Random Horn B-Ball Thoughts

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VinnyVango

25+ Posts
It's sad that AJ is not a better ball handler.

What ever happened to the Central Texas area point guard that was a soft commit to play this year... (sorry forget his name)... And, why have we only signed 1 backup (the injured Turk) for such an important position in our offense?

Will H Smith ever play? If so... would be nice to get him a few minutes (ala Pittman, Chapman, Mooney, JD Lewis, etc...) during some of the games? Can he not catch and pass the ball?... What's the dog-house scoop on him?

Once DJA and DJames bail this year... even if just DJA bails, are we doomed to the 6-9 range in the Big-12?... Will Mason be our point next year pending the Turk figuring things out?

I like Gary J's play and hope we get him enough minutes to where he can hit the floor running next year...
 
The Central Tex point guard I was referring to was James Kirkendoll of Round Rock... I thought he signed a LOI to play this year.... and, yes "the Turk" is Balbay.
 
I recall Kirkendoll saying that he wanted to play both sports in college before he signed with Texas. He was a pretty decent player in HS, averaging 25+ ppg and 5 apg at Round Rock.

I'm surprised he hasn't walked on the basketball team. Is there no room for him this year?
 
It didn't render him useless his freshman year. It certainly didn't render him useless against West Virginia in the Sweet 16 game.

I agree his strong point is his shooting, not his ball handling, and that there are better solutions at point guard. However, that's not the same as saying he doesn't have the skills to play point guard. His problem is that he doesn't have the mindset.

People should get it through their heads that there will never be a dual football/basketball player at Texas as long as Mack Brown is here. I realize there have been players participate in track and field, but even that isn't exactly encouraged.

But Kirkendoll in basketball is not that big of a loss. He wouldn't have made a big impact in any case.
 
Why would Barnes be bothered? If the kid can play well enough to contribute in practice, it's not costing him a scholarship.
 
Depends what he would expect out of the player. I think the standards would be pretty high. If there were a football player who could be, say, the backup PG, I don't think he would just throw him out there -- too much thinking/experience in the offense required. As far as that goes, we've seen that inexperienced big guys who screw up can't get off the bench.

I would think it's about being useful. If a football player isn't going to play, there's not much point in taking him away from football, whatever that is worth.
 
What I'm talking about is what a player thinks he wants to do before he gets to campus. There have been several players who wanted to play both sports but were convinced it was in their best interest to stick to football.

It was probably the correct decision, but the point remains the same --- the football program does not exactly get excited about the idea of their players participating in basketball. Therefore, no one should be holding their breath about some player recruited to play football spending any time with the basketball team whatsoever, whatever the reasoning for it is.
 
Do you think Harrison has been given a fair shot?


Or does he fall into your "short leash victim" category that you opined on earlier in the week?


Seems ridiculous that our starting PG plays so many minutes that we can't run as up tempo as much as we should and we have other guards that never leave the bench.


the guys that get all of the minutes are apparently too short to run an effective 2-3 that extends to the 3 point line - so there is tha,t too.


I don't know if there is an answer to this, I am just asking out loud.
 
The prospect that Harrison Smith isn't playing because Barnes doesn't think he's good enough puzzles me.

While I don't pretend to know as much as some others on this board, I do know he was a top 100 national player as a senior in high school and recruited by the likes of Kansas, Florida and UConn, which is pretty impressive in itself.

I just always assumed the absence of playing time was due to either a lack of consistent effort, or an attitude problem. I realize that those things certainly affect how "good" a player is. I just can't believe it is lack of talent.
 
I don't know whether Harrison Smith has been given a fair shot or not. I guess the obvious answer is "No," but honestly, I wondered what Texas was doing when they recruited him in the first place. They needed a guard with more length. Harrison Smith played in an abominable "system" at Houston Jones under a different coach than the one that was there when Daniel Gibson was playing. Tom Penders would have fainted at the lack of fundamentals. It was a helter skelter, chinese fire drill for 32 minutes. In that environment, Harrison Smith was very good, but it didn't prepare him well for the next level on either end of the floor.

What I do know is that he's not the solution for DJ playing so many minutes. To me, it's obvious. Bring either Justin Mason or AJ Abrams off the bench, and start a 3 guard rotation. There are plenty of teams that make do with a 3 guard rotation, especially with someone like Damion James --- who has shown he can play on the wing pretty darn well.

But no, Harrison Smith is not one of the players I've referred to. Basically, every one of the players who has seen any sort of playing time other than AJ and DJ has felt Barnes' intense, over the top wrath this season. I exclude JD Lewis, Harrison Smith, and Ian Mooney from that category.
 
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