AAC Basketball: Why Houston is overlooked as contender for 2019-20

Wow, that uncoordinated guy is going to dunk all over those cougars.

Quote:The Tigers are entering their second season under head coach Penny Hardaway, and they’re the heavy favorites in the conference after bringing in the number one recruiting class in the country. The class is led by James Wiseman, the consensus number one overall recruit, and Precious Achiuwa, a five-star small forward. Both players, while they unquestionably have a significant amount of talent, are fairly overrated by the common fan.

Wiseman is being called by many people the best big man prospect in years. The intrigue that leads people to make these comments is his fluidity as a 7-foot big man and his potential on both ends of the court. As it stands, however, he’s largely uncoordinated and lacks high-level instincts on both offense and defense. Quite frankly, Wiseman is still learning the game of basketball, and it’s fairly easy to tell while you’re watching him. Achiuwa is in a similar boat; he’s an unbelievable athlete who has some incredible flash plays, but he lacks instincts and struggles to make a consistent impact.

While those are the two highlights, the Tigers have a plethora of other four-star recruits and solid returners to fill out their roster. There’s no question that they have the conference’s most talented team, but it is worth questioning whether Penny Hardaway – in his second season when we’ve yet to see his identity as a coach – can manage all of their egos and make things flow. It doesn’t help that there isn’t a true point guard on the roster to act as an engine. Memphis is being projected as a top-10 squad by a lot of people, but all things considered, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see them finish outside of the top 25 altogether.

That guys is either

A. Blind
B. An Idiot
C. All of the above.

Why do you waste your time reading that trash. Here is who you are getting worked up about!

Sam Jarrett
I'm attending NC State in the Fall of 2019, majoring in Industrial Engineering. I'm a huge basketball fanatic, both NBA and college, and writing about and analyzing it takes up a lot of my free time.
Busting Brackets logoContributor

In basketball, polls and opinion pieces count for nothing. There is this thing called the NCAA tournament, and nothing else counts.

Still, if I were Coach Hardaway, articles like this might get posted on a bulletin board somewhere.

(10-01-2019 01:57 PM)Tigerx3 Wrote:  Why do you waste your time reading that trash. Here is who you are getting worked up about!

Sam Jarrett
I'm attending NC State in the Fall of 2019, majoring in Industrial Engineering. I'm a huge basketball fanatic, both NBA and college, and writing about and analyzing it takes up a lot of my free time.
Busting Brackets logoContributor

It just shows up in my alerts. Writing was actually pretty good. The analysis was overall awful. I only show that this is his 3rd article.

He's right about Kelvin Sampson having the Cougars as a AAC contender but he's basing it all on Kelvin past track record. He must be from Texas.

I think Houston will be the favorite but they may not win the title. With Memphis and Houston play the projected top 5 teams twice this year but Memphis gets Tulane twice while Houston gets Tulsa twice. That schedule make all the difference in the world. Can't wait to see it on the court.

I'm still surprise at how many people can't wait to see Penny fail.

Whoa

Wiseman’s status is in large part because he is coordinated and instinctual

Weird take

(10-01-2019 02:27 PM)rolexjames Wrote:  He's right about Kelvin Sampson having the Cougars as a AAC contender but he's basing it all on Kelvin past track record. He must be from Texas.

I think Houston will be the favorite but they may not win the title. With Memphis and Houston play the projected top 5 teams twice this year but Memphis gets Tulane twice while Houston gets Tulsa twice. That schedule make all the difference in the world. Can't wait to see it on the court.

I'm still surprise at how many people can't wait to see Penny fail.

Top 3 everywhere will be Memphis, Houston and Cincy. I suspect Memphis will be tops in every poll or article. I hope the conference is really good this year. That is good for us.

(10-01-2019 02:40 PM)mairving Wrote:  

(10-01-2019 02:27 PM)rolexjames Wrote:  He's right about Kelvin Sampson having the Cougars as a AAC contender but he's basing it all on Kelvin past track record. He must be from Texas.

I think Houston will be the favorite but they may not win the title. With Memphis and Houston play the projected top 5 teams twice this year but Memphis gets Tulane twice while Houston gets Tulsa twice. That schedule make all the difference in the world. Can't wait to see it on the court.

I'm still surprise at how many people can't wait to see Penny fail.

Top 3 everywhere will be Memphis, Houston and Cincy. I suspect Memphis will be tops in every poll or article. I hope the conference is really good this year. That is good for us.

I agree. And I'll take it a step further to say we'll be the only team ranked pre-season. Building up to the oh-so-familiar "they didn't play anybody" chatter on Selection Sunday.

I hope we shove **********************

GTG

(10-01-2019 02:40 PM)mairving Wrote:  

(10-01-2019 02:27 PM)rolexjames Wrote:  He's right about Kelvin Sampson having the Cougars as a AAC contender but he's basing it all on Kelvin past track record. He must be from Texas.

I think Houston will be the favorite but they may not win the title. With Memphis and Houston play the projected top 5 teams twice this year but Memphis gets Tulane twice while Houston gets Tulsa twice. That schedule make all the difference in the world. Can't wait to see it on the court.

I'm still surprise at how many people can't wait to see Penny fail.

Top 3 everywhere will be Memphis, Houston and Cincy. I suspect Memphis will be tops in every poll or article. I hope the conference is really good this year. That is good for us.

yep

Cincy and Houston play some decent teams in the OOC schedule which could help if they win a few of those.

Cincy -@Ohio State, Xavier, Tennessee, Iowa
Houston - BYU, @Oregon, @South Carolina, Oklahoma State

He is a kid and have his opinion...

It looks to be a one-horse race with Memphis dominating conference play, can you say "CUSA-2"?

Talking about wiseman as if he is Thabeet

isn't wiseman over 7 feet now

and i would not call precious a small forward

so he’s fluid but uncoordinated...hmmm.

(10-01-2019 05:06 PM)tigerderek Wrote:  so he’s fluid but uncoordinated...hmmm.

Lol... Bless his heart.

I think this definitely qualifies as an "oxy-moron"... And we know who the moron appears to be - Sam Jarrett.

Sam Jarrett - up and coming spoiled kid running around on the NASCAR circuit OR petulant NC State freshman trying his hand at online journalism?

Mr. Jarrett must have graduated from Houston or lives there in a bubble. Apparently he did not watch any of last years AAC games. Penny with a very make shift lineup, made up of mostly 2-3 star players and jucos, came very close to beating Houston. This is while he was installing a new system and getting this inherited bunch to learn on the run. And they had some significant wins beating UCF twice and WSU on the road.

As far as his assessment of the incoming talent I have heard no one refer to Wiseman and Achiuwa as soft and uncoordinated? He could not have seen this kid play once. I fully expect Houston to be a good team and make the tournament but their first team will not be as good as Memphis's second team talent wise and, from what I saw last year, Penny was able to get more out of his players than most coaches. With the talent he has now I don't see Houston beating them.

Almost all assessments last year had Penny falling on his face. He proved them wrong. Then they questioned whether he could recruit. I believe he more than answered that. With a year of learning and a ton of talent I have no doubt he will succeed again. I do hope Mr. Jarrett can, come March, admit he was totally wrong. I promise you most people will not forget this extremely poor analysis.

(10-01-2019 02:00 PM)covingtontiger Wrote:  In basketball, polls and opinion pieces count for nothing. There is this thing called the NCAA tournament, and nothing else counts.

Still, if I were Coach Hardaway, articles like this might get posted on a bulletin board somewhere.

So true. Until Football also has a tournament the talking heads determine the exclusion of worthy teams. There are now 3 teams from the AAC in the polls, and all three have been excluded from any possibility of competing for a national championship by the aiders and abettors of the P5 oligarchy. Just another progressive goal that keeps being thwarted by the monied overlords of America.