Texas Basketball Makes 14th Straight NCAA Tournament

Penders has his best run with Bob Weltlich’s players. He was great at triage when it came to basketball programs. He could come in, get everyone to calm down and then make it better in the short term. Penders went 4-2 his first two seasons, then 6-6 the rest of the way with one other Sweet Sixteen appearance.

He was not a program builder.

We were not a Top 25 program with him. Under Penders, Texas spent exactly 24 weeks in the national rankings, and finished in the top 25 four times. Tom was 10-44 against ranked teams during the regular season.

The bitching that we see about Barnes is a testimony to his program building. He hasn’t reached the mountain top, and he may never get there with Texas, but there can be no doubt that he created the foundation for the expectations we all hold today.

So, an 11 seed.

My two most enduring memories of his era are:

1) the year Texas’ half-court offense consisted of Reggie Freeman going one-on-five
2) the mental image of midnight phone calls berating Perryman

Those populate a broad spectrum of disgust.

but we were lucky to make the last sweet 16 of his tenure. If memory serves, that was the 96-97 team and we matched up with Coppin State in the second round because they beat South Carolina in a huge upset.

there were all sorts of things wrong with his program — in particuar a complete and utter failure to function in the half court on either end of the floor. I started at UT in the fall of 1995 and expectations have completely changed.

In pondering the Cinci roster and results, I’m convinced we got a pretty good first round draw. not saying we’re going to beat them, but it could’ve been a lot worse. I’m proud that the guys pulled it together and got this far. advancing would be great. certainly an opportunity for Barnes to “prove” something to the fan base.

Don’t like this matchup at all.

Just happy to be in the dance.

Hope everyone comes back next year.

Wait for baseball team to come around.

Continue hauling in best.recruiting.class.evar

Gonna be a rough-and-tumble, grind-it-out type game. Difference between the 2 D’s is that Cincy D’s up without fouling. On O, Cincy primarily relies on Gates inside, whereas K-State can go with any number of bigs. If Texas can limit Gates, that would be huge. Sean Kilpatrick is like their Rodney McGruder. I think you let him prove he can win the game by himself while clamping down on Gates. Tough, but winnable game.

As a former UT walk-on, I appreciate how Barnes has elevated the program. Compared to Leon Black, Barnes is Phil Jackson to your son’s Junior High coach. But the “17 consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament” is cheapened a bit when you factor in the expanded field.

1980–1982: 48 teams
1983: 52 teams (four play-in games before the tournament)
1984: 53 teams (five play-ins)
1985–2000: 64 teams
2001–2010: 65 teams (one play-in)
2011–present: 68 teams (four play-ins)

Still — at a football school no less — it ain’t too shabby.

in fact, that’s the comparison I had in my mind.

and while I agree that Cinci may not be the optimal match up for Texas in the first round, who is? I was nervous about having to play a big team, with good size in the entire front court. we just can’t compete with that. I know cinci has its strengths and they’ve been playing well, I just think it’s a good match up for us.

I’ll admit that I’ve only watched cinci a few times this year…and casually at that. but I’m particularly curious about the longhorn man love that seems to be quickly evolving about Yancy Gates. yes, we’ll miss Lexi. and….yes, perhaps I never thought I’d type that. but I think a rotation of Chap and Bond will work.

from the high regard longhorn fandom has expressed for this guy so far, you’d think he’s the second coming of Hakeem Olajowon. here are his season statistics:

12.4 ppg
9.2 rpg
0.9 bpg
0.7 spg
47% fg
60% ft

a 20/20 game? like nick collison’s last game at home against TJ? drawing a standing O from Dickie V? he’s only scored over 20 ONCE this year (a double OT game, no less). his game high for boards this year? 13.

again, I’ve only seen this guy play “in passing.” but I highly doubt that this guy is going to go wally sczcerbiak and single handedly destroy us. if anything, I think it will be their backcourt that will win the game for them.

it’s tough for me to imagine us getting blown out in this one. to begin with, we don’t get blown out. for all this team’s faults, we’ve stayed in just about every game on our schedule. additionally, despite some impressive wins, cinci doesn’t blow people out. their W’s are low scoring, defensive affairs.

granted, they could beat us 55-45 and it could be our ugliest game of the year. if they lock up Myck and JB and McClellan doesn’t step up, we don’t stand much of a chance. it’s not like we’ve been world beaters in terms of winning close games. but I do think this is a game that plays to our strengths and provides a good opportunity to advance.

have to bring it on D and on the boards. Chapman will have 3 fouls by tipoff.

If you look at some of the predictors and indexes that take margin of victory into account (KenPom, BPI, others), teams like ND, WVU, Cincy, and Marquette all appear to be overseeded. Texas’ seed based on these indexes was 6-7 range.

I get that matchups and how a team is playing leading up to the tourney (see Cincy) should be heavily weighed into this, but I’m starting to think the Big East is just doing what the MVC has succeeded at for so long, from an RPI perspective, except now on steroids.

In a world where VCU and Butler are making the tourney, I get that anyone has a shot, but only Syracuse seems like a real final four threat unless the bracket parts for a team like Georgetown or Marquette.