Baylor will win it all!

O

old65horn

1,000+ Posts
I think.

They have too much inside and will beat both Duke and Butler. I think they also beat the other finalistist.

Hats off to Drew even if he doesn't live up to my perdiction.

I have been wrong so many times durning this turney...maybe I will get this right.
 
can you imagine what they would be like had they gotten john wall? they are very good, and yes, i like their chances.
 
What a difference a great in game coach makes. Coach K, Tom Izzo, even Alec Baldwin of West Virginia. So that's how it's done.
 
I doubt they would have done very much. We didn't have nearly the talent of Baylor or Kentucky and both those teams are gone.
 
You guys way overrate Pittman, Hamilton. and Brown. Hamilton took until the end of the season to learn when to shoot and to begin to play D. Pittman was not good this year. Brown is a point guard who doesn't quite understand the team concept.

I hope that Hamilton and Brown continue to improve and become good players but right now they are as average as everyday wash. I don't know anyone who would rather have Brown over Carter this year. And I don't know anyone who would rather have Pittman over Udoh Shoot Pittman was probably closer to Lohmers.

Barnes is a defensive coach whose team played poor D. I guarantee you that he coached them to play D. However, we took early shots and ill advised shots and allowed teams to get easy fast break opportunities. And in the half court, we made bad decisions on when to help and didn't box out particularly well.
 
Again, excuses excuses excuses. No doubt I would take Carter over Brown last year and I would probably have taken Lomers over Pittman towards the end of the year. The point is that Barnes has failed to develop these players to where you would not want to take a guy from another team. The Brown/Carter comparison is not exactly fair as Carter is battle tested and Brown was a freshman, but Brown showed little improvement from Game 1 to Game 35. A lot of that is on the player, no doubt, but a lot of that is on the coach as well. Whether it be from initial talent/player evaluation or development during the year, either way it is on the coach.

Hopefully Deloss has gone to Rick and said, "Rick, this was a pretty bad year this year. We love ya. We love what you have done for us. But we pay you a lot of money. Top 10 coach type of money. And we expect more from our Top 10 coach. Let's get it back on track and have a good year next year." Just a stern shot across the bow, so to speak. Nothing inflammatory or "do this or else." Just to let him know we are not happy with the year and we hope for and expect more from the team.

I wish. It would never happen, but one could hope.
 
Uninformed - the original question was whether Coack K or Izzo could have done more with the talent than Barnes did this year, not whether Baylor was more talented. I would venture to say that if Barnes was coaching Baylor this year, I don't think he would have gotten past the 2nd round of the tournament. I am not saying that Drew is necessarily a better coach because I won't go that far just yet, but Drew has proven over the last couple years that he is a better talent evaluator.

Part of coaching is being able to evaluate talent and Barnes inability to do that over the last 2-3 years has put this program behind others in the conference. So, is it talent evaluation or coaching or both?

I know it sounds like I am speaking out of both sides of my mouth, but it is really two distinct issues. A coach has to be able to bring in the right guys for his program. Coach K gets the second tier all-americans that are not necessarily one and done and likes to coach them up over time. Calipari likes to get the big-time stud recruits that will be 1 or 2 and done and get what he can out of their talent and hopefully win a NC along the way. Barnes is gunning for the big time recruits, but it appears he missed on the talent level this year. He also likes to sprinkle in the other guys to fill in the team and be the bridge from year to year. These are the guys he needs to evaluate and coach to get better. Barnes failed in his evaluation of players like Mason, Chapman, Hill, etc. and/or did not give them proper coaching so that they would improve from their first year to their last (still TBD on Chapman and Hill, but the future does not look so bright for those 2).

Further, I fear that people may be waiting for the arrival of Tristan Thompson and thinking he may be the answer. But this guy is 2-3 years away from being able to really contribute to a team. He is very raw. The same goes for Corey Joseph (if he decides to come to Texas), who some believe is not really a true PG but is more of a combo guard. He will not come in and be the answer right away. Both of these guys will need to be coached up to get to their real potential and I fear that Barnes may not be able to do that. TJ, Durant, and Augustine all had the pure basketball ability and Barnes did not need to coach them up. He just needed to get out of their way and let them play - sort of like Calipari with Wall and Cousins. Calipari is not considered a great Xs and Os coach, but he gets a lot of talent and lets them play.
 
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