Barnes?

Dear Coach Barnes,

Notice how Frank Martin called TO's to stop the mini runs in the 2nd half when we started to catch up. Saving TO's until the end of the game so you can lose by 3 instead of 9 is no bueno.
 
How do you blame the coach when the team shoots 33% from the field and has no back ups that can help?
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Our team is basically a chicken with its head cut off when Barnes doesn't have a PG running the show.

We had the depth in 2004 to overcome the lack of a "true" PG, and made a good run that should have gone to the Elite 8 if it wasn't for officiating. But all of our other Barnes-coached years in which we didn't have a standout PG, we haven't gotten out of the round of 32.

Our guard play has been atrocious on top of the poor shooting exhibitions we've been putting on. Joseph doesn't know his role. Brown seems unwilling to accept his role unless he's jacking up uncontested shots. And Balbay has been trying too hard to make the same plays that he made 2 months ago, and now teams expect it. We can't count on Jai Lucas for pretty much anything other than 5 minutes of breather duty.

You cannot field a complete team without a guard who can do a little bit of everything, and we don't have that. Is that on Barnes? Perhaps. Maybe it's on the assistants for recruiting. I know Ogden spent a couple months of his life trying to ink Avery Bradley, and we all know how that turned out. Either way, our expectations got a little out of whack this year with our good run, and now we're coming back down to earth. And landing on top of our incomplete set of guards.
 
I'm disappointed, too, but with eight or nine players, if a couple have nagging injuries and aren't quite as quick, or are off for some other unknown reason, we aren't the same team. Maybe something like that is going on. Hamilton seemed to be in a fog, for example.
We are still in the top 10 out of 350 D1 teams, something that never happened (almost) prior to Barnes' arrival. He has accomplished a lot in a non-basketball culture. We certainly will not be getting rid of him.
It's a tough sport to try to reach the highest levels, because the best players stay for one year, and depending on freshmen to win a national championship is a real crapshoot.
Look at Kentucky last year. Didn't they have five top-rated freshmen who all went very high in the NBA draft? And they couldn't win it all. It ain't as easy as some of you think it should be.
 
He seems to have no answers. Is that because there are no answers? Was I dreaming a few games ago; what has happened?

I really don't understand it.
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we peaked too early. i said it after the baylor game when we won but played bad and people scoffed at me. i said it again during the nebraska game. basketball is a streak game. all players have to be on the same page. these moments dont last forever. for about 3 weeks we were the best team in the country. now we are probably a sweet 16 team at best. nothing barnes can do when the players dont execute. hopefully we can get the mojo back.
 
Because it is the coach who installs the offense that is producing some horrible shots.
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the shots are the same ones that were going in a few weeks ago when you were calling barnes a genius. the key player has been hamilton. he is not playing like he was, neither is brown.
 
These kids are tired....the starters play entirely too many minutes. Sad thing is it's out of necessity. you've got 4/5 starters averaging over 30 minutes a game.

The 2nd unit is a complete zero offensively if Brown isn't hitting shots.

Hamilton and Thompson have carried this team all year....the lack of depth was bound to catch up with them at some point. It looks like it's now.

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While I am not of a mind to run RB out of town on a rail or anything, and all said I believe he has done a fine job of rebounding from last year - the past 4 games notwithstanding, I am more than just a bit baffled by this mini collapse.

Lincoln can be a tough place to win (just ask Mizzou), as can Boulder (though coughing up a 22 point lead is inexcusable) and K-State has of late been playing like everyone thought they would when they were pre-season #3.

That said, this is a terrible time to be slumping and a fair portion of it must be laid at Rick's feet. How many more times will we have to sit and scream from the stands or at our TVs for a damned timeout when the opponent goes off on a run? How much longer are we going to watch Jordan Hamilton - whose funk is clearly in his head at this time - continue to suck on both ends of the floor and whine to the officials in between? In the meantime, J'Covan Brown takes 1 bad shot or commits 1 turnover and out he comes. Don't get me started on how this thing grinds to a halt when Jai Lucas hits the floor!

I believe this team is more talented and has better chemistry than last year's (thank you Avery Bradley for leaving) and I still believe they can turn it back around, beat BU and go to the conference finals (boy, I would like to give Husker just one more parting shot at some point before they leave). After that, it is all about seeds and matchups and where they get sent. It is just unfortunate that they squandered a chance for a Tulsa - San Antonio - Houston road.


Keep the faith

Hook Em!!!!!
 
Too many dudes on this team bring nothing when it comes to offense. Very few can score on a consistent basis and when Texas does not play great defense they are in trouble.
 
Is it me or does RB just sit on the bench this year and just watch? I see opponent's coaches up and yelling instructions for the majority of the game and when I see him he just seems to be chillin'. Kinda goes back to not calling to's when the other team goes on runs and his general "it's not my entire life" attitude on the game as a whole.

Anyway, it's nothing a few wins don't solve. Beat bible aggy this weekend, make a good showing in the tournament (KU probably wins it like every damn year
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) and then a deep run in the NCAA's. The late season meltdown will be but a dream...
 
Barnes got away from the "screamy" attitude with the 2003-04 teams. He saw how well the team performed (especially offensively) when he let the guards do their thing.

I think he's afraid of losing the younger guys every time he raises his volume a bit. The facial expressions on Hamilton and Brown make me cringe.
 
Unless "senior leadership" must mean statistical leadership (and that is part of it). However, I am pretty sure that Balbay and Johnson are leaders.
 
Gary and Dogus as seniors, are undoubtedly very solid contributors.

Howeve, imo, senior leadership is being a "go to' guy in the waning seconds of a game, or placing a team on your shoulders when needed most, or getting in your teammates' face when he is pouting or sulking and whipping his *** back into game mode.. Johnson and Balbay have been pretty pedestrian this season in that regard. They are good at their player roles, but they're not terribly vocal nor spirited on the court when the horns are down or facing adversity.

Perhaps that isn't their fault. Perhaps they're not put into those situations at the right time as they should be. But should the coach have to do that? I think a true senior "leader" says, "give me the damn ball coach, I'll go win this ******* thing". I don't see any of that. Maybe the coach needs to hold them more accountable in that regard - which is why I posted this comment on this thread.
 
Brown and Hamilton are not putting up their usual numbers. Outside of that, they aren't contributing in other ways. That's the biggest problem right now.
 
watching the post-game interview with Erin, I got a strange feeling. I felt like Barnes was kind of giving in to the idea of having to make changes, as if he was kind of slightly put off by the fact that he had to make a lineup change, re: Dogus.

I also noticed he was more active, he actually did call a timeout early in a Baylor run to stop the momentum once.

I don't know if he felt like he wanted to wait until the NCAAs to make a change or if he would have just rather sat and watched the team the rest of the year?
 
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