They seem like a fast paced team. Hoping for a competetive game with improved effort and defense. i noticed OSU got every loose ball. Bucky mentioned we didn't play as hard as OSU.

Yeah. Truthfully, I was a little disappointed in that one aspect. The announcers brought up something which is that our best shooters can't break anyone down off the dribble and our best drivers can't shoot that well. Pop can do both but his shooting was awful last game. Keep seeing that the crowd got in his head. I didn't that was possible for him.

We also just don't have the kind of chemistry yet that we needed to break down that defense. We had guys flashing and cutting but passers didn't see them, or sometimes we anticipated someone flashing or cutting and they didn't and we turned it over.

We also just aren't far enough along on anything to adjust too much if shots aren't falling. I doubt we've worked on our zone defenses all that much or set plays on offense and that sort of thing.

Luke The Drifter said:

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I have to keep in mind that most of these guys didn't even know each other 6 months ago. They'll gel as the season progresses (at least I hope they will), but right now they're also trying to figure each other out. My expectations are low for this season - not because I'm a negative ninny, but because we literally just a few months ago, we had to build a roster from scratch with a new coach. We'll pull an upset or two, we'll lose a few head-scratchers, and we'll likely get battered and bruised along the way. An NIT bid would be a huge, huge, huge win this season, IMO.

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Yes. I think (hope) most people are taking this approach. Cohesion should improve.

Method Man said:

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Luke The Drifter said:

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I have to keep in mind that most of these guys didn't even know each other 6 months ago. They'll gel as the season progresses (at least I hope they will), but right now they're also trying to figure each other out. My expectations are low for this season - not because I'm a negative ninny, but because we literally just a few months ago, we had to build a roster from scratch with a new coach. We'll pull an upset or two, we'll lose a few head-scratchers, and we'll likely get battered and bruised along the way. An NIT bid would be a huge, huge, huge win this season, IMO.

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Yes. I think (hope) most people are taking this approach. Cohesion should improve.

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What is this reasonable sounding Aggie sports fan you're referencing???

We are gonna have hard time making the tourney with our noncon and now horrendous loss vs osu.

bobinator said:

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I do sort of disagree that an NIT bid is a huge huge win. It's fine, but I don't think it's that good. NIT would be a "meets expectations" for me.

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I can certainly see that, but an NIT would be "exceeds expectations" for me. Even if we had 3 or 4 returning players, I think an NCAA bid would be attainable. But having a young coach gaining experience with a roster of strangers has to be a tall order for anyone. I can't imagine the challenges Bucky has faced since he was hired.

The main reason I say that is that this roster wasn't cheap, and some of the more expensive players are one-year guys. Doesn't seem worth it to spend big for one-year guys and then suck anyway right?

Again, won't be mad if we're in the NIT, but just don't think it would be a great outcome.

Of course it also just depends on how the season goes. If we absolutely suck for the next month and then put it together in league play and go on a run and come up just short like the 2022 team then that's a completely different vibe than just being kind of mid all year.

Making the NIT meets expectations for me. That would mean that we have a semblance of fielding a team that works together. We have talent but cohesion is a big factor especially during a close ball game. At this point, I don't think we could consistently win close ball games with our lack of chemistry.

However, we are also not at full strength so it's hard to judge this team now. I feel like this whole season is a wait and see and we're already behind the 8 ball with one of our key players out with an injury.

We have 30 something games to figure out who we are and what kind of team we're going to be and that's not a whole of time. A younger team might have more issues, but we're fielding an older squad that might just take less time to figure it out.

And also, it is Bucky ball so if the ball starts going in, strange things do happen.

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And also, it is Bucky ball so if the ball starts going in, strange things do happen.

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I do think that's exactly what's going to happen. At some point it's going to click and we're going to start looking pretty good. Exactly how good? We'll see.

The key though is, until then, we have to figure out some kind of way to beat UCF and Florida State and at least split the SMU/Pitt games.

We have much less games than that.

Very early so will be many ups and downs. Will take some time. But I have no way to support this and purely gut, but seems like Pop is crowned as defacto leader. I personally get excited by Holloway and would love to see him step up and take this team on.

Our leader is definitely and without question Agee.

But Isaacs is a VERY similar player to Wade Taylor, big time vibes player and when he gets frustrated he wants to try and find his way out of it rather than just settle into being a distributor.

The thing with Isaacs that's a little complicated right now is we need him to get up to speed so we have to let him struggle at times because that's the only way he's going to get there. He's coming back from a LONG layoff and if we're going to be an NCAA Tournament team we need him to be the kind of player he was at Texas Tech and the player he was at the start of the last season for Creighton.

And no amount of practice can make up for game reps.

UCF is going to be a pretty good test though. Vandy mostly held them at arm's reach the whole game but they've been absolutely nuclear from three so far this year. It's pretty wild they shot over 50% from 3 against Vandy and lost anyway.

We need to match their shooting.

Yeah, I think we're doing a little too much thinking on offense and guys still aren't completely confident when they're supposed to shoot it but for a team that has so many shooters our numbers are mediocre so far. Isaacs is just above and Hill, Agee and Clemence are all below the Jace Carter line.

Yikes. I think we saw some hesitation later in the game. Didn't love that. It works if we keep firing. We have not much else.

I do like having the layoff after OSU to kind of regroup, look at ourselves on tape, and then refocus on UCF.

It was predictable but still annoying that we let our offense impact our defense so much. We got it back a little bit in the second half but this defensive system only works (if it works at all) when you're absolutely locked in effort wise.

Most people had this roster projected on the bubble. A 1 or 2 seed in the NIT would definitely be "meets expectations" but we also spent a lot in this roster where a non-tourney year would be a bit of a disappointment

Method Man said:

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Yeah. Truthfully, I was a little disappointed in that one aspect. The announcers brought up something which is that our best shooters can't break anyone down off the dribble and our best drivers can't shoot that well. Pop can do both but his shooting was awful last game. Keep seeing that the crowd got in his head. I didn't that was possible for him.

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Will Mgbako be able to do both? He is the best NBA prospect on this team, correct?

I wasn't able to watch the 2nd half, but I'm not too worried after last game. They're going to have to take some lumps while they gel. Plus, my expectations were very low coming into this year. We'll see how they do against UCF on Friday.

I'm not entirely sure what to expect from Mgbako, but it would definitely be nice if he can put the ball on the floor against bigger defenders.

He'll at least be able to shoot over smaller ones so at a minimum other teams will have to use larger defenders on him. That's one thing Oklahoma State was able to do to us was switch a lot but you'd have to be pretty careful about who you're switching onto Mgbako. At worst I think he's going to open things up for Agee.

The question for him, like it is for about 2/3rd of our team, is whether he can guard anyone.

I am pretty confident that Bucky is not going to tolerate Sunday at all. I think he'll have our boys ready to play on Friday.

NIT is not a win of any kind.

Need to improve over the next few weeks and put a run together in conference play.

That said, it's easy to sell if we have some good wins and look good in conference regardless of the outcomes.

Method Man said:

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That said, it's easy to sell if we have some good wins and look good in conference regardless of the outcomes.

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Totally agree that even if miss the NCAAT this season, there needs to at least be clear signs of positive trajectory and program growth. Need to win at least a couple of games that we didn't expect to, look competitive in a bunch of the games we lose etc.

Obviously, the team can't look like it did against Oklahoma State over the remainder of this season. If that happens then will destroy hope and stall the momentum in Bucky's program.

Pumpkinhead said:

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Method Man said:

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That said, it's easy to sell if we have some good wins and look good in conference regardless of the outcomes.

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Totally agree that even if miss the NCAAT this season, there needs to at least be clear signs of positive trajectory and program growth. Need to win at least a couple of games that we didn't expect to, look competitive in a bunch of the games we lose etc.

Obviously, the team can't look like it did against Oklahoma State over the remainder of this season. If that happens then will destroy hope and stall the momentum in Bucky's program.

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Hope with a capital H???

Mute with a capital M