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4 Houston Starters Decide to "Run it Back" + Uzan Joins from the Portal!
101 Plays1 year ago
This is our 1st offseason Ad Hoc episode, as promised, where we'll be discussing the big roster decisions made shortly after the Portal season opened up. The coaching staff & the LinkingCoogs NIL Collective stepped up big-time w/ their creative "Run it Back" campaign to facilitate 4 of our 5 starters returning next season to make a run at that elusive National Championship! To complete the puzzle, Coach Sampson was able to hand select his desired top PG from the Portal (Milos Uzan) to run the show for what could be a historic run next year.
So we'll begin this Portal episode by making a few comments on the success of the "Run it Back" campaign, provide different perspectives on Milos Uzan's game & how we each believe it will fit in with this Cougars program, and then provide a "way too early" forecast of how we see the line-ups & rotations breaking down going into next season.
- No Conference for Old Men is available for free via Spotify / Apple Podcast / SoundCloud & the GoCoogs.com website; we're also available via the Republic of Football Podcast feed from the folks at Dave Campbell's Texas Football as their only basketball-centric offering
- Intro / Exit music: Ground Zero provided by FreeBeats.io
- Please follow us on https://gocoogs.com/old-men/
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome, folks, to the 25th 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 added in as well, and proud members of the GoCougs.com network, the undisputed number one Houston Cougars content provider.
00:00:21
Speaker
It's April in the basketball offseason, and as promised, we're dropping our first ad hoc episode in response to getting a clearer picture of next year's lineup, plus a huge pickup from the transfer portal early in the Crazy Portal season.
Offseason Updates and Transfers
00:00:36
Speaker
As most fans have seen from social media, a big push from our Lincoln Cougs NIL Collective with their Run It Back campaign has allowed us to bring back
00:00:45
Speaker
Four of our starters, Roberts, Cryer, Sharp, and Francis, plus three of our key backups in Arsenault, Tuggler, and Wilson going into next season. That, along with a commitment from Milos Uzon from OU to take over point guard duties from Jamal Shed, who rightfully is headed to the NBA, will provide for the most loaded team heading into a season that Coach Sampson has had during his entire tenure at Houston.
00:01:12
Speaker
And again, all three of us are back with Tom Lidiak, former coach, Bill Walker, former player, and myself, Steve Chang, analytics guy for this episode.
NIL Collective and Key Player Retention
00:01:20
Speaker
So we'll begin with some quick initial thoughts on confirmation that four starters plus three key backups will be running it back for next season.
00:01:28
Speaker
then spend more time taking a closer look at the key transfer portal add-in BIOS use on from OU to take over for shed at point guard for this loaded team and then take a look at how we see rotations playing out going into next season. So let's get into it guys. Huge news and commitment from our NIL collective in getting basically every key player back except shed for next season.
00:01:53
Speaker
Tom, why don't you kick us off with just a brief comment from a coach's view around pulling this off.
00:02:00
Speaker
Well, first of all, I think it's amazing in this day and age of NIL and transfer portal to have, you know, four year, five starters come back. And the one starter who doesn't come back is going to the NBA. I think we only lost Jamal shed.
Houston's Team Expectations and Rankings
00:02:14
Speaker
And then the other one was Damien done. There are a lot of teams across the country that are basically every year they're starting from scratch. They're bringing in, you know, nine, 10, 11 players in every year. And, uh,
00:02:26
Speaker
revolving door. So this is amazing. You have a team that was ranked number one for a lot of the year. And now we get those four starters back to go with those key reserves. It's just amazing. And the thing about Kelvin's program is all those players, even though they're veterans, you know, they'll be better next year. Once again, just amazing that we could get all these guys back.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, incredible. Bill, how about a few quick thoughts from a player's perspective? Well, I may disagree with you, Steve, when you say that we're bringing back our most loaded team ever. Really? You think we've brought back a more loaded team in his tenure than this one coming back? I think this previous year's team was maybe more loaded and... Wow.
00:03:20
Speaker
That's because shed made everyone on that team better. He's so dominant defensively. He's such an extraordinary team leader, such an extraordinary teammate. Obviously the injuries kind of hurt everything, but, but you know, there's no guarantee that there won't be injuries. You never know. I just think,
00:03:47
Speaker
shed was so unbelievably good.
Impact of Jamal Shed's Departure
00:03:50
Speaker
I mean, he's going to have his jersey up in the rafters with Albert Hayes and directs learn a large one and everybody. I mean, he's just a once in a generation, not only talent, but person and teammate that I think that that can't be understated. With that said, yes, it's exceptional that the other four came back and I
00:04:15
Speaker
do think we're the best team in the country heading into next season. But there are still some questions to be answered, and we'll get into that.
00:04:24
Speaker
Okay, I mean from an analytics perspective, I couldn't have asked for a better scenario here. Obviously losing our consensus All-American and shit is huge, but to get seven of our top eight contributors back from a number one seed team is beyond what I expected. There were some rumors of possibly two of our kids potentially going into the portal and I was thankfully wrong in thinking Roberts would turn pro, but the coaching staff along with Lincoln Coogs
00:04:51
Speaker
NIL Collective shut that down early with the kids one by one announcing their intent to run it back with some unfinished business to take another crack at the national championship. Now from advanced analytics perspective, we're talking about getting seven of our top eight back from a team that ended the season, number two overall in Ken Palm, number 19th in adjusted offensive efficiency, number two in adjusted defensive efficiency, and taking a closer look at that D and granted
00:05:19
Speaker
obviously shed was key to the effective D number two and effective field goal percentage D number three and turnover percentage D number two
Milos Uzan's Role and Skills
00:05:28
Speaker
and block percentage number three and steals percentage and number seven in the new stat that I'm starting to follow free throw percentage D and so even with shed now gone as the leader of this defense you factor in the improvement we expect from our kids after another year in the program and we're looking to be
00:05:49
Speaker
I guess, conservatively, top eight shape even before considering the ad of Yuuzhan, which we'll get into next. Bill, why don't you go first on this one? It's not the kid you were hoping for in Ace Baldwin, right? Somewhat like a shed type player. But what are your thoughts on Milo's Yuuzhan as a player coming into our program? Yeah, I'm very happy with Yuuzhan. And during our last episode,
00:06:15
Speaker
brought up about a half dozen point guards. Obviously, Baldwin was one. But Yuuzhan was the first one I mentioned. So yeah, I couldn't be happier that we got him. I mean, the fact of the matter is, no one's going to replace Shen. No, no. But this is a hell of a pickup. First of all, he's got two more years of eligibility. Yep. This is someone who's going to get to come in and develop and develop with
00:06:44
Speaker
the
00:07:06
Speaker
He had games where you'd only shoot, you know, maybe three, four or five times and say, Oh, you had a good offensive team. So, you know, when you're not shooting that much, you don't necessarily get into a rhythm and it's not entirely surprising that the shooting percentage went down. His freshman year, he shot 41% from three. So he can shoot the ball and is a little different player than shed in that perspective.
00:07:34
Speaker
This was surprising to me. He only shot 37 free throws for the entire year last year. I mean, that's not getting to the line at all. That's over one per game. So his best game last year was a 13.10 assist, seven rebound game at TCU. So he can get it done, whether it's scoring if he needs to. Hopefully that won't be a big priority with everyone back and who we have on the floor.
00:08:03
Speaker
but he could get the ball to players. He can get inside. He can rebound. He's solid at everything. Yeah. Once again, everyone's going to be comparing him to shed, which is it's tough. It is tough and it's entirely unfair because it is, like I said, shed is a once in a generation player. I agree.
Comparison: Uzan vs. Shed
00:08:27
Speaker
Even though he's six four, he's not as physically strong, not quite as athletic as shed.
00:08:32
Speaker
I didn't watch Oklahoma enough. I can't imagine that he was the leader that Shed was. Obviously, you have to keep in mind, again, Shed had no peer in the country at point guard this past year. So it's really an unfair comparison. My hope is that he starts playing with everyone right away, that everyone's on the floor, and they're playing a lot over the summer. Because the one thing that Shed could do
00:09:01
Speaker
He really got the ball to Pryor, to Sharp, Robert, getting the ball up to Javier. He got the ball to the other players where they wanted it, where they could catch and shoot, where they were comfortable getting the ball. And that'll happen as he plays more with them. And Arsenault, it'll be the same with Arsenault, even Mercy Miller.
00:09:28
Speaker
I think the sooner he gets in, the sooner he starts playing, which will happen, he'll blend in. And like I said, I think with the addition of him, I think we're the best team heading into next season. And a lot of others fortunately agree with me. So it's not an unbiased comment without some support from non-biased people.
00:09:49
Speaker
No, I know it's crazy, right? Because we're starting to see all these way too early present top 25s. And it's not just one, it's quite a few of them have got us number one right now. Yeah, I agree. So I'm, I'm happy with Yuuzhan. He plays defense, he can handle the ball very well. I think he was about as good a pickup as we could have gotten. I'm thrilled that we have him. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. How about you, Tom, from a coach's perspective?
00:10:19
Speaker
Well, first thing I want to say is, you know, bottom line is Kelvin is the point guard Savant slash. Whisper and Oozan is the guy he picked to lead this talented and experienced squad.
Adapting to Big 12 Play Style
00:10:34
Speaker
Kelvin's close to what is he like 37 games away from 800 wins. Yeah. And.
00:10:40
Speaker
point guard Kelvin says that point guard's the most important position for him. So you have to trust that when he went out and identified Uzan that he knows that this is the right guy to lead this team. Kelvin talked about the Big 12 being that dog park last year in the preseason. Well, if you look at Jamal and Marcus,
00:11:06
Speaker
They're built like pit bulls. You look at Uzan, you know, he's long and lanky. He's kind of more like an Irish setter around the floor. So it's going to be a totally different type of style. You know, Bill mentioned only 37 free throws. He actually probably plays more physical on defense than it does on offense. So I'm sure that's something Kelvin's going to work on him with. But first thing I'd like to talk about him is his.
00:11:35
Speaker
He's got a long reach as a help defender. He's able to deflect, still the ball on the dribbler when he's the helper. Little thing about OU's defense, they switched a lot. They almost switched like one through four. So I went back and I watched the Iowa State game. I picked the Iowa State game because Iowa State's the team that plays probably the most like we do, very tough, very physical.
00:12:01
Speaker
So I watched that game in Ames. He did guard Lipsie a lot, especially like in the second half. And the thing that stuck out to me was he was able to keep Lipsie in front of him for the most part. And also a couple of times Lipsie tried to bully him to the basket. His length affected
00:12:20
Speaker
Lipsy inside. He did a really good job on Lipsy contesting whenever Lipsy went up for a shot. So defensively he'll learn. I mean, as long as you have the foot speed, you know, the athleticism and you got the heart and the attitude and all that, you can, you can be taught defense. And one thing I noticed about him on defense too, is he communicated really well. He was constantly pointing and talking to his teammates.
00:12:47
Speaker
About where to be. Switching all that so that that leads me to believe that he wants to be a leader, even though sometimes I wonder how much those players wanted to be led. But it'll be different, you know, with the culture that you've H and Kelvin his staff have, but I really like that.
00:13:07
Speaker
He really wasn't asked on defense to get in somebody's grill like we do. We just get right up into somebody's grill. He played more of a, let's just contain the ball handler. He'll have to get more physical on defensive rebounds. Sometimes I noticed in the Iowa State game that he really didn't try to go for rebounds outside his area. So I'm sure when they put that bubble on the rim and they do some three on three rebounding drills.
00:13:34
Speaker
He'll learn to go ahead and pursue the ball. Another thing I like about him, defensively, his height at 6'4", you know, will allow perhaps prior to guard, smaller point guards, maybe sharp to guard the other teams too, and then he can guard the three. We'll just have to see what Kelvin has in mind. The game I watched, pick and roll coverage, they did what's called drop coverage, and he would do what's called a veerback. It's whereby
00:14:02
Speaker
He would go over the top of the screen and then he would front the big man as he rolled into the post. But then I watched a little bit of our game and they played the pick and roll like we did. They went over the top of the screen and the big man came out and, you know, had some ball screens. So that just tells me that Oklahoma played different types of pick and roll defenses. So it's not going to be new to him
Uzan's Transition and Impact
00:14:23
Speaker
at all. And he's got June, July, August, September, October to learn all this stuff. Yeah, totally different type of player.
00:14:32
Speaker
from our previous point guard. But, you know, there's more than one way to skin a cat. And I'll get to that offensively. You can see he wants to lead on offense too. He's pointing, telling teammates, you know, where to go and this and that. He has good vision. He's 6'4".
00:14:49
Speaker
So he's able to see over the top of defense. So I can pick a role when he gets blitzed. He's tall enough to where he can pass over the double team. You know, when you're short, when you're only like six foot six one, you can't do that. And that's when you have to use that little pocket bounce pass. Another thing I think is really good for us is like Crier at Baylor. His role with U of H is not going to be drastically different.
00:15:13
Speaker
You know he wasn't out there just bombing shots like way Taylor the fourth, you know Taylor took what 26 shots against us and I heard a bunch of people Climbing for Wade Taylor, you know, and it's like, you know, you think
00:15:29
Speaker
Calvin almost lost his shirt when Damien pumped vacant and traveled. What would he do when Wade hoisted a 30-footer with 20 seconds left on the shot clock? But anyway, his role's not going to be drastically different from it was at OU, so I think that's going to make the transition smoother.
00:15:48
Speaker
rather than have like Damien Dunn come in who's the first option for Temple and he comes to us and he just seems to be lost all the time. One thing I noticed, another thing about OU is he shared point guard duties with McCollum and then he spent a lot of time in the corner. We'll see if Kelvin uses him as the primary point guard where he has the ball in his hands like Jamal did.
00:16:13
Speaker
So that might be why he wanted to leave OU. He just didn't have the ball in his hands a little bit. I would say as a passer, he's nuanced. He's going to be able to get his assists in different ways than like Jamal did, but he's very nuanced as a passer. He's good with his right hand. He's good with his left hand.
00:16:34
Speaker
He can throw the alley-oop. Like I said earlier, he's going to have to get stronger, though, in the paint. Sometimes when he gets into paint, he's like a pinball. He's just bouncing off bodies here and there. Last thing, a couple of tidbits and nuggets I got from him. He does a lot of palms-up stuff to the ref and all that. I'm sure Kelvin's going to...
00:16:56
Speaker
get rid of that. But he's the son of a coach. He has a high basketball IQ. He has positive body language. It looks like he's constantly trying to encourage his teammates. He's not shaking his head with bad body language and that kind of stuff. I thought when I saw him play, he's unselfish and he's a smart player.
00:17:22
Speaker
But overall, I'm excited to get him into the program. And last couple of years, Kelvins had replaced three starters, four starters.
00:17:33
Speaker
Still kept the ball rolling and now four of the five back. And I know Jamal's one of a kind, but the team will just have to do different things to pick up the slack. They'll just have to score in different ways. Defensively, I'm pretty sure will be the same, but you might see a little bit of just the slight different nuances on offense.
00:17:56
Speaker
and how we get our points. Yeah, great stuff, Tom. I'd actually highlighted two portal point guards I really liked last episode in Milos Yuuzhan and PJ Haggerty from Tulsa. Both had two years left with Milos really being the one I liked more, given his size and familiarity with the Big 12. So obviously I loved his game.
00:18:17
Speaker
From an analytics perspective, Yuuzhan was a high utilization player for OU, played 78% of the minutes as a sophomore. 71 is a true freshman previous year. As you guys had highlighted, this past season, you had 9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.2 steals. Didn't shoot well, as Bill had mentioned, 39% field goal percentage, 30%, 3.0 percentage, 68% free throw percentage this year.
00:18:45
Speaker
in comparison to his freshman year where he was highly efficient with 7.6 points per game, 2.7 rebounds, three assists, 0.8 steals, but at a 47% field goal percentage and 41% three point percentage and 77% from the free throw line as a true freshman. So the stats were better and more efficient as a true freshman. So you hope his efficiency goes back to his more freshman like levels.
00:19:13
Speaker
Also, his 4.4 assists per game are extremely impressive since, as you had highlighted, Tom, OU played him with a point guard like player in McCollum, and they rotated initiating the offense between the two of them. From an advanced analytics perspective, he was a player box score plus minus plus two for this past season, and his freshman season he was a plus 1.4. So good, but not great.
00:19:38
Speaker
When OU played us this season, Yuuzhan played 35 minutes, had 6 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and a player box score plus 4. But expect these numbers to go up big time under the watchful eye of Coach Sampson and his staff since we're a great developmental staff.
00:19:57
Speaker
Now, beyond the analytics, as you guys had mentioned as well, when you watch him play, and I went back to watch highlights as well as a couple of the games, including the game against UH, I just really love his game. You guys had mentioned he's tall and long, plays at an effortless pace, high basketball IQ who understands the angles within the games.
00:20:20
Speaker
your comment on nuanced passers, just spot on Tom. He comes from a good program in OU who played Sound D, ranking 36th in Ken Palm in adjusted defensive efficiency. But clearly he has a lot to change and improve upon in terms of defensive approach where OU would almost never fight through screens to track their defensive assignments, almost always going under.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yuuzhan is an elite passer with great vision as you both had highlighted which will help with our offensive efficiency numbers next season. His length helps him see over his opponents and he was a point guard that I felt was exceptionally adept at finding the openings for skip passes to find open three-point shooters. Really the perfect pairing given we have a shorter shooting guard in Cryer.
00:21:08
Speaker
I've read some fan comments online suggesting that, oh, he doesn't appear fast, and, oh, looks disinterested at times. But I would say, look more closely. He's a team player who works hard trying to get his teammates engaged, so he's not hunting for shots. He's got a very calm personality, so he won't be the fiery point guard that Shed was. But he's very intelligent and plays hard on every play.
00:21:32
Speaker
He's very quick with the ball in his hands and don't let his smooth movement lull you into thinking he's slow. Not saying he's at this level, but for comparison's sake, he's very quick and smooth with the ball like how Clyde Drexler and Steph Curry are with the ball. Smooth and efficient versus sudden and explosive, but just as quick and effective in the end.
00:21:56
Speaker
He basically moves us from what I had highlighted earlier, like a top eight preseason team without a point guard in play to a top three team, conservatively, in my opinion.
Player Rotations and Depth Analysis
00:22:07
Speaker
And I can't wait to see him be integrated into our schemes by Coach Sampson. So finally, I know we touched on this in our last episode, but now that we basically know what our roster will look like, how do you think the rotation will look like? Tom, you want to kick things off?
00:22:23
Speaker
Well, everybody's gonna have to compete for a position. All three of us know that. I mean, Kelvin's not gonna come in there and say, okay, here's our starters, you know, on day one, they're gonna have to earn it. But after all this said and done, I expect to see who's on as the point guard and then Cryer sharp as the guards and then probably Francis Roberts at the four and five.
00:22:44
Speaker
We'll just have to see about that. I don't know. Maybe Arson Oak can crack the starting lineup. But as it stands right now, I would still expect him to come off the bench. Same thing with Jojo Tuggler. Yep. Well, Bill Self mentioned this during the season. He said, I'll never get caught.
00:23:01
Speaker
With a roster like this, again, he said next year I'm going to have eight starters and, you know, with TA and with Tuggler coming off the bench. I mean, you can say that's seven starters right there. Absolutely. You could start Tuggler, you could start Arsenal at the four and the five or Francis and Roberts. Anyway, that's the way I see it. I really liked my league. I really liked the way he came on at the end of the year.
00:23:27
Speaker
I'm not sure about the freshmen. A lot of people are really high on Mercy, Mercy Miller, Chase McCarty. I'm not sure how much playing time they'll get. I mean, a lot of people are saying, well, Mercy is going to see a lot of playing time. Who knows? We don't know. He's a freshman. Takes a while to pick up our defense. But then again, nobody thought, at least I didn't. I never thought Marcus Sasser would play as much as he did.
00:23:53
Speaker
right off the bat. He was not as much a Ballyhooed recruit as some of, I can't remember who our other guys were in that class. I think, wasn't Joanne, I think in that class, but- I think he came in with Caleb and- Yeah, and-
00:24:09
Speaker
And Marcus was probably the least talked about recruit, but he came in and it all depends on who you are. You know, some guys pick up things faster than others. Who knows, but definitely there's your top seven right there. Just stout. Uh, you got Ramon, you never can forget about Ramon coming off and.
00:24:28
Speaker
Diving on the floor getting key rebounds being toughest nails every now and then making a bucket That's why I see it. Am I missing anybody? Yeah, I mean we're so deep next year. We still have KJ Jefferson. We haven't seen yet McFarland Yeah, I miss it. I forgot about
00:24:46
Speaker
Cordell, you said Ryan Monso was told by a staff member that Cordell's going to play some point guard. I mean, that's coming from pretty much the horse's mouth there, not just hearsay, but that was a staff member. So, and Cordell's been through, he's been in the program for a while. It's not like he's coming in, in June as a wide eyed freshman. He's, we'll say I've never seen him play, but from what I hear, he's, he's a dog, you know, and really liked the squad. Yeah.
00:25:15
Speaker
Jefferson 6-1 and he is a point guard. So I think that from everything I've heard about him, how ultra competitive he is, I didn't know that they were going to bring back Malik. I thought they were going to go to the portal and get a point guard and Jefferson would be the backup, but maybe they want him to develop a little more. I don't know. Yeah, go ahead, Bill. Why don't you cover what you think the roster is going to... I don't know how you could
00:25:45
Speaker
argue with what Tom said. It's Sharp Cryer who's on Francis and Roberts. You know, as soon as Kelvin sees the need, Tuggler is going to come right in and replace one of the two, whether it's Fowles or whether he thinks Tuggler can better take advantage of the opposition, whatever it might be. Arsenault's most likely he'll be coming in for one of the two guards. Sharp or Cryer, whichever guard doesn't come out will
00:26:15
Speaker
be the two and then Arsenal play the three. Those are the primary seven that are going to play. Unfortunately, I don't think Settle get as much time this year. Yeah, I don't think so either. Sorry injuries. So we'll be OK there. I don't know a whole lot about McFarland. So I know he's rail thin, 6'10", but he's rail thin. So yeah, I'm interested to see him play. Yeah, I think
00:26:45
Speaker
McCarty is kind of like a Terrence or like a Ramon. So he'll be playing behind them. And then you've got Jefferson coming off the bench, you know, when he gets to play behind both Oozan and my league. And then kind of the wild card in all of this, I think is Mercy Miller. You know, from what I've seen, the highlights I've seen of him in high school and
00:27:13
Speaker
everything I've heard, it sounds like he's ready to step right in and potentially score on anybody and potentially be a team leading scorer. But obviously there are things that are required at U of H and that have made U of H so successful that he's probably well behind the curve on, meaning defense and rebounding. He'll certainly be coming well off the bench and
00:27:42
Speaker
But it'll be interesting to see how quickly he picks up on everything. I love after the end of the season, being able to talk about, you know, three deep at small forward, three deep at point guard, three deep at shooting guard. With said, you can say three deep at center if you consider McCarlin to play center.
Key Returning Players and Health
00:28:04
Speaker
And then you've got Robertson Tuggler at the four. And all those guys are interchangeable. They can all play four, they can all play five.
00:28:12
Speaker
I mean, right now the team is just unbelievably deep. Steve, you know, I argued with you about the most loaded team ever, but I would say this has got to probably be the most full team, the greatest depth that we've had. That I won't argue with. Hey, another thing is, you know, bringing back Juwan, he's going to be healthy. Yes, exactly.
00:28:40
Speaker
Look what he did with seven legs and a bum knee or shin or whatever. So hope and pray that, you know, he avoids the injury bug again, but that's what I'm excited to see him full strength next year again. Well, I hope he's healthy and obviously the hand is going to be fine. The, the shin find it, but the knee is, you know, what you have to worry about. And he,
00:29:07
Speaker
I've got to imagine that lingers to some extent. Well, he had surgery. I don't know if you if you saw. Yeah, I know that. Yeah, absolutely. So you got to take him care of early. There hasn't been any feedback that there were any complications or anything like that. So he's got plenty of time to recover at this point.
00:29:26
Speaker
Hey, do you guys see Arsenal? There was a video of him shooting baskets. He looks like he's back in the groove. Yeah, which is phenomenal. Right. So if he can start shooting and working out, that's fantastic. So that's why, you know, you guys have gone through all the names. That's why I felt like this roster is just the most loaded and whether how you define loaded.
00:29:47
Speaker
Right? I'm talking about depth where we've got multiple players that I would feel comfortable playing at any point in time.
Preseason and Defensive Focus
00:29:54
Speaker
Right? So you're talking about Cryer, Sharp, Yuuzhan, Wilson, Jefferson, returning on the perimeter, Roberts, Francis, Tuggler, Lat, McFarlane at the four and five slots.
00:30:05
Speaker
in Arsenal and Walker at what I'll call the hybrid two, three, four spots, depending on match ups, plus two freshmen perimeter four star players in Miller and McCarty that I don't even know how you get them any minutes on a team like this, but you got to figure a way.
00:30:23
Speaker
I expect to see everyone play during the preseason, perhaps spreading it out around almost 25 minutes a game for our starters other than Yuuzhan, who needs to get more comfortable. So he'll probably see more minutes similar to LJ Cryer this season. But come conference time, I expect a heavy dose of Yuuzhan, Cryer, Sharp, Roberts, and Francis with heavy doses of Arsenault, Tuggler, and Wilson. But the difference, I think, is I believe Arsenault is going to be
00:30:53
Speaker
Featured more this year coming back for his third season. I think he's gonna play The two the three the four and he's gonna get starter like minutes and I think we're gonna start seeing tugler Play more the beauty of it is now we can feel free to play the kind of defense intensely all game long without the fear of foul trouble, which is
00:31:22
Speaker
just incredible, right?
Closing Remarks and Future Episode Teaser
00:31:24
Speaker
And so, Coach Sampson is going to feel free to change people out. And quite honestly, people are starting to slack even on one possession on D. So we were the number two defensive team in the country. At the end of the season, I expect us to be number one throughout the entire season coming up. And we'll be able to come in waves with different matchups like we've never been able to do before.
00:31:50
Speaker
You want to talk about suffocating teams on D and wearing them out in the second half like we've done this past season. Next season will be even more intense and it will be just such a treat. So I'm looking forward to it. So anyways, I think that's it for this episode 25 at the No Conference for Old Men podcast. Hope you all enjoyed it. And again, we'd really appreciate it if folks would follow, subscribe, or collect our podcast depending on your podcast platform of choice.
00:32:16
Speaker
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. We appreciate the continued support from all.
00:32:32
Speaker
And please give us a follow on our Twitter account, no conference for old men. And as a teaser, we hope to have a special ad hoc episode in May, where we're going to try to get our very own Cougar great Reed Gettys on the show for our special interview to talk about our great Houston Cougars whose program past and present. So please be on the lookout to download and listen as the episode drops. Take care, everyone.