How can we beat Texas

[Zelda Zonk]

I would normally be right there with you this thought.

However, we lost an eight point overtime lead in a minute versus 1-2 Youngstown State after trailing most of the game. We beat 1-3 Colgate when their player tripped with us only up two points. We beat 1-4 Lemoyne when Chris Bell essentially bumped into a steal with six seconds left up two. But most importantly, those three teams scored at will against us.

Texas was ranked 19th preseason and has a guard averaging 24 points a game. Fingers crossed.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that I disagree with the negative prognostications. I agree with you—this is the least impressive 3-0 I’ve ever seen from us and it could very easily be 1-2.

Against Texas, I don’t expect much, though I also don’t expect utter humiliation. But, that’s also because i don’t often watch CBB games we‘re not involved in, so I don’t know how good Texas might be.

 

[SUfanNC]

Let's be realistic in this thread and try not to be mean...

- Bell goes off early and often, opens up room for JJ and Lampkin to maneuver
- Freeman and Moore play a bunch of mins and play complete games
- Red figured out some defensive scheme to hide our deficiencies
- McLeod steals 5-10 mins and blocks a couple of shots and grabs some rebounds

Anything else?

I’m going to go with JJ slashes a few times and opens Bell up. Drive and Dish.

We finish better at the rim than the past few games.

Freeman uses his athleticism and plays within himself. Learning he isn’t the main player right now. Moore is a spark plug but passes a bit more and is selective with shot

 

[721Comstock]

I’m going to go with JJ slashes a few times and opens Bell up. Drive and Dish.

We finish better at the rim than the past few games.

Freeman uses his athleticism and plays within himself. Learning he isn’t the main player right now. Moore is a spark plug but passes a bit more and is selective with shot

So - all things we’ve seen zero point zero % of the time so far this season.

And against our toughest opponent so far.

Good luck with that!

 

[jncuse]

I'm not a tactics analyzer, but I am more worried about us improving our D than our O. Both need work but the D has left us more exposed so far.

The lines coming in around 9-12, (my guess is 10 or 10.5)... perhaps it's already out there. Upsets happen a bit more than a negligible amount around that range.

So based on that, and fully ignoring everything we have witnessed on the court this year, I guess we could win.

 

[swish7]

Let's be realistic in this thread and try not to be mean...

- Bell goes off early and often, opens up room for JJ and Lampkin to maneuver
- Freeman and Moore play a bunch of mins and play complete games
- Red figured out some defensive scheme to hide our deficiencies
- McLeod steals 5-10 mins and blocks a couple of shots and grabs some rebounds

Anything else?

Has McLeod even played this year?

defense - the team will need to make an unprecedented jump in effectiveness on the defensive end. There is yet no evidence they can do this against a P5 program, so this is my biggest worry.
- team d, weak side help
- guards, keeping dudes in front of you, directing them where you want them to go, no blow bys
- physicality, these won't be skinny dudes, Texas will have some beef
- effort, will we get back on D, or will we be steps behind & chading?

Offense - need to be efficient & smart. Limit the turnovers. Spread the rock. Balanced scoring
- Bell needs to hit his open shots, early
- Starling, can he get to his spots against better guards?
- Davis, can he continue to dominate, but against an equal in terms of physicality?
- dry rub dude, can he stay in the game?
- our frosh AA ain't no Melo, but can he at least be physical, smart & effective? Please no 3s

Make our FTs

Hope it's a good one

 

[Newhouser]

Has McLeod even played this year?

defense - the team will need to make an unprecedented jump in effectiveness on the defensive end. There is yet no evidence they can do this against a P5 program, so this is my biggest worry.
- team d, weak side help
- guards, keeping dudes in front of you, directing them where you want them to go, no blow bys
- physicality, these won't be skinny dudes, Texas will have some beef
- effort, will we get back on D, or will we be steps behind & chading?

Offense - need to be efficient & smart. Limit the turnovers. Spread the rock. Balanced schasing?
- Bell needs to hit his open shots, early
- Starling, can he get to his spots against better guards?
- Davis, can he continue to dominate, but against an equal in terms of physicality?
- dry rub dude, can he stay in the game?
- our frosh AA ain't no Melo, but can he at least be physical, smart & effective? Please no 3s

Hope it's a good one

Bell making shots would help a ton as we are going to have to outscore people. The other positive he tries much harder on the defensive end if he is scoring.

 

[jdubs30]

We score 62% of our points from 2pters, which is 8th in the country. Texas has held opponents to 36.6% from 2pt this year, which is 3rd best in the country.

They are allowing nearly 35% from 3, so that may be our chance if Bell heats up.

We are not going to turn them over so we absolutely need to win the boards - keep them 1 shot and done.

Tre Johnson will be an extremely difficult guard for us. I’m not sure if Donnie is ready for Kaluma … this is a Davis game.

If Bell struggles it’s hard to imagine a path to victory.

 

[Sbucketball]

I think the path to victory depends a lot on Texas. We might need Texas to have one of those games where it misses lots of good looks, and we run an efficient offense and Bell heats up, it could happen.

 

[TinyManInside]

I think the way we can beat Texas is by scoring more points than they do. If we score more points in the game, I feel good about our chances.

In all seriousness though, we need Bell to be engaged, the team rebound like madmen, and learn how to rotate to provide helpside defense when our turnstile perimeter defenders get stuck in perpetual turnstile mode.

 

[Niastri]

Nutty. For a week or more, I’ve been seeing posts about how we’re going to be annihilated by Texas. I’m only now seeing that Texas isn’t even a ranked team. Gracious—when was the last time we’ve been so pessimistic about our chances? I haven’t even seen counters by the Orange-lenses glasses contingent. It’s kinda surreal, the state of us.

Texas started the season ranked 19th, then lost to Ohio State in their season opener. By 8 at a neutral site. Not a bad loss. Texas inexplicably dropped to the 30's after that defeat. Their three blowout victories since have... caused them to drop a few spots further in the rankings.

This is a perfect example of why we shouldn't have rankings until December at the earliest.

The problem with our team is we have watched 5 games including the exhibitions and we still don't know who our best players are, or what our plan is on offense or defense.

To use a long ago example, on 11/14/2002, we lost our season opener to Memphis, but nobody walked away from that game disappointed. We clearly had a go to scorer, a defensive identity, and a bunch of guys that were gamers. Nobody would have guessed we were going to win it all, but we knew, even at 0-1 that we had a good team that could be great.

3-0 Syracuse on 11/20/2024 doesn't give that vibe. Even the optimists, like me, are openly questioning on court coaching moves and roster management. I see small reasons for optimism, but we needed to really improve to be able to handle a top 50 team in the country, and Youngstown State didn't inspire much confidence in the team.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

If Bell actually scores for once and JJ plays like Saturday it will be a good game and we won't get rolled.

 

[Niastri]

I think the way we can beat Texas is by scoring more points than they do. If we score more points in the game, I feel good about our chances.

In all seriousness though, we need Bell to be engaged, the team rebound like madmen, and learn how to rotate to provide helpside defense when our turnstile perimeter defenders get stuck in perpetual turnstile mode.

We should be a better rebounding team than Texas. Our results indicate we have dominated on both offensive and defensive boards. Giving up offensive rebounds has been a major problem for us for eternity, and we are currently 3rd in offensive rebounds allowed, with only 6 per game. We have a height and weight advantage over Texas, just like every team we've played so far.

Meanwhile, Texas isn't crushing their cupcakes in rebounding, and lost by 2 to Ohio State, themselves a mediocre rebounding team.

I expect we'll win on the boards. Will it be enough?

 

[Sherman20]

Bell making shots would help a ton as we are going to have to outscore people. The other positive he tries much harder on the defensive end if he is scoring.

And making our free throws would help enormously.

 

[jncuse]

We should be a better rebounding team than Texas. Our results indicate we have dominated on both offensive and defensive boards. Giving up offensive rebounds has been a major problem for us for eternity, and we are currently 3rd in offensive rebounds allowed, with only 6 per game. We have a height and weight advantage over Texas, just like every team we've played so far.

Meanwhile, Texas isn't crushing their cupcakes in rebounding, and lost by 2 to Ohio State, themselves a mediocre rebounding team.

I expect we'll win on the boards. Will it be enough?

At least we have the defensive rebounding under control this year. Imagine if this team was also bad at rebounding the ball, in combination with our other defensive deficiencies,

 

[grepal]

I think the path to victory depends a lot on Texas. We might need Texas to have one of those games where it misses lots of good looks, and we run an efficient offense and Bell heats up, it could happen.

Play hard, play smart, make the shots we are very capable of making, and can somebody block a GD shot! (Had to do it with the prior Dodgebalk reference).

 

[Eric15]

Texas -9.5. Even though thats a perfectly reasonable line I still find it embarrassing.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Score more points than Texas by the end of 40 minutes. I don’t care how the hot dog is made. I just want it made and to enjoy the ride.

 

[Eric15]

Captain Obvious here: but free throw shooting is an absolute must.

 

[orange7]

Embarrassing loss. Make your free throws. Sit Carlos. Sit bell. It’s a win.

 

[Bayside44]

Carlos looks scared to death out there. Need more Donnie and less Bell.

 

[Cuse117]

Embarrassing loss. Make your free throws. Sit Carlos. Sit bell. It’s a win.

Just horrific coaching again sigh