barnes is a great coach. i think he is one of the best in the game, and i want him to retire here. i know him and like him personally. this post is not a flame, and it's not a post to debate the quality of barnes as a coach--it's just my 2 cents. as good as barnes is, i think that in order for us to win a national championship, he's got to coach the offense better. the one constant with his teams has been that they often bog down offensively (and poor free throw shooting). people in the past have defended him by saying that we didn't have the right players to put up big offensive numbers. that isn't the case now. all of the pieces are there. it's ridiculous how many different things you could do with this group. personally i'd like to see more high/low game with damion and dex. i don't see this team winning it all unless they can find a consistent offense. dex has been neutralized, and we haven't adjusted well. the outside in/inside out game has got to get much crisper. watching the kstate game, i was pleased to see the dribble penetration, but that seemed to be the only way to generate o in the second half. this team has the pieces to win it all, but due to its poor free throw shooting, it has to be very efficient on offense. thoughts? comments?
Instead of having 10 guys avg 10+ mins...He should find a solid rotation and stick with it. I just hope Barnes makes them shoot 100's of free throws in practice, cause it will bite us in March if we continue to struggle at the line
I agree Starchild. This is a well-known fact though. Barnes just isn't a good offensive coach and it's shown lately. Defense? Rebounding? Recruiting? Hilarious sarcastic one-liners? He's definitely at the top of the list. I wish we'd get an assistant coach who could just coach offense, because Rick really struggles with offensive sets. This results in a freakishly talented Texas team with 5 guys trying to play 1-1 almost getting beat by a moderately talented A&M team at home who is running sets the entire night and getting wide open shots/layups from assists. Playing 10 guys is not the problem. Putting them in a position to fail offensively (much like in football with the O-Line and the running game) is the problem and it is unfair to the players to then rag on them for playing poorly.
Offensive sets? There are none. Both Bobby Knight and Digger Phelps pointed out that our offense consisted of a point guard (Balbay, Lucas) dribbling around for most of the shot clock with four guys standing around and watching. That is NOT an offense; it's a playground which some of our freshmen are used to but can't consistently capitalize on. It may be difficult to crtiicize an (almost) unbeaten team, but if it weren't for the ungodly talent that Rick has recruited, we would be mediocre because of the lack of an offensive scheme.
Barnes has always been unable to coach offense, bottom line. When we had TJ Ford it was all his creativity, same with Durant etc. Success depends on top notch recruits being able to create the offense by sheer talent.
We run a random screen,pick and roll all over the court. But we are stronger at running the floor and up tempo style. More movement would improve our shot selections and move the defense. We are standing around waiting for a pass. We are letting other teams set tempo for the game,our strength is up tempo and ball pressure and help defense, things that we have not continue to do the last 3-4 times out.
I disagree with having "set rotations". Barnes has an abundance of riches as far as depth goes and should use that depth to bench those players that didn't come to play, or can't hit a shot. Obviously, we need to improve in FT shooting. But I also think the problem over the past couple of games is that our players aren't moving w/out the ball in the half-court offense. Oh yeah, and Pittman has been on vacation.
