Turn around year

FWHORN

FWHORN

10,000+ Posts
Tough loss today but when you run into a team that is best offensive team in country and they hit 14 three's and only turn ball over 4 times, hard to see any scenario that doesnt end in a loss. Getting back to within 6 in the second half showed fight and a never quit spirit that will help this team next year.

With the season now at an end it is a good time to look at how far this team has come from a year ago. When the season began, I was unsure Barnes would even still have a job by the third week of March and I certainly didnt foresee a team that would finish third in the Big XII with wins over Kansas, Iowa State, Baylor, Okie State and on the road in Chapel Hill.

By every measurable that could have been realistically set in November, this team overachieved. Even more significantly, they will all be back next year experienced and battle tested. Add to that the possibility of landing Turner and a year like 06 or 08 seems very possible, something that would have been unthinkable 5 months ago.

Huge props to Barnes who had his worst year at Texas last year and may have had his best this year. I know 03 got to the Final Four but I never viewed that year as Barnes' best, I have always thought 99 was Barnes best year coaching and like 1999 where he took a team and was able to mold it to his way of playing, this year he got a team that had been lost and got them to find their way and succeed.

Texas basketball was fun again this year for the first time since 2011 and unlike 2011 when you just knew 3/4's of that team was moving on after just 1 or 2 seasons, this group has staying power. Thanks to the whole team for a great year.
hookem.gif
 
As the dust settles on the season, a quick summary of Texas wins over teams who made the NCAA tournament (Mercer, SFA, UNC, BU, BU, KU, OSU, KSU, ISU = 9) and losses (MSU, KU, OSU, KSU, OU, OU, ISU = 7) not counting Big 12 tournament win/loss or NCAA tournament win/loss, which would be 11 wins, 9 losses.

On balance pretty good for a really young, inexperienced team.

Of course, next year the heat goes up a few degrees and the expectations are higher.

Hook 'em
 
Another predictable end to a season. I never saw the horns going anywhere, and saw the normal Barnes/horns fade from months ago. When you have no consistent outside shooting especially 3 pointers, any team with a clue simply sags in and dares you to drive into pinching lanes or pass in to defenses draped over your inside big men. If the horns had even one credible outside shooter, things might have had a chance to play out better.

I haven't understood for years why Barnes can't or won't recruit anyone that can shoot from outside. It is a shame given that he has recruited an outstanding guard in Taylor, and has some nice inside presence with Ridley and company. I'm not really proud of it, but I predicted the normal end of season fade for Barnes teams and at best a one (win) and done in the NCAA's. It is almost impossible to beat tourney level teams with such little ability from outside.

Barnes consistently recruits the same player abilities-strong athletic defenders, but seemingly has no eye for recruiting anyone that can shoot. I maintain it is a lot easier to teach defense than to teach shooting, so I've never seen the wisdom in Barnes recruiting strategy. We don't seem to have any expectations for Barnes other to make it to the NCAA tourney (basically be a top 50 team).

This is a young team and I suppose if Barnes actually recruits someone that can shoot, it is possible we could finally get past the second round. But I won't hold my breath, because I've never seen evidence that Barnes is a tourney coach as even his best teams seem to be ill prepared for the tourney and tend to underachieve whatever seeding they earn.

I will give kudos to the hard working horn players who never gave up and did even make a run(against all odds) to get it within 6 of UM today. But did anyone ever think we had a chance after even a few minutes of watching this game? Every shooter on their team was better than every shooter on our team with the possible exception of the inventive Taylor. But even Taylor has very limited range.
 
Yancy and Walker can shoot. They were inconsistent over the course of the season and their defense needs to be worked on, but they can become our best scorers. Give them a chance next year.
 
Martez Walker can shoot. But like most freshmen, it took time for him to become a contributor. If he replaces Felix in the lineup next year, and if Taylor spends his summer developing an outside shot, this team can be deadly next year.
 
Hornarama, not to quibble with your facts but how does 15 trips to the tourny and a 19-15 record (most trips and most wins in tourny of any coach in Texas history), 10 trips past first round (most of any coach in Texas history), 5 sweet 16's (most of any coach in Texas history), three elite 8's (most of any coach in Texas history) and 1 Final Four, equal a coach who underachieves in the tournament. No team always plays to its seed and pointing to years where Texas didnt reach its seeded projected finish while ignoring all the success in other years is a one-sided and incomplete view.
 
I agree and he has recruited some outside shooters Durant Gibson. Joseph. Abrams. Wake forest job is open right down the road from his hometown. I for one would hate to lose him. A lot of big name coaches have done worse
 
Getting to the NCAA tourney is now like getting to a football bowl game. Since the expansion to 68 teams, do we really want to set the bar to getting to the tourney? Do you know the only time we won the conference outright was in Barnes 1st year in 1998? Like Mack Brown it is what have you done lately? Most of Barnes tourney success happened years ago. Go examine the seed number and when we exited. Even when we had recruited well and had our super guards, Ford and Augustine we ended up underachieving almost universally compared to our seeding level.

The last 6 years we have not gotten to the sweet 16. While our trip to the final four was fabulous and the best result for Texas in modern times, it was once and it was over a decade ago.

If you look at the pattern of seasons, we almost never close strong. My theory is that because Barnes is predominantly a defensive coach, that as others offenses become tuned up we fail (defenses start ahead of offenses). We never seem to truly challenge Kansas and now Baylor has exceeded us in Basketball as well as football.

IMO, making the tourney is a minimum but not sufficient bar of measurement. Winning 20 and making the tourney for the flagship university in Texas should be almost a given. It really only indicates being a top 50 team. Barnes did a fabulous job getting us to the next level, but I would say the same thing about Penders. Mack Brown got us a football championship and I will always love hm for that. But coaching is not a lifetime contract. IMO, it is past due for a change as Barnes best recruits don't stay around and his model for recruiting has not really worked out very well lately.

When you say someone can shoot but is inconsistent, that is not an outside threat. A defense wants to encourage outside inconsistent shooters. It has been years since we had someone that was a terrific 3 point shooter, and in the college game that is essential to spread defenses.

To me making the sweet 16 is a nice achievement and that is perhaps Barnes best record as he has done it 5 times with 3 of those advancing the to the elite 8 and 1 time final 4. We made it to the elite 8 with LaMarcus Aldridge and D.J Augustine if memory serves, but not with Kevin Durant.

I think a comparable school to Texas would be Florida. It is a big state school with a very weak basketball (older) history. In the Barnes era, Florida has made 6 elite 8's, 3 Final 4's, 1 runner up, and 2 championships, not counting this year where they are once again very likely to vie for a championship. They have won their conference tourney 4 times and their conference 6 times.

While that record is very exceptional, and I would not expect that record at Texas, it shows what is possible if proper coaches are hired and relative mediocrity does not become acceptable. We have our own sports network and there is plenty of money if we build a winning and exciting basketball program.

Barnes should be thanked for a job well done and for maintaining a program with dignity and class for which we could be proud. But I would say we are overdue to attempt to get to another level of success of the program building on the prior successes of Penders and Barnes.
 
"Getting to the NCAA tourney is now like getting to a football bowl game. Since the expansion to 68 teams, do we really want to set the bar to getting to the tourney?"

68 teams out of 351 means that less than 20 percent of D1 programs make it to the dance. About 50 percent of FBS teams make bowl games. I agree that it shouldn't be the end result to make the tournament, but you're severely discounting the achievement of making it to the Dance when you compare it to football bowls. Duke has even had a year or two when they didn't make it into the tournament.

"I think a comparable school to Texas would be Florida."
I don't think you understand the commodity that Billy Donovan is. You can't just say "look, they're both big state schools with no history of great basketball before 1990." Florida is straight up dominant in the college basketball scene right now. I'd love to be there, but there's a lot more at play than just being "like" Florida.
 
Rick Barnes is not Mack Brown. These are very different situations. If you do want to compare at least make the proper comparison. If Mack had gone 10-3 in 2011, 2012 and 2013 he would still be here.

Football/Basketball comparison
10 win season = making the NCAA
10 or more win season and bowl win = 2nd round
Making BCS bowl = sweet 16
winning BCS bowl = Elite 8
Making national title = final four
winning national title = winning national title

Mack had a disaster season in 2010. Mack started over with a young team, rebuilt and went a new direction in 2011. In 2011 Mack went 8-5, finished 6th in the Big 12, and lost 2 out of 6 home games.

Barnes had a disaster season in 2012-13. Barnes started over with a young team, rebuilt and went a new direction in 2013-14. Barnes went 24-11, finished 3rd in the Big 12, ONLY LOST 2 out of 18 home games (to OU and Michigan State) and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

If you want to compare them, then Rick Barnes did more than he needed to do with a young team in a rebuilding year. Why do I say this?

Let's look at Billy Donovan:
2000-2001: NCAA second round
2001-2002: NCAA first round
2002-2003: NCAA second round
2003-2004: NCAA first round
2004-2005: NCAA second round
Should florida have fired him after 5 consecutive years without a sweet 16? If you think Barnes should be fired then you have to believe firing Donovan after the 04-05 season was the right call because he was never gonna get there to the sweet 16 again. (He won 2 consecutive national titles the next two years).

Also Billy Donovan:
2007-2008 NIT
2008-2009 NIT
2009-2010 NCAA first round

3 years without an NCAA tournament win? FIRE HIM! The two NIT are an example that even the best coaches have rebuilding years.

This is NOT the year to criticize Barnes. Last year was a great year to criticize Barnes. This was not it. The naysayers say they want to hear about now, not the past. Okay lets talk about NOW. NOW, he is FAR ahead of schedule for starting over and by all reasonable standards will have a contender next year. All reasonable fans should be excited for next year and supportive.

Also the whole "we're texas" that applies to football and baseball does not apply to basketball. If you think it does you are drinking too much orange kool aid. Not a single Texas school made the NCAA tournament last year. Yes we are a flagship school, but we are the flagship school of a state that does not care about basketball and has weak basketball tradition. Being the flagship school of a state that does not care really is not all that great. Top players and coaches would rather go to Kansas, one of the worst states i have ever visited, where they will be worshiped than Texas where no one shows up to the games even when we go 16-2 at home! We went 16-2 at home, won our last 8 consecutive homes games (all conference games) and still no one showed up. That is a cultural problem that goes far deeper than any coach and it hurts recruiting.

This brings up another reason to keep Barnes. Somehow Barnes overcomes this and gets the Durants, Fords, Ridelys, Aldridges, and other NBA talent to come here. No coach has come close to recruiting NBA talent like Barnes has and unfortunately, unless this state's basketball attitude changes, i do not think another coach will recruit this talent again. The naysayers seem to believe basketball talent comes here because "we're texas" like in football or baseball. It does not. It comes here because Rick Barnes. I can prove this easily:

Rick Barnes has produced 17 NBA players at UT in 16 seasons. The NBA was founded in 1946. In the 51 seasons prior to Rick Barnes, UT produced 12 NBA players. Of those 12, only 3 players (LaSalle Thompson, Johnny Moore, and Slater Martin) played 4 or more seasons. Rick Barnes has so far had 9 players (Aldridge, Augustin, Durant, Ford, Evans, Gibson, Ivey, Mihm, Tucker) play 4 more seasons! Barnes is the reason for the talent upgrade and the fact is it is going to go when he goes.

Finally, Baylor has not eclipsed us in basketball. We beat them 2 out of 3 games. Yes they made if farther in the tournament this year, but so did A&M a couple of times in the 2000s and A&M certainly never eclipsed us.
 
Interesting current article on Jim Boeheim at Syracuse - The Link

FYI, his Orangemen beat our TJ Ford team in the Final Four, then beat KU to win Boeheim's first, and only, national championship, in his.....27th season there.

He's the second-winningest D1 men's basketball coach, after Coach K.
The Link

One national championship in about 40 years at SU; his teams fade, frequently losing in early-mid rounds of the Dance.

Not saying Barnes is Boeheim (of course Barnes hasn't gotten Texas on NCAA probation like Boeheim did at SU), either worse or better, just an interesting comparison IMHO.
 
Dang, some of y'all can't just enjoy a surprisingly good year. Especially considering the expectations for this team. If Coach Barnes can pull in a good recruiting class lead by Myles Turner, then we can keep taking steps forward.

Good season Horns.
 
Donovan went to the Sweet 16 in his third season (1999) at Florida and the National Championship Game (2000) the next year at a school that had no basketball history either. He also won two straight SEC Championships from 2000-2002. That covers the first two years of that five year period. He has won five in total in a conference that has Kentucky. He also won three straight SEC Tournament Championships in 2005,2006, and 2007.

That wins you much goodwill and then one National Championship, much less two means he keep his job as long as he wants.



The Link




He's doing pretty well this season too it seems.
 
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