A nice NIT run would have been more fun

I think the issue (my issue, at least) is that we seem to be on the declining end of that scale. How have the sweet 16 appearances looked the past 3 years? Past 5 years?

Not so hot, huh?
 
I would rather the team stay at home than play in the NIT. There is not a player on that team who would have cared at all thus most likely an embarrassing loss to Nobody State. The NIT is a joke.
 
The type of players interested in Texas fundamentally changed from the 2000 super class (Ivey, Mouton, Thomas, Boddicker, Harris) to the classes of today. We used to rely on guys to come to Texas and produce in a solid, defensive, mistake-limiting style to help us win. After TJ and then to a lesser extent, Aldridge (who only stayed a 2nd year because of injury), we've had a run of guys who are interested more in the NBA. And that's fine for a lot of wins (as the 27 in 2011 show).

But with a lot of turnover, Barnes has yet to adapt his coaching to meet the style of Calipari or Calhoun or anyone else who's playing a bunch of freshmen. It's not that he forgot how to coach. It's that he's trying (sometimes in vain) to "make it work" when he should be freeing the reins a bit for some of the young guys.
 
Horns11 hit exactly on my issue. For whatever reason, Barnes takes a while to get in psync with his teams and his players. When you are constantly running one (and two) and dones through your program, it makes for inconsistency and underachievement. There seems to be a direction toward changing the philosophy of the type of player that Barnes recruits, but he has said many times he will not stop recruiting the super five stars that are potential one and dones.
 
"That was true until this year. But this latest class seems very much like the 2000 class - a bunch of solid players that will hopefully develop over their careers. But you can't get back to that 2000-2004 style without a transition period like we're having now."

Totally agree, which is why I posted on the other thread that things are looking up for the future.
 
This entire thread is sad. Even if we won the NIT, which no one cares about anyway, we would have proven what? That we're the 64th, 65th, 66th best team.

Rah Rah!

NIT is like playing in the bottom half consolation playoffs in fantasy football.
 
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