TCU moves to 10-0. Best start in school history.

[thebigabd]

They are 1 of 9 unbeaten teams left in the country.

Their next 3 games are all at home against:

• UTSA
• Grambling State
• Tennessee State

They will likely begin conference play at 13-0, and have West Virginia at home to open the Big 12 season.

Trent Johnson is on his way to becoming coach of the year in the Big 12 if they don't totally fall apart in Big 12 play.

 

[billyball]

Powder puff schedule?

 

[pnkranger]

Rpi says their schedule is 295/351

Ken Pom says their schedule is 349/351

They are improved, but they are a paper tiger at this point. Bottom three in the big 12.

 

[Soonerman]

Hard to think he's going to be Big XII coach of the year candidate without playing a single Big XII game yet.

 

[bgrch1350]

Powder puff schedule?

It's a weak schedule but they've had no close games.

They returned everyone back. Couple guys were redshirting last year and fields is healthy.

They have the talent to do something in the big 12. Time will only tell though.

 

[DenverSooner]

It is great for the conference, especially if they are low in the final standings

 

[thebigabd]

Powder puff schedule?

Beat Ole Miss by 12, beat Mississippi State by 9, beat Washington State by 27... Not great teams, but still SEC and Pac-12 competition.

TCU has a legit 4/5 star recruit who is now a sophomore in Karviar Shepherd, a pretty good recruit in Brandon Parrish, a Pitt transfer and top 30 high school recruit (Trey Zeigler), a pretty good juco transfer (Kenrich Williams), a pretty good UTEP transfer (Chris Washburn), and a senior point guard who is pretty good (Kyan Anderson)...

We will see what happens when they play WVU but they have talent on paper and are winning everything convincingly.

 

[BigTime]

A bigabd special!

 

[thebigabd]

A bigabd special!

A bigabd special!

Out of high school:
Jordan Woodard: 3 star with no national position ranking.
Isaiah Cousins: 3 star with no national position ranking.
Buddy Hield: 4 star, #17 shooting guard and #86 overall player
Ryan Spangler: 3 star with no national position ranking.
TaShawn Thomas: 3 star, #21 power forward and #113 overall player

Out of high school:
Kyan Anderson: 3 star with no national position ranking.
Trey Zeigler: 4 star, #4 shooting guard and #28 overall player
Brandon Parrish: 3 star, #29 small forward
Chris Washburn: #29 power forward, #119 overall player
Karviar Shepherd: #7 center, #65 overall player

Which team would you guess is 10-0 and which team would you guess is 6-2?

All that being said, I am not confident enough in TCU to say they will make a huge jump in the standings, or even be better than OU. What I am saying is that it's not surprising they are 10-0, and on paper, have a more talent than OU does. OU found some gems in Cousins and Spangler and they were clearly underrated in high school, but let's not act like this is your typical TCU team.

 

[Sooner04]

Out of high school:
Jordan Woodard: 3 star with no national position ranking.
Isaiah Cousins: 3 star with no national position ranking.
Buddy Hield: 4 star, #17 shooting guard and #86 overall player
Ryan Spangler: 3 star with no national position ranking.
TaShawn Thomas: 3 star, #21 power forward and #113 overall player

Out of high school:
Kyan Anderson: 3 star with no national position ranking.
Trey Zeigler: 4 star, #4 shooting guard and #28 overall player
Brandon Parrish: 3 star, #29 small forward
Chris Washburn: #29 power forward, #119 overall player
Karviar Shepherd: #7 center, #65 overall player

Which team would you guess is 10-0 and which team would you guess is 6-2?

All that being said, I am not confident enough in TCU to say they will make a huge jump in the standings, or even be better than OU. What I am saying is that it's not surprising they are 10-0, and on paper, have a more talent than OU does. OU found some gems in Cousins and Spangler and they were clearly underrated in high school, but let's not act like this is your typical TCU team.

In one post, you've quantified exactly why I cannot bear to give two ****s about recruiting rankings.

For our further enjoyment, please list the stars and national overall rankings for our vaunted 2010 team.....the first losing Sooner squad in a generation.

 

[pnkranger]

In one post, you've quantified exactly why I cannot bear to give two ****s about recruiting rankings.

For our further enjoyment, please list the stars and national overall rankings for our vaunted 2010 team.....the first losing Sooner squad in a generation.

You left out the other four players on each team who get playing time. Or their performances last year. They are better but not top 5 of the big 12 better.

 

[StatGeek]

In one post, you've quantified exactly why I cannot bear to give two ****s about recruiting rankings.

For our further enjoyment, please list the stars and national overall rankings for our vaunted 2010 team.....the first losing Sooner squad in a generation.

No doubt, it still Baffles me that so many people have been sold on the idea that recruiting rankings are valid. How much better is the #42 player than the 113th player? 10%, 1%, .00003%, or -10%? Nobody knows, but hey so and so says he is #42, lmao.

 

[thebigabd]

You left out the other four players on each team who get playing time. Or their performances last year. They are better but not top 5 of the big 12 better.

Their bench:

Amric Fields: Averaging 9.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. Was the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year.

Kenrich Williams: Juco transfer who is averaging 9.3 points and 6.1 rebounds in his first year off the bench.

Hudson Price: Son of Mark Price. A 6'6'' 200 shooting guard who is currently 10-16 from the 3pt line. Big time 3pt shooter, just like his dad.

Chauncey Collins: The last player averaging double-figures in minutes. Was the National Homeschool Player of the Year. True Freshman.

Everyone else gets spotty minutes... But these 4 guys give them pretty good bench play.

 

[brettromar]

Their bench:

Amric Fields: Averaging 9.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. Was the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year.

Kenrich Williams: Juco transfer who is averaging 9.3 points and 6.1 rebounds in his first year off the bench.

Hudson Price: Son of Mark Price. A 6'6'' 200 shooting guard who is currently 10-16 from the 3pt line. Big time 3pt shooter, just like his dad.

Chauncey Collins: The last player averaging double-figures in minutes. Was the National Homeschool Player of the Year. True Freshman.

Everyone else gets spotty minutes... But these 4 guys give them pretty good bench play.

Chauncey Collins was a great scorer here in Oklahoma the last few years on the home school team.

 

[scrybe]

thebigabd made no outlandish statements or predictions in his OP, just pointed out that TCU is undefeated and said he thought they could make some noise in the Big 12.

I, for one, agree with every factual statement he made and also agree that the Frogs could make some noise in conference play.

Some of you act like he took advantage of your ugly sister. :ez-laugh:

 

[usedtobe1]

thebigabd, I really appreciate your factual analysis! Whether or not TCU does better in Big 12 play, you hit a home run with me. I feel like I have a lot better feel for the SMU program after reading your posts.

 

[usedtobe1]

Hudson Price: Son of Mark Price. A 6'6'' 200 shooting guard who is currently 10-16 from the 3pt line. Big time 3pt shooter, just like his dad.

Cool. I didn't know Mark Price had a son playing for TCU. I used to take my sons to Denny Price's basketball camp over at Phillips. He was a really nice man. I ran into him one time in Houston when Brent was playing for the Rockets, and it was like seeing a long, lost friend. We talked for 30 minutes.

Hudson is a lot bigger than Mark and Brent, but I guess Denny was about that size.

 

[sheepdogs1]

They're not chopped liver as in past seasons.

 

[AdaSooner]

No doubt, it still Baffles me that so many people have been sold on the idea that recruiting rankings are valid. How much better is the #42 player than the 113th player? 10%, 1%, .00003%, or -10%? Nobody knows, but hey so and so says he is #42, lmao.

I have said the same thing more than once over the years. When a player is ranked in the top forty or higher by the majority of the recruiting services, it's a pretty sure bet that player is the real deal. That's particularly true of the top 25 to 30. The recruiting gurus see those players a lot on the AAU circuit or when they show up for all-star games and some of the big tournaments.

Ranking recruits from 50 to 125 is subjective at best, and it's usually no more than hearsay. The recruiting services want us to believe they know where a kid should be ranked, but there is no way they can watch players ranked above the top 50 or so often enough to judge how good they'll be. Player rankings are fun to talk about, but they mean very little when they go from "on paper" to the basketball court.

As for the bigabd's post, I don't see anything wrong with what he said. He's simply pointing out that this year's TCU team should not be judged by the kind of talent they have put on the floor in years past.

 

[thebigabd]

thebigabd made no outlandish statements or predictions in his OP, just pointed out that TCU is undefeated and said he thought they could make some noise in the Big 12.

I, for one, agree with every factual statement he made and also agree that the Frogs could make some noise in conference play.

Some of you act like he took advantage of your ugly sister. :ez-laugh:

Many OU fans have a "blue-blood" type of mentality... the thought of TCU putting more talent or a better team on the hardwood is as foreign to some as TCU and Baylor passing OU on the football field.

Of course, Baylor beat OU 48-18 and TCU won 37-33 this year in football, and both went on to have significantly better seasons. OU is used to beating Baylor 65-0 in football, and they are used to not even considering TCU in basketball.

Bringing TCU into the Big 12, just like with their football program, will elevate their basketball program. They did an Iowa State type of strategy by bringing in a bunch of transfers which increased their talent level and experience in 1 offseason, so their turn-around is not surprising. In hoops 2-3 guys can turn you from a bad team into a good team. Between Zeigler, Washburn, and the juco guy (Williams) they added a ton of production in 1 offseason.

All that being said, we probably won't know what they are all about until they play West Virginia. They have 3 patsies left on the schedule and will probably be 13-0 heading into that game. If they beat West Virginia and go to 14-0, people will start talking more.

I am not crowning them or anything. But "on paper" talent is based on their recruiting rankings, prestige coming out of high school, experience level, etc and they seem to be better "on paper" than Oklahoma. Does that mean they will be better? No. Does it mean they can? Yes.