#11 seed vs #6 Cincy

Number of men's basketball titles by school

Kansas: 20 (12 regular-season, 8 tournament)
Oklahoma: 4 (1 regular-season, 3 tournament)
Iowa State: 3 (2 regular-season, 1 tournament)
Oklahoma State: 3 (1 regular-season, 2 tournament)
Texas: 3 (3 regular-season, 0 tournament)
Missouri: 1 (0 regular-season, 2 tournament)

The 2 latest titles we got were shared with Kansas. We don't have an outright title since 1998!

As far as the NCAA tourney there has been "grade inflation." Remember when there were just 32 teams that went to the dance? That's when stats like consecutive visits to the post-season are diminished. Just like football and 9 or 10 when seasons. When you only played 10 games that was extremely impressive, but when you play 13 it is less so.

Kansas continues to completely dominate us within the conference and I would maintain, at this point in development it is purely because of coaching. Anyone with a brain who has been watching Texas basketball under Barnes should have by recognized Barnes is a terrible offensive coach. With him it is all about defense. That is good enough to get us into the tourney, but we consistently underperform (virtually always losing to lower ranked teams and never upsettiing higher ranked teams) with our tourney runs.

Barnes has made us a tier 2 or 3 basketball program, but it seems we have hit a ceiling. Tier 2 or 3 is the best we have ever been, so it is understandable many basketball fans are satisfied. Personally, I like Barnes, I like many of his qualities and the level of class with which he represents the University. I really don't want him to leave. But if I was his boss, I would tell him he must hre a high level assistant coach (almost a co coach) to help him improve to the next level by improving our offensive schemes and offensive game time adjustments. It would be that or I would be forced to look elsewhere for the next the level of excellence to help us break through the barrier to become a truly elite program or at least one that would one day have the potential to win a championship.

The bar in our conference is Kansas. We should be competitive with Kansas over time and win at least 50% of the time. If we don't have a coaching system that can achieve that, it is time to move on I believe.
 
I would like to know who the Nay sayers would replace Barnes with? What other Coach are you going to get to leave their current job, come to Texas and take us to the NCAA Tournament 12 out 13 years?

List some possibles, don't be so quick to throw out what you know you have.

He might not be an offensive mastermind, and he frustrates me at times, but I believe he is a top 10 coach in the nation.
 
I remember having these same arguments last year. Not going to do that again. Guys are so entrenched in their positions. I am actually trying to convey that I will give a pass and reserve any critical judgment to see what Barnes brings to the table next year (I know, I am one guy, who gives a sh*t, right? Got it. Thanks).

But please do not bring up the argument that Barnes lost two guys to the NBA that he expected to have this year. That is BS. Barnes recruits these highly recruited players knowing that them going to the NBA is a very real possibility. As such, he needs to do the most with the talent when he has it. And he has not been doing that lately (e.g., in the past five years). There seems to have been a shift in the mindset of the program and recruiting, at least for this past year. Whether that was intentional or not, who knows. But it appears we have some 4-year guys that by their junior and senior years could be very talented leaders of a basketball program (rather than having a 1 or 2 year player using a program as a pit stop on the way to the NBA).

I am interested to see where the program goes in the coming years. It gives me a little bit of hope that we will not see more of the same (compared to what we have seen in the past five years). I do not think it is a foregone conclusion that Kabongo and Brown stay though. And if that is the case, then we are back to fighting the NCAA bubble next year and a first round exit, if not a solid NIT team. Wash, rinse, repeat...
 
I'll throw out another slant, on not just Rick, but also on Mack, Augie, and maybe even Gail.

A fan's first blush would be that, say, Bill Snyder at KSU or Nick Saban (LSU, Bama) would do a better job than Mack. Or that Scott Drew would do a better job than Rick. Similarly for other sports.

But Texas may be a bit different from other schools. The reins are probably a bit tighter at Belmont on coaches that similar organizational structures at other schools.

Look at Garrido. He won 3 titles at CSU; but is has seemed to be a little tougher at Texas, though his term is a bit shorter at present to get that 3rd at Texas. One might think that with the richer history, better facilities, deeper pockets, talent-rich high schools, that he'd have won 4 or 5 titles by now.

Mack has certainly done well, though many think he should have a few more conference titles, as well as another MNC or 2. And it seems like annually, regardless of the season's results (except 2005), there's always the "what if we had Saban" or "what if we had ..... fill in the blank..".

Gail Gaestenkors came to Austin with great hope, having done very well at Duke --- to date at Texas, not so much.

I'm not saying we Texas alumns, students, fans, should accept mediocrity. Not at all, to the contrary we should accept the highest level of achievement by all who represent "a university of the first class."

I'm just saying that with all the resources The University of Texas offers coaches, it may also have inherent stifling effects that may not be as great at other institutions.

I think most analysts out there would rank The University of Texas' "big 4" coaches (football, mens' basketball, baseball, women's basketball), and throw in softball, swimming and diving, track and field for good measure, as among the best, if not the best staff in the U.S.

Why dont' the Horns win an MNC in football every 5 years? A Series title in Omaha every 5 years? A Final Four net cutting --- ever? Etc.?
 
Who would you suggest?

It is always easy to say let's make a change, but what do you change too?

Throw out a name that can take us to the next level?

I can think of 4-5 that could take us to the next level but they are not going to leave their current positions. Beyond those 5, Barnes is the best choice.
 
While I am currently on the "let's see what Rick can do with a majority of his productive players returning for a second year" bandwagon, I am also sick of the "Rick is the best we can do, name someone better argument." If you accept your current position (a birth in the NCAA tournament, a typical bounce in the first or second round, with an occassional Elite 8 run and rare Final 4 run), then we will never strive for excellence. And, by excellence, I mean a championship. Rick Barnes has not proven he can get us to that Elite level of excellence.

We went round and round with this argument last year and I stated many times I fear the unknown. We know what we have with Rick Barnes and I think most Longhorn basketball fans are happy with that and fairly complacent with what he brings to the table. Call me greedy, but I want excellence. And I am not sure Rick Barnes can get us there. Can someone else (even someone lesser known or an up and comer) get us there? I don't know. Thus, the fear of the unknown. Another year or two of what we have been doing, and I think we should demand to take that plunge into the unknown and see what happens.
 
My thought on rick's philosophy is that if you are going to recruit all these one and dones - then win when you have them - sweet sixteen or better - even though that won't happen every year that should be the standard -
I'm still very puzzled why he called time out last year when we went ahead of Arizona - when we could have gotten the ball in and possibly dribbled out the clock before they could foul- so when a coach makes that kind of strategic decision - it better work or don't expect any understanding or support when it doesn't - he's paid very well and if he can't stand the heat he can leave - I would rather he stayed and got better because he has done a good job - but it's time for his new approach to start winning
 
TruTBSTVHDtelevsion (!) commented this morning on MIssouri's senior leadership. Missouri has only 7 scholarship players.

Mizzou.jpg


Maybe if the entire Longhorn squad stays in tact, this is what we can expect in a few years. Frankly I prefer players stay, and that a lineup be a balance that is topped off by senior leadership, spread across the grades. It's a game that requires playing time and experience in order to manage the game and dominate the game. It's very frustrating following young players learning how to make smart passes and take smart shots. And make them.
 
we can speculate all we want, and guess what, I wonder if anybody in the athletic department can see how much better things were under different assistants. I'm thinking Rick got lucky in the assistants that he had worked on the offense, and he didnt' have to.

How easy would it be to have somebody tell Rick to get an offensive guru, or he's one step closer to not being the coach?

Wouldn't Rick do that just to shut the administrator up?

I don't know why it's a no-brainer to me, and not to them.
 
Not to derail the thread or anything but it just so turns out that my wife is staying in the same hotel as the UT basketball team right now. She's attending an ESL conference. I was thinking about going to the game but I can't get off work today.

/cool story
 
So you would be willing to take a chance on an Assistant coach who has never been a Head Coach in the NCAA? Or you would be willing to risk losing Barnes and bringing a guy in who found two years of lightening in a bottle?

Give me Barnes. He is not my favorite coach of all time, he frustrates the hell out of me at times, there is no one out there that I would want that would come here.

I would take Coach K,Roy Williams, Bill Self, Petino, Calipari, Calhoun, Boehiem would be the only proven coaches better then Barnes. I would not want a couple of them and I don't think any of them would leave the current position.

This is Texas, prove yourself elsewhere and then you come here, you don't cut your teeth here.
 
45 minutes until game time. I can't believe I'm stuck in my classroom. I'm wondering if I'll be able to find an online site to watch the game that will get by the school filters here.

I thought about purchasing the NCAA March Madness Iphone App but it is apparently unreliable - games getting dropped.
 
Pretty simple really. If we shoot a decent percentage, we can win this. If we go into one of those prolonged slumps, it's probably one and done. I believe how J'Covan goes, so go the Horns.
 
Cincinnati's offense is pretty sloppy too. The difference is on a scale of 0 to 10, they are about a 3, and we are about 0.01
 
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