Phil Knight Invitational Game Thread

I’m already here. Actually took a pit stop in Seattle. Waited so long for this tournament. Hope we get one quality win out here. Even if it’s in the loser side of the bracket. I would take a Stanford win but I would prefer a win from any other school. Obviously excluding Portland State.

I think there is a solid chance of playing Holt and co on Sunday.....


Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops

 

Get there very late tonight. Looking forward to seeing some great basketball, and hoping that we will continue to see growth from all the guys this weekend. And if we play tO$U...

 

The Texas game is likely going to be brutal to watch for Butler's offense. Texas is ranked 13th in defensive efficiency, and has the 5th best EFG% defense so far. They also (not surprisingly), block a ton of shots.

Butler has to take care of the ball (Texas is good at turning teams over too) and get a shot on basically every possession. Shot fakes are going to be important. Texas plays a ton of guys (11 guys average 10 minutes or more per game), so if Butler continues to try and play fast offensively, either they're going to get easier shots or they're going to suffer defensively with as fast as Texas likes to play.

If it were me, I would slow the game down to a frustrating pace on offense, pack the paint (Texas has shot 27% from 3 and 62% from 2 on the year) on defense, and if all else fails, make them earn it from the foul line (they've shot 61% from there). Other than the fact they don't shoot well from distance, I don't see this being a good matchup for the Dawgs. McDermott, Martin, Jorgensen and Baldwin had better all be hitting from distance. Would be great if Fowler could knock down a couple as well.

 

Irishdawg your analysis is correct. We will lose the paint and probably will be the victim of a lot of blocked shots. We won't win the rebound battle. I agree we should pack the paint to try to prevent lobs and block off as best we can. Texas has not shot well from deep. They don't turn the ball over a lot. Typical of Smart's teams they are solid defensively and will push out on our perimeter players and let their bigs clean up the drives.

Slowing the game down may be the best strategy. Wish and hope Brunk gets a fair number of minutes. He plays bigger than Fowler and doesn't get pushed around as easily. Texas is very much like Maryland underneath. Maybe a bit better.

Don't like our chances in this one because of Texas's bigs versus ours.

 

Butler has a way of turning poor 3pt shooting teams into the GS Warriors. So here's to hoping we see Texas continue to shoot 27% from behind the arc!

Also, Texas hasn't played anyone in the Top 150 in Kenpom yet this season. We have already played 3 of them. So hopefully the fact that we've tested ourselves a little bit so far this season will be a slight advantage.

 

This may be blindly optimistic of me, but I do think it's a serious advantage that Butler has already played at least one high-major team in a tough environment, and Texas has only played cupcakes. By the end of the year, they may be an obviously better team than Butler, but we're much better off playing them now than in March. I do like our chances, and I'll take the Dawgs straight up-- Vegas can keep the points.

 

Believe I'd play up tempo and push the ball as often as possible. Hard to tell anything about TX since they have played no one. What I saw of them on the SEC channel the bigs didn't look particularly fast getting up and down the court, and to some degree even in the half court. But that may have been the competition, too. Difficult to get up for the cream puffs. Might be to our benefit to get some easy transition shots and not play a total half court game against their size. Wear those big boys out. Not really sure what TX has but, not really sure what we have either. Defense needs to show up in any case.

 

While it is true that Texas has only played lower rated teams in the official season, the team has played good competition. Over the summer Texas played professional teams in Australia. Before the season started Texas played Texas A&M is an exhibition game to raise money for Harvey relief. Texas won that game. So, the idea that Butler will be the first serious competition that Texas has faced is not exactly correct.

 

It is a serious mistaken notion that the bigs are not both fast and quick.

 

Remember when our 6'8" center and 6'6" power forward completely neutralized Myles Turner?

Guessing that was more of a Rick Barnes thing than anything else? If your bigs are mobile, we essentially won't be able to play Fowler at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops

 

Texas fan you are right. We cannot match up with Bamba and Osetkowski. Those two have motors that we can only dream about. On the other hand I think our perimeter is better. If we shoot well and the Longhorns don't while we limit turnovers we can compete.

 

Texas two primary weaknesses - 3 PT shooting and free throws. Irishdawg has the right idea. Slow the game don't. Pack the paint. Foul early and often.

 

Rick Barnes doesn't live in Austin anymore - thank goodness. The 2015 team was seriously screwed up.

 

I think there will have to be opportunistic running, because scoring in the half court will be very difficult. I agree though, pack the paint and make them shoot jumpers all night long.

This will be a tough one for sure, but definitely winnable if Butler comes out and executes fairly well.


Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops mobile app

 

Their last game against Shaka was one of Butler's worst ever performances, which at first thought gives me some angst. However, Smart hasn't been able to (or hasn't tried to) implement the style of his VCU teams. It's a totally different animal. Texas was no good at forcing turnovers in his first two seasons there, and forcing turnovers is what made him and VCU relevant and, ultimately, what got him the Texas job. (VCU ranked first in turnover percentage for three straight seasons from 2012-2014, and it was 11th in 2015. They were unremarkable everywhere else.) I suspect this is due in part to the fact that it's harder to get 4 and 5 star recruits to buy in to that style the way you get could get the types of guys VCU recruited.

Despite this, Texas has had solid defenses the last couple of years, and it'll probably be only better this year. They've got several rim protectors (most notably Bamba, who's got 9 blocks in just 42 minutes), and some serious athleticism on the wings (remember Andrew Jones, the freak athlete late bloomer that Butler briefly recruited?).

But alas, they can't shoot. Maybe they'll be the latest team to have a career outing against us, and if so, we're toast.

Perhaps paradoxically, I think this is a game where Fowler needs to play a lot. We are going to need him to pull bigs out to the perimeter if we want any hope of scoring in the paint. If they choose not to float out there, he's going to have chances to torch them from three. (Hot take: Fowler is our best outside shooter.) And while Fowler's defense is obviously a weakness, their bigs are far more dangerous defensively than offensively. (Frankly, their bigs have been plainly awful on the offensive end, and that's against some terrible competition.)

The lineup I want to see a lot of:
Fowler
Martin
Baddley
Baldwin
Thompson

Texas' offensive power comes from the guards. We need our best athletes playing D for us at the 1-3. Offensively, we need Fowler to stretch things.

 

Rick Barnes and Co. just beat Purdue in overtime at Atlantis. He has the Vols well organized and brought Purdue down to earth.

 

Why is that post here...different tournament has nothing to do with this thread...

 

3 posts up a Texas fan and a board member were discussing Rick Barnes and the time we played Texas when he was the coach. While it is true that this discussion is slightly off topic, next time you should try reading the thread before making a comment like this.