On to the NIT

NIT still around? I don't think we win a game there, or whatever other tourney we make it to.
This team looks amazingly terrible.
 
To be fair, I think we would be favorites to win the NIT. Remember, we did easily beat TCU and Tech. These are ranked teams that we keep losing to (not that it makes the losses better, just remember the NIT will be full of bad teams from worse conferences).

Edit: Would like to note that even if we win the NIT (which again, we should if the team does not quit), the season would still be a complete failure if we do not make the NCAAs. Baylor won the NIT a few years ago. Did anyone care? no
 
You're right, H. I guess I'm just so amazed at the lack of movement on offense that I've given up.
The NIT might actually do this team good. Didn't we win the NIT back in the day? Somebody hit a 60ft shot during the tourney?
 
Favored to win the NIT? There may be bad teams there, but there are always a couple hot teams with a chip on their shoulder that barely missed the NCAA's ready to prove something. This team isnt playing at all like a team and would be back peddling into the NIT. They might win a couple but thats it.
 
The greatest accomplishment of Abe Lemons was winning the NIT. I guess if we won, Barnes could join Abe as the only Texas coaches to end the season with a postseason tournament victory.... though I think the NIT was much better back then.
 
This has to rank as by far the most disappointing season of the Barnes era, so much hope and so little to show. Two years ago was bad but by December that year we knew that team stunk and had zero chance; this team just teases you with potential then cant finish. A top five NBA pick in Turner and all those returning players and they will be lucky now to get an NIT berth as there are at least three more losses before then coming and I can easily see them losing out and finishing 17-15.
 
Vol, you greatly overestimate the NIT field this year. Im not saying we would win, because you never know in any postseason tournament what teams will got hot as you pointed out, but we really should win. The fact that so many sportswriters keep saying tonight we are in the NCAAs if we beat Baylor and Kansas State because the bubble is so weak implies the NIT will be even weaker. We also won a tournament against probable NIT teams in Madison Square Garden already this season.
 
Htown77 said:
Vol, you greatly overestimate the NIT field this year. Im not saying we would win, because you never know in any postseason tournament what teams will got hot as you pointed out, but we really should win. The fact that so many sportswriters keep saying tonight we are in the NCAAs if we beat Baylor and Kansas State because the bubble is so weak implies the NIT will be even weaker. We also won a tournament against probable NIT teams in Madison Square Garden already this season.
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They've played like a bunch of entitled candy asses this year. They would play like that in the NIT, too. No reason to think otherwise.
 
Htown77 said:
Again... the teams we would play would be on par with TCU who we easily beat twice....
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Hey, I would love to believe they would roll through the NIT, but they would probably feel like they should have made the NCAA and play even less inspired ball.
 
I think it would be such a disappointment not to make the tournament that they would roll up and quit like they did two years ago in the CBI. They were one and done in that tournament.
 
For reference sake, the NIT's final four last year was: SMU, Clemson, Minn, and FSU with the Gophers taking home the trophy. No reason to think we couldn't be competitive, but I don't think it would be a cake-walk.

You are correct that the NIT was no joke back in that time frame. And, I do remember our NIT championship in 1978. That was a really good team: Jim Krivacs, Johnny Moore, and Ron Baxter in the starting line-up. And, the crowd would chant for Ovie Dotson to come off the bench, because he always had outrageous dunks (I think he went on to be a Globetrotter).

But my favorite was always Johnny Moore ... I always wore 00 because of him. He went on to have a successful career in the NBA with the Spurs, even lead the NBA in assists one year. Unfortunately, his career was cut short by a rare form of meningitis. His is one of seven jersey's to be retired by the Spurs.
 
Saw that '78 team play Temple in that year's tournament at the Erwin Center. They had it all. Good guard play, strong outside shooting and some guys who could get it done in the paint. Ron Baxter was the round mound, but a heckuva basketball player.
 
I remember the '78 team too, and remember the steal and breakaway dunk at the end of the NIT championship game, I think by Baxter, that capped a great effort.
I hope we do well in the NIT. It would be a positive end to a very disappointing season.
 
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After the win over BU we are in position to get back into the NCAA Tourney. If we beat KSU and win one game in the B12 championship, then I think we get the 7th invite from the B12. That would put us 8-10 for the conference, tied with ksu and maybe okst, if okst wins out. Okst losing to ttu helped.

Our schedule strength is stronger than either one, so I think we would have the edge.
 
Being a student at UT in '78 I remember that team too. I remember Johnny Moore on a break away at the end of a game against I think Rice, where he stopped at the free throw line and threw the ball off the backboard and then took it in the air in one big swoop and dunked it.
That brought a huge roar in the Drum and was right in front of me. Those were some fun times with those teams Abe had then.
 
NB, I was there as well, IIRC Junior tossed the ball from the top of the key (a couple of Owls were on either side of him and seemed to stop in their tracks) --- part of the roar was also because that made it 100 points for the Horns to end the game.
 
caryhorn said:
After the win over BU we are in position to get back into the NCAA Tourney. If we beat KSU and win one game in the B12 championship, then I think we get the 7th invite from the B12. That would put us 8-10 for the conference
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I hope you're right, but I think we need to win 3 games (2 in Kansas City) and that 3rd one (as of now) is Kansas, which will basically be a home game for them. We're certainly on the bubble with 2 more wins, but you always have to factor in someone that wouldn't normally making the NCAA winning their conference tourney and stealing a bid.

The 2 losses that will probably haunt us when the committee starts looking at resumes are the home losses to Stanford and OK State. It could very well come down to UT & Stanford for that last spot and their win in Austin would put them in. And I don't know that the committee is going to put us in and leave OK State out after they swept us and finished tied in the Conference standings.

And if you think UT will steam-roll it's way thru the NIT, then you haven't been watching this team.
 
The 78 season was a good one. The Horns were fun to watch that season. The final NIT championship game was during spring break and a bunch of us watched it from our hotel at South Padre.
 
Hijacking the thread a bit, detouring it into a Lemons nostalgia trip, here a few I recall (paraphrasing, without researching to get the exact words):

On the upcoming NCAA approval of the 3-point shot (c. 1986?) Lemons remarked: "Oh, great, we could just cut a big hole out of the court around the basket and then recruit midgets. 'Hey little fella, wanna scholarship?' "

After a game in which (I believe it was Ove Dotson) scored 1 point, Lemons put his hand on his shoulder: "Congratulations, you just scored 1 more point than a dead man."

Regarding his at times rather nasty relationship with DeLoss Dodds, Lemons fumed: "What does he know about coaching? He was a track coach at Kansas State. How hard is that? 'Come here...now, when the gun goes off run around the track and get back here as fast as you can.' How much coaching does that take?"

When the Horns were in NYCity for the NIT finals at Madison Square Garden in an interview when asked about NYCity, he noted: "I went out for breakfast yesterday. Eggs were $3 per egg. I've never seen a chicken that could lay a $3 egg."

IIRC about Ove Dotson or someone with similar gymnastic/athletic moves: "I just send him in and tell him to make one of those 'twisty-jumpy' shots."
 
I think we need to win 3 games (2 in Kansas City) and that 3rd one (as of now) is Kansas
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I agree. We beat Kansas State though, we should be playing the Big 12 #2 and not Kansas. (I am not entirely sure what happens if Oklahoma State loses Saturday since we beat K-State twice, Okie State beat us twice, and Okie State and Kansas State split.) IF we beat Kansas State, we should play Tech (and we should easily beat Tech again. Yes we easily beat tech and tcu twice, no reason to think we will not again). I think if we get to 20 wins (beating kansas state and tech) it is a tossup whether we get in or not. If we beat the Big 12 #2 after that (probably Iowa State or Oklahoma) we should be in. I think OU is our best shot to win. If it is Iowa State, we have shown the capacity to play with them, but bad Barnes decisions cost us both games. We have a shot against anyone, but we have to beat kansas state first and actually play like we did against Kansas last Saturday in the tournament.

If we do not make the NCAAs, I would be surprised if we are not a #1 seed (giving us home court advantage until NYC) in the NIT.
 
a statement released to the press, UT Athletic Director Steve Patterson said “At the University of Texas, standing still in not an option. We continually look for new ways to expand our revenue base, and so provide the facilities, equipment, and contract buyouts that are so vital to maintain our Texas Bowl appearances in football, and NIT invitations in basketball.Take a look at the Pay Toilet post over on on the field.
Patterson is quoted (possibly a missquote probaly a claimed missquote if called on it) that the goals for UT are
Texas bowls and NIT
 
Looking like we hired a CEO as AD. Bent on maximizing profits, while improving the products of the company is a distant second. Would've been nice if he'd have waited to boost prices when the football program showed actual improved results, and basketball to offer a lure of promise with new direction first.
 
NBHorn7. Thanks for that great Johnny Moore memory. I too was at that game and was one of my favorite moments as a Longhorn basketball fan.

Just one Moore (pun intended) while we are at it. I remember how he would take a charge on guys running up the court without the ball (if they weren't looking where they were going). Well, he did it during one of the Arkansas game and Sutton stormed out on to the court to confront him. If I remember correctly in his post game comments, Sutton said he was telling JM that he was too good of a player to do that. I remember thinking it was a bit bush league, but still legal. Still, the fact that it ticked off Sutton made it totally worth it!
 
I was at that Arkansas game too and it happened just before the half. Sutton went after Moore when the horn sounded the half. Abe was right behind him. He pushed Moore out of the way and then let Sutton have it as the Drum went crazy and then booed Eddy all the way to the tunnel.

I also remember that was a very hot ticket and that there was like two thousand people outstide that couldn't get in. I was a student and had student tickets.

Texas also won the game.
 
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