News flash ---- the Big 12 is one tough mutha in roundball. Isaiah is back, but team needs a little more time to get back to early season form. I think they'll get there, regardless the Horns are going to lose a few of the remaining 12 games. My prediction: L @ #9 ISU L @ #21 BAY W vs OKST L @ KSU W vs TCU W vs TTU W @ #19 OKLA W vs #9 ISU L @ #18 WVU W @ #11 KU W vs #21 BAY W vs KSU 8-4 for the last 12, though could also lose 1 or both of ISU in Austin and KU at Phogg (Horns seem to upset KU there in recent years). But may also win at Manhatten. Too hard to predict right now, Big 12 teams are going to bloody each other week by week. On an unrelated note, in context with Coach 1K, Barnes is 4 wins away from 600 Div 1 wins. Barnes is trailing only 5 other active coaches with more Div1 wins, notably Huggie Bear in the 750 range. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_college_men%27s_basketball_coaches_with_600_wins Coach 1K 40 yrs Boeheim (962) 38 yrs Huggie Bear (753) 34 yrs Roy Williams (737) 27 yrs Pitino (696) 28 yrs Cliff Ellis (668) 37 yrs Steve Morrill (602) 31 yrs The next 5 active coaches up to win 600 or more Div1 games? Four are current Big 12 coaches. as of today -- Barnes - UT (596) 27 yrs Calipari - UK (569) 22 yrs Lon Kruger - OU (546) 32 yrs Bill Self - KU (542) 21 yrs Tubby Smith - TTech (535) 23 yrs I know it's not 1000 wins, but this is Texas, not Duke. If Barnes wins, say conservatively this year 11 more regular season, 1 Big 12 tourney, 2 NCCA, he'll be at 596 + 11 + 1 + 2 = 610. If he averages about 24 wins per season (his average in Div1), he'll need (1000 - 610)/24 = 16.25, or 17 years starting next year, which would take him to his 44th year of coaching (but he'd be 77 years old, so not likely to coach that long), as compared to Coach 1K's 40 years to reach 1000 wins. Not too bad, considering.
The way the team's looked the last ten games, I'm saying 7-5. Every win will be tough. I really don't know where some of those wins will come from. Don't see a win vs. ISU and we will have a tough time beating KU at their house. We will need huge luck there, and lots of calls going our way.
I had seriously contemplated driving to Ames for tonight's game against ISU. Sorry to say, I don't feel like wasting the energy and effort. I hope I get to, and will gladly eat crow if we win.
Nice comeback to make the game respectable. Still it's a loss whether by 2 or 20. This team will struggle to get to the 20 win mark and hopefully finish 9-9 in conference play. Offense is just not there and the defense is starting to give up more points too. Same as it ever was as Kansas will win the conference for like the 100th year in a row. Self is a great coach and even if they don't have the best talent in the league, they always have the best TEAM. They limit their mistakes and Self gets the most out of what talent he has to work with.
I wish he would just go back to the same starting lineup he had last year and everyone else off the bench. I know a lot of you guys don't like Felix, but he is the horns best scoring threat from outside and he actually wasn't jacking his normal wild shots tonight. But, if the hornscan't be more of a threat from outside, then they will continue to struggle mightily. Good effort, but I am sure no one is in the freakin mood for moral victories. This team was supposed to be a lot better than that. If the Horns can't make it to the dance this year and even if they do and get beat in the first round, Barnes will once again be on the proverbial hot seat and quite possibly done, which is sad to say.
It is a tough league to make a living in; any time you are on the road expect a fight. Right now Tech and TCU are the only road 'gimmies', and it won't take Tubby long to win there.
Rick is a very good basketball coach. I just wish he could see that he needs to hire an assistant who can help him with running a Indiana type offense. There is just not enough movement to get guys open and we make things so hard. Easy baskets are so rare with these teams as almost every shot is contested. Taylor should be able to play like TJ Ford did and open the floor up.
I think Rick was outcoached vs ISU. Both teams played zone a lot. ISU was able to generate offense to get inside on cuts and passes, lots of dunks and layups; points in the paint. Not so much with us. We had to rely on the outside shot mostly; our offense very dependent on a hot shooter. Not reliable.
Tech wasn't a road gimme for ISU. They lost in Lubbock 78-73 Saturday before they beat us in Ames Monday night.
Blonthang: Your optimism a few games ago was nice. And you did correctly predict consecutive losses to ISU and BU. But I have become more depressed and pessimistic since the loss at bu. so here is my updated prediction from here out: Lvs OKST L @ KSU W vs TCU W vs TTU L @ #19 OKLA L vs #9 ISU L @ #18 WVU L @ #11 KU L vs #21 BAY L vs KSU That is a very sad 2-8 the rest of the way. I hope Barnes proves me totally wrong, and that I'm suffering from a severe case of Chicken Littleitus.
2-8 and Barnes is DONE! 5-5 and they still only get to 19 wins...that's the best finish I can see. I'm gonna predict a few upsets & finish 4-6....that's 18 wins & NIT bound. So, would Barnes survive that?!?
I fully expected with Taylor's return we would be a top 5 or 10 team. The exact opposite has happened. The coaches and players need to start getting it together.
Taylor is in a severe funk. He had his pocket picked by an Okie State big tonight WTF. I think were I Barnes as soon as he is again healthy, I start Felix and maybe just park Taylor on the pine. I'd also think of going with Yancy over Holland unless Holland shows a willingness to pull the trigger from deep.
This may end up being a bubble team on the outside looking in if they don't get their heads out of their asses.
This post was made just before going to the new 2015 platform. Post as normal after it if you wish. blonthang (1000+ posts) 02/11/15 04:30 PM Re: 12 reg season games left From the original post of this thread, my 12-game prediction --- My prediction: L @ #9 ISU L @ #21 BAY W vs OKST L @ KSU W vs TCU W vs TTU W @ #19 OKLA W vs #9 ISU L @ #18 WVU W @ #11 KU W vs #21 BAY W vs KSU ------------------- Okay, so I got the OSU and KSU games backwards, but the OSU loss WAS a 2-point OT loss on the road, still not too bad. The win over KSU was kind of a surprise to me, but we'll take it. And now looks like Felix and Holmes are a bit banged up (anyone know if they're playing tonight against the Cockroaches?), but an interesting stat at the Longhorn Athletics website: "Detail Stats: Without Jonathan Holmes and Javan Felix, who combine for 21.7 points per game, the Longhorns shot 54 percent from the floor. It marked Texas' highest field goal percentage since shooting nearly 55 percent against Rice on Dec. 13." Which I guess is promising in that bench players are stepping up to fill the void. Weird year; still sticking to my, somewhat improbable, 12-game prediction. This is afterall a homer BBS for Longhorn basketball. Some slack should be allowed for fans to hope for the best, no? blonthang (1000+ posts) 02/15/15 02:35 PM Re: 12 reg season games left Yesterday, whilst KU beat Bible aggy, and ISU beat WVU, KSU beat OU and TCU beat OSU. These next couple of weeks are gonna rock in the Big12. NorthernNJHorn (100+ posts) 02/15/15 03:57 PM Re: 12 reg season games left A 5-1 finish seems improbable. 2-4 is what I would expect. 3-3 will probably get us an NCAA berth, and make me feel reasonably happy and look forward to next year. Htown77 (1000+ posts) 02/15/15 04:09 PM Re: 12 reg season games left I am glad we avoided upsets from Tech and TCU (hopefully we also avoid one from Kansas State in our last game), but we need to beat some of the top of the Big 12 in these next couple of weeks. Hopefully we get it done against OU and Iowa State this week. IndyHorn (500+ posts) 02/16/15 06:16 AM Re: 12 reg season games left I think we need to have 3 wins in our final 6 games. We need to finish the conference regular season at 0.500........ stubbing our toe at home versus both Oklahoma schools might be the reason we sit out the dance and Rick Barnes is shown the door. I'm hopeful Texas can steal a win in Norman, West Virginia, or at the Phog....... 9-9 or bust.
This post was made just before going to the new 2015 platform. Post as normal after it if you wish. ronich (25+ posts) 02/16/15 11:18 AM Re: 12 reg season games left Once again our offense is offensive, and relies on poor set pieces and the overuse of the three point shot. If our rebounding is weak, we have an injury, or the D is off a step...we lose. The classic Rick Barnes basketball team formula. The next 6 look like this to me: L @ #19 OKLA W vs #9 ISU L @ #18 WVU L @ #11 KU W vs #21 BAY W vs KSU Win two in the Big 12 Tourney and finish the season with a 23/24-11/12; End up with a 7/8 Seed in the NCAA Tourney 1 win and out to a mid-major (Cincinnati, Dayton, Providence) in Round 2 in a hard fought last second loss typically caused by poor coaching in last few moments. Rick somehow sticks it out to do it all over again... blonthang (1000+ posts) 02/16/15 04:21 PM Re: 12 reg season games left Ah, yes, the dreaded 8/9 seed (if the seeding numbers are anywhere close to fair evaluation of a team's playoff value, your reward for an 8 seed is the closest matched opponent of your regional, the 9, and if you win you play the region's No. 1 seed). Actually, IMHO, 7/10 isn't much better, you win over a closely ranked opponent, only to be rewarded by winning with the next game against the No.2 regional seed. I guess as a 7 playing a 10 is better than an 8/9 draw, but probably not much. I guess where I'm going with this is that if the Horns DO wind up with a 7-10 seed and win the first round, they won't get those teams noted in the second round (today's Bracketology: The Link likely to be among KU, Villanova, Wisconsin, Arizona (that's if they don't get the 8/9, win and then get either UK, Duke, UVA, or Gonzaga). Yikes. I think I hope this year the Horns fall from 7 to 8 to 9, all the way to a 10, squeeze out a win over 7 and get a 2 rather than one of those No. 1 seeds. Way ahead of ourselves here, though, could be NIT for all we will find.
Today we are sitting at 17-10 with four tough games to go. The only win I see is KSU, the season finale. That puts us at 18-11 going into the B12 tourney. Someone with more energy than me please project our opponent. KSU, TCU? I think we could win a game there, but have a hard time projecting more than one win in our conference tourney. If that is the case, then I think we could fall to a 10 seed, or wind up in the NIT. 18-11 would be a big disappoint to me after our fast start.
A few weeks ago I predicted 2-8 on this thread with 10 left. Blondthang said that would be the end of Rick if that came to pass. We are getting close to 3-7 with BU up next. Does 3-7 put Rick's job in jeopardy? I don't think so. Blondthang, what say you?
That was Buck-Horn who posted that 2--8 would be the end of Barnes. I'm disappointed with the last 4 games, but 3 of the 4 were road games, all were less than 10 point losses, and up until the final seconds the Horns could have won any of those games. Regardless, looks like the return of Taylor to early season form doesn't overcome the inexplicable (concussion?) funk/slump that Holmes is in. That, and Turner is showing that he is still a freshmen after all. Oh, well, unless the Horns run through the Big XII tournament (highly unlikely), it's NIT and look to next year. Hook 'em
I'm back to weigh in. Looks like my predicted 4-6 finish may be spot on. But still ask the question, regardless of any personal opinion about whether Barnes SHOULD stay or go....will Patterson actually make a coaching change if we finish with 18 wins & an NIT bid?!?
Horns have now dropped off all the "Bracketology" lists I have seen tonight. They appear to be on the "first 4 out" list. I think it's safe to conclude that a split vs BU & KSU this week will require us to go deep into the Big12 tourney for any chance of an NCCA bid.
If you had told me this after the Kentucky game I wouldn't have believed you. Even without Taylor they played a great game against the wildcats. Looks like a very disappointing end to a promising season. Hope they can turn it around and win the last two, and go deep in the B12 tourney. Don't see it though.
