Basketball News/Recruiting Thread

[tejasrulz]

9 minutes ago, Soldierhorn said:

Huge endorsement.  

 

IMHO, Ford is the best basketball player to ever play at Texas. That put back dunk of his against Baylor was mind blowing.

[TB14]

6 hours ago, tejasrulz said:

IMHO, Ford is the best basketball player to ever play at Texas. That put back dunk of his against Baylor was mind blowing.

I don't think you went very far out on a limb. I think most agree. Sucks he had those injuries in the NBA. I know KD is a better pro, but Ford was the best in college.

[Soldierhorn]

12 hours ago, tejasrulz said:

IMHO, Ford is the best basketball player to ever play at Texas. That put back dunk of his against Baylor was mind blowing.

he was very VERY good.... but Texas has had quite a few very very good individual players just in the last 20 yrs - too many to mention

Before Barnes crop of outstanding NBA players, I liked Travis Mays and Johnny Moore. And, before my time, based on results, it's hard to beat Slater Martin who had his #15 UT jersey retired and led Longhorns best NCAA finish (3d overall) while being coached by another Longhorn great Jack Gray who was consensus ALL-American in 1935 when he played.  Slater ended up as a HOF'er with 5 NBA championships & 7 time all-star.  K Durant will be right up there with Slater when his NBA career is done but KD didnt do near as much at UT

[primal defense]

TJ Ford was the highpoint of Rick Barnes time at Texas by going to the final four. Kevin Durant was one of the lowest point with Barnes. I couldn't believe UT lost the first game of the tournament with Kevin Durant.

[Soldierhorn]

Slater Martin STILL holds the UT single home game scoring record at 49 pts (1949), which was a bigger deal 70 yrs ago when the game didnt emphasize offense (no shot clock, no 3pt line, no palming the ball, etc etc)

[Sirhornsalot]

 

[83Dee]

On 4/2/2021 at 9:58 AM, tejasrulz said:

IMHO, Ford is the best basketball player to ever play at Texas. That put back dunk of his against Baylor was mind blowing.

Here’s the Texas Basketball Mount Rushmore:

Ford  Durant  Mayes  Thompson

[83Dee]

19 hours ago, Soldierhorn said:

he was very VERY good.... but Texas has had quite a few very very good individual players just in the last 20 yrs - too many to mention

Before Barnes crop of outstanding NBA players, I liked Travis Mays and Johnny Moore. And, before my time, based on results, it's hard to beat Slater Martin who had his #15 UT jersey retired and led Longhorns best NCAA finish (3d overall) while being coached by another Longhorn great Jack Gray who was consensus ALL-American in 1935 when he played.  Slater ended up as a HOF'er with 5 NBA championships & 7 time all-star.  K Durant will be right up there with Slater when his NBA career is done but KD didnt do near as much at UT

Johnny Moore!!!  Boy was that a fun team.   If memory serves, he went undrafted but made the Spurs as a free agent and had a fine NBA career.  

[primal defense]

 

Comfort Suites, McDonald’s and Monday nights: Chris Beard’s ready to bring titles to Texas after unorthodox hiring

 

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/texas-longhorns/2021/04/02/comfort-suites-mcdonalds-and-monday-nights-chris-beards-hiring-was-unorthodox-but-hes-ready-to-bring-championships-to-texas-basketball/

[Wayne]

17 hours ago, Soldierhorn said:

Slater Martin STILL holds the UT single home game scoring record at 49 pts (1949), which was a bigger deal 70 yrs ago when the game didnt emphasize offense (no shot clock, no 3pt line, no palming the ball, etc etc)

It was a different game, with different players, in a different era.  They neutralized size by not allowing a dunk. They didn’t call fouls unless you drew blood. And they didn’t let everyone play. 

[Sirhornsalot]

4 hours ago, 83Dee said:

Here’s the Texas Basketball Mount Rushmore:

Ford  Durant  Mayes  Thompson

No Gabe Moenekhe? lol

[Soldierhorn]

19 hours ago, Wayne said:

It was a different game, with different players, in a different era.  They neutralized size by not allowing a dunk. They didn’t call fouls unless you drew blood. And they didn’t let everyone play. 

If you go back 10 yrs, and certainly 20 yrs, you are talking about a "different game, with different players, in a different era."  To make any comparisons beyond the present, we have to put things in the context and compare results of that time; not what we think it would have been today.  ANY Longhorn player that had a great college career (worthy of having his # retired) and NBA HOF'er SHOULD be considered regardless when it happened.  The game changes a little almost every year so this comparison will happen to ALL players at some point.   

This is why any list of "best ever", or "GOAT", or Mr Rushmore reps, etc. should have a time frame applied to it such as my greatest players of the last 20 yrs or something like that.  Even the game that Mays and Moore played deosnt apply to today.  If you dont apply a framework, then any Longhorn basketball Mt Rushmore SHOULD start with Slater Martin just as any presidential Mt Rushmore should start with Washington

[83Dee]

4 hours ago, Soldierhorn said:

If you go back 10 yrs, and certainly 20 yrs, you are talking about a "different game, with different players, in a different era."  To make any comparisons beyond the present, we have to put things in the context and compare results of that time; not what we think it would have been today.  ANY Longhorn player that had a great college career (worthy of having his # retired) and NBA HOF'er SHOULD be considered regardless when it happened.  The game changes a little almost every year so this comparison will happen to ALL players at some point.   

This is why any list of "best ever", or "GOAT", or Mr Rushmore reps, etc. should have a time frame applied to it such as my greatest players of the last 20 yrs or something like that.  Even the game that Mays and Moore played deosnt apply to today.  If you dont apply a framework, then any Longhorn basketball Mt Rushmore SHOULD start with Slater Martin just as any presidential Mt Rushmore should start with Washington

Perhaps I should have labeled my Mt Rushmore with a timeframe as you suggested.  And the label would have been “my personal Mt Rushmore.”  I didn’t intend for it to be comprehensive - but only people I saw play. I thought it would make for fun banter / fodder.  Slater, no doubt, would be on any comprehensive Mt Rushmore - based on the statistics.

By the way, I really appreciated Beard’s knowledge of Longhorn basketball history.  He acknowledged every coach in my viewing lifetime:  Lemmons, Wetlick, Penders, Barnes, Shaka - and seemed to have a relationship with each of them - sans Lemmons who he said was his coaching hero growing up... as he was for me!

EDIT - He also recognized coach Black (preceded Lemmons).  I played little league basketball against his son... Jason I think?  Anyhow, I thought he said Coach black was at the press conference... is coach Black still with us?  He must be up in years??  My first Longhorn games to take in were when Lemmons was coaching.  

[oldhorn2]

LaSalle Thompson and Jim whacker were as dominate a twosome as there was in the day....then Wacker shredded a knee and that was that....

[primal defense]

 

[83Dee]

3 hours ago, oldhorn2 said:

LaSalle Thompson and Jim whacker were as dominate a twosome as there was in the day....then Wacker shredded a knee and that was that....

Weren’t they like 15-0 and ranked 4 or 5 when that happened?   I believe that caused a collapse and Abe got fired at the end of the season.  

[primal defense]

 

Tech fans need to understand there was no keeping Beard from Texas

 

https://www.hookem.com/story/sports/mens-basketball/2021/04/02/texas-basketball-chris-beard-ready-another-challenge-after-tech/4850203001/

[Soldierhorn]

21 hours ago, oldhorn2 said:

LaSalle Thompson and Jim whacker were as dominate a twosome as there was in the day....then Wacker shredded a knee and that was that....

Did you mean Mike Wacker? 

If so, I remember when he was visiting high schools looking for a program to build on.  He visited Hays high school back when it was a VERY good 2A basketball program. He said he really liked Hays. Then all of a sudden, he & his father were visited by San Marcos boosters and the rest is history as they say. However, had he chosen Hays, he almost certainly would have had state championship. 

His dad was Jim Wacker who was the Southwest Texas State head football coach around that time (1979-82) and later became the TCU HC.

[oldhorn2]

yes....it was Mike Wacker....Yeah his Dad was Jim Wacker and he was building a dynasty at San Marcos. He was undecided whether to stay there and be a King like Gil Steinke was at Texas A&I but he moved on to Minnesota and then to TCU....or vice versa.

Any way Mike and Lasalle were cruising at Texas...undefeated and ranked in the top 5 in the country when Mike went down....and that was that.

[Soldierhorn]

56 minutes ago, oldhorn2 said:

yes....it was Mike Wacker....Yeah his Dad was Jim Wacker and he was building a dynasty at San Marcos. He was undecided whether to stay there and be a King like Gil Steinke was at Texas A&I but he moved on to Minnesota and then to TCU....or vice versa.

Any way Mike and Lasalle were cruising at Texas...undefeated and ranked in the top 5 in the country when Mike went down....and that was that.

Yeah, I remember that year. Wacker had 32 points as Texas beat #10 Houston that had Clyde Drexler and Akeem Olajuwon.  In the next game LaSalle had 32 pts as they beat #9 Arkiesaw at the Drum in Austin. After those two victories, Texas jumped into the top 10 ranking.  Then they beat South Carolina in a televised game (people today are spoiled and dont realize how good they have it being able to watch just about any game - and still complain!) to improve to 14 and 0.  Then the wheels came off when Wacker tore his knee going up for a rebound against Baylor.  

Texas lost 13 of their last 15 games, IIRC, and this gave the admin and boosters the ammunition to fire Lemon.  The media and players loved Abe but a lot of the admin & boosters didnt appreciate his irreverent tongue; Deloss carried out their wishes.  

BTW, along with Wacker and Thompson, one of my favorite players on that team was PG Ray Harper. He was fun to watch. Longtime basketball head coach now and currently at Jacksonville St, IIRC.  Mike Wacker should still be head basketball coach at Texas Lutheran.  

 

[TexCoyote]

CB to Texas. Other teams he’s interested in is Kentucky, Oregon, and USC.

 

Chris Beard doing work 

[Sirhornsalot]

1 hour ago, TexCoyote said:

CB to Texas. Other teams he’s interested in is Kentucky, Oregon, and USC.

 

Chris Beard doing work 

 

We have Chris Beard recruiting defensive ends now? lol

 

[TexCoyote]

1 hour ago, TexCoyote said:

CB to Texas. Other teams he’s interested in is Kentucky, Oregon, and USC.

 

Chris Beard doing work 

Uh this is a Defensive end. Damn I guess I’ll blame it on being a Monday

Beard is doing work though.

Sorry guys

[TexCoyote]

Told u he is doing work

[Sirhornsalot]

32 minutes ago, TexCoyote said:

Told u he is doing work

Rodney Terry is a big deal. Maybe he's not a HC, maybe he is. But we know that guy can coach and is a top-end recruiter.