"Texas is playing and winning on talent only. They are not fundamentally sound." And Kenny Smith: "Neither team is taking good shots. They are taking quick shots, but not good shots." Barkley's comments surprised me. I know the coaching leaves something to be desired, but that comment seemed harsh to me.
"if "the coaching leaves something to be desired", tell us what that is" I am no expert and my opinion is just that. A fan's opinion. But I do think the offensive coaching, scheming, lack of movement, spacing, and screening is sometimes a serious problem that leads to long periods of not scoring. The problems may not be coaching problems, and may not be coachable. In fact, I could be wrong on all counts. But that is my opinion. I think our defense is pretty darn good. And it seems fundamentally sound, unlike our offense.
damnit, i was looking for an argument. i think your assessment is pretty good. some of it may not be coachable at times. for example, how much do you want to "coach" hamilton and j'covan when both can create? our D is pretty salty and a major focus for this team
Kenny Smith supported him, saying Texas was putting up bad shots, and they thought they weren't going inside enough. But they must have made a half-dozen layups. Hamilton's the leading scorer, and he made four of eight. Thompson made.... four of eight. Greg Anthony thought Oakland would win, and it seemed as though their discussion was based on what they thought Texas's shortcomings were. But I thought they were pretty patient offensively. J'Covan Brown didn't really force anything, and they spread the ball around pretty well. They never get the ball inside enough, I suppose that's true. But it's not like Thompson has a go-to move that works every time. I was pretty happy with how they played on offense, except for not handling the last five minutes very well. But they were never in danger of losing, like Arizona was.
One man's opinion; Barkley has been known to be wrong a time or two. OTOH, of the 14 ESPN "expert pickers", 6 pick Texas to win the West: The Link with only 4 for Duke, 2 for SDSU, and 2 for UCONN. Must be all that superior talent that Texas has compared to Duke to overcome the coaching differential between Barnes and who is soon to become the all-time winningest coach in the NCAA.
Those comments were idiotic. We played very well offensively today throughout the game. Every time Oakland was making a push to get it under 10, JCB or Jordan would hit a shot to prevent a run.
I'm with Bob on this one. I love the exchange between Barkley and Smith for NBA broadcasts, but they are talking out of their asses with these NCAA airings. Take those halftime remarks. Oakland settled for many early shots and even made a few despite excellent defense, but the bulk of Texas' offense came inside. Virtually every Horn was getting to the rim; they just weren't finishing as well as they should. But Sir Charles and Jet saw that as not being fundamentally sound and taking quick shots from poor areas of the court? Idiotic. What's Bill Walton up to these days, aside from making Guinness commercials? If any NBA guy is going to comment on this college tournament, it should be him.
I hate to be "that guy", but I agree w/ Barkley. I feel Texas rarely plays to its level of recruiting. Second, how many major coaches or major basketball teams do you see who can rise to the top of the nation, and then crash as bad as we have the last two seasons? We've had games where we've rallied phenomenally in the end (KU) and games where the opposite happens (CU). Today was almost another game in the latter situation.. It's inconsistency. These teams have 'potential' to be really amazing teams. I feel it relies on coaching to maintain this potential. Am I saying we need to for man angry mob and make our way over to Barnes' place? No. I do feel that Barnes needs to make a few changes in his overall coaching scheme though to better manage our talent and chemistry. What should we change? I don't know, I don't get paid enough to make those decisions..
I agree. But Texas went from being the "hottest team in the nation" both seasons, to a handful of losses. Maybe I have a short memory, but I never recall seeing top 5 teams with that much heat to going 1-3 in their next 4 games, as we have the last 2 seasons. I feel that is a trait that you won't ever see with any big-name coach. You won't see it with Bill Self, Roy Williams, Coach K, ... Yes, that is a pretty nice list of coaches there, but I don't think you can be considered an elite ball coach until you have better control of your team.
@pringles So you're saying Roy Williams is a pretty crappy coach since he took a lot of talent and put it in the NIT last year. He was NIT bound this year until, 2 months after all the UNC fans were demanding it, he put in Marshall for Drew. There are a lot of teams that have fallen like Texas has. Bad chemistry does that. I'm not sure how old you are--do you need a list?
mr.pringles, that's an entirely different discussion. We're talking about talking heads saying Texas was fundamentally unsound and took bad shots in a half when it shot 58 percent. It was one of the better halves they've played, I thought. These guys were basically going on what they thought they knew, or what they were told.
I doubt that these guys spend a lot of time watching these games. They watch a few highlights, but are probably just basing their opinions on sound bites and scouting reports regarding tendencies a team has exhibited in the past.
I think Roy Williams is a hell of a coach. A different season brings a completely different team, scheme, chemistry, so on.. The best coaches can't always prevent a down year, but they 'should' have at least some degree of control at negating a mid-season slump. Great coaching can help build chemistry, preparation, and motivation, something that I think our team greatly lacked in our previous slumps. I've heard numerous reports that our team was plain exhausted and that practices were brutal. Again, maybe I'm wrong, but I challenge anyone to find a top-5 team who had a 1-3 slump immediately after building as much as Texas had. 2 of the above losses were to teams that didn't even make the dance. Admittedly, I haven't been watching college basketball much more than the last 5 years, but in this time, I never recall seeing top 5 teams, much less top-2 teams, have this big of a turn around.
Bob in Houston You're right, I may have taken it a bit out of context. The Horns did play a really good game, and I feel Oakland is better then their seed showed. They really played with some heart. Here's to a good game against Arizona
I dunno Gem... it seems like Barnes can't do much right by the media these days. Check out this from the AP story:
Pringles, Syracuse went 0-4 in January after reaching #1, including a 22-point loss at home versus Seton Hall, which didn't make the tourney.
Bob, that is a pretty stupid comment for that article. At no point did I ever feel we were going to lose. We were in complete control of the game until the last 2-3 minutes.
I agree that the AP statement was a misrepresentation of the end of the game. I never felt the horns were in danger, even when Oakland was within five. We were hitting the foul shots (especially Brown) and final score should have been 85-79, but the refs made a ****** call at the very end which gave Oakland two freethrows as time expired. Our offense was really helped today by playing a team with poor defense. Especially interior defense. Our inside game today was not contested in a tough way. Sunday we'll see how well our offense is going. I don't know much about Ariz. Is there defense tough? Do they have a tough inside game to give TT trouble?
Barkley and Anthony's comments generally reflect what a lot of observers have been thinking about the Texas offense over the last few years. Ironically, those comments came after a first half in which the Horns shot well over 50% from the field.
Izzo this year had Barne's last year. MSU started out preseason #2 with a few 1st place votes. Went 3-0 and was gettting 8 1st place votes, still at #2. Then went rocky for the rest of the season, not at a 1-3 equivalent clip, and lost to some really good teams along the road, but HEY, it's TOM IZZO (who I think may do the most with what he has more than any other coach), you know, the national champsionship ring wearing coach? Lost 1st round to UCLA. He couldn't figure out his team this year either, like Rick last year. It happens some times. Oh, and Nova flamed out after top-5 caliber play early, went 16-1, last 10 games went 4-6, lost opener to George Mason.
Barkley also said that Arizona, Memphis, and Texas were the most athletic teams he has seen this year.
I have a hard time taking issue with an offense that scored as Manu as we did today. When you're in the 80s in a 40 minute game you're offense is doing alright.
