Listening to the Aggie Basketball Hour and Bucky went into some of the injuries and stuff that Isaacs was dealing with early in the year and I thought it was a good listen. Talks about how he's coached him hard this season.



There's obviously still a lot of season left but the way Bucky has brought Isaacs along is one of the biggest things about this season that makes me think we might have a truly special coach.

Two years ago Isaacs is the leading scorer for Texas Tech, but he's a very streaky player, shooting 29% from 3 and 41% from 2, 3.5 assists to 2.5 turnovers. Volatile player, but clearly an alpha player for Tech. Then he goes to Creighton where he's once again an alpha player, scoring 16 points a game (38% from 3, 45% from 2), playing 32 minutes a game, 3.9 assists per game to 2.9 turnovers.

Then comes the injury. Isaacs only plays in 8 games before he has to shut it down. He has to have the hip surgery twice.

Now where I knew there was something still in there is he originally commits to Houston and Sampson doesn't generally miss on a player like that, but when Milos Uzan comes back he switches to us. Then he starts practicing and gets hurt again. He doesn't really start practicing until right before the season starts, and you can see it through non-conference that he's frustrated by his play, he's not playing at the level he's used to, people are on here talking about not liking his body language, he misses a couple of games, etc.

But now in our five conference games he's averaging 13.2 points per game, tied with Dominguez for second on the team. His 3.2/1.8 assist/turnover ratio is actually slightly better than Lane's in league play. He's shooting threes at 38% and 2s and 53% and he's just simply become one of our better players. But on top of that, he's coming off the bench, he's bought into what this team is trying to do.

We need him to start making free throws in clutch situations, but when you think about next year a little bit, if Mgbako comes back, Isaacs, Dominguez, Mgbako and possibly Marcus Hill (the lawyers better already be ready to go...) is a pretty solid core.

Isaacs is the most important piece for this team reaching their ceiling imo. Agee/Dominguez/Griffen all obviously critical, but Isaacs has a different gear scoring wise.

Luke talks about Pop going off for 30 some game like he did against A&M in 2024. (25 pts @ Creighton)

That would be great if it happened against Florida @ Home or @Vandy.
Would be a huge metric boost.

He seems to still rush things at the end of the game. My only complaint.

I was one of those people saying that I was worried about Pop's body language and play early in the season. I've been impressed with Bucky's in-game coaching so far, but I might be more impressed that he's taken this alpha personality and got him to buy into a different role coming off the bench.

If he can keep this core group together, next year has a chance to be truly special. This is assuming that Bucky hits on his portal targets, which he's given us no reason to doubt.

I'm having a great time following the team this year, but I'm very excited about the future. This is what I've always hoped Aggie basketball could be, I just hope the local fans support him.

My brother went to Creighton so I keep up with them as a side team. We were at that A&M/Creighton game in Vegas last season, the one that Pop put up 25 on us. A week later they upset #1 KU where he scored 27. So far this year it felt like he must have had something lingering because he really looked great during those games before he officially sacrificed his hip to the ball gods. It's good to hear straight from Bucky that Pop is on the up and up bc if we can get flashes of a healthy Pop that would be big!

After expressing serious concerns during the hiring process, I've been all-in on Bucky as he checked off the boxes on stuff like putting together a staff and recruiting.

The remaining questions were really more about on-court coaching and how his offensive and, especially, defensive approaches would work at this level.

But there are a couple more indicators that have me very encouraged regarding the few remaining questions.

What Bucky's done with Pop under pretty challenging circumstances shows me that he knows how to manage individual talent within the team concept and culture. That's very important as he takes a step up in terms of the talent level of the guys on his roster. Things with Pop could have gone in several different directions and they've got it in a good place right now.

The other really encouraging thing to me is how much we've improved in our halfcourt defense despite our roster limitations. That's a great sign for how well Bucky's system can work when he gets better individual defenders in the program.