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Ketch's 10 Thoughts From the Weekend (I promise I will not be a damn good Kool-Aid supplier ...)

I think TCU was just a better team. Best defense in the Big 12 vs Texas' anemic offense and enough of a running game to put 24 points on the board against a pretty decent defensive effort.
 
I think TCU was just a better team. Best defense in the Big 12 vs Texas' anemic offense and enough of a running game to put 24 points on the board against a pretty decent defensive effort.
fair enough
 
An elite quarterback would have a few games to hang is hat on in those last 20+ games. It's time to strop making excuses. He's basically been Case McCoy in his last 20+ games, well... Case McCoy without the big wins.

But...but...he can get better....can't he? ;).Won't he be better {with a better supporting cast now}?

I admit I was kind of a Shane homie for awhile, but based on the evidence thus far, its getting harder & harder to be optimistic he's "the one." If not him this year, sure hope Sam can be good this year. Damn, I miss Colt & Vince and am tired of re-living the "good ole days."
 
But...but...he can get better....can't he? ;).Won't he be better {with a better supporting cast now}?

I admit I was kind of a Shane homie for awhile, but based on the evidence thus far, its getting harder & harder to be optimistic he's "the one." If not him this year, sure hope Sam can be good this year. Damn, I miss Colt & Vince and am tired of re-living the "good ole days."
If the game can ever slow down for him, I think he still has a high ceiling.
 
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No. 10 – And Finally …

We're going to file this under the category of "Some Things Aren't Meant to Happen."

On Friday night, the Liverpool Supporters of Austin held a special event at B.D. Riley's with Liverpool legend Steve Nicol as the guest of honor. With it being the first event I had attended, I didn't know anyone at an event where everyone seemed to know everyone.

As a byproduct of the situation, I slipped into a little bit of my natural anti-social behavior. My wife implored me to go introduce myself to Nicol, but I just didn't want to be one of 100 people who were trying to get his attention for pictures and stories while he was having a moment for himself before he had to speak at the event. To my wife's credit, Nicol was more than engaging, but as someone who does speak in front of crowds at events like this, I didn't want to invade his space.

Plus, there was a silent auction at the event with a prize that would allow four winners to have lunch with Nicol the next day, a prize I planned to win with a fairly high top bid in comparison to those that had also issued bids. Honestly, I just felt like I would get more out of a meeting over lunch than by walking up to him and introducing myself in the crowd, so I left the event Friday night without so much as saying hello.

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Six hours later, my daughter Haven needed her daddy to take her to an emergency after-hours clinic because she had picked up a chest cold that had made it very hard for to breathe. The good news is that she's fine. Some steroids mixed with a few nebulizer treatments had her feeling mostly like her normal self.

While at the doctor's office, I received notice that I had won the silent auction to have lunch with Nicol at Top Golf, except with a sick daughter, I wasn't able to peel away for lunch. Therefore, I paid for my auction item and chalked up the disappointment to the life of a dad. Stuff happens. Last week, it was the wife that was sick and this week it was the daughter.

The bottom line is that I should have listened to my wife. Always listen to the wife.
folk

Wish i knew you were going ahead of time. Lots if guys i play soccer with went and are huge Liverpool fans. Including Steve Wilson who is in the picture.
 


Boban Marjanovic, Adrian Dantley, and Charles Barkley averaged more points per shot and I wouldn't put them in the top five all-time offensive players, either. James Harden isn't even # 1 in PPS on his own team right now, but I wouldn't put Clint Capela in the top five all-time offensive players. Also, free throws are not factored into points per shot. Harden is a great free throw shooter who is at the top of the league every year in free throws attempted. He gets 9 points per game from free throws since he has averaged 10 free throws per game over the last six seasons. The "free" points from those free throws are a big part of that points her shot. If Kevin Durant or Steph Curry or Russell Westbrook took as many free throw shots each game as Harden, they would be better than he is in PPS. Curry, for example, has averaged 4 free throw attempts per game for his entire career. Take away free throws from the pps stat and you'd see much different results.

As I say, let's see Harden do it for 6-7 more years and then he might be in discussion for top 5 all-time offensive players. Part of "all-time," after all, is longevity. Were Harden to suddenly be unable to play anymore for some reason tomorrow, nobody would consider him one of the top five all time NBA players offensively.

Besides, offense is only half the game. Again: your original statement was that he is an all-time great. Greatness, to me at least, means playing defense, being an integral part of championships, being the best when the game is on the line, transcendent moments. He's a lazy defensive player and has done none of the other things by which greatness is determined.
 
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I think Patterson is better than damn good.

"Damn good" is hardly chopped liver. You clearly erred when labeling Shaka as that. But not sure how many levels are higher than "damn good." Elite is and perhaps if you wish to differentiate slightly from "damn good" then "great" will suffice. But "damn good" is pretty high praise.
 
No. 4 - The elephant in the room ...

I don' think it's a question that anyone wants to truly entertain, but what if Sam Ehlinger is still a year away (a completely fair and realistic expectation) and Shane Buechele just isn't ever going to be the guy?

Actually, let's just move on. We can discuss this later in the year if we need to, even if it forever looms.
==============================================

If you really want to move on maybe consider eliminating this tired topic from the column every week. Or at least give it a new title. Or something.
 
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Slowly, but surely, this team has started to build something. As it heads to Norman next weekend to face the undefeated in Big 12 Oklahoma Sooners, this team has everything in front of it. It simply needs to maintain this consistency, while enhancing the top end of its game.
======================================

I believe TCU beat OU yesterday.
 
Good article this week Ketch.

I haven't gotten thru all 5 pages of comments yet but I fear this may be heading down the QB discussion rabbit hole: )

I think Sam needs to expand his playbook. He was either a run guy, or a sprint out and throw on the run guy. He needs to learn when to be a sit in the pocket and throw guy.

However, if he does get hurt, I think Shane could be a very capable QB behind a line that gives him time. And we might, might, might have a line that could MAYBE do that A LITTLE BIT this year.

He isn't ever going to be McCoy. But we haven't seen him with decent play-calling, decent coaching and decent line play in front of him yet. That's not to say we will have those three things this year, but if we do, I certainly believe Shane is capable.
 
Boban Marjanovic, Adrian Dantley, and Charles Barkley averaged more points per shot and I wouldn't put them in the top five all-time offensive players, either. James Harden isn't even # 1 in PPS on his own team right now, but I wouldn't put Clint Capela in the top five all-time offensive players. Also, free throws are not factored into points per shot. Harden is a great free throw shooter who is at the top of the league every year in free throws attempted. He gets 9 points per game from free throws since he has averaged 10 free throws per game over the last six seasons. The "free" points from those free throws are a big part of that points her shot. If Kevin Durant or Steph Curry or Russell Westbrook took as many free throw shots each game as Harden, they would be better than he is in PPS. Curry, for example, has averaged 4 free throw attempts per game for his entire career. Take away free throws from the pps stat and you'd see much different results.

As I say, let's see Harden do it for 6-7 more years and then he might be in discussion for top 5 all-time offensive players. Part of "all-time," after all, is longevity. Were Harden to suddenly be unable to play anymore for some reason tomorrow, nobody would consider him one of the top five all time NBA players offensively.

Besides, offense is only half the game. Again: your original statement was that he is an all-time great. Greatness, to me at least, means playing defense, being an integral part of championships, being the best when the game is on the line, transcendent moments. He's a lazy defensive player and has done none of the other things by which greatness is determined.
Comparing apples to other apples is important when discussing apples.

If you need extended longevity to justify the label in question, that's fine, but there's a reason why you ignored the tweet about the historic nature of his last three seasons.

Everyone agrees that his play in the post-season must improve.
 
"Damn good" is hardly chopped liver. You clearly erred when labeling Shaka as that. But not sure how many levels are higher than "damn good." Elite is and perhaps if you wish to differentiate slightly from "damn good" then "great" will suffice. But "damn good" is pretty high praise.
Let me see your tiers.
 
No. 4 - The elephant in the room ...

I don' think it's a question that anyone wants to truly entertain, but what if Sam Ehlinger is still a year away (a completely fair and realistic expectation) and Shane Buechele just isn't ever going to be the guy?

Actually, let's just move on. We can discuss this later in the year if we need to, even if it forever looms.
==============================================

If you really want to move on maybe consider eliminating this tired topic from the column every week. Or at least give it a new title. Or something.
Thanks!
 
Slowly, but surely, this team has started to build something. As it heads to Norman next weekend to face the undefeated in Big 12 Oklahoma Sooners, this team has everything in front of it. It simply needs to maintain this consistency, while enhancing the top end of its game.
======================================

I believe TCU beat OU yesterday.
I didn't realize that the Saturday game was rained out, so when I checked the scores yesterday and saw Oklahoma had won, I thought it finished off the sweep. Nice catch.
 
If you need extended longevity to justify the label in question, that's fine, but there's a reason why you ignored the tweet about the historic nature of his last three seasons.


Because it isn't true, as all the people who commented on the tweet point out? And wouldn't you say that, in considering all-time greatness, longevity is an important consideration? Or is it just based on a select sampling of seasons?
 
I'm drinking the koolaid in regards to the program, but I'm not sure it's going to be very good on the offensive side of the ball. You can't be that dogshit and suddenly be even average. I don't think you can get much more shitty on offense at an elite school than Texas was last season.

The defense will be stout though. Maybe we'll see something resembling offensive know how from the coaching staff this season.
 
Because it isn't true, as all the people who commented on the tweet point out?
From an article in The Ringer today:

"Harden is Houston’s heartbeat; he makes the team’s innovative system not only function but flourish. The 28-year-old guard is having one of the most efficient high-volume scoring seasons in NBA history, averaging 30.6 points with a 62 true shooting percentage and a 54.1 effective field goal percentage. Toss in his 8.7 assists per game and he enters the stratosphere of the greatest offensive seasons in history; Michael Jordan is the only other player to drop 30 and eight with true shooting greater than 60 percent.

"Harden scores 1.22 points per isolation possession, which is the highest recorded by a player with a minimum of 100 logged possessions since Synergy Sports began tracking data in the 2004-05 season. No one has even come close to scoring on isolations with such success at such a high frequency. Of the 35 individual seasons a player logged at least 500 isolation possessions—which includes multiple seasons by LeBron James and Kobe Bryant—the average player besides Harden this year scored 0.95 points per possession. But Harden’s 1.22 is better than any team has scored in transition during the past four seasons, per Synergy. Harden has also scored more total isolation points (868) than any other team this season (the Cavaliers are next closest with 801). That doesn’t seem possible."

"The problem is it’s near-impossible to find a player as special as Harden. He is elite at all the things that make isolation scorers great—shaking and baking defenders, getting into the paint like Jordan and LeBron, dancing and spinning from midrange like Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, pulling up from outer space like Curry. What we haven’t seen is a player step back to 3-point land like Harden has this season. Harden has more makes (79) and takes (176) on step-back 3-pointers than any team in the NBA; the next closest teams are Portland (45 makes) and Denver (122 takes). No team is featuring those shots in its arsenal, while Harden is hitting them at a 44.9 percent clip."
 
Let me see your tiers.

I don't really keep a running list of tiers or labels. I do think for "elite" you have the likes of:

Nick
Urban
Dabo
I also would have had Stoops on this level

For "great" or "damn good," you can have guys like:
Shaw
Patterson
Dantonio
with certainly room for others.
 
I don't really keep a running list of tiers or labels. I do think for "elite" you have the likes of:

Nick
Urban
Dabo
I also would have had Stoops on this level

For "great" or "damn good," you can have guys like:
Shaw
Patterson
Dantonio
with certainly room for others.
You consider great and damn good the same?
 
You consider great and damn good the same?

Like I said, I don't have an official list of coaching adjectives. I do think one might be splitting hairs between "great" and "damn good." I do know that Shaka doesn't fall in the "damn good" category.
 
From an article in The Ringer today:

"Harden is Houston’s heartbeat; he makes the team’s innovative system not only function but flourish. The 28-year-old guard is having one of the most efficient high-volume scoring seasons in NBA history, averaging 30.6 points with a 62 true shooting percentage and a 54.1 effective field goal percentage. Toss in his 8.7 assists per game and he enters the stratosphere of the greatest offensive seasons in history; Michael Jordan is the only other player to drop 30 and eight with true shooting greater than 60 percent.

"Harden scores 1.22 points per isolation possession, which is the highest recorded by a player with a minimum of 100 logged possessions since Synergy Sports began tracking data in the 2004-05 season. No one has even come close to scoring on isolations with such success at such a high frequency. Of the 35 individual seasons a player logged at least 500 isolation possessions—which includes multiple seasons by LeBron James and Kobe Bryant—the average player besides Harden this year scored 0.95 points per possession. But Harden’s 1.22 is better than any team has scored in transition during the past four seasons, per Synergy. Harden has also scored more total isolation points (868) than any other team this season (the Cavaliers are next closest with 801). That doesn’t seem possible."

"The problem is it’s near-impossible to find a player as special as Harden. He is elite at all the things that make isolation scorers great—shaking and baking defenders, getting into the paint like Jordan and LeBron, dancing and spinning from midrange like Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, pulling up from outer space like Curry. What we haven’t seen is a player step back to 3-point land like Harden has this season. Harden has more makes (79) and takes (176) on step-back 3-pointers than any team in the NBA; the next closest teams are Portland (45 makes) and Denver (122 takes). No team is featuring those shots in its arsenal, while Harden is hitting them at a 44.9 percent clip."


Again: free throws. He's been a great scorer over the last few seasons. Nobody is debating that. Nobody is better at flopping and getting to the free throw line.

And this great season, offensively, makes him one of the "all-time greats"? Defense isn't part of greatness? Points given up to the other team isn't a part of greatness? Playing the defining roll on championship teams isn't a part of greatness? He's in his ninth season and has yet to win a single MVP award.
 
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