Texas Hoops vs. UNC: Post Mortem

I wonder if J’Covan sees any difference betwen UNC and any of the other teams we’ve played? He doesn’t act like it.

Question: if guys like Hill and Johnson and Wangmene are earning more minutes, whose playing time goes down? Presumably Hamilton. Mason? Lucas has to start seeing the court more, too. The minutes aren’t there!

Really like Jai Lucas, but he needs to get stronger. He needs to hit the Dogus Balbay of weight training.

Great win for the Horns. They showed signs of losing focus on the offensive end late in the game, as Barnes teams are prone to do. Fortunately, they pulled their heads out and sealed the deal.

Hamilton was disappointing. Hopefully just one of those days. Gotta be pleased with the intensity with which our guys played and the fact that they weren’t intimidated by playing Carolina. We have a lot to work on, but plenty of time to do so. This is going to be a fun year.

Jordan Hamilton was awlful. He saw the bright lights and national tv cameras and wanted to be a big shot. He forced everything except the one three he made, oh what could have been if he would have let the game come to him.

Why does Justin Mason play?

J’Covan Brown is to free throws as Kyle Field is to bat shit

My view from Dallas, where real Texas fans made the 6 hour total drive instead of watching from their Houston home.
 
The play of Bradley, J’Covan, Pittman, James is evident so I’ll let your post speak to that.
 
I’ve still yet to see anyone that can stop J’Covan Brown from getting into the lane. He doesn’t it do with quickness either. He just lopes along, puts you on his hip, and does his thing. His demeanor on the free throw line is comedy. He grabs the ball, flings it up like an annoyance, and it goes through like a he’s lobbing a rock into a pond.
The kid is quickly becoming one of my favorite Longhorn players of all time and if you know a bit of his backstory, it’s hard not pull for him.
 
Being there, I can’t overstate how well Matt Hill played in his minutes. Great post defense, strong presence, showed on the perimeter to stop Drew off the screen, really made Thompson and Davis work for position and absolutely wore them out when they thought they would be getting a rest. He was the key element in a 15 point turnaround in the mid to late 1st half. Easy baskets from their bigs stopped the moment he came in the game.
 
Chapman doesn’t have a skill set that can contribute in this sort of game.
 
Wangmene actually had a bad game. Poor feet and positioning in the post, bad team concept defense. He didn’t understand the way Hill did that his job was to tax someone’s ass. Very disappointing for a guy that usually gives us great minutes. Maybe their combination of length and lateral movement bothered him.
 
Justin Mason was awful and it went far beyond offense. He was lost on defense, always a step too slow, and was the noticeable weak point in our defensive rotation. He was the worst player on the court anytime he was on the court. He stuck out. In a bad way.
 
Jai Lucas knows what to do but he’s a huge defensive liability because of his size and weakness. His decision-making will be valuable down the stretch, I agree, but he kills you on defensive rotations and a physical point guard scores on him or creates a score at will.

I think we see a much more offensive minded Bradley from here on out.

When the light goes on for Hamilton, that’s when this team jumps to “ludicrous speed.”

Last night I got tix in the GA student section for Mich St. game. That should be fun.

One thing that concerned me was our complete inability to get the ball across mid court at the end of the game. Balbay’s got the handle, but not the free throw shooting, and J’Covan has the free throws but not the handle. Anybody (Trips) have any idea what we’ll do in this situation moving forward? Hopefully Lucas will be able to help here.

Also, I’ve heard a good bit of the J’Covan backstory, but would love a nice recap from anybody with a good handle on it. Hard to believe he was a problem kid, seems like a freaking sweetheart.

I’m not allowed in the metroplex anymore.

Ha ha ha ha! For good reason, Trips. Great breakdown from your suburban perch nonethess.

ctex, our press break offense sucks when we’re trying to keep teams from fouling Balbay. If teams are zone trapping the answer is inbound to a wing and then hit Balbay on the move. If he’s a ball handler or reversal guy, he’s easier to foul.

If it’s man pressure, put it in Brown’s or perhaps Hamilton’s hands and let them bring the ball up.

One more observation. Even though we won handily in the first 8 games, it still felt like a struggle. Mainly because it was in the 2nd half that we worn teams down and pulled away.

In the last 2 games, we’ve looked like a team in complete control. It’ll be interesting to see if that continues Tuesday night.

Agreed. Only four players earned themselves some coffee.

On a side note, I would like to see Mushamp playing Ricky Roma to Greg Davis’s Williamson. That would be awesome. If someone who knows how to do these things could superimpose their faces on one another during that scene, starting with the slow burn, I would be forever in your debt.

I don’t think we necessarily played poorly, I think we played our strengths against their weaknesses. For most of the game we played lineups that put points on the board and played up the tempo. That left us weaker against their frontcourt defensively, but netted a gain (obviously). We hit FTs! Brown is automatic at the line and is our best shooter. He limited turnovers and will keep earning minutes for us at this rate.

UNC’s high FG % was the result of 16-21 shooting from 2 guys, the rest of the team didn’t shoot well. They shot 48% overall with nearly 80% from those two. We could have changed the lineups to clamp down, but we were in the process of running them out of the gym. We let them back into the game, which I figured we would being a young team. We then stepped on the gas and ended the game. Giving up 30 offensive boards will lose almost any game, no matter how you shoot. If they wanted to win some box score matchups they did fine, but watching the game was another story.

From my seats it appeared there was quite a bit of contact that wasn’t called on the trapping late in the game, which stood in contrast to the way the game was called up until that point.

Hamilton was great on the boards (6 in limited minutes), too bad that he felt he had to be the superstar with the ball again. We don’t out talent top teams on a one to one basis, we do it ten deep. Until Hamilton gets that (looked as if he was starting to a few games back) then he won’t contribute much to us.

We came at UNC in waves, but not exactly in the fashion that we had in other games. Pittman, James, Brown and Bradley just kept attacking them and they had no way to respond. Locking down one opened up another. If Hamilton gets in on that fun, we get much better.

We had some bad defensive lapses and some poor decisions on fast breaks. Overall we played a great game offensively, as nearly all our points were attacking the defense head on and with good movement without the ball to the basket for second chance points.

I think we played the way we needed to to beat UNC. I think we play a different game with different lineups against Mich St. Our depth allows for that. We have a number of guys who can get a hot hand and we can play to maximize that. Mich St will play a slower game, and we will grind them more.

Start at 50 seconds in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HURJNd0J4U

It’d be even better if you could paste Royal’s head on Jack Lemmon when he comes in and says that Williamson is a shit head.

Adding to my previous comment, there was one play in particular at the end where the UNC player intentionally fouled Balbay under the basket, pushing him with both hands. There was no call.

i will have to echo almost all of Scip’s thoughts.

and i wonder when Jordan struggles like this, as he did yesterday, we see more Gary, again as we saw yesterday, to bump and find loose perimeter shots, and those quick dimes underneath to Dex. those were delights. they play the game as different 3s, and different parts of the floor as well, but i certainly cannot think of a lineup where we have them BOTH in the game, and i doubt we will see much of it, if only to move Gary down to the 4, but Damion has to step up and post up against smaller bigs…

this and only this is my concern. JCB, well, I’m a convert. ‘The Unflappable One’ has seemingly turned the corner, as his poise and on-court demeanor has mellowed and his game has just taken off. Best job of coaching Rick and his staff have done. Even more so than the shuffling minutes around to this elite team. RB knows how pivotal JCB is, and I foresee nets coming down BECAUSE of his work with JCB.

And I do hope we see him closing out games, because of his new found poise and his uncanny ability to hit FTs.

very very encouraged and not trying to get delusional…

Hook ’Em!

I wanted to see the TV broadcast before I commented too much, but I thought they defended Drew the way Trips wanted them to. They kept him out of the lane, and kept Ginyard moving. Drew got into foul trouble, and Ginyard scored only two points in the first half.

Low-post defense wasn’t so hot, but Tyler Zeller played like a potential star.

And, not them I’m counting on winning the next game, much less the next 20, but they have things to work on without having to take a loss to do it. They’ve got to have Hamilton thinking about others as well as himself, as Bradley does, and they know that they have to work on end-of-game situations. I’m confident that Brown can get himself fouled and wrap up games at the line, but he approached the situation with caution and got himself trapped as a result.

They shot 42 percent yesterday and won easily. Several years ago, when they were in another stretch of struggling offensively, I checked some stats and found that the key number is about 45 percent. If they could do that, they almost always won, and usually easily.

I think they’ll need to shoot it better Tuesday, but my father, the MSU grad, watched Texas yesterday and when I called today, he didn’t even say hello…. He said, “I need points.”

Unsung hero for me was Gary Johnson. Rock solid D, two beautiful assists …..and a three. All in the first half. Could be an alien imposter.

Hamilton is going to be a work in progress for a while guys. He’s so damn talented that all his life he’s been able to get his shot off anytime from anywhere on the floor. He has absolutely no clue what a good or bad shot is. He reminds of my buddy on the golf course. He’s looking at 230 yards to carry the water to the green and pulls out his 3 wood and says he can hit this shot. I know he’s capable. But it’s 1 out of 10 capable. It’s not a smart decision. I’m fearful Hamilton is due to have a game where he hits all his bad shots and gets even more confused when Barnes yanks him.

I saw several passes from this team that I have not seen since 2004. J’Covan is going to be the shit when he gets an offseason or two with Mr. Wright. If I’m being honest yesterday was the first time I saw this kid as THE point guard of the future…maybe season.

The refs let em play. Both sides were able to push for position on the glass. Dexter won.

The announcers talking about Brown’s troubles pissed me off. His fuckstick coach was trying to use Brown to get a job somewhere. They didn’t mention that.

This was the motivational speech:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/glengarry_christmas__elf_motivation/1185615/

To use a bad cliche, Brown is the straw that stirs the drink. Did television show the argument between him and Avery at the end of the game? We were pretty close to that.

The struggles against the press at the end were a bit troubling but man it is hard to not get real excited about this team. I absolutely agree that the team did not play particularly well but completely took UNC out of any sense of comfort.

The UNC fans were nice but pretty smug before the game. One guy told us that the UNC staff told its players pre-game that they were better “at every position”. Uh, maybe not.

What were Avery and JCB arguing about?

I’d like to know a little about that too

So. I had a friend that I haven’t seen since I graduated come over to my house in Seabrook. He showed up with a six pack of Lone Star. I knew from that point that it would be a good afternoon.

J’Covan, as mentioned above, is quickly becoming one of my favorite J’Longhorns. The guy is silky smooth, can make free throws (which really gets me off), and just has that Port Arthur attitude that gives him an edge against everyone in the building.

Matt Hill played like a kid ready to earn more minutes. He was aggressive, played smart, showed some hands, and battled. It was nice to see.

Damion James amazes me. Maybe because I never notice how good he is doing until I look up and he’s got 17 points and 8 boards, or the fact that every time I see him I laugh at and thank good ol’ Kelvin Sampson, but damn, that guy is an athlete. I shuddered as I saw him on the fast break that he almost dribbled off of his knee, but I knew that he would bang down low and get trash points and rebounds against the higher-rated studs from UNC. James, to me, is like PJ Tucker with less attitude and more skills.

Pittman. Fuck, did anyone know this guy used to weigh almost four bills? In fact, even KD knew he used to weigh almost four bills! Shit man, he’s lost about one hundred pounds! Can you believe that? Did you know that Colt and Jordan are roommates? And their Dads were roommates? I can’t wait until I quit hearing about how Pittman has lost some weight and how he is absolutely wrecking shit on the court. This was the first game he has played extended minutes this season, and holy shit…the sky is the limit for this kid. In fact, I think if he lost another…shit, who am I kidding…I just can’t go there.

Doge, Bradley, wow. I like watching these cats just play defense, and I’m waiting for the technicals from opposing point guards to start piling up, especially in conference when we see the same team for the second time.

Hamilton, wow, what a stinker? But his time will come. The affects from not playing a year are slowly wearing off…hopefully.

So, big matchup against 280 degrees of different on Tuesday. UNC wanted to run, and Rick ran right along with them. MSU and Izzo will want to pack it in, crash the boards, hit some threes, and steal another win just like they did last season at the Toyota Center. Unfortunately for them, we have kids that can actually hit some shots from fifteen feet and out…Texas should be fine.

And, if Texas handles MSU, this team will be ready. My $100, 15:1 bet to win it all is looking good. BTW, I’ll sell that to anyone for a cool $999 right now!

Hook ’em!

The thing that I really liked was Dex being allowed to play by the refs. Unc front court is big but not very strong, the physical play by James and Dex just overwhelmed their front line.
I venture to say that the conversation by JCB and Avery was that avery was not coming back to help get the ball over midcourt, just a guess on my part. Dog should be getting the ball when he is moving up court then he is very hard to handle.
Trip,
Excellent post write up tough and fair.
Hill did very well in his 6-7 minutes he got, blocked out, got his hands on several balls, played hard.
Alex is kind of lost on his help defense,looks lost at times. He does motor around .
The players showed a tough mind set that was interesting to see from the whole team. Last couple of years this mind set was missing with a few exceptions. They are getting tougher and thats a good thing.
Waiting to see the team play a 40 minute game that will be something to see. Oh! JCB is a strong kid no one bumps him off the ball, he just moves to where he wants to be, smart kid getting free for his 3’s.

At about the 1:00 minute mark left, when we were having problems against their press, Brown had to take a timeout in the backcourt. As they came over to the bench, Brown said something to Avery along the lines of ‘you gotta move and come back to the ball’. Avery said something back that I didn’t hear and it was clear there was confusion as to who was supposed to be where. As the huddle formed, Barnes jumped on Brown. Dex put his arms around both Brown and Avery like a big brother and was saying something to the effect of ’it’s all good’. Brown was pretty heated up. We couldn’t see the jumbotron very well from our seats but people around us said Dex kissed Brown on the head. Dex was clearly being like the big brother telling his younger brothers that he loved them but if they didn’t stop fighting, he was going to kick both their asses.

“UNC fans were nice but pretty smug before the game”

I think the observation’s been made a number of times, and I think it’s true:

UNC fans:Basketball::UT fans:Football

Ransom – nice observation, thanks. I love Dex.

MSU concerns me much more than NC did. Perhaps it’s hindsight benefit, but — as others have noted above — I’m more concerned about a team that tries to let the air out of the ball and make us be patient, than I am a team that thinks they can out-athlete us.

BEHorn, you are right on the money. If we can run MSU out of the gym, we are deadlocked on KU/Kentucky for the national title.

Hook ’em!

Great story about Dex playing the big brother to JCB and Avery. I didn’t catch any of that on the broadcast, if it made it on air. I was fairly well into a 6 of Newcastle by that point, so who knows?

I think this team has a fairly ideal mix of experience, talent, and personality. The loose cannons we worried about haven’t shown up; frankly, they’ve proven to be pretty level-headed young guys.

How many ‘horns didn’t play ball at all last year? Four?

ransom, I saw that on the jumbotron too, but I wasn’t sure of the context.

This team has a good mix of young and old, big and small, inside and outside, and offensive minded and defensive minded players. This is the kind of team that wins championships most years in college hoops.

As far as MSU goes, there were some concerns earlier in the year that we were too focused on defense and couldn’t score if we needed to. This team seems dynamic, like it can do whatever is needed on any given night to win. Having MSU at home makes a huge difference too. Hamilton responded from a poor game with one of his better games earlier this season. Maybe the same thing will happen Tue night.

If yesterday’s game didn’t give u an indication of what I have been saying about Jordan for the last couple of weeks , then nothing will. The kid does not have a very high iq. Somebody will say well he made a nice pass on the baseline to Dexter for a layup, but what other play could he have made ? He has a me first attitude and he thinks he’s better than what he is. I commend u for calling him out the way u did after a year of making him out to be the greatest player to ever put on a UT uniform. He has some skills but nothing to the point where he should be called a superstar or one and done. He’s not even close to being one and done and it is becoming more and more obvious game after game. He looked all world against Pan-American and Texas St., but then again it was Pan-American and Texas St. Greg Hicks from scout has said he was overrated for years, I have always thought he was overrated and it shows. He has a played a bully game his whole career, meaning that he uses his strength to bully people to get everywhere he wants to on the floor and he can’t do that at this level. Please don’t accuse me of being affiliated with ipowers because I think he was right about the kid, his points just didn’t get across to you guys because of his delivery and approach but he made some very valid points when he wasn’t threatening people’s lives and cursing them out. Now he may come out Tuesday and knock down a couple of jumpers but he has yet to do anything that has made me jump out of my seat. Avery Bradley did that yesterday, John Wall does it every night, Derrick Favors is very talented. Hamilton is not in that class and I wish it was finally recognized. I was at the game yesterday and I ran into a lot of the local AAU coaches and almost to a man without me having to say a word,they all said to me " I thought Hamilton was better than what he is". Enough said.

Any AAU coach who faced him got beat by him. He did not get his ranking by being a bully he got it by tearing up the AAU circuit with every other national prospect out there.

The book on him is he has scoring abilities with a sweet shot. He needs to learn how to play team ball and team defense.

He will be just fine.

guru, you and ipowers can go shit in your hat!

Just kidding.

Yep, Hamilton looks like a kid that hasn’t played ball in a year and thinks he only has a few months to prove he is a lottery pick. He’ll either step up and prove it (and Texas will benefit), or he’ll be back next year to prove it as a sophomore (and Texas will benefit). Either way, the kid is a player, and will help Texas out. He had a bad game, and we still won by 13.

Hook ’em!

How did Barnes id Pittman’s talent 4 years ago at 400 lbs? How did he know that this kid could turn into this type of player with this kind of work ethic? Amazing!

Hook ’em!

We finally got to see the much hyped “beast-mode” from Dex and it sure as hell didn’t disappoint. The guy was a unstoppable and a huge credit goes to Barnes for managing him perfectly, having him play in short, controlled bursts so he’d be fresh all game. Great coaching move.

Hamilton was terrible. He had 2 good plays, the open 3 he hit after the ball was swung back around to him, and the drive and dish he had to Pittman or someone. Other than that he stunk up the joint. He forced way too many shots in the first half and then in the 2nd half he tried to make things happen and would force the action and turn it over. A bad shooting game that snowballed into a terrible overall performance. Doubt he’ll have another game like this for the rest of the season.

Brown and Bradley, not much else to say. They are unflappable and fearless. Brown especially plays with the poise of a upper-classman. Bradley had a uneven start as he tried to be assertive but settled down and had a great game. I guess he got tired of hearing about John Wall as the 2nd coming the past couple of weeks b/c he’s really upped his play the past few games.

Johnson had a nice game. Key rebounds, good defense, knocked down some shots and showed some nice passing ability. Solid overall.

Wangmene was his usual self. Energy, defense and rebounding and showed we might be able to run the offense through him against lesser front courts for at least a couple of possessions.

Dogus was his usual self. Pushed the pace, locked in on the PG and was a pest.

Didn’t expect anything from Lucas and he delivered on that expectation. Guy might not be the McD AA he was hyped to be but he’ll contribute in some way.

Mason needs to come off he bench, he’s an energy guy with his hustle plays and defensive plays, he needs to come off the bench and play in 4-5 minute spurts where he goes all out on defense, crashes the glass and attacks the basket like he did FR/SO year.

MerHorn rankings are subjective. How many kids have been ranked high and never panned out. Lester Earl, Kelvin Torbert, Ray Young, Marvin Stone, Mike Williams, Brian Boddicker, I mean the list goes on and on, and I bet u have never heard of most of those guys I named. They were all McDonald’s All Americans who did nothing in college and never sniffed the NBA. I’ll tell u something else that I didn’t want to mention but his own AAU coach told me in Phoenix at the Duel in the Dessert two summers ago that Jordan could play but that he thought he was better than what he was. So I guess he beat him too. Bottom line kid is overrated. Nothing personal, just calling a spade a spade.

As a matter of fact Kelvin Torbert was the Gatorade National Player of the Year his senior year in high school and was never drafted or played in the league.

My 2 cents as a typical Texas basketball fan (meaning I know next to nothing about strategy or recruting). Hamilton looks like a kid that spent too much time playing street ball, which my limited knowledge tells me that AAU ball is. He is still playing like he is on an all star team (dumb passes, dribbling into trouble, poor shot selection etc.) which is probably how he ended up in Barnes dog house to start the year. I think the bright lights brought that all crashing back after what seemed like a few games of progress.

Other thoughts…great game by Dexter when we needed it. James will earn his way to the NBA by doing the clean up work and not forcing things (like many here suggested before the season). Brown has the makings of a real difference maker for this team. Not the same skill set as TJ, but seems to have the same winner’s mentality especially down the stretch. Cold as ice.

“That’s huge come tourney time because night in and night out, your ability to defend and rebound is a constant. And that constant allows you to manufacture possessions which results in wins regardless of how good or bad you or your opponent shoots it.”

Well said Trips. Every November /December as we implode about the offense and playing time he’s busy molding a defense.

I really hope the Barnes gameplan is to come out and actually try to play MSU with a game in the 60’s. (we would probably lose it at the line)If we did and won what would that say to the team and the rest of the country?

TheGuru, you’re being a bit reactionary on this thread, don’t you think? The kid had a bad game. It happens. He’s still hugely talented and will be a star. It’s not like he’s Joey Beard.

The Guru, you have a personal vendetta against Jordan Hamilton, and you’re on a support mission for Shawn Williams. I’d be shocked if you weren’t affiliated with ipowers in some way. You reach for 3rd party vindication regarding Hamilton’s poor play in exactly the same way ipowers did, and pretty much your every post is either a criticism of Hamilton, or a compliment for Williams.

You previously wondered if you should take your ball and go home. I hope not. I think you can add to this site. I’d like to see you expand your repertoire a little bit, rather than simply hammering the same nail over and over again, but in either case, I certainly support you taking the time to make your case.

Jordan Hamilton’s problems are multiple:

1) He’s really talented. That’s a problem, because he’s been rewarded for his current behavior throughout his basketball life. He thinks being a great player is about scoring, because that’s how he’s been identified before. All of a sudden, he’s getting mixed messages about his scoring ability, and he hasn’t handled it well.

2) As pointed out, he’s always played in a very freewheeling system, where he could hunt his shot any time he wanted. He hasn’t adjusted well to what isn’t as freewheeling a system. For all the crap we give Barnes for not running a more structured offense - and he doesn’t - he does emphasize taking good shots. It’s a part of him being Mixed Message Rick.

Jordan is not able to recognize what is a good shot and what isn’t, and frankly, it’s going to be a struggle for him to develop the mental tools to do so. They have to be created from scratch. It’s going to involve a lot of pain, and a lot of feelings of rejection. Good luck to him.

3. Jordan has documented focus issues. I know what that’s like, because I have them, too. It can’t be used as an excuse. It simply has to be overcome, through either strength of habit, or through compensating mechanisms. It’s not easy. In his own way, he has as big a battle to face as Pittman with his weight, or J’Covan with his anger issues. The thing about this staff is that they’re aware of it, and they’re going to try to help him through it. I don’t always agree with how Barnes goes about it, but I do believe he sincerely wants to help Hamilton develop into the best player he can be, and a major part of that is going to be getting Hamilton to the point where he’s not constantly being distracted by shiny baubles.

There are a couple of things I’ll point out about Jordan in his favor.

First, it’s not like he’s not sharing the ball ever. He’s not AJ Abrams. He’s not a completely selfish player. But he doesn’t multitask real well right now. This seems goofy to anyone with no experience with ADD, but he either needs to be focused on scoring, or focused on assists. I’ve seen him when he’s focused on assists in the AAU environment, and he was spectacular at it - but he completely went away from shooting the ball. It was bizarre.

Watch some of his passes. I’ve seen several times when he had an open pathway to the basket, or was wide open for the shot, but passed it to a teammate instead. It’s because at that moment, all he could think about was getting the ball to a teammate, because he was getting criticized for not seeing open teammates.

That doesn’t mean he has no selfishness to him. I think he does. He has confidence in his game. That’s not a bad thing. It can just be too much of a good thing. However, unlike AJ, Jordan wants to please.

The second thing I’ll point out, is that while he’s not as good on defense as any of us would like, the kid is trying hard. Again, he just loses focus. But he’s trying to give himself up. He’s had several spectacular blocks away from the ball that indicates he wants to contribute. He’s a good rebounder, and he definitely contributed in that way in the North Carolina game. He’s as good at getting a rebound off of his own missed shot as we’ve had at Texas from any kind of perimeter player. Even James. Pittman might be better, but that’s a different dynamic.

I think what we’ve seen over his career, and what we’re seeing at Texas, is that Jordan has some ADD issues, but he’s never had an environment that understood it, or tried to help him work through it. It’s going to be tough on him, but I do feel like he’s at least surrounded by people who care about him, and want to help him work on it. The rest is going to be up to him.

However, some of The Guru’s takes are absolutely ridiculous. It’s easy to see the kid has NBA talent, even in just the flashes he’s shown us. He’s a prototypical NBA wing player, who if he reaches his potential will be a 2/3 in the league. I’m hopeful he’ll get there.

Doge continues to impress me with his athleticism. Just crazy that he is sometimes eyeball to eyeball with James on some rebounds.

SLX,
What a post ! Your post was spot on. As I was watching Hamilton on Sat. the thought was that he plays with the last thought that Barnes/staff puts in his head.
JH’s value system is being the shooter that everyone said he was. He has been used as a shooter and not as a complete team player even when he has most of the skills sets to excel as a team player.
 You made many valid points concerning JH, and your right that he only focused on one aspect of his game at a time.
I have seen JH against many NBA / AAU players and when someone would put in 3-4 shots then we would see JH put in 5-6 shoots. If JH had his shot blocked he would try and try to make a block also.
 I completely understand your references, you must have a background on psychology as stated above. That was some deep and heavy understanding of the situation. Outstanding.
You should visit more often.

He should answer his damned text messages is what he should do.

SLX,

I must echo SkyMonkeyHorn’s sentiments. Just a thorough and well-reasoned analysis of the situation. Kudos.

You know what SL, I haven’t mentioned Shawn Williams’ name in weeks. It seems like you might be a Jordan Hamilton supporter and a Shawn Williams hater. I call it like I see it. I too have had ADD issues so I understand completely what u r saying. The only reason why I reference 3rd parties is because of the last statement u made about my takes being ridiculous. U h like Hamilton’s game for some reason I can’t and never will see. I criticize him the most because in some ways he is the key to the Horns success this year. Mark my words if Barnes continues this loyalty to Justin Mason and doesn’t harness Hamilton somehow they will not win the national title and might not make the final four. Bottom line. Hamilton can play in the league in time. I have never said the kid couldn’t play which makes u jumping all over me stupid. All I have ever said was that expecting him to be one and done and an instant superstar is asking too much. He needs a least a couple of years (after this year) before he should even think about the next level. If I vouch for Williams is because like I said I live in the Dallas area and I have a problem with Barnes playing kids from other areas over the homegrown talent, especially when they are equal in skills. Yeah that sounds crazy doesn’t it ? Like u have seen Hamilton on the AAU circuit, I have seen them both for years and I know their games pretty well. That’s my beef. For the last time and I’m going to respectfully ask u to stop boxing me in with ipowers just because I happen to agree with some of what he had to say. U guys to seem to welcome a difference of opinion. I thought a message board was set up for people to express their opinions. If I want to dedicate my next 20 posts to Hamilton that is my business and I don’t need u telling me what I can and can’t say.

Lol. You’re ridiculous.

You mention Hamilton and Williams’ name in your every post. It’s all you post about. Every single one of them.

The last time you mentioned Williams was after the Long Beach State game. I called you on it. Both of our posts appear to be deleted, but you can still see your response on there threatening to take your ball and go home. It looks odd and out of context now due to the editing, but it’s there.

You’re a contradictory twit. You say you don’t understand what I see in Hamilton’s game. Then in the next breath you talk about how he’s the key to a Final Four and will play in the league.

Stylistically you’ve started using shorthand for your words, and you’re not using paragraphs. Same as ipowers, only without the cursing.

You’re right. You can make every post you ever put on here about Hamilton and Williams. Be my guest. I don’t care. But if you think I’m not going to call you on it, you’re nuts. Get some thicker skin.

Shawn Williams is going to be a very good player for Texas. I have no doubt about it. I watched him plenty at Duncanville, and I watched him some in AAU. I do not agree that he has the same overall game that Hamilton does at this point.

I do not have a vendetta against Williams. AJ Abrams? Yeah, probably at this point. Shawn Williams? Absolutely not. I think he’s going to be terrific for the Longhorns, and has a chance to be a pro if he’s allowed to develop.

I posted this in the game thread, but J’Covan Brown hits free throws as effortlessly as I hit the bowl when I piss.

I liked that line, Homesick Alien. It was definitely worth repeating.

“Just a horrible performance. Shot selection, effort, decision making, you name it.”

Trips, great writeup. The one thing I would disagree with you is on the Hamilton effort part. SLX just alluded to it as well, the dude gave great effort against UNC. He was trying too hard and just needed to calm the fuck down. He was all over the place rebounding and diving for a loose ball and running the break (which is great) but he was also like that when we were trying to run offense (not great). I’m not sure if it is focus, like SLX said, or he just needs to calm down and let shit come to him. There were about 5 atrocious offensive possessions because of him but other than that, he was a good contributor to the win. I’d take him over any of the UNC frosh any day.

I really like the idea of him and Gary splitting time at the 3 with Dexy and DJ and play one more than the other depending on matchups. If we are dying for offense against a zone sagging down on our post men, then I still think JH is our man for 25+ minutes with Gary getting the rest.

Jesus, Jordan Hamilton is a lightning rod. He reminds me of Boddicker in that respect. I’ve never seen so much angst over one basketball game.

As for SLX’s thoughts, great stuff man. Please keep it coming.

SLX, I’m glad you have migrated over here.

I have not contradicted myself at all. I don’t like Hamilton’s game and that’s just how I feel about it. He’s the key to a Final Four not from a standpoint of me liking his game but from the standpoint of the role that Barnes is trying to get him to accept. Wow now your analyzing my use of the words and paragraphs to compare me to some other idiot, and it really is offensive after I asked you not to. Anybody with eyes can see that he can eventually play in the league, hell Brain Cardinal is in the league, so is Chris Anderson. I just don’t think the expectations that were placed on him by some on this site were warranted and whoever disagrees with him being the greatest UT player ever gets blasted for it. The Long Beach St. game was two weeks ago I believe. So Like I said I haven’t mentioned the Williams kid in WEEKS. Plural means more than One.

SL , I’m not trying to write a thesis or a term paper here, so I don’t really see the need for indenting paragraphs.

You are funny. And I want to commend you on excellent strawman craftsmanship.

“…and whoever disagrees with him being the greatest UT player ever gets blasted for it.”

Yes, that’s what has been going on.

Face it. You don’t like his game because you would prefer to see Shawn Williams out there instead. Well, you still might get your wish, so we’ll just have to wait and see. In any case, I think Williams is going to have a successful career at Texas, so I’m excited he picked the Longhorns.

SL, this is what I keep trying to tell you. I have NEVER liked his game it has nothing to do with Shawn Williams. Trust me.

Well, it would help if you didn’t keep bringing Williams into the conversation, then. Talk about some kind of combination of Gary Johnson and Damion James at the 3. Talk about putting 3 guards on the floor, like Balbay, Brown, and Bradley. It’s not just an either/or, I don’t care if Williams was a local product or not.

It feels like I’m calling you out, because I have been. You’ve been a Johnny One Note since you started posting here. That’s fine. I honestly don’t mind. What will have an impact is you getting huffy and wanting me to back off when I point it out. It just makes me want to poke some more.

“Johnny One Note” an instant classic.
“AJ Abrams? Yeah, probably at this point” self disclosure after 3 years. Very good.
A great basketball post with a psychology twist to it.

Whats the line on Guru. Will he stay under /over on his posts?
That he deflates his balls and goes home?
Does Ipowers come back all Jason like?

“I’ve never seen so much angst over one basketball game. "
Trips wait a little bit until we give one away then you will have to be talking the fools off your ledge and getting them some mental help.
Damn this is better then the funnies in the sunday paper. Do they still have a sunday paper??
Wonder if JH will hit 50% of his 3’s maybe JCB will hit 50% . Texas by 11.5 .

I think Hamilton’s up/down-ness could’ve been easily predicted…and I think it was by many.

he’s had a few great games…albeit against lesser competition. in fact, it was around the 4th game that he appeared to be ahead of Bradley in terms of development.

this was one freaking game. he’s got a skill set. who knows if and how it translates to the NBA level? bottom line, absolutely nobody. he could be wrecking shit in 5 games. how about a little bit of patience for this guy?

also, I wouldn’t call Boddicker a complete flop. the teams he played on at Texas had many contributors and he was certainly one of them. sure he had plently of fanfare coming out of Duncanville…however, I recall some insinuating that he only made McD’s because of his light fleshtone. he was a big part of a couple of my favorite UT squads and that’s good enough for me.

if every McD’s AA was drafted in the first round this whole process wouldn’t be very interesting to watch.

Boddicker was not only NOT a complete flop, he was about as close to a badass role player as you could possibly get. The dude is make 500g’s in Europe per annum. I’d say he’s done just fine for himself.

I don’t think he should have been a McD AA selection, but he was one of the last ones selected, and that stuff gets pretty political.

I can’t think of a UT team I’ve watched since he’s been gone that he couldn’t add to, including this one.

I don’t think Hamilton has ever appeared ahead of Bradley in development. Bradley just wasn’t hunting for his shot. He was purposefully wanting to blend in with his teammates. It’s one of the many things that makes him special.

SL, I’m glad you brought taht up because for the life of me, I can’t understand why Justin Mason is getting all of these minutes. I literally forgot that he was on the floor during the game on Saturday and that’s not good when your impact on the game is so minimal that people don’t even realize you’re out there.

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