Barnes is Hot

G

general35

5,000+ Posts
as he should be. I dont blame barnes completely for this team. Other than james, these players are lazy and lack serious bb iq. its like watching some dudes playing at gregory.
 
I think what you just said is a reflection on the coaching. Lazy players with no bb iq is a product of coaching in my opinion. When I played in college, a player would not get away with this on my team. That player would never see any playing time. The coaches set the tempo for the players, and if they don't measure up, they should sit!

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But when Barnes does that, he gets pilloried here for not letting the guys play and making them afraid to make a mistake.
 
bierce, think of Muschamp.

He'll get on kids for messing up. But he takes them to the sideline, educates them as to how to improve, and puts them back in. He doesn't purposefully shatter their egos just to make a point and sit them the entire game...
 
And whose ego did he supposedly shatter? Brown's by sitting him the first half and against ISU? Brown comes in, does some decent things, then reverts to form and starts flinging up no chance three pointers.

Bradley by letting him rest against ISU? He's out there firing away and giving his all. He's not hitting anything in the second half, but he hardly looks like a shattered ego.

Hamilton? The guy who has the green light to shoot whenever he has a good look and who has played the majority of the time since the loss to OU?
 
You're right Joe. Barnes has no effect on how his players play, their confidence level, or their improvement. He also has no hand in recruiting any of them, unlike Muschamp. I really should reanalyze Barnes' impact on this basketball team--I guess it's really not that much.
 
our problem isnt barnes, its that we dont get any good guard play and you cant win in college ball without a good point guard. look how far we got with tj ford. baylor has two good guards, we have none. we lost to them 3 straight. unless baylor falls asleep, we could play baylor 10 times and we would lose 10 times. they totally outclass us at those positions. we got in the game only because done was out of the game.
 
Picking / researching the kids in recruiting, coaching them when they get here and building their confidence and deciding their playing time is all on the coach.

In my opinion the one and done year hurts, and if you're going to recruit those types of players that are only there for a year or two, then you have to get them every year of else your quality of team/play will fluctuate drastically.
 
Without James we will be worse next year, not better. He is are only inside scoring threat. Johnson can score when he steps back 12-15 ft.
 
This team's biggest problem is defense.

I liked some of Bob Knight's points last night, especially the time when the Baylor Big dribbled 3 times before scoring and no UT guard (Mason was right there) tried to attack the ball. Also, how many times in the last two games against them did Baylor throw the long Hail Mary and no UT guy was deep to stop it?

I guess Barnes really isn't interested in winning National Championships.
 
Worst coached team I have seen at UT since Mackovic was coaching the football team.
They can't even get out of their own way AND they don't care.

I can't hardly blame them. I am glad this season is finally over too! Maybe they'll spare us, and decline the NIT tourney too.
 
Last night's result wasn't too suprprising. The teams that have to play the first round have a tendency to collapse late in games they have to play with no rest against a better team that's fresh. Texas was within 5 with 8 minutes to go, and was within 8 with the ball with 5 minutes to go when Brown bricked a ridiculous quick three and Dunn hit the three on the break. Game over at that point.

Given the talents of the different players Baylor had on the floor, I think I'd rather take my chances with Pittman not letting Lomers get close enough for a high percentage shot or Lomers just missing than I would with leaving Dunn or Carter open for a three or Acy or Udoh for a drive and dunk.

About the recruiting strategy:

I have no complaint with going after the one and done type player with the reservation that Texas should only target guys with no attitude problem and who are a quick study. This should be intuitively obvious, but this season proves the necessity. Guys who are only going to be here for a year or two at most need to be able to learn college ball instantly.

Texas has really only had two one and done type players--Durant and Aldridge. I don't have any complaint about bringing those guys here. Durant took a team that had no experience and no size to the point where it could take KU to the wire twice, provided a lot of excitement in what otherwise would have been a rather pedestrian season, and now serves as a recruiting beacon. Aldridge only stayed for a second year because of injury, and he took Tucker, Gibson, Buckman and company nearly to the Final Four.

Since those two, Texas didn't sign any one and done candidates until this year, and neither Bradley nor Hamilton really had games ready for quick entry into the NBA, as a lot of people noted before their arrival. Bradley didn't have the offensive skill set yet. Hamilton had a lot of question marks about being out for a year and how he would respond to instruction. Of the two, Hamilton looked more likely to be a one and done player on arrival, as Bradley needed to improve both ball handling and shooting.

Where this year's team has significant problems stems from the '07 and '08 classes. The senior class has significant performers. James has been great. Pittman came as a conditioning project. It still seems he can't go more than 20 minutes and not in back to back games, so mixed success there. Mason has shown a lot of good thinigs defensively (though with occasional lapses), has provided some needed ball handling, but never developed any shooting ability. Hill got hurt, has seemed to lose mobility, but still shows pretty good basketball IQ and does some things on both ends to have a small contribution.

One star, one glue guy, one sometimes dominating, sometimes disappearing post, and one guy in a very limited back up role. That's not a bad contribution from what is left of a class that already put two guys in the lottery.

However, look at the '07 and '08 classes:

Ward. Hurt.

Balbay. Hurt.

Chapman. Eighty minutes.

Wangmene. An occasional block and a foul per rebound.

Gary Johnson is the only player from those two classes who is able to give any significant contribution at present. That's pretty telling about those classes.

So that leaves the freshmen, and I put Brown in this group, even though he was originally recruited for the '08 class. Bradley has given great effort all year and seems to be just about as advertised--very good defender, very athletic, unpolished offensively. He went 1 for his last 10 last night, but on few of his shots can he be faulted for taking a bad shot; he just wasn't hitting. He showed some good tendencies with the ball and the ability to penetrate and elevate. He should be a great player next year.

Hamilton. Didn't play in 2008-09 due to California denying his request for another year of eligibility. Seemed to finally clue into a little patience and the need to expend effort on defense after the first Baylor game and increased his minutes accordingly. Still had a tendency to chuck up bad shots, but not nearly as much as he did earlier in the year, and seemed a lot more willing to pass out of coverage and take the return pass for the open shot, though he reverted last night and flung up some pretty far fecthed 25 footers. Still had a tendency to get beaten on the first step and wind up turning his body and trailing an offensive player, but was making an effort on defense. He's obviously getting it; he needs another year. I strongly suspect he will be a total badass next year.

Brown. Shrug. I don't know what to say about this guy that I haven't already said. He came in last night and started doing the right stuff early on, as he was penetrating and distributing. Then, he went float on the perimeter and jack up crap at the end of the game. His defense is still very spotty. Last night I saw him actually try to stick with his man on the perimeter when he had the ball, but when his man passes, Brown tends to just drift back into the lane without any real purpose. Given his total lack of effort against ISU, his complete reversion to poor form after a brief stint of good play against Baylor, I just don't know what to expect from him next year.

After watching Hamilton, Bradley and Brown this year, I'm convinced I'd much rather have the excellent athlete who plays hard and is willing to do what is asked than the incredibly gifted basketball talent who isn't nearly so willing to work to improve his game. In future recruiting efforts, there has to be a bigger emphasis on a player's mental approach. The player can be inclined to take his game to the NBA right away, but he has to be more than just merely inclined to take instruction and give the effort during the one year or two years he has on campus. He has to have complete devotion to the game being taught to him and the desire to learn. If he doesn't have that kind of drive, pass on him as a recruit.
 
This team (for the third straight season) has very few decent outside shooters. Aside from Abrams we haven't had anyone that can make a defense pay for sagging. When you have poor PG play and no outside shooters (on a team whose head coach has always had questionable offensive schemes) it is no surprise how this season turned out.

1) No consistent outside shooters
2) No consistent scorers outside of Johnson and James
3) Bad defense
4) No pure PG who can score
5) Bad FT shooting teams

I don't see how this team could go 17-0.

By contrast ATM AND Baylor have:
1) Good outside shooters
2) PG players that can score
3) Solid Defense
4) Good post play
5) Multiple scorers

ATM and Baylor are better teams than Texas this year.
 
Agreed. Missed that one on ATM.

Clint Chapman played 12 minutes more this season than VAREZ WARD. Matt Hill wasn't much further ahead either.

How is this possible? I don't think either played any better or worse than Wangmene who got three times the minutes.
 
Id say theres an equal amount of blame to go around.

Although Im a Barnes supporter/defender, last night was the first time I was actually irritated with Rick.

First off, not playing JCovan. We needed some fresh legs at the end of the first half, we had guys walking while baylor was cherry picking us up and down the court. Like a previous poster said, we barley have enough gaurds that can walk.. why would you limit us even more? We actually NEED our depth now.. and we fail to use it every game. I know Rick wants to teach lessons for not playing hard, but the season is over now.. what lessons are there to teach a guy like Chapman or Wangmene?

There was one point where the guys were getting down by double digits and they show a shot of Rick on the sidelines and he just has his hand under his chin like he is hopeless and doesnt know what to do.. Which I cant blame him for because I was doing the same thing at that point. But as a coach, youre not supposed to let the team see you get like that. You need to believe in your guys 110% of the time.

But after playing the same team 3 times in a season, not to mention twice in about 4 days... and there was virtually no change in our scheme against them. We limited them to less than 9 dunks this time, so I guess thats an improvement.. but our defense against this kind of team was so bad it made me punch my couch repeatedly.

We kept getting confused on the switch when Baylor would come and set an on-the-ball screen. Usually leaving the shooter wide open while we decide who is gaurding who..

I also felt like the foul discrepancy down low was egregious. They were calling bump fouls for baylor, while pittman was getting hammered by about 3-4 guys downlow all the time. Its sickening to see Pittman get such a disadvantage for his size. Once he is in the NBA, he will be a much better player simply because of the way the game is called in that league.


I think what it all boils down to is that our players arent as good as we all thought. This IS NOT Barnes most talented team. Sure they all have potential, and it is the coaches job to tap into that potential and bring it out of the player. Rick, for what ever reason, has not been able to do that this year.

Like I said before, I do think that some blame does need to be put on Rick at this point. At first I was sure it was our freshman and their "Im a star" attitude, but now the season is over.. these guys arent freshman anymore.. and I see little to no improvement.

You gotta get these kids attention, Rick. You got to.
 
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