Yes, Rick made a boo boo not calling a timeout before the inbounds pass by Cory. It cost us the game. Then what about all the rest of the team that were to far from Joseph and did not do their job to bail him out? But replace Barnes with the incoming class we got??? Uh, who do you think is available out there. Who? I wanna know who is out there, better than Barnes that would come and stay. Have you noticed the coachless schools struggling to find SOMEBODY? Barnes is making progress, albeit slow progress, incremental progress. Thats beats some other ya hoo coming in and undoing all he has accomplished. But yes he needs to take his coaching up one more notch and I know he is close. Folks-- Be careful for what you wish for. It could be alot worse. Tonights final 15 seconds has me sick to, but; Barnes is still the man unless you can convince Bill Self or Coach K to come here.
I am pretty sure all fan bases find shortcomings in their coach eventually if not already. It's what we do and how we roll! I cannot wait till next year with this class coming in. I really hope those that can, stay.
C'mon, you seem to know it all. You have Barnes pegged as a loser, can't get it done type. So step up and show all of us how you'd do it. Or just do us all a favor and shut the f**k up.
Thanks 100P Oh and that post on the other thread was a classy piece. Still, I feel much pain tonight. Kinda like 1984 Cotton Bowl type. UGHHH
Barnes is a great recruiter, decent at defense and horrible with offense. I have also read where he is known to nut up in the tournament so I'm not sure if he is that good of game day coach. Just hire someone who knows offense. It's not that hard.
baoklhorn makes a great point about being careful what we ask for. Just like with HS kids in recruiting, it's the hot name that is yet unproven on the bigger stage. I am not saying the Butler coach could not or would not do a better job than Rick Barnes but there is not all that much more wiggle room in what results need to be reached. He has a heck of a lot more room to fail. The odds are that more coaches won't get it done than would. This is proven in the numbers of long term coaches are at a program or not. How many "hot" coaches have gone on to big time programs and failed compared to how many thrive? I don't know the numbers but I presume the former thrashes the latter. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be in the Final Four, the Championship game and win every single year. This goes for every single sport that Longhorns play. Reality dictates otherwise. Our program has not been on probation and has damned good kids who still hang out on campus while taking classes to finish their degrees over the Summer. That says a hell of a lot to me. I like our status quo, accept our defeats while cheering our triumphs and hope for more triumphs to come on a bigger stage. I am glad that our players and coaches are as class as they are. I only wish many of our fans could join them since they "root" for them.
Truthfully, you guys are giving Barnes too much of a pass. This is a coach who can recruit but can't win Big-12 basketball championships. He produces very good won-loss records on a yearly basis, but lately pitiful performances in the NCAA tournament. Barnes has to win at least ONE Big-12 tournament before I'll start believing in him.
if TT and JH do come back (a big if) and we cannot make it to the sweet 16, then yes it would be time to make a change. Lot's off pressure on Barnes next year if he cannot take this team deeper.
I've wanted to give Barnes a pass over the past few years. I really have. At some point though we have to be honest w/ ourselves. He's a great recruiter, a good coach, but he's not great. What he did for this program gives him another year or two to figure it out in my book, but I think it's crazy to just keep saying "well it could always be worse". (which is obviously true though I'll concede)
Who cares what kind of class he has coming in? He'll just waste them and get booted in the 1st or 2nd round of the tournament once again. Barnes has taken his team beyond the 2nd round ONCE in the last 5 years. I guess I just don't see the progress in that, "small and incremental" or otherwise. The program is going nowhere under his leadership because he refuses to correct the issues that kill us EVERY YEAR (zero offensive game plan, poor discipline, horrible FT shooting, etc).
I mean just look at some of the talent we've had since '04: Brad Buckman (5 star) LaMarcus Aldridge (5) Daniel Gibson (5) Mike Williams (5) Kevin Durant (5) Damion James (5) DJ Augustin (4) J'Covan Brown (4) Jordan Hamilton (5) Cory Joseph (5) Tristan Thompson (5) This team alone has: (5) 4 stars (3) 5 stars Sure some of the guys are young, but given that all top recruiting teams have to deal w/ guys leaving early it's a pretty even playing field. How do we have this much talent and consistently get bounced early from the tourney?
And the most disturbing thing to me has always been the 2007 tourney where we lost to USC in the second round by almost 20 points. A team that had such scrubs as: Kevin Durant DJ Augustin Damion James Dexter Pittman AJ Abrams How is that even possible?
Barnes is a great recruiter and an above average (not great) coach. Unfortunately, the programs at Duke, Ohio State, Kentucky, Kansas, and North Carolina still out-recruit Barnes in most years. We're a top ten basketball school now. But not in the top five. Yet. Obviously we should keep Barnes, due to his record. But I don't think he will be the one to get us into that top 5 group. Where we're at is pretty darn good. We're building a rep as one of the perrenial basketball schools.
Rick has one more shot. TT will return to play with his boys- who can make a legit ncaa title run. With Myck at the point and JCB and Corey running the combo/2...and TT down low?? Oh man. Hamilton is gone, as well he should. He will be a first round pick plus he doesn't gel (IMO) with what the Horns will be doing next year. McClellan and Holmes could be solid bench contributors as freshman. Holy **** we'll be stacked. If Rick can't win a MNC with that squad, he definitely has to go...bottom line.
You list all those 5 star players, but how many of them stayed on the University for more than one year? Look at the most successful programs of the past decade and you'll notice they are all senior-heavy. None deal with one-and-dones (save Carmelo and Syracuse in 03). I'm excited about next year not because of who is coming in, but who we can finally start building a team around. Sorry, but team leadership in the form of AJ Abrams will never win a championship.
The criteria is that he is a half-assed coach. He recruits well but we are underperforming year after year... it's a no-brainer... As for firing him I'd say not because we could have easily won that game and we wouldn't be having this conversation. But the last four oe five years is establishing the fact that we have reached the ceiling with Barnes. If you're happy with that then so be it but the arrogant profane remarks are CHILDISH.
Wow win a National Championship or get fired or replaced? WTF? I think you need to lower your expectations. I would Love for Texas to win the Big 12 and or Big 12 tournament. Compete well and reach at least the Sweet 16 every year. Most Schools would be Elated with a 28 - 8 record. I will take that every year.
I will not be happy with a 28-8 record every year and getting bumped in the first or second round of the tourney. This team is loaded with talent. Much of it young, raw, but big time talent. This team should have won yesterday. It should be in the sweet sixteen. A lot of teams were upset this year. A lot of teams surprisingly are going home. Pitt, Notre Dame, UNC, to name a few. Still, I think Coach Barnes's poor record in March says he needs to improve, make some changes to help his team advance.
The number of coaches who I would consider "better" than RB is so small, and they are in such good situations, there is no point in talking about trading up. At best we would be betting on good showings at smaller programs translating and that is a big risk. Bringing in an offensive guru would probably be the solution, anyway. Is his ego able to accomodate that? Who knows. It would be wise to remember, however, that RB elevated Texas to the where we are now; a perenial invitee to the big dance, and a name that doesn't just apply to football. Sweet 16s and Final 4s would be very nice, but throwing the baby out with the bathwater does not make sense.
I actually think the guy who brought up the Butler coach in the other thread is on to something. I would not make a move this year because Barnes does have a good recruiting class coming and may finally have a PG to run his "offense." But if Barnes does not do something next year with Hamilton (possibly), TT (possibly), Brown, Joseph, and Kapongo (not to mention the other talented recruits), then Texas really needs to start thinking about making a change.
You want to talk about Barnes's strong points and shortcomings, talent that may or may not have been wasted, prospects for next year, fine. No discussion of possible replacements is permitted.
