TxHoops

One of the best Final Fours in terms of excitement of all 3 games I can remember.

So happy for this young man. All kids in his position dream of playing in the NBA and he certainly achieved that dream. But unlike most of us, these guys have a much, much shorter period of time to monetize their talents. Seems like he has figured out that he has a chance to make generational wealth playing in the second best league in the world, where he was the best player in the league this year, on their most high profile franchise. And like Marbury, seems there is a signature shoe in the works as well. Good for Junior!!!

After the Sweet 16 game, I was thinking Bama might be peaking at the right time to win it all, especially the way they were shooting the ball. But you are 100 percent correct, Duke put on a clinic defending the perimeter, about as well as I’ve seen. I’ve never loved the way Houston defends, especially the deeper they get. Just seems susceptible to being exposed by elite guards, especially ones with length. But that’s why they play the games I guess.

Well, I definitely like those picks. Florida was my choice going in because I couldn’t tell how good Duke was because of how down the ACC was this year. But after what Duke’s did to Alabama, especially defensively, they seem to be the team to beat for me.

I agree. I don’t get that move either. I think A&M is clearly the better job, although the money thing isn’t necessarily true in this case because Maryland’s top booster is Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank. As a guess only, I would be pretty confident their NIL collective would be higher due to him. Plank is not only a billionaire, he’s a Maryland hoops fanatic. In other news, apparently McCasland at Tech has now told A&M no thanks. In fairness though, that got me to thinking, are the top three basketball programs in the state now U of H, followed by Baylor/Tech? Tech’s facilities may be the best in the state. They definitely were imo before UT built the Moody.

Let’s just say he didn’t get the job he was lobbying for behind the scenes, going so far as apparently calling it his “dream job.”

I really like Buzz. Don’t know him but those I know who do, think he’s a great guy. Weird it’s the second coach Maryland has hired from TAMU. Thought it was probably a step up with Turgeon left, not so sure anymore. Rumors swirling the new guy will be Beard. If so, I think that’s a definite improvement coaching wise. In fact, imo (for what that’s worth), he’s one of the very best in the country.

Just very odd behavior. Unless he is just trolling in which case spending time trolling Lamar athletics is also very odd.

They don’t want donors to donate 2 to 3 million dollars per year for the basketball team? They are just turning those donations down? You really have no clue how it works, do you?

I wayyyyy underestimate this. Try north of $2M and probably closer to $3M for McNeese’s NIL this past season. One of their players who redshirted and is transferring out got $200k (which is several times the amount of the entire Lamar NiL money). Will Wade can coach but a 7 figure payroll in the SLC is nuts. And apparently NC State has a massive NIL collective waiting for him. It’s all about it getting the dudes.

I would have loved to have seen Lamar play in post season as well. The entry fee for the CBI is apparently a little under $30k but I’m guessing it’s probably at least that much in travel expenses per game. That team was playing really well at the end of the year though and would have been fun to see continue to play.

NIT at least used to give automatic bids to regular season conference champions (who obviously didn’t win their conference tournament and get an NCAA bid). They did away with that rule before last year’s tournament and this year added some automatic bids for power 5 conference non-NCAA qualifiers. In short, it has now just become a secondary top-tier conference tournament. If McNeese had lost in the SLC tournament, they MIGHT have gotten a bid (honestly as much to do with Will Wade, and maybe even more so, that manager who has gone viral) but the NIT will mostly be filled with very average to bad big conference schools. And as snakehead correctly stated, the other post-season tournaments are just money grabs. It is my understanding both the men’s and women’s teams turned down postseason bids this year, the women to the inaugural WNIT (which has the old men’s rule about regular season champs). My guess is the deciding factor on both was $$.

This

I’m pretty sure I know who you are talking about and I agree with you. Speaking of, he reminds me a bit of Junior as well. Junior is actually more skilled offensively obviously but Queen is longer and a good bit better defensively (probably in large part due to length). But Junior is now the best player on the biggest franchise in China, apparently about to get a signature shoe deal. I would keep my behind over there, putting all those yuan in the bank a la Stephon Marbury.

Got to watch him for three summers playing for Will Barton’s team, coached by Muggsy Bogue’s son. Even as a chubby 15 year old playing against kids going into their senior year of high school, you could tell he was going to be special. Kind of a throwback game.

So you’re saying the Southland Conference is one of only nine conferences with a team in the second round of the NCAA tournament? Cool!

He’s probably pissed he didn’t get the Texas job. So was another coach was eliminated in the second round who was lobbying hard for that position apparently, even going so far as saying it was his “dream job.” Not sure if that fan base would have lost their minds as much as when they lost their last coach to UT though.

I am afraid you will see more and more of that. Tough to compete in the major leagues with a minor league payroll. Combine that with kids staying in school longer (all but sure fire first round picks can make more now staying in school) and I think we will see fewer and fewer Cinderella stories. Hope I’m wrong.

ACC is way down though and apparently they have put a big NIL collective together in Raleigh. Will knows how to go out and get dudes and should be able to be top half of conference immediately. I think he figured he wasn’t going to jump from Lake Charles to blue blood so this would be a good immediate fit. Also guessing he probably wasn’t on the Nova short list. NC St probably an easier place to win right now that WVU.

Been some heavy lobbying for the Texas job going on for weeks, including by one that would make for some hilarious fodder. I think if WW was in the mix, he wouldn’t have taken the NC St job and I am guessing he wasn’t. Of the viable ones, Quinn Snyder apparently let them know months ago he was ready to make the jump back to college ball. But the main target seems to be Scott Drew. Hard to believe he would take that job after telling Kentucky to pound sand last year but who knows these days.

Give Brooks a half a mil per year to “recruit” like Will has and I bet his recruiting improves tremendously. I would say he’s recruited pretty damn well finding guys who can compete with little to no funds.

They have guys on their bench Lamar would have no chance of getting due to the NIL they command. Their top 3 guys, coming off the bench, were Saint Louis’s leading scorer last year (top tier mid major program) and two guys who started games for Arizona State and Ole Miss. Their bench players. They have more than one guy making 6 figures. In short, every player that plays for them could arguably be Lamar’s best player. They have a high mid major roster if you ask anyone who knows their butt from their elbow about college basketball. So yes, Alvin has improved Lamar’s record every season he’s been there. He played a team with a roster WAYYYY better than his very competitively twice in the past couple of weeks. You guys expecting them to win the conference need to start raising money. Because you give Will his roster and give him Will’s roster, those games have the same winner. It’s about the dudes and McNeese has bought a bunch of them.

I’m still trying to figure out where the haters went? Win or lose tonight, I think we can stop with the Alvin Brooks slander at this point.

Yeah they might have last year but probably not. Don’t see any scenario the Southland will be anything but a one bid conference. Can’t remember who but they had a marquee win or two last year that they don’t have on their resume this year.

Great job West Brook! Very happy for them and Coach T. I would say Southeast Texas showed pretty well this year in SA.