Gary f'n Johnson!

D

DJDJAJGJ

250+ Posts
12 points and 7 boards in 19 minutes. Played nice defense also.

For a guy who was supposedly "completely lost", I'll take 12 and 7 every night. When he gets more minutes, he'll be averaging 10 rebounds/game.

The emergence of him can't be over-looked. When we play a small team like Baylor, to have guys like Johnson, James, and Atchley that can score inside and outside with jumpers, and dominate the boards is HUGE. Unlike Dexy, James (obviously) and now Johnson look agile enough to play against a team that goes that small.

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ou is going to play us about like aTm did. I would like to see us handle it better...to understate the obvious.
 
very good to see he and James play so well on the defensive end.

this team goes as far as those two take it playing defense like that.
 
I was very glad to see Gary play the way he did today. He didn't have that "deer in the headlights" look like he's had the last few games. Maybe the A&M game helped him understand how he can help this team. He was agressive to the hoop, he had some nice moves with his back to the basket, and he cleared space for rebounds. Plus, he defended pretty well. 12 pts/ 7 rebs in 19 minutes. Yeah, I'll take that every time.

My only complaint was his 6/10 at the line. With the amount of contact that he can force, he needs to be up at 75% from the line.
But, on a positive note, that 6/10 is a big improvement on his season avg.
 
WOW he was fantastic.....he really is our missing link, we are totally different with another Damion James on the glass. He was clearly the spark today. We are going to need that if we are going to go far.
 
He had a nice game, but I think it's a little premature to say he's emerged. He just needs to keep working hard, he's obviously got the ability.
 
Let me just say, in a totally heterosexual way, that Gary F'n Johnson and Damion James are some good-looking basketball players.
 
Good to see his performance vs Baylor, but lets not forget that this is the same guy that scored 15 pts vs St Mary's and then 8 points combined in the next 5 games. He, like the rest of the team, will probably continue to struggle with consistency.
 
Barnes and the rest of the team have a lot more to do with how Gary Johnson performs than Gary Johnson does. He's not someone who can create for himself, so he's going to need his teammates to look to get him the ball. DJ missed him a couple of times for wide open shots or he could have scored more. It was nice to see Barnes run some cross block screens to free up guys in the post while moving. It's about time.

As far as free throws, Gary hit at a 40% clip his junior year of high school, and about 60% his senior season after working hard on it. The coaches broke down his shot over the summer and improved it tremendously. There's no way he makes that 12 foot jumper from the baseline on a regular basis in high school. His free throw shooting looking similarly improved in the preseason, but alas, he's fallen into bad habits during his layoff.

The key thing for so many of these players is confidence. At the beginning of the year several players were playing with swagger. Barnes managed to browbeat it out of them, and ended up with a mess. This Baylor game is the first time he was using a regular substitution pattern rather than constantly using a quick hook any time anyone made a mistake. I understand he wants to teach them the importance of various elements of emphasis, but the unintended consequence is he produced a team fearful of making mistakes, playing hesitant while looking over their shoulder, with only two guys feeling like they could do no wrong --- even as they were dominating the ball and playing ridiculously selfishly, and being rewarded for it.

They still weren't playing as well against Baylor as they were at the beginning of the year, but it's a nice start towards becoming at least some semblance of that group.

Gary Johnson and his fellow freshmen are going to provide one hell of a foundation for the program over the next few years. Every one of them were home runs in terms of talent evaluation by the coaching staff.
 
Gary's presence will be felt much more on the defensive end than the offensive. He goes after the ball so athletically and strong, much like Damion. He is also a solid 4, meaning he can body up with big guys a lot better than someone like chapman or atchley.
 
I don't know why anyone would think his offense is only supposed to come from rebounds and putbacks, other than has been discussed on another thread, this team absolutely blows at post entry passing --- both out of a lack of execution, and a complete lack of desire to even attempt it.

The guy is the best low post offensive threat on the team, including Dexter Pittman. I'll admit he hasn't always been showing it so far this season, but some of the problem with that has been beyond Gary's doing. He doesn't have early success, and so either Barnes yanks him or his teammates don't pass it to him. Or he's fouled then misses both free throws, and is yanked. Then the next time he starts forcing the shots.

The biggest woe this team has had to overcome after their great start is a lack of confidence and playing tight. That didn't just manifest itself out of the ether. That's a direct byproduct of Barnes ************* specific players to death, and using a quick hook any time they did anything wrong. While Gary isn't the worst of the victims, he's had more than his share.

The big problem defensively is that Barnes is going to keep putting Abrams and Augustin out on the floor for extended minutes (30+) together. I'm fine with that...well, I've come to terms with it to a limited degree, anyway. However, it puts tremendous pressure on everyone else defensively. One of the things that has been extraordinarily frustrating to me during the slide into mediocrity the team experienced from the Michigan State game on has been their abandonment for the most part of hard hedging and double teams off the ball screens. Finally we're starting to see a return of that.

An issue with playing such an aggressive defense --- and Barnes alluded to it in his post game comments after the Baylor game --- is that Pittman, Chapman, and Atchley have more problems being effective and then recovering cleanly to their man. One of the things he didn't mention is that with Augustin and Abrams constantly getting burnt on the dribble drive, it opens up a defender from the help side. Also, neither one of them have enough length to bother shooters when they're even a smidgen late closing out on the perimeter.

Johnson, James, and Wangmene are all terrific hedgers. Texas can switch a lot more on screens and still be effective with those guys. They're able to pressure the ball a lot more. And, all three of those guys are better rebounders than anyone else on the team. I think Barnes has really handled them poorly this year --- particularly Wangmene and Johnson., but it's his team and he can do what he wants with it.

I'm just glad to finally see a manifestation of a team that can actually accomplish something this season, rather than the pile of excrement I've mostly been watching over the past 9 games --- a complete waste of potential, which I've been putting completely on Barnes.

Here's to seeing more of what we saw against Baylor, win or lose, and less of what we saw against Wisconsin/TCU/Missouri/Colorado/Oklahoma State/A&M.

Oklahoma will be a different kind of challenge, because like A&M, they have a heck of a front court. Their guards aren't all that good --- it's a shame Capel dropped John Robeson, the stud out of Plano who has played so well for Texas Tech. They also don't have as much length as the A&M guards do, so that will help. Still, it will be a good test to see how far the post players are coming on both sides of the ball, given that as good a team as Baylor has this year --- and that's truly an NCAA tournament worthy team --- being forced to use Diene/Lomers/Shepherd in the low blocks is a tremendous achilles heel.
 
I can't break a game down like SL, but I'm encouraged by what I saw yesterday. In the beginning of the year, we were shooting lights out from long range, and that opened up everything else on offense. Our slide coincided with the shooting slump. In that span, our offense was still reliant on outside shooting or a 1-4 look where everyone else was watching DJ. Defenses figured out they could just muscle DJ and let the 3's clank.

Against Baylor, Mason was much more comfortable with the ball, forcing a 3 to guard him past the 3-point line. The spacing in the last 30min was very good for a Barnes team. Everyone seemed to have a better feel where they should be.

Also in the last 30min, we were getting a hand in the face of most every shot. The hedging was MUCH better, but the undersized guards were also hustling around screens better. Baylor is a guard dominated team, and they weren't getting clean looks.

Hopefully, the light switch was turned on about 10min into the Baylor game, and this team can win consistently without depending on great 3-point shooting. We'll see how they play on the road against a different style team. It'll be interesting to see how Barnes handles the lineup against a bruising OU team.
 
With this team, it starts with the D. We MIGHT be able to win a couple of games 82-78 or whatever....but not a lot....we have to force tough shots and clean up the boards. The thing about a shooting team is, when you are off, you're OFF. We absolutely cannot have our points rely on if little tiny Abrams is hot and Conner is hot. Defense is key, and that's where Gary is key. He totally changes the way teams will attack us, not to mention a beautifully athletic body going after boards. The key to this team is the D.
 
Might not be consistent yet, might not be able to create, might not shoot the free throw well, but he can help fill in and give some pretty good play from the bench every now and again and that is what we will need come post season. Nothing wrong with being a role player as a fish
 
Agree with most of your points so I''ll move on to where I disagree.

Dexter is the outstanding low post player on this team currently because he can get any position he wants, has truly world class hands, can now finish well, draws fouls well, and hits his foul shots.In the 2 games before Baylor he was rebounding at a rebound per 2 minute clip. As his conditioning improves (and it has improved immensely over the season), he is going to continue to improve a lot. Dex is a pretty decent D center in a zone D (can't ask him to play man to man yet but it will come as his conditioning improves).

Gary may be a great low post O player but I have not actually seen it yet. I have thought for a while that he should be moved to the high post because of his explosiveness (in terms of running and jumping) and was gratified that this worked out well in the Baylor game. He has much more room to operate at the high post than the low post. It is much tougher for a power forward to guard Gary the farther Gary is from the basket. I was quite pleased to see that he can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim very well. Would like to see a lot more of that from Gary and Damion, too.

I am a big booster of both Gary and Dex and want both to play more minutes (Dex at center and Gary at power forward).

You have to wonder about UT big man coaching. Nobody seems to know the proper position from which to attempt an entry pass, the big men don't really execute the three basic moves of a big man from the low post (i.e. power move to the center for a hook shot, up and under, and drop step) and when to use them.

Playing tight is just one problem the horns have and I agree that it is probably because Barnes is too caustic.

The O has been primarily oriented towards putting the ball in
Augustin's hands almost all of the time. While other teams have been steadily improving over the course of the season, there has been little improvement in the horns O sets. Very little pick and roll (to the bucket). Pick and roll would be great for Gary, Damion, Dex, and Wangmene because of their athletic skills. Very few alley oops. Very little back door. No give and go. the big men have to figure out that if they want to get the ball down low, that pass is probably going to come from another big man at the high post.

The team is seldom fast breaking, half court or full court pressing, or even pressuring the ball out front. I think this is because Augustin and Abrams are playing so many minutes. Watching an offense that dribbles so much and passes so little is painful.

Augustin is a great at penetrating, finishing, mid range shooting and 3 point shooting but he is a shoot first point guard and that is a big problem if you want to help the young big players develop.

Atchley is a pretty quick guy for 6'10" center. By hedging, you mean preemptive jump switching followed by a rapid recovery to the middle, correct? Atchley seems to do a pretty good job of hedging to me. Of course the smaller, faster players like Damion and Gary are going to be better at hedging than a 6'10" center.

To ask Dex or Chapman to play man to man right now does not make a lot of sense (they need to be in a zone on D).

The horns who are athletic and big enough to play man to man include Gary, Damion, Mason, Connor, and Wangmene. Augustin, Abrams, Dex, and Chapman are all much better off in a zone D.
 
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