goal percentage was significantly below standard at 42.75% versus 50% this year. But you look at the other stats, they actually on the surface, they look good. We protect the ball well with turnover percent under 5%, which is crazy, probably our lowest of the year. But it didn't matter. We also offensively rebounded at a phenomenal rate at 54%. But that's misleading as well because we hardly had any defensive rebounds because
00:15:40
Speaker
Okay, he was just hitting everything in sight, which you'll see shortly in the defensive stats. And that's really where self-adjustments really killed us. I mean, they shot an unprecedented effective field goal percentage rate at 75.6%, which demolished our number one ranked defensive effective field goal percentage D that was at 41.2% this year.
00:16:07
Speaker
and we were burned especially badly from three point range where they shot over 46%. But the one really disappointing stat for me on D was their ability to shoot without concern from two with 78% field goal percentage from twos and only one block shot from the number one rim protecting D that normally blocks 18% of two point shots.
00:16:32
Speaker
An ugly loss in Lawrence, lots of tape to study and make adjustments in preparation for when Kansas comes to visit the Fertitta Center to end the season. But also another super quick turnaround for a home game versus Oklahoma State last night.
00:16:46
Speaker
though one of the two worst teams in the conference, you don't want to let down at home against a young team like Oklahoma State. And our Cougars were focused in a 79-63 win over Oklahoma State at home. That could have been a much bigger margin win. Bill, why don't you go first on this one? What are your thoughts from a player's perspective?
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah, we won 79
Kansas State vs Kansas Analysis
00:17:09
Speaker
-63. I'm not going to apologize for predicting us to win this one 78-50 because it should have been at least that big a margin of victory. However, I really didn't take into account
00:17:24
Speaker
the officiating error and, excuse me, I mean, errors. Our big guys and to a lesser extent guards did commit a lot of fouls. That's what we do. It's a byproduct. I've said it in the past. It's a byproduct of the aggressive defense we play. It's a byproduct of the aggressive rebounding. But for big 12 officials, there has got to be at least a modicum of
00:17:52
Speaker
consistency, which there simply was not last night. A lot occurred off the ball, which may not have made it onto TV. The worst I saw was when Brandon Garrison, their 6'11 center, was punching shed. And this happened seconds before Kelvin rushed the court and then, of course, got ejected for the first time in his 10 years at U of H.
00:18:18
Speaker
You know, and I understand it's human nature if one team gets way up that there are going to be some calls that just tend to benefit the underdog. But this was very reminiscent of the, actually of the UCF game where UCF hit about two field goals for the entire game and about 40 free throws in the 67-52 when we were destroying them.
00:18:47
Speaker
It was so bad that, you know, Oklahoma state shot 37 free throws hitting 24 where we went 11 to 14. They only hit 17 field goals, which ironically matched their turnover number at 17. Like I said, it was eerily similar to UCF. I thought I was watching the same game throughout the second half. We're up 40 21 at halftime and.
00:19:13
Speaker
You know, through free throws, largely they scored us 42-39 in the second half. In terms of the players, Shed was again the star. He clearly had it in his head. He was so aggressive last night at both ends. He obviously had it in his head that he was going to bounce back from Kansas and he
00:19:32
Speaker
played exceptionally well, 23 points for assists. I really enjoyed watching him. I thought Sharp had 16 and four boards. I thought he played very well, especially on the defensive end, where Oklahoma State's strength kind of lies in their backcourt, play a lot of garrison, the 611 center with four guards, and they're athletic.
00:19:58
Speaker
They get to the hoop. They're good athletes. They move well. And so I thought Sharp defensively played really well. And I thought Francis Francis was a beast inside in limited time due to the fouls. And that was obviously the case for all the U of H big men, because there were some absolute calls that
00:20:23
Speaker
there was zero contact. Ramon grabbed six boards. He didn't look all that comfortable, I thought, when he had the ball offensively. But the one guy I thought played much better than he's played in quite some time. And I imagine you'll agree, Steve, is Miley Wilson. Yeah, absolutely. Especially in the first half.
00:20:43
Speaker
the shot that he hit, it was right down it by into the court. I mean, that shot was incredible with his back to the basket after he'd gotten fouled and good thinking on his part to get the ball up so that he'd, you know, have a chance to score a three point play after the foul was called. He played 21 minutes. He had 12
00:21:05
Speaker
points for boards and there are any negatives. Obviously you'd like to see us not foul as much. The following wasn't entirely attributable to the officials and maybe
00:21:17
Speaker
do a slightly better job against the dribble penetration from the opposing guards. That's really about it. If I were to give out grades for this game, I'd give you of H and B plus, I'd give Oklahoma State a C and I will absolutely give the officials an F and that's about it. Nice. Tom, what was your perspective from a coach's view? Well, the first thought I had was
00:21:42
Speaker
If it didn't say Oklahoma state, you know, under Jersey, I could have swear we were playing, uh, in the AAC. Yeah. A lot of our games there of some of our American athletic conference games. And I understand and realize Oklahoma state has quite a few young players from a coaching standpoint, Oklahoma state started off in a one one three zone. To me, it looked like the one Baylor runs
Cincinnati vs Houston Preview
00:22:09
Speaker
where.
00:22:10
Speaker
It looks like a 1-3-1, but it's not. It's a 1-1-3 where you bring your wings high. We were very decisive against it. There was no tentativeness. We were prepared for it and they got out of it pretty quick and went back to their man to man. But I liked the way we tacked it. We made quick decisions and knocked down a lot of shots. So overall, it was nice to get back in the winning column.
00:22:38
Speaker
It's going to be a heck of a game against Cincinnati next week. But another thing I noticed was even before Kelvin got ejected, there was a lot of lineup changes, a lot of guys coming in and out. I tried to keep track of all of it and pretty soon I just gave up because it seemed like every 20 or 30 seconds
00:22:58
Speaker
Somebody else was coming in. Sometimes we had three guards, two bigs, four guards, one big. So that was interesting. There was a sad lot siding and in the first half, right? That's never happened. Him and Ryan are basically the human victory cigars, 30, 30 guys. They're either in the game, you're up 30 or down 30. So.
00:23:25
Speaker
said got in the game. And that's kind of interesting that it comes on the heels of Kelvin's press conference or Zoom interview the other day. He talked to a couple of minutes about said. That's probably the first time I heard Kelvin really talk about said at all. It was good for said to get some playing time. You know, when it's not garbage time, he did come in there and commit a foul and a turnover within like 20 seconds.
00:23:54
Speaker
You gotta get your feet wet sometime. You gotta get your feet wet sometime.
00:23:58
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, I figure he got in there because all three of our bigs were in foul trouble. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I mean, we could have gotten small and that's what we normally do. Typically doesn't play anybody with two fouls once they get the second foul in the first half. All three of our big men had two fouls in the first half. In fact, Tuggler picked up a third in the first half. Yeah.
00:24:25
Speaker
So, I mean, that's entirely the reason for the, you know, the multiple lineup changes. And, and of course, I mean, he really had no choice, but to put a lot in the game, the fouls were just accumulating so quickly. Yeah. Yeah. The three guys, I like to call the three amigos. They were on the court all at one time.
00:24:48
Speaker
Damien Dunn, Ramon, and Malik Wilson. I thought that was interesting to get those three in the game at the same time. You don't see that a whole lot. But like I said, there are a lot of lineup changes when you're up by 15 or something like that. That's a lot easier to do than whether you're playing in a game that's a nil biter. Nice game. Get back in the win column. Everybody was talking about Kelvin's ejection. Nobody's a mind reader, and I'm sure
00:25:18
Speaker
There's nobody besides his close confidants that understand why he went after him, but it might've been because that was a cheap shot with Jamal. That was cheap. That's the only word I could use. When you're six foot 11, you got a six foot one guy and you just shove the guy in the neck area, not once, but twice.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's, that's uncalled for. And then, then it's not even called. I mean, there's, there's not even a foul on it. No, it was like three, it's a sequence of three in a row, right? Yeah, it's bad when it happens and they call a foul, but it's a, you know, it's just worse when, when it's not called. And that was at Tony Padilla, who caught the ire of the Kansas fans on Monday. I'm not quite sure what the specifics were on that, but.
00:26:03
Speaker
He called that game Monday night, and then hopped on a jet and flew to Houston. And 6 o'clock the next day, he's surfing again. But you know, Kelvin was an equal opportunity ass-chewer. He got his money's worth, so to speak, at all three of the guys. Yeah, ripped them all. He didn't discriminate on them.
00:26:25
Speaker
the referees he got his they all deserved it they did they did yeah and whether that you know some people you know conjecture it was calculated whatever we'll never know but one thing i don't know if you guys noticed this when kelvin left the game
00:26:41
Speaker
It was, it was like, uh, Kevin's kind of like the substitute teacher and our guys were like, uh, okay. You know, Kelvin's not here. Let's just let it fly. That's what I saw. That's what I saw.
Upcoming Big 12 Games
00:26:57
Speaker
That's what I saw. I mean, I could be wrong. I could be wrong, but it was like, you know, you know, Kelvin, he, he's in the locker room. Let's just play like, uh,
00:27:08
Speaker
We're not going to get chewed out. Yeah, that's they're probably so they were definitely more relaxed, right? Yeah, I thought they played it. I thought they played really hard. Yeah, not that they don't always play hard, but I thought they really played hard when Kellen took over. I think they wanted to play hard for him.
00:27:26
Speaker
It just became foul, foul, foul, foul, foul and the entire just everything was just kind of tossed on its head. Yeah. I mean, I think we pushed it up to is either twenty nine or thirty. Twenty nine. Twenty nine. Yeah. Twenty nine. Twenty nine.
00:27:45
Speaker
after he took over. And then it wasn't until in the fourth quartile of the game when the scrubs got put in and they started pressing, you know, with our scrubs, with our backups in, of course, that makes it closer. That's that's Bush league. When you're down by 29 and the other coach puts the bench in, that's your signal to get you get your bench guys and that's yeah. And then the press like that. That's not a way to win over other coaches.
00:28:16
Speaker
Completely great.
00:28:17
Speaker
Starters remain the same again, Shed, Cryer, Sharp, Roberts, and Francis. Things started very quickly for us in the first half, suffocating them on the defensive side and scoring efficiently on the offensive side. Kids were obviously focused, taking in a four day to 21 lead at the half, continued our dominance in the third quartile until, as we talked about earlier, cleared the bench in the fourth quartile where OSU, of course, pressed against our backups to make the score what it was.
00:28:47
Speaker
Shed, as you guys had both highlighted, had the turnaround game and was the star. 23 points, two of three from three point range, four assists, three steals in only 29 minutes was a player box score plus minus 25.4 for the game, which was huge. But as we all know, the real story of the game was Coach Sampson's ejection at the 15.08 mark in the second half.
00:29:13
Speaker
Yeah, as you guys said, both highlighted officiating has been atrocious and inconsistent. Really throughout the season, but this was especially bad, this game. And it was basically three fouls in a row that I saw because it started, I would say played before when we were on the offensive side and Francis was going up for the dunk and he got fouled and it wasn't called. They're coming back down where the big guy has got shed on him. Basically four armed him.
00:29:43
Speaker
In the back of the head twice to get some spacing and then as he went up for the shot fouled him again So it was like it was like four no calls in a row. And yeah, if I'm coach I go ballistic as well. I don't know. It's easy to lose your crap when you're up by 20 and you know, you're gonna win and so
00:30:05
Speaker
you know, the timing just after Baylor's experience with
Episode Wrap-up
00:30:08
Speaker
some hard officiating, I think it's safe to assume coach was trying to send a message to the league offices. I think we were also told that the VP of basketball operations was actually at the game from the conference as well. So
00:30:22
Speaker
it all kind of points in that direction to say, hey, if we're truly the number one league in college basketball, let's up the game because we deserve top tier officiating. If you dig into the analytics from Ken Palm, and I'm not going to spend too much time on this on Oh,
00:30:37
Speaker
We played a standard after the terrible Kansas loss. Our effective vehicle percentage was a stellar 54% versus 50% as our standard this year. We protect the ball reasonably well with turnover rate at 15%, which is right at where we normally are.
00:30:55
Speaker
offensive rebounded right at standard as well at over 38%. And basically a workman like effort on offense. On D we smothered Oklahoma state and played to standard overall. OSU shot at 46.4% effective field goal percentage. And that was a little bit above our number one ranked a 43.2% standard, but it was six points below their regular rate. So that was great.
00:31:24
Speaker
And we were especially effective limiting Oklahoma State's three-point shooting to 23.8%. So a nice way for our Cougars, where we held serve in winning our home game. And even with a loss at Kansas, hold a half game lead on top of the conference standings into February. And again, some continued valuable minutes and growth with our key freshmen, Jojo Tuggler. And that's going to be needed in the No Conference for Old Men Big 12.
00:31:51
Speaker
with a trip to play at Cincinnati this coming Saturday against their supersized front court. But before getting to that game, let's summarize the Big 12 games each of us highlighted last week. Tom, why don't you start with your game?
00:32:06
Speaker
I had my good old friends, Kansas, Jayhawks, and I had them at the Octagon of Doom at K-State, and I was not surprised with the result. I think I even posted on Goku's that it wouldn't surprise me if they lost this game, even though Kansas State was coming off four straight losses.
00:32:27
Speaker
Kansas coming off that huge win against us on Saturday, so they had Sunday basically to prepare K-State, KU fans, can't stand each other. I mean, it's a huge, huge rivalry and Octagon of Doom, the Bramblets Coliseum was rocking in. The amazing thing is that even though K-State won it over time, they played.
00:32:53
Speaker
They don't play very smart. Matter of fact, watching the game and commenting. How stupid are these guys? I mean, turnovers, bad shots. Yeah. I don't know how they won.
00:33:07
Speaker
Went to overtime, Jerome Tang now is 11-0 in overtime games and also Jerome Tang is 2-1 all-time versus Bill Self. It was a good win for us too because Kansas now is 6-4 in conference. They're 1-4 on the road. Their only road victory is against Oklahoma State.
00:33:33
Speaker
But you know what, KU fans are still chirping. They're still chirping.
00:33:39
Speaker
You know, they got to play Oklahoma State twice this year. So I'm not sure what they said about that, because there's been some mentions that we got it easy, blah, blah, blah, and all this. But yeah, hats off to Jerome Tang and the K-State team and the K-State fans for winning this game. I'm not sure how they did it from a, I didn't get to see the whole game. I saw bits and pieces of the second half from coaching perspective. I don't know how they won, but they did.
00:34:09
Speaker
I watched it from start to finish and I'm with you. Their strength is their backcourt. It's Tyler Perry and Cam Carter.
00:34:20
Speaker
They turn the ball over so much. They're so sloppy offensively. It's amazing that they beat anyone, let alone Kansas. And they were able to score inside. I mean, they hit some good perimeter shots. But Kansas didn't shoot the ball very well, which obviously is 180-degree turn from us. But yeah, I was ecstatic that K-State won. Yeah, me too.
00:34:46
Speaker
You know, guys, Kansas state did get physical with Kansas, which I didn't see in our game. And that might've been due to the officiating, you know, when we played dances, that kind of stuff might've been called early, you know, and a good old Tony Padilla was there. Maybe he just was tired and he just let crap go, you know, and I don't know. You never know. But I thought the,
00:35:10
Speaker
blocked a couple shots by Dickinson they stripped them and this college basketball like John Rothstein says. Anarchy no scholars basketball yeah absolutely how about you bill what game were you following. I followed.
00:35:27
Speaker
the game that everyone was wondering why the Oklahoma state, Kansas state game. And once again, it was because we had Oklahoma state last night. This game was at Oklahoma state and the aforementioned sloppy Kansas state.
00:35:49
Speaker
who I thought would win, they lost 75, 72. Yeah, I had a tough week with predictions. I predicted U of H to win. I, you know, I predicted the blowout last night, which was a blowout.
00:36:05
Speaker
So yeah, not a good week for me. Sorry about that. I did predict this to be a little lower scoring that both teams typically score and give up. And at halftime, it was looking okay. OSU was up only 29, 27, and then defense kind of took the rest of the game off.
00:36:24
Speaker
OSU outscored Kansas State 46-45 in the second half. And this game was pretty tight the entire way, but OSU never trailed in the second half. The K-State big three that we've talked about, Cam Carter,
00:36:41
Speaker
Tyler Perry, Arthur Kaluma scored 50 of their 72 points. So they certainly did their part. They were sloppy with the ball. Bryce Thompson, who hurt his arm versus Kansas, we'd mentioned, did not play. And their best player, Javon Small, who scored 18 against us last night, pretty much all from the line, no shock, also scored 18.
00:37:07
Speaker
Brandon Garrison, who we mentioned, had 10 points. And a guy who's not scored much for Oklahoma State or done much of anything all season, a six-point score, Keon Williams, he had 17 points in
00:37:23
Speaker
10 boards so he had a double nice double double and uh and then john michael wright who was hitting some threes against us last night their point guard scored 10 as well again not surprisingly kansas state turned the ball over 15 times in the loss led by tyler perry's five so it you know sloppy guard play especially sloppy point guard play uh
00:37:45
Speaker
Good win for Oklahoma State, their second conference win, and kind of more evidence to support the notion that it is quite difficult to win on the road in the Big 12. Yeah, absolutely. And I zeroed in on the Tech at Baylor game, which kind of had its own drama with Coach Drew as well. This was back and forth with Baylor pulling away in the end at home for a 79-73 win.
00:38:13
Speaker
Freshman Big Missy was the key for the win for Baylor with 17 points, 78 free throws, 7 rebounds, and a player box score plus minus of plus 13.8. Though I am not a Baylor fan, I was glad to see them pull it out at home after the egregious rough call that booted Coach Drew.
00:38:35
Speaker
Games should not be about the refs. And unfortunately for the Big 12, that was the case this week in two games featuring some of their star programs. Not a good look. And so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I don't know if fans realize these conferences don't have dedicated referee polls. It's not like the NBA or whatever. There are groupings of conferences that sometimes work together.
00:39:05
Speaker
They've got a pool of refs that they call on. And these refs will be doing games in different conferences. And I'm curious at this point, is this going to be the impetus for one of the power conferences, namely the Big 12, to take that next step to say no?
00:39:23
Speaker
We're going to have our own dedicated crew that we kind of regulate the number of games they ref each week, as well as the distance that they need to travel and things like that. So you can start managing them, grading them, and ensuring a high quality grouping of referees from game to game. So it'd be interesting to see how that shakes out moving forward.
00:39:48
Speaker
Now let's get to the game preview for the upcoming UH Cincinnati matchup. Cincy will have had a full week to prepare for us after winning at Tech this past Saturday, 75-72. So they are riding high, rested, and well prepared for us going into this game. Bill, what do you think of our game coming up at Cincy?
00:40:09
Speaker
Well, since he's 15 and seven, they're four and five in conference. Their last four include, and I think this was a game that you previously did, Tom, just a five-point loss at Kansas, which is solid. 11-point win at home versus Central Florida, whatever. Four-point loss at West Virginia. And then the three-point win at Tech, which is pretty impressive.
00:40:36
Speaker
Like you said, Steve, they'll have a full week to prepare for us. They play eight players, so they're not like several of the other big 12 teams were definitely an issue. They'll be okay. They do, though, have five players that play a fairly overwhelming amount of minutes. And Wes Miller is in his third year as coach. He's won, going into this year, he's won 41 games, obviously, in the American. But he's averaging 20 wins a year.
00:41:06
Speaker
He's a good coach. He coaches kind of to the level of his talent, to his players. You know, they were a 77 point per game scoring team last year that they scored a lot. And granted, they lost four of their top scorers, Landers Nalley, David De Julius, Mike Adams Wood, and Jeremiah Davenport, for those who remember them from the American battle.
00:41:31
Speaker
77 points last year, and now they're one of the better teams and defensive teams, excuse me, in the country. You had mentioned, Steve, they've got some height on this team. Victor Lockin, he actually led him in scoring last year. He's a 6'11", 240-pound power forward slash center.
00:41:53
Speaker
He averages 11.7 points, seven rebounds. He shoots 50% from the field. They've got a guy who kind of cleared NCAA waivers, Aziz, Bond, Dogo, seven foot forward center, 7.6 points, leads them with 8.4 rebounds, block and a half a game. He's transferred from Utah Valley and became eligible.
00:42:23
Speaker
That's really the height. And then it's, yeah, their leading scorer is one guy that's not a transfer. He played on the team as a freshman last year, Dan skillings, six, six, two guard. Yeah. And he's their leading scorer, but it's only at 12.1 points per game, which tells you how balanced this team is offensively.
00:42:43
Speaker
He averages six boards. However, he's not an especially good shooter. Their point guard is Dade Thomas, six foot. He averages about 11 points, three and a half assists. A couple of turnovers a game. He's a transfer from Kilgore Junior College here. And he is maybe as bad a shooter as there is.
00:43:08
Speaker
They got a 6'8' swing man named Seamus Lukosius. He averages about 10 points, three boards, three assists. Again, a couple of turnovers a game. Last year he shot the ball well. He's not shooting as well this year. He's actually been kind of mediocre and he's a transfer from Butler where he played a lot. And then.
00:43:33
Speaker
The other guy I'll mention is John Newman. He's a Clemson transfer, 6'5", swing man as well, small forward, big guard, 10 points, five and a half boards. And he's a solid shooter from inside the arc. This will not be a three-point shooting team. We need to defend inside the arc. They're a 44% shooting team, 33% from three, so not good.
00:44:02
Speaker
They do average 41 boards a game, which is strong and about 12 turnovers a game. So they can be turned over. They do score. They're a good offensive rebounding team. They get to the free throw line about 19 times a game, but they will turn the ball over defensively. They are a good defensive team. They defensive rebound. You know, we're going to need to move the ball, move the ball. Well, create open looks. Don't let them get to the boards.
00:44:32
Speaker
at both ends and turn them over and don't, you know, don't bigs cannot get into foul trouble against their big guys. If most of this happens, which I am assuming it will, I see us winning the game by nine, 72 63 by nine. Wow. Okay. You're more confident than I, how about you, Tom? I typically am. Yeah, you are. Yeah.
00:44:59
Speaker
This game, like just about everyone scares me because not only is it on the road, but it's also against a really good team. You know, Cincinnati, Bill, you said there are four and five in conference, a lot of close losses. When I watched them play against KU, they matched KU shot for shot for the whole game for except about a three minute period there in the second half.
00:45:25
Speaker
It's going to be a raucous crowd. They have some shot makers. Their center's much improved. And I look at this game as coming down to the wire, just like it did against Iowa State, TCU, BYU, and Texas. And the team that wins is going to be the one that makes some plays, gets some stops like in the last two or three minutes. So, Bill, I'm not as confident as you.
00:45:51
Speaker
I wouldn't be surprised if we lost this game. It could come down to the free throws. If it comes down to free throws, you just never know with us. But I just think it's going to be whoever wins by a point or two or three.
00:46:05
Speaker
Well, Tom, I'm highly motivated and inspired to have you refer to me as a prophet again. So I need you to win this game by nine. There you go. I hope it happens. I hope you're a prophet in full disclosure. I'm not very good at predicting games. Apparently neither am I after this past week. I'm better at going back.
00:46:29
Speaker
watching the game and kind of breaking it down, you know, I'm just not good at, at, uh, predictions. That's why I don't bet on sports. Yeah, no, me neither. I mean, when you look at it from an advanced analytics perspective, again, we're number one in Ken Palm since he's number 32. So really a different since the team from the last few years.
00:46:49
Speaker
We're number 20 in adjusted offensive efficiency, while Cincinnati is number 17 in adjusted defensive efficiency. On the flip side, we're number one, as everyone knows, in adjusted defensive efficiency, and Cincinnati is number 69 in adjusted offensive efficiency. On offense, Cincy is very, very much like us. Not a great shooting team, where they're ranked number 177th in effective vehicle percentage.
00:47:17
Speaker
but are high in offensive rebound rate, ranking number eighth in offensive rebound percentage. There were also a lot like us in that they do try to score quick off of offensive rebound, ranking number 20th in the country, according to Haslam metrics, basically a slightly lesser version of us on offense, though they do have a tendency to turn the ball over a bit too much at times.
00:47:42
Speaker
Then you match that up against our number one effective field goal percentage D that defends every shot. Number one ranked D in blocking shots and number two in steals, plus our great familiarity with each other. And this is going to be a dog fight where we're going to make it very difficult for them to score.
00:48:00
Speaker
On the flip side, Cincinnati is disciplined at challenging every shot, their number 41 and effective field goal percentage D, just outside that top 40 threshold of being great, as we refer to the metrics with Ken Palm. They're especially exceptional at defending the two-point shot, ranking number 35th, but not great at forcing turnovers where they're ranked 163rd. A key for us is going to be our three-point shooting and how much we can turn them over to manufacture points in transition.
00:48:29
Speaker
Based on the metrics, this is projected to be a six point win by Ken Palm. With a full week to rest and prepare, I think this will be closer and I'm kind of more with Tom. I'm expecting a three point win by our Cougars.
00:48:45
Speaker
And I know our fans are thinking this is Cincy at the last few years and we're going to crush them, but that's not the case. This is just a different team this year. They're a legit NCAA team again, I think. And we should start expecting, in my opinion, Cincy being in the top half of the big 12 moving forward.
00:49:04
Speaker
So now with only one game this week for our Cougars, what are the big 12 games should fans pay attention to this week that are of interest? Who wants to go first? Bill, you want to go first? Sure. I have.
00:49:18
Speaker
Once again, an upcoming opponent for us. And this was an upcoming opponent very recently. I have West Virginia at UT. Nice. West Virginia's they're eight and 14 right now, three and six of the big 12, including the home win versus UT. So.
00:49:37
Speaker
This is a revenge game for Texas. They're in 13th place in the Big 12. The last four include a loss at UCF, a loss at Oklahoma State, their third conference win versus Cincy, and a blowout loss at BYU. Back when we played West Virginia, Jesse Edwards, their 6-11 transfer from Syracuse,
00:50:02
Speaker
perhaps their best player, I would say their best player, was out. He's back. He's back in the starting lineup. West Virginia, as they've kind of gotten him back into the flow of things, he's their second leading scorer and their leading rebounder. Coming into our game, Rayquan Battle was scoring over 27 points per game. This was
00:50:24
Speaker
as you might recall, the very first Big 12 game. So all his scoring was pre-Big 12. Well, now we're into the Big 12. It's a slightly different story. He's still leading them in scoring, but he's down to 15.6 per game. Quinn Slosinski, the high post center is
00:50:46
Speaker
still one of their leaders in scoring and rebounding and assists. Creases still playing solidly. With that said, West Virginia simply cannot shoot the ball. And even with Edwards back, they don't have much of a bench.
00:51:05
Speaker
UTI actually started to do this preview before the game last night, but they're now 15-8, 4-6 in the Big 12, which is their 12th place in the conference at the moment. Their last 5, 15-point win at OU, which was impressive, the 12-point loss at BYU, the 4.0 T loss to us.
00:51:28
Speaker
very solid 11 point win at TCU. And then last night, the five point home loss to Iowa State, although they were pretty well getting crushed the entire game, and then they they actually got it to within three right at the end. I still think that UT may possibly have turned the corner. I'm a little more positive on them, although I'm certainly pleased when they lose. I think
00:51:56
Speaker
and are playing more to their talent levels kind of since the BYU game. Eight Smiths is still leading them in scoring and he's played well. The guy that I really like on this team and I think is their best player, Dylan Deesu. I just think he's a damn good player. He had 28 last night against Iowa State and Dylan Mitchell stepped up his game. The other guy,
00:52:22
Speaker
I think with his hustle on the court, it seems to be contagious and their, their defense has been better. I think that yeah, in the end, they've got far more talent.
00:52:38
Speaker
than West Virginia. They're playing at home. I still think that Terry's got them playing pretty well right now after some less than spectacular games. And as long as UT doesn't play down to the competition, I see them winning 77-64. Not a huge margin of victory, but they'll win by 13. They'll win comfortably. Okay. How about you, Tom? What game are you following?
00:53:04
Speaker
I'm sticking with Kansas. The only reason I watch Kansas is there's always a chance they can lose. Nice. Give a little dose of Schottenfreude. However, it's Baylor at Kansas. I don't think Baylor is going to win. I think Kansas holds serve on their home court. It should be a good game, but in the end, it'll be too much too much of the fog in this game. And we all know how Kansas plays at home. So.
00:53:34
Speaker
Yeah. That's my game, and we'll see. Yeah. So I'm picking the TCU at Iowa State game. Two schools in contention near the top of the standings will be a contrast of styles, which, as I've said, I love when there's a contrast in style of play. TCU likes to turn people over and run on offense, while Iowa State also likes to turn you over, but is much more deliberate on offense.
00:54:01
Speaker
TSU's excellent on offense at number 30 in adjusted offensive efficiency based on Ken Palm. And ISU's is excellent on D, number four in adjusted defensive efficiency. So something's got to give. So this should be another close game where whoever imposes their will will win. Based on the metrics, this should be around a seven point win for ISU at home. I agree with this take with ISU playing at home where they have yet to lose a game this season.
00:54:30
Speaker
So anyways, that's it for episode 15 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 Goku's.com website for those that prefer to digest the content that way.
00:54:59
Speaker
We appreciate the continued support from all and we'll keep plugging away, trying to provide deep college hoops insights for Cougar and Big 12 fans everywhere. Also, please give us a follow on our Twitter account, no conference for old men. Thank you all again for listening and episode number 16 should come out next Thursday. So please be on the lookout to download and listen to the next episode. Thanks again, everyone.