This years team

All hypothetically of course, I don't see Penders maintaining the momentum that he had earlier at Texas. I think the jump to the Big 12 and stiffer competition led to his eventual downfall. This was a coach who would drunk dial players after games. I don't think Penders could handle the star recruits as evidenced by his relationship with Axtell. You cite 4 medium rated players over 10 years--I'll include Clack since he was a McD AA, but three of those five had eligibility left when Penders flamed out. For further evidence that Penders was finsihed see his coaching stints at GW and UH.

Kris Clack's talent was wasted under Penders. Clack, Vazquez and Mihm all improved substantially under Barnes'. Barnes was not always "dead man walking" as he built teams to compete with toughness and defense. Maybe this group of frosh and sophs will be pretty good by the time of their junior and senior year, but they need to sprinkle in top talent like Randle to make it over the top. Barnes has been slipping in the recruiting game for several years now. From what I can gather he didn't initially want Felix as he didn't think he was good enough, but then no other pg wanted to come to Texas.

I'm not claiming Barnes put the Texas program on the map, but he did build a foundation for the program and he took the next step up from Penders. Now it's time for somebody else to take the next step up.
 
The real, not hypothetical, question is how long this mess will be permitted to continue, not the rationalizations , the mess. Florida is a school with similar resources that won without a prior BB pedigree. It can be done with leadership. Not impossible. Just need some real leadership to be competitive. I know it's blasphemy to critique the decisions on the 40 acres but how much more of a sample size does one need after 15 years?
 
Barnes went too deep with the one and done superstar types and it bit him in the *** when the NBA began to draft players who were not close to ready for the NBA, but who had potential. Although he hasn't publicly stated that he is changing his philosophy, it appears that he has done so or has been forced to do so because of his inability to land some super recruits during the past two years.

Now he is forced to develop a team comprised almost entirely of sophomores and freshmen, the only one of which likely to bolt for the NBA being Kabongo whose draft currency may be devalued by his absence for half the season. This team will get its *** kicked this season.

Assuming these kids retain their academic eligibility, and Barnes has a good record for his players doing that, they will stick around for four years. Barnes has shown that his staff can develop players (Ivey, Boddicker, Thomas and Mouton come to mind) and that he can win with a veteran team, particularly if he has a top flight point guard (presently absent). In a year or two this team will not be getting its *** kicked. It will be comprised of tough, hardnosed defender upperclassmen with chips on their shoulders. Without adding at least one superstar recruit they probably won't be final four material, but they will win a couple of games in the tourney and will be a tough out for any opponent.

The problem is that getting there will not be pretty and the heat on Barnes may drive him away before these kids develop.

I have much more faith in Barnes' ability to rejuvenate his program than I have in Mack Brown's ability to do so.
 
I'm a simple man so here's my simple perspective; why Rick Barnes refuses to coach a team to set solid picks, is astonishing!
This has been going on for a few years now. I'm not so sure he knows how to coach without a superstar on the floor.

And heaven forbid we have a little movement on offense. I know we're not Duke, but watch them run their offense, and then watch us.
I've seen high school teams with better ball movement.
 
So the team had a solid win over NC then followed that up with a loss to Mich St. Next up Rice......W. Then into conference play with a likely 8-5 record.

Anyone have ideas on how good the conference is this year? Right now we are almost at the bottom of the standings in the Big XII, but I'm sure we had a tougher "preseason" than the rest.
 
I would think Kansas, Baylor, Oklahoma State with that sensational freshman Smart, and Kansas State are the best
teams.

On the whole though it is a down year for the conference.
 
Big XII conference standings as of 12/24:

Baylor 0-0
Iowa State 0-0
Kansas 0-0
Kansas State 0-0
Oklahoma 0-0
Oklahoma State 0-0
TCU 0-0
Texas 0-0
Texas Tech 0-0
West Virginia 0-0

I know they put them in order on ESPN etc., to include OOC games, but IMHO, this is the current status of Big XII league play.
 
First up in conference will be Baylor (8-4).

Their biggest win is against Kentucky at 8-4 with losses to #21 Notre Dame (12-1), #1 Duke (12-0) and #4 Louisville (12-1).

Baylor's four losses have all been close ones against Colorado (10-2), College of Charleston (9-4), Northwestern (9-4) and #10 Gonzaga (13-1).

Texas had a good win over North Carolina, but hasn't had much else to be happy about. I see Baylor winning this one in Waco.
 
I'm not usually one to complain about officiating, but the FT attempts were 45-15 in BU's favor. Take away all the OT ones and they still have a 2-to-1 favor. I know we're young and physical, but there was some serious home cookin'.
 
It was a tough loss for this young team. We couldn't get key
rebounds after playing good D late in the game and in overtime. That one Baylor possession where they got 5
offensive rebounds sort of summed that up.

Of course all our bigs getting in foul trouble with Holmes and
Bond fouling out didn't help. The fouls were pretty unbalanced
toward Baylor. To put it in perspective Baylor had more free throw attempts in overtime than we did for the entire game at
15-14. In total 36 of 45 to 9 of 14 at the line will nearly always
lead to a loss.

Felix had a breakout game with 26 points to lead all scorers
in the game. He did miss a layup and two key free thows
late that hurt, but that might be because he played 43 out of
45 game minutes and had to be tired

Another good effort by a young team, but still turning the
ball over at key times and missing free thows. Hopefully
they continue to improve. This is not a great Baylor team
by any means though. Would have been nice to steal one
on the road in the conference opener. Still was better than
most expected as the line was Baylor -12.
 
Next up for the Horns is West Virginia at home. All I can say about this one is WVU is the suck! The Horns will win big at home by 10+ to bring their record to 9-6 and 1-1 in Big XII action.

They better enjoy this win, because I predict they lose 4 of the next 5. If they focus they could go 2-3 in the next five.
 
Well close, we blow a late 13 point lead and lose in overtime
to maybe the worst team in the conference.

That may be the ugliest game of basketball I have ever seen
even McClellan couldn't shoot free throws and then gets hurt
on top of it.
 
That was one of the sloppiest games I've ever seen. The FTs alone were enough to make you vomit. This team is just plain bad. It's not going to get much better this year.
 
Wow! I'm done predicting games. Last night proved they can and probably will lose at least one game to every team in the conference. Of course as i predict this they'll go on an eight game tear, but doubtful. Terrible, just terrible.
 
That game was a waste of time. Brutal to watch. Too many things to list to criticize. I don't want to hear how young we are. It's not an excuse in college basketball. Everyone is young. But Barnes is doing his job as guys are going to the NBA.
 
WVU and Texas had to have played the worst game in the entire country last night. The Longhorns' performance is odd considering how well the offense fared against Baylor.
 
Embarrassing.
pukey.gif
pukey.gif
 
Isthis the SAME team that beat the Tar Heels?

When will Rick Barnes get an assistant that can teach OFFENSE to this under performing, under achieving group of round ball players?

DUUUHHHH?
 
Next up: Iowa State. At 10-4 they seem rather imposing, but have lost to every quality team they've played.

Seeing as how our offense seems to be pathetic this year this seems like a mismatch with Iowa St having the 6th highest scoring offense in the country. Iowa St also has the 5th most rebounds per game so if we cant hold them to one shot it may be a long night.

However, I refuse to call the game. Flip a coin!
 
Iowa State only lost to Kansas because they hit a three pointer from a couple a feet behind the top of the key that
banked in with 1 second to go that sent the game to overtime
in Lawrence. As expected Iowa State was shell shocked
and was dominated in the overtime session and lost.
 
We lost by 20 pts to Iowa St so I guess my offensive mismatch guess was right on. Looks like we're a lot closer to knowing how the season will end.
 
Offensive stats of the day for Texas:

PPG ranked 252nd @ 64.2 ppg
FG% ranked 297th @ 40.2%

Edit: I can't forget assists

APG ranked 234th @ 12.0 apg

Thank goodness we can rebound or things would be worse.
 
It's funny; the same arrogance we see in defense of Mack Brown was prevelant on the basketball board last year in defense of Barnes (Who you gonna hire? Remember Weltlich?). Now those posters are nowhere to be seen.... even the plants who are friends of the program have nothing to say and you know they exist. They are the ones that say, "Do you believe me or your eyes?"

It's too bad because I like Rick Barnes. I've met him a couple of times at a restaurant and he is always nice even though we don't really know each other.
 
With Volleyball over, I say play the remaining home games at Gregory. At least give the fans something to be excited about.
 
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