Texas Basketball

[thebigabd]

Kind of funny to see all the guys who have gone through Texas to the NBA, and know that Texas got basically nothing from these guys. They were just average at best with these people.

Kevin Durant - Possibly the best player in basketball
Myles Turner - Starting PF for the Pacers
Lamarcus Aldridge - Starting PF for the Spurs
Avery Bradley - Starting SG for the Celtics
DJ Augustin - Point guard for the Magic, played in nearly 700 NBA games
PJ Tucker - Starting SF for the Toronto Raptors
Cory Joseph - Point guard for the Toronto Raptors
Tristan Thompson - Starting center for the Cavs

Yet, Texas basketball continues to be basically not relevant. Have they ever wont he Big 12? I can't remember. Did they win the Big 12 with Durant?

 

[Stikboy]

I would rather have lesser recruits overachieve and be more successful like us than a bunch of underachievers like them. But i do often marvel at their ability to get 5 stars and one and dones. How or why are they able to, and not us? Never made sense to me. OU is the better program...

 

[WichitaSooner]

They shared the regular season title with KU twice, and won it once outright (1999). Didn't win it when KD was there, though. They definitely haven't made the most of their talent, but to be fair, three regular season titles is more than anyone in the conference except you-know-who.

 

[sanguinetti]

i don't know if i could agree that UT hoops has been "irrelevant". underachieving the last decade, ok. Barnes had a Final Four team, a couple of Elite 8's. some sweet 16 type teams. that's pretty good, on balance.

looking it up, Barnes and UT made the NCAA 16 of 17 years. that's maintaining a pretty high level.

but, to the original point.....the best of those teams weren't the NBA player types....minus TJ Ford. the Final Four team had Brandon Mouton, James Thomas....those kinda guys. both of whom had some big games against us....for sure.

i think Rick got caught up star chasing on the recruiting trail a bit...some great players but his better teams still played D and had some workman players.

 

[thebigabd]

i don't know if i could agree that UT hoops has been "irrelevant". underachieving the last decade, ok. Barnes had a Final Four team, a couple of Elite 8's. some sweet 16 type teams. that's pretty good, on balance.

looking it up, Barnes and UT made the NCAA 16 of 17 years. that's maintaining a pretty high level.

but, to the original point.....the best of those teams weren't the NBA player types....minus TJ Ford. the Final Four team had Brandon Mouton, James Thomas....those kinda guys. both of whom had some big games against us....for sure.

i think Rick got caught up star chasing on the recruiting trail a bit...some great players but his better teams still played D and had some workman players.

It's an interesting point... the star chasing part. Couple of ways to look at that. You can choose to go with Mouton/Thomas/Ivey type of guys and guarantee you will always have a good team, make the dance, and compete for your conference championship... but you are basically eliminating any chance (or most chance) of winning a national title.

Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, etc are NBA factories. That's why they are the favorites every year, because they get the best players, obviously.

I had a big rant about this a few months ago in another thread... where I basically stated OU, OSU, etc are never going to win the NCAA Tournament. The best chance of success is to try and win the Big 12 and just view the NCAA Tournament as a fun event, but with practically no expectations to win.

Kelvin got close once when the stars aligned... But ultimately they didn't win and they haven't even really been close since. But think about that, Kelvin coached OU for 12 years and got close one time.

Now, that could change if they start letting these guys go into the NBA right out of high school again. That will help introduce some parity, but even then Kentucky/Duke/UNC/etc (the teams that just rotate around winning the championship) will just start taking the best of the next class of players, but at least they won't be trotting out entire teams of professional level basketball players.

 

[sperry]

It's an interesting point... the star chasing part. Couple of ways to look at that. You can choose to go with Mouton/Thomas/Ivey type of guys and guarantee you will always have a good team, make the dance, and compete for your conference championship... but you are basically eliminating any chance (or most chance) of winning a national title.

Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, etc are NBA factories. That's why they are the favorites every year, because they get the best players, obviously.

I had a big rant about this a few months ago in another thread... where I basically stated OU, OSU, etc are never going to win the NCAA Tournament. The best chance of success is to try and win the Big 12 and just view the NCAA Tournament as a fun event, but with practically no expectations to win.

Kelvin got close once when the stars aligned... But ultimately they didn't win and they haven't even really been close since. But think about that, Kelvin coached OU for 12 years and got close one time.

Now, that could change if they start letting these guys go into the NBA right out of high school again. That will help introduce some parity, but even then Kentucky/Duke/UNC/etc (the teams that just rotate around winning the championship) will just start taking the best of the next class of players, but at least they won't be trotting out entire teams of professional level basketball players.

Since they started forcing kids to go to college in the 05-06 season, the national champions have been:

'06 Florida
'07 Florida
'08 Kansas
'09 UNC
'10 Duke
'11 Connecticut
'12 Kentucky
'13 Louisville
'14 Connecticut
'15 Duke
'16 Villanova
'17 UNC


So your rotating band of champions have won 33% of the titles. Go ahead and make it 5/12 since Kansas probably belongs in that group. Only the '12 Kentucky and '15 Duke teams were heavily reliant on one and done guys. The rest were teams full of juniors and seniors. Some of those teams were loaded with NBA guys, but plenty of them weren't. '10 Duke, both Connecticut teams, Louisville and Villanova weren't teams loaded with lottery picks.

And what on earth are you talking about "didn't get close since?" We were in the final four 2 years ago! We got drubbed by a Villanova team playing out of its mind, but don't act like we couldn't have competed with them, or with UNC in the title game. There have only been a handful of years when there were teams so good, and so loaded with pro talent that a team like OU would have no shot.

 

[hoopsaustin]

It's an interesting point... the star chasing part. Couple of ways to look at that. You can choose to go with Mouton/Thomas/Ivey type of guys and guarantee you will always have a good team, make the dance, and compete for your conference championship... but you are basically eliminating any chance (or most chance) of winning a national title.

Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, etc are NBA factories. That's why they are the favorites every year, because they get the best players, obviously.

I had a big rant about this a few months ago in another thread... where I basically stated OU, OSU, etc are never going to win the NCAA Tournament. The best chance of success is to try and win the Big 12 and just view the NCAA Tournament as a fun event, but with practically no expectations to win.

Kelvin got close once when the stars aligned... But ultimately they didn't win and they haven't even really been close since. But think about that, Kelvin coached OU for 12 years and got close one time.

Now, that could change if they start letting these guys go into the NBA right out of high school again. That will help introduce some parity, but even then Kentucky/Duke/UNC/etc (the teams that just rotate around winning the championship) will just start taking the best of the next class of players, but at least they won't be trotting out entire teams of professional level basketball players.

:facepalm ridiculous. That face can't palm hard enough...

Competitors don't play for big 12 championships.. they play for the championship no matter how its structured or defined.

 

[thebigabd]

:facepalm ridiculous. That face can't palm hard enough...

Competitors don't play for big 12 championships.. they play for the championship no matter how its structured or defined.

You guys are totally right.... OU has been playing basketball for 109 years and never won the NCAA Tournament, but we should still keep believing it could happen. Think about that... Since OU started playing basketball the following events have occurred and OU hasn't won the thing:

The Titanic sunk
WWI
WWII
Korean War
Vietnam War
Cold War
The fall of the Soviet Union

And lots of stuff in between. That's how old the program is, with nary a championship. That's why it's better to get amped up about winning your conference and having a good showing and good time in the NCAA Tournament. Otherwise you might as well start talking yourself into buying lottery tickets.

Also... the 2011 UCONN team, while very improbable that they won the title, still had 4 guys that went to the NBA, including Kemba Walker, who has been a stellar pro. To put that in perspective, as great as Buddy Hield was, he isn't as good as Kemba Walker. So they had a truly elite player on that team.

But I would argue they are one of the teams that rotates around. They won it 1999, 2004, 2011, and 2014. They've sent plenty of guys to the NBA as well.

They are pretty much screwed now because they got put in a mid-major conference, which is a total crime against their program. Be interesting to see what happens to them.

 

[Eielson]

You guys are totally right.... OU has been playing basketball for 109 years and never won the NCAA Tournament, but we should still keep believing it could happen.

You serious, dude?

 

[sperry]

You guys are totally right.... OU has been playing basketball for 109 years and never won the NCAA Tournament, but we should still keep believing it could happen. Think about that... Since OU started playing basketball the following events have occurred and OU hasn't won the thing:

The Titanic sunk
WWI
WWII
Korean War
Vietnam War
Cold War
The fall of the Soviet Union

And lots of stuff in between. That's how old the program is, with nary a championship. That's why it's better to get amped up about winning your conference and having a good showing and good time in the NCAA Tournament. Otherwise you might as well start talking yourself into buying lottery tickets.

Also... the 2011 UCONN team, while very improbable that they won the title, still had 4 guys that went to the NBA, including Kemba Walker, who has been a stellar pro. To put that in perspective, as great as Buddy Hield was, he isn't as good as Kemba Walker. So they had a truly elite player on that team.

But I would argue they are one of the teams that rotates around. They won it 1999, 2004, 2011, and 2014. They've sent plenty of guys to the NBA as well.

They are pretty much screwed now because they got put in a mid-major conference, which is a total crime against their program. Be interesting to see what happens to them.

This is pitiful, even for the Big JUCO. Your argument gets eviscerated, so then you move the goalposts, and spout nonsense about "but we've never won one before!".

 

[BoulderSooner]

OU was clearly close in 2002 and 2016 but we were equally close with Blake (we were the closest game UNC played) and in 2003

we lost to the Champ both of those years in the elite 8

 

[Max Power]

OU was clearly close in 2002 and 2016 but we were equally close with Blake (we were the closest game UNC played) and in 2003

we lost to the Champ both of those years in the elite 8

And in 1988, 2002 and 2016 we beat the at least Champ once each year. We have been very close. Hell I never thought i would see my Cubs win a World Series so I'm not giving up on OU bball getting 1 in my lifetime.

 

[thebigabd]

This is pitiful, even for the Big JUCO. Your argument gets eviscerated, so then you move the goalposts, and spout nonsense about "but we've never won one before!".

I must have missed it... how did my argument get eviscerated?

 

[sperry]

I must have missed it... how did my argument get eviscerated?

You mentioned that you have virtually no chance of winning a title if you don't go to an "NBA factory", when that is demonstrably untrue.

 

[thebigabd]

You mentioned that you have virtually no chance of winning a title if you don't go to an "NBA factory", when that is demonstrably untrue.

The odds are so stacked against you that it seems like a weird goal to have... OU has 109 years of history to back up that claim.