Someone Please Tell Me

O

OrangeRB

500+ Posts
how our basketball team is going to be any better next year than they are right now?

I can handle losing but I can't stand to be non-competitive and that's all this team has been except against the bottom feeders of the Big 12.

How or why were these guys ever thought of as being talented? I can usually find some sunshine out there someplace but with these guys, I just don't see anything good for the future.
 
i don't expect them to get better at all, unfortunately.
ward and balbay back will help a little bit but barnes schemes (lack thereof) is what it is. he's lost the drive to win here, as evidenced by his "obsessed" quote. I'm done with barnes.
 
Both are correct. Next year will be crappy. And it may
set the tone for some down-year recruiting. Barnes has
let this one get completely away.
Gary Johnson, Balbay, and Ward may supply some senior
leadership but not the kind that is needed. It "ain't gonna
be purdy".
 
Completely wrong. Next year's team will be much better. Hamilton, Brown, and Bradley will all benefit from not only an off-season of augmented basketball IQ and court awareness, but also will better understand being part of a "team." Possibly as important, they will have a full off-season with Todd Wright. All three desperately need this, as they are mediocre to poor finishers with limited upper body strength (Bradley) and quickness (Brown).

Today, they looked like a bunch of individuals (I'm excluding Brown and including the rest of the team here) who didn't want to play together. The way to fix that is to build camaraderie during the off-season--something this team has almost none of this season.

Losing Pittman could be addition by subtraction--he has completely fallen off the map and hasn't contributed since December. His clogging the lane and the sporadic attempts we made to force the ball to him killed our flow on offense--we always play better with Johnson and James on the floor.

Speaking of James, he is an all-timer and while he will be sorely missed, Johnson is an extremely similar player who, as we saw today, has little problem being "the man" when our team is struggling. I expect him to be much of the DaMo role of this year.

Tristan should be solid next year in much the same way that Brad Buckman was exactly what the 2003 team needed. He fits the Barnes pressure defense so much better than Pittman ever did or would. How many times did other teams get wide-open dunks when Pittman tried to hedge hard and had zero chance of recovering to stop his man picking cherries under the basket? OTOH, Thompson is fast, athletic, and understands how to play tough defense. He can also be a pick and roll or even pick and pop player at the college level.

Hopefully Cory Joseph will decide to come here--he would make a great backup at the combo guard spot, along with Varez Ward. Joseph has been a winner his entire life and can score from anywhere on the court. He's also a top-notch defender (again, this means he will get less mind-screwed by Barnes).

I think simply not having the disparity between the veterans (James, Pittman, and Mason) and the new guys (Brown, Hamilton, and Bradley) will really increase the chemistry level of this team.

But if it turns out that, yet again, like you guys are suggesting, Balbay and Ward start at guard and Wangmene starts at post over TT then yes, we will suck and I will spend the entire season again doing
brickwall.gif
every single game.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the freshman may possibly manage to improve somehow - against all odds and against the knowledge of people on this board that seem to think that basketball players don't improve from year to year.
 
Player development is the last thing anybody should be criticizing Barnes for.

Ivey-Mouton-Boddicker-Thomas were not supposed to be as good as they ended up being by their season years. Ivey especially wasn't even supposed to be playing D1 basketball.

Klotz and Paulino were non-factors for a year or two before suddenly being key role players. Look at Atchley's vast improvements from his sophomore year to his junior year.
 
Their are examples of both regarding Barnes .

For instance, guys like Mouton, Ivey, and Tucker improved a good deal with their games over their time at UT.

OTOH, there are also many examples of players seemingly regressing either from their original skill level or hitting a wall THEN regressing. The sparkling example is Justin Mason, who has gotten progressively worse every year under Barnes despite unimaginable amounts of playing time. Other players that fit are Thomas, who was great as a Jr. and fell off a great deal of a senior. This same complex applies even more to Pittman, who has seemingly become a ghost. Another is Daniel Gibson, who was infinitely better as a freshman despite having the weight of the team firmly thrust upon his shoulders. He went from a solid/spectacular PG to a mediocre shooting guard in a single off-season.
 
Not sure you are looking at the whole picture throwing Thomas and Gibson out there. Thomas had TJ as point the year he put up 11 pts a game. TJ could make those lazer passes into the post and get deep penetration opening up easy shots for Thomas. Those passes disappeared with him. As to Gibson, here are his stats from his frosh year.

01 Gibson, Daniel..... 31-31 1018 32.8 131-314 .417 74-186 .398 103-137 .752 14 98 112 3.6 79 0 121 95 8 55 439 14.2

He averaged 14.2 and shot 42% from the field. Not sure that is light years ahead of his 13 pts his soph year. For some reason the stats were missing from that year, but still not that big a difference. Still I would agree you would look for Gibson to get better and not worse.

Barnes has proven he can develop players. I'm just not sure he has much to work with here. As I posted on another thread, this group just looks slow and bored. They don't get it at all. This streak has been going on far to long to think they will ever have enough pride to do what it takes to take it to the next level. Where is the players only meeting called by the Sr.s saying enough is enough. Instead Baylor sweeps and has a dunk fest. We just need to face the fact that this group just doesn't really give a rats ***.
 
My point with Gibson is he was far more efficient as a PG. He seemed to lose his PG instincts and especially his desire to slash (Avery Bradley complex much?) after the first season. I don't just look at points to compare seasons. He should be improving each year. He was only there two years, but he definitely got worse.
 
I disagree completely on Gibson. He didn't improve much on offense between his Fr and Soph year. But he got MUCH, MUCH better on defense. He was a terrible defender as a freshman. He was actually a very good defender by the time he left.
 
This is what I think I know. Right now Baylor either has better players, a better coach or both. 3 victories in a row, on a neutral site, the road and the *** whipping they gave yesterday in Waco. You're telling me that Baylor can go from the absolute gutter to better than Texas in less than a decade? The absolute horrid conditions that Dave Bliss left the program in, murder for christ's sake, they had one player murder another, players leaving the program it was so bad. Scott Drew may look like and be a douchebag, but he's got his program outplaying Rick Barnes program.
 
I'll tell ya what bums me out -- the fact that Baylor could have the upper hand next year as well. Assuming Udo and Acy don't leave, who do we have that can match up? In fact, who do we have next year in the post? Chapman, and Harris? Gary Johnson plays big and with a lot of heart and he's a great asset, but we are going to be thin at the power forward position. Hell we're thin in the post this year with Dexter checking out sometime around game 18. I think Chapman can be good if he ever got enough playing time to get the kinks out. Not sure about Harris but I suspect he'd get better with more real playing time. But neither of those guys is in Acy or Udo's league. Anyone one know if we're got any post players coming in? We might have to go the JUCO route. Oh yeah, forgot about Wagnmeni -- which says it all really, so far he's been a little too easy to forget. Maybe he'll beome somethin special but I don't know, he's athletic, but unskilled.
 
dont forget that the Big 12- will be VERY strong next year:

Kansas is ...well kansas- sure they lose Collins and Aldrich but i dont think Henry will leave and will return the Morris bros and Taylor.

OU- warren only hurt his stock this year so he has to stay. along with Tiny and Tommy M-G they should be a co-favorite in the south.

OSU- only contributer that they lose is Obi. they bring everybody else back.

baylor- like somebody posted earlier- as long as udo and acy stay they will be probably the other south co-favorite.

good thing Tech, Colorado, ISU and Nebraska suck bad and A&M lose their 2 best in Sloan and Davis so we should be in the exact same place next year as this year...except at least we will expect it so it wont feel anywhere near as bad as this year.
 
Atchley was a force created by Augustine his (Atchley's) junior year. When Augustine was gone, Atchley no longer had those wide open 3s that he could nail. I would not attribute Atchley's rise or fall to Barnes. He was created by Augustine, pure and simple.
 
EPT, not only do I completely agree with your point, I'll even raise you.

K-State will be extremely solid. They lose Clemente, but he has been a detriment to them at many times this season with his uber-streaky play. Pullen is the catalyst and he'll be back along with Curtis Kelly, Wally Judge, Jamar Samuels, and Dominique Sutton.

Mizzou will also be really good, especially on offense. Laurence Bowers and Kimmie English are two of the most talented players in the conference and Marcus Denmon can light it up from deep. Great depth is only added to with a solid recruiting class featuring Texas' Phil Pressey and Tony Mitchell.

A&M indeed loses Sloan and Davis, but they also return B.J. Holmes, Dash Harris, Nathan Walkup, young talents in Khris Middleton and Naji Hibbert, and UT nightmares Ray Turner and David Loubeau. I think they'll be fine--must be nice to have Turgeon at the helm.

Hell even Colorado should be improved with Cory Higgins, Alec Burks, and Marcus Relphorde returning.
 
And if Baylor really returns all their non-seniors, they should be more than just South co-favorites. Replacing the point guard is tough, but Walton has gotten a lot of minutes, has played very well, and has shown he can handle the ball, prefers to distribute over taking his own shot, and has the ability to nail the three if left alone. There aren't many point guards starting or back up that have fewer than 1.4 fg attempts per assist. Balbay is probably the only guy in conference. There aren't many point guards, starting or back up, that hit 50% of their three-pointers.
 
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