Texas might not be in the NCAA Tournament had Rodney Terry not had Tramon Mark switch positions during the SEC Tournament opener against Vanderbilt.
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DAYTON, Ohio — While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:
The strategy wasn’t necessarily the chess move of the year, but it sure was made for a king. Rodney Terry’s decision to switch senior Tramon Mark to point guard in the SEC Tournament probably saved Texas’ season and propelled the Longhorns to a First Four game against Xavier on Wednesday night. What’s also interesting is when the move was made. Asked when he was told he’d shift the main ball-handler, the graduate transfer from Houston by way of Arkansas said with a laugh, “At the first media timeout of the Vanderbilt game. It kind of surprised me. But I knew the plays and just thought, ‘Let’s get it going.’” Terry said the coaching staff had used him to bring the ball down at points during the season and considered the idea earlier in the season, but the idea “was much more functional after we got Chendall Weaver back. And with the ball in Tramon’s hands, we could get Jordan Pope off the ball and let him shoot the ball more instead of just being the facilitator.” … Since Mark took over the point in the Longhorns’ three games in the SEC Tournament, including two wins over Vanderbilt and Texas A&M, he averaged 14 points, 3.3 assists and 2.7 rebounds a game. In addition, Texas had five players average double figures in scoring in the tournament. … Xavier coach Sean Miller sure noticed the change because he almost didn’t recognize the Texas team that showed up in Nashville. “So the way I look at Texas is they have a brand-new team all of a sudden. I was actually confused when I started to watch them the other day because I watched Mark play the point guard and do it really well. It’s like they shifted him in there, and this guy Weaver, you start watching him fly around, and man, the guy plays with an amazing amount of energy. Great defender, offensive rebounder, unselfish, cutter.” … Like Texas, Xavier did a total rebuild, cleansing the roster of 10 players from a 16-18 team (Miller’s only losing season in 20 years) and adding seven transfers. Those include Indiana State 6-foot-4 shooting guard Ryan Conwell and 6-8 Indiana forward Jerome Hunter — who is 25 years old and X’s only player with NCAA Tournament experience — and 1,000-point scorer 6-9 Zach Freemantle, who has had three season-ending injuries in his career.
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Speculation about Terry’s job continues to swirl despite his taking Texas to the NCAA Tournament even with a 19-15 record. And it’s quite possible Sean Miller, the Longhorns’ opposing coach in this play-in game, could become a candidate to replace Terry because athletic director Chris Del Conte is a big fan of Miller’s from his days at Arizona despite some messy baggage with the NCAA. Sources tell me Texas has now moved away from thinking NBA head coaches Billy Donovan or Quin Snyder would leave their current jobs this year but the school still has almost a dozen on its wish list, including Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd IF it makes a move. Del Conte will always, always shoot for the stars, but Terry can still retain his job if he keeps winning. Miller is in his 20th season as a head coach — eighth at the Big East school — and has an impressive 486-195 record. The locals here say he’ll likely get roundly booed by Dayton fans still smarting over the Musketeers’ breakaway from the rivalry with the Flyers and Xavier’s move to the Big East. Terry said Texas would welcome the adopted fans on the burnt orange bandwagon, adding, “I talked to our guys about this venue and how great of fans you have here in Dayton. I know there’s a big rivalry between Dayton and Xavier, and we’d like to think that hopefully Dayton, you come over to our side and give us a little bit of home-court cooking a little bit.” … I asked Rodney if he was still sore about the Longhorns’ second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Miller’s Arizona team in 2011 for him and head coach Rick Barnes and if he ever razzed Miller because his Wildcats benefited from a truly atrocious, five-second clock violation on an in-bounds play by Cory Joseph. The turnover gave UA the ball, and Cats center Derrick Williams scored the winning bucket with a layup and a foul to win 85-81 and advance to the Sweet 16. “I don’t think I’ve ever really ribbed him about it, but we helped him become an Elite Eight coach,” Terry said. “They went on to the Elite Eight. That was my last year at Texas, and we felt like we had the game won. Dick Cartmell made the call. Dick was a great official, by the way. No knock against Dick. I had him many times in the Mountain West later in my career coaching at Fresno State, and I reminded him every time. We gave them a gift.” When I followed it up and asked how long Joseph had, Terry cackled and said, “Four seconds.” … When I asked Greg Sankey how much pressure is on the 14 SEC teams, the SEC commissioner told me, “Anyone who chooses to coach or play in the SEC accepts high expectations. There is no pressure today that’s any different from last week or the week before.”
The 17-2 Longhorn baseball team, unbeaten in SEC play after sweeping Mississippi State on the road but losing to UTSA on Tuesday night, will host top-ranked LSU in a three-game set starting Friday at Disch-Falk Field before traveling to Missouri, which was swept by the Tigers. Texas and LSU are two of four SEC teams coming off opening-weekend sweeps and two of the most storied programs in college baseball. The Longhorns and Tigers have two of the best pitching staffs in the early going with ERAs of 3.06 (sixth nationally) and 3.40 (17th), but LSU has also hit 32 home runs already in its 20-1 start. This could be the start of a beautiful rivalry much like Texas-Georgia appears to be creating in football. This series will reveal plenty but mostly validate one or both teams’ starting rotations and pitching depth.
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Kudos to the Texas women’s basketball team for earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and opening with two home games at Moody Center, starting with the winner of the High Point-William & Mary game Saturday. But the 31-3 Longhorns may be on a collision course with No. 2 seed TCU in — just whisper it — the Elite Eight. Texas coach Vic Schaefer is sick and tired of that ceiling he’s created so far in Austin as his teams have reached the regional final three of his first four seasons here. Texas has so much going for it, namely two veteran guards and size in the frontcourt and the best depth Schaefer has had at Texas. Its only deficiency is its lack of three-point shooting, which Schaefer swears is not an Achilles’ heel. ”If you’re trying to find somebody that doesn’t have any confidence in our team, you’re looking at the wrong guy,” Schaefer said. “Because I have a ton of confidence in our team, and I’m excited about the opportunity.” … Terry said as much at Dayton in his press conference and bragged extensively on both Schaefer as well as his All-America candidate Madison Booker. “They’re really good,” Terry said of the Longhorn women. “Madison Booker, she could come and play with us. She’s that talented. She’s terrific.” … Texas is one of just five schools to qualify teams in the College Football Playoff and men’s NCAA Tournament, joining Oregon, Tennessee, Georgia and Clemson but one of only three to make the CFP and both men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments. That’s rare air.
Ran into Jim Larkin, a former longtime University of Dayton assistant basketball coach, here at UD Arena, and he told me his granddaughter, Tessa Larkin, is being recruited by Texas’ Jerritt Elliott as a Max Preps first-team All-American volleyball player as a sophomore at her Phoenix high school. And she’s only 16 years old. The 6-1 outside hitter “has already visited Texas,” her grandpa said, but she’s also considering Nebraska, Stanford, Wisconsin, Oregon and Minnesota. She has a sister, Ava, who was a setter for Dayton.
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I think I worry about the physicality of SEC basketball teams and the possibility of whistle-happy refs that could really doom some of the league teams. … I think I wonder why they’re called free throws and not free shots. … I think Kadin Shedrick improved more than any other Longhorn this basketball season, and I’m not sure any Texas player played harder. Although he admits he’s had “a down year” at the free throw line, hitting just 67.2% of his shots from the foul line. However, he tied his career high when he sank all 10 of his free throws in the double-overtime win over Texas A&M. “I might have to start taking (our free throws after technicals) for Tre (Johnson). It was definitely a cool moment to back to shooting free throws well.” … Johnson and Shedrick are this team’s Odd Couple because Johnson’s a freshman and Shedrick’s a graduate transfer. The two have clicked and even partnered in pickleball competition among the players. “We won, of course,” Shedrick said. Johnson kidded Shedrick about being so old, to which the Virginia transfer said, “I don’t even have a pregame song I’ve been listening to. I like to listen to what the young guys listen to (but) they like to listen to rappers I’ve never heard before.” … I think Steve Sarkisian really has to develop a backup quarterback this spring and summer or find a senior quarterback in the transfer portal just in case. … I think my Yankees are doomed with so little starting pitching. … The fantasy baseball team that good friend and former Longhorn broadcaster Tom Dore and I drafted looks good with Garrett Crochet and Zach Wheeler and Kyle Tucker, but we worry Christian Yelich was a late reach.
UT golfer Luke Potter has apologized after heckling PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy, an incident which went viral,
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Luke Potter, a rising junior star on the Texas golf team who just won his first career tournament, hit one out of bounds last week when he chose to heckle major champion Rory McIlroy at The Players Championship and was escorted off the Sawgrass grounds. Longhorn coach John Fields told golf.com, “He’s got a hole in his heart. He had no idea that what was coming out of his mouth was going to result in this fashion. With regards to our University of Texas program, I mean it’s an embarrassing moment. It is particularly sensitive to me because our program is built on respect for the game.” Fields said Potter, who just won his first collegiate golf tournament at the John Hart Collegiate Invitational at Sawgrass Country Club, sent written apologies to McIlroy and PGA Tour commissionerJay Monahan. Potter told the Golf Channel he “made a mistake, and I take ownership for it. I apologize for it.”
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While wondering whatever happened to former Longhorn rebounding great LaSalle Thompson from Cincinnati.
Kate Hudson stars in “Running Point,” a new basketball-centric series on Netflix.
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I’m enjoying “Running Point,” a smart Netflix comedy series about a fictitious pro basketball team run by a feisty, overlooked woman played expertly by Kate Hudson in the most dysfunctional family in America. Very well-written and funny. Already ticketed for a second season. Giving it 7 ½ ducks.
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The Texas men will win two games in this NCAA Tournament.
