This years team

I guess we're seeing what a Barnes coached team is like without any NBA talent that can take over a game.

Not a good sign when a team gets worse as the season goes along.
 
Barnes seems to be more interested sending messages to his players than winning games. He sits McClellan, the leading scorer, for most of the game to prove a point about who knows what.
If your coach has thrown in the towel for the season, can you expect players and fans to act any differently? The wheels have come off yet I suspect Barnes will get a contract extension to demonstrate Texas is committed to him for the long haul.
 
Barnes looks tired. I don't see why. He has never taught any offense whatsoever. This university really likes throwing money away. His stale teams are not worth watching. Bring a young coach with some energy that at least would bring in excitement even if the wins aren't immediately prevalent. Shaka Smart?
 
An interesting article on Barnes and McClellan.


The Link




It does look like Barnes is not enjoying being a coach anymore. He is either screaming at players or just sitting
there looking like there is nothing I can do so I'll just accept
things as they are. When a team struggles for offense like
this one does you can't bench one of your best scoring
options for almost the entire game to make some kind of
point.



I like Barnes too and at one point he used to do more with less as in his first season, but now it seems without superior talent that he just can't win anymore like in the past.

The simularities between Barnes and Mack are striking.
Both can recruit well, but not exactly great with the x's and
o's part of coaching. Both had success in the past when
they had great talent, but are now struggling without it. For
Mack he doesn't have a great quarterback and for Barnes
a great point guard or scorer.

Barnes can coach good defense, but it seems it comes at the
expense of any offense, unless we have a Durant, Ford, or
someone that can take a game over on offense on their own.
It's beginning to look like Bond and Kabongo being absent hasn't really been the problem other than adding some depth.
Felix has put up better numbers than Kabongo had last year
and Bond doesn't seem to be adding that much to the mix.

I expect us to come out with a lot of effort against Kansas
Saturday like we did against North Carolina. But Kansas is
a much better team than UNC and a loss is the likely outcome.
That means we go 0-4 in conference and 8-9 for the season.
That means the NCAA's are probably gone and even the NIT is looking questionable.

Still I think Barnes gets at least another season just like Mack
does as Dodds just has one more year to go before he collects a million dollar bonus in August 2014. He will most likely retire then and then it's somebody else's problem. So he may be hesitant to make any major coaching changes on his way out the door. Let the next guy deal with these things will most likey be the way he looks at it.
 
I don't believe the "I don't know what it was about" line just because I've done some coaching and teaching and kids almost always claim they have no idea what they are being punished for.
 
Barnes has done this before. With Jordan Hamilton and Damian James (against A&M, if I recall correctly). Funny thing is I don't recall quotes from either of those two guys after the game questioning Barnes's decision to pull them. Wonder if Barnes is losing the respect of his players or what the deal is. Hate to speculate about that sort of stuff, I have just never seen a quote like that from a player under Barnes.
 
"Hate to speculate about that sort of stuff, I have just never seen a quote like that from a player under Barnes."

With the exceptions of 2012 and 2013, Barnes has never had a team completely comprised of wannabes. When there's no leadership or superstars, this is what happens to teams. They devolve into a mess until someone else comes around to clean it up. Barnes' plan of getting kids into the NBA actually did help create rosters where there was a clear chain of command and respect. Now? He's practically coaching a 7th grade boys basketball team.

I wouldn't be surprised if Rick got pinkslipped and Rob Lanier was given the HC job.
 
Good point Horns11. There is no true leader on this team with Kabongo on the shelf.

I think Sheldon is a nice complimentary piece, but he should never be expected to be a leader of a team and if Barnes expects that from him, then he is sadly mistaken. Jevan is too young, but not sure he has the pedigree to be a true leader at the end of the day anyway.
 
After today's whipping happens, here are my projections for the next few games:

@ OU - loss
Tech - we get our first conference win.
@ KSU - loss
TCU - win
@ WVU - toss up, but probable loss
OSU - loss

I think we'll be 10-13 heading down the stretch after this batch of games. My best guess is that we'll end the season 13-19. My gut is telling me 20 losses, but couldn't bring myself to do that.
pukey.gif
 
Other than the final 4 team, the Texas teams under Barnes have never run a top caliber type offense, like an Indiana or Syracuse. I don't see a lot of movement, good picks, easy shots. It's like everything looks so difficult and frustrating. We haven't even played great defense since right before Durant which should be at least one thing to hang your hat on. Barnes needs to bring in someone to install a real offense that perennial top teams run. If not I don't see us winning the big 12 again. Forget about a NC anytime soon, we let a few chances slip away. I like and respect Barnes but he needs to make some obvious and long overdue changes.
 
With an athletic program this big and powerful, maybe we need a CEO of basketball too. Hiring an offensive genius would allow Barnes to fall right into that role.
 
Simple,

You still need a head coach.

Barnes is all defense. His mind is like a basketball Leon Fuller.

Somebody has to teach offense.
 
This team should have a goal of being bad. However, they're nowhere near that goal.

At this rate, why even bother traveling for road games? Frequent flyer miles?
 
With TCU coming to town we should have a big win, but after that it could be a while before we get another. After the KSU debacle 20 losses is looking more and more achievable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Recent Threads

Back
Top