Assessment of this year's team: what went wrong?

I find it interesting that our main problem is [insert player here] was given too few minutes and thus lost confidence or didn't improve enough. And depending on who you ask, [insert player here] is any of about 8 different guys.
 
Who knows, but lack of a good point guard tops the list.
Then I think relying on freshmen stars to make a big impact is a real crapshoot-there just aren't that many who come in and lead their team on a deep tournament run and are ready for the pros right then and there. There's only so many Carmello Anthonys or Kevin Durants. Our freshmen have talent, but they weren't instant superstars the moment they rolled the ball out on the court.
We had a good enough supporting team, unlike Kevin Durants' one season, to go far this year, but none of the super frosh had that magical instant ability to be a big difference maker.
In short, this is the state of the art in college basketball. You try for the high school stars, and you are lucky to get them, and you are lucky if they stay more than one year, and you are lucky if they actually live up to their billing, and you are really lucky if their one year of productive play co-incides with a supporting cast good enough to reach the Final Four.
This why college basketball has limited appeal to me. If the players would stay three or four years it would be much more attractive to follow as a fan.
 
I hate to come down on one player, but J'covan Brown has had character issues his entire playing career. I fear that he has been a detriment to the team because of his immaturity. He was a dominant player in high school, but even his HS coach had to kick him off the team because of his terrible attitude. He has almost certainly had problems with Coach Barnes as well, which has led to a drastic reduction in his minutes. I just think J'covan is at his worst in times of crisis (mentally). IMO it has backfired bringing in a kid with so many character issues.
 
stole this from another site:

"There's no one offensive philosophy that is successful and there are many different ones that have been successful, but two in particular stand out:

1. The controlled, almost scripted offensive sets that are designed to get good looks for the best offensive players -- Dean Smith, Bob Knight, and currently Tom Izzo.

2. The attacking, almost streetball type offenses that are designed to let one offensive player beat his man and then create a defensive breakdown -- Jerry Tarkanian, Nolan Richardson, and current John Calipari.

Offensive style #1 only works if you have well-designed, effective offensive plays AND disciplined players, and offensive style #2 only works if you have superior athletes/scores at several positions.

I think Barnes' problem may be that he is trying to run offense #1 -- but without the effective sets or the disciplined players. With the athletic talent he has on the floor, he should turn them loose, Calipari-style, and overwhelm most of his opponents who simply can't adjust fast enough to his athletes. There's no question that he COULD make offense #1 effective, but he would need a reliable PG to run the offense and make sure the sets are run correctly. But T.J Ford is not coming through that door. D.J. Augustin is not coming through that door.

This is pure spitballing on my part, but it may be that Barnes came up as a small school guy. Hickory, N.C., Lenoir-Rhyne, Providence, and even Clemson was the stepson of the ACC when he got there. He probably always ran offense #1 because he never had the horses to run with the big boys until he got to Texas. (His best Clemson teams were like Pat Riley's Knicks - big strong rebounders underneath and tough guards who would grind teams down with great defense and physical play.) Now he has the superior athletic talent but he's still trying to jam them into the small-school offense -- but for whatever reason, they can't / won't run it right.

I personally think he should watch some film on Kentucky and watch how Calipari lets his guys fly around in barely-controlled mayhem. Trying to make this team channel Hickory High just ain't gonna work.

IMO"

only problem with offense #2 is Pittman would play even less. He couldn't keep up. Other problems would be the ball-hogging that would go on. But then again, even with ball-hogging, could that offense be any worse than what we have now?

I think maybe if you did the Calipari style let em loose, and told the players, look, I'm turning you loose, but you have to play D to stay on the floor. Otherwise, I have to bring in people who can play D. They can still run, they're just not as athletic as you are. they can't score as well as you can.

Maybe the carrot of letting em loose would provide the reward of playing good D, keep the athletic scorers in the game, and this team could achieve at least a lot closer to potential.

It's worth a shot. Is there any strategy that could be worse than what we have now? I'm leaning towards no.
 
I don't know about a let 'em loose offense for this team. I think that's pretty much what they do already. Texas hasn't appeared to use any scripted plays this season, its just a random screen setting offense (maybe I'm wrong, but that's what it looks like). Obviously they are not consistently effective in getting spacing, working the ball inside, or getting good open shots when left to their own devices. Maybe having a few go-to plays to get open looks for particular players or a 1-1 opportunity for Pittman in the post wouldn't be a bad idea, even if they are only used a certain times in the game. I imagine even the freshman could perfect running a couple of plays like that in a short amount of time.

I actually do think Barnes did the right thing with Jordan Hamilton this season. He was taking so many terrible shots early in the year and often kept the team from staying in rythym. While he still takes some bad shots, he has become a much more effective player since he started playing more within himself. If he keeps up this progress, and works on his defense and handle this offseason, he could really be a monster next year. Whether Hamilton knows it our not, this will end up making him a much better player.
 
One other thing, the defense has just given up too many drives this year. Someone needs to teach our players how to take a charge. I don't think I saw a single charge taken all year long. Also, coach the big guys to stand still with their arms up instead of reaching for a block on every shot attempt. We had guys with plenty of size this year (and immobility) so we should have been much better clogging the lane.
 
Um yeeeeaaahhhh, we're playing in the NCAA tourney tonight, the season isn't over. So you might want to save this thread for after we get bounced, not before. I'm as disappointed as anyone for the turn this season has taken, but it isn't over . . .

On the positive side, you guys will all make excellent blue hairs in a few years, sitting on your hands every time something negative happens with the team, instead of screaming encouragement to the 18-21 year old kids representing our university.
 
I am not a basketball genius in any regard, but I never thought this team would be great. I think they showed a lot of trouble signs last year. The most notable issue was the guard play. IMO we have the worst guard play I have seen at Texas in many, many years. Additionally, I have always loved Damion James, but they guy has not stepped up like I had hoped he might. Again, I think this could be due to the poor guard play.
 
What went wrong? Dexter Pittman disappeared. I guess he lost too much weight. But I won't blame it all on Dex. The team was very undisciplined and has too many prima donas.
 
1. Overrating of Dex.
1a. Jay Mason's career regressing every season.

2. James thinking that every big play has to be run through him, when in reality, he's not going to have any NBA future. Maybe he can follow Tucker to Israel.

3. Hinging a lot of hopes on Varez Ward's supposed improvements, only to lose him to a ******* pregame warmup mishap.

4. Hinging a lot of hopes on Dog Balbay's supposed passing and defensive skills, only to see that he really didn't have many to begin with AND lose him to injury as well.

5. Avery Bradley's lack of basketball knowledge.

6. Just **** coaching all around. I know that losing guys like Haith and Springmann (or whoever went to WKU) wouldn't help the program, but ****. Come on. Someone stand up and tell players whatever Barnes is supposed to be telling them, because the message wasn't getting through this year. Maybe Brown and Hamilton truly are that "uncoachable," but other teams seemed to have figured out a formula for troubled guys in the past.
 
Lack of effort to get rebounds.

The shooter almost never follows his shot. He stands and admires the shot.

No one goes for the ball, except James. All others wait for the ball to bounce to them. Unfortunately, the other jerseys are getting to the ball before it gets to us.

No blocking out, positioning, whatever you call it.

Your other factors also played a part at times, like FTs, that seemed to get better toward the end of the season (except tonight - a relapse).
 
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