Report: Hamilton and Thompson to declare for NBA

Back to the original topic, according to SI.com, as of today Tristan Thompson has declared, but Jordan Hamilton has not. I am not vouching for the accuracy of this list.

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I mthink thats still the other Tristan Thompson & they just never corrected their original error.
Otherwise, he would be listed too.

HOOK 'EM,
Texdoc

 

No, that's not a "mistake." The other Tristan Thompson is a senior... no need to declare.

 

You guys are not talking about the same year. Joe is talking about 2003. TXT is talking about 2007.

As for the KD year, no, a team with six freshmen in the main rotation was not going to be a championship team.

 

Regarding conference championships, Barnes coached in the ACC where he had no chance out-recruiting UNC and Duke. In the Big 12, clearly Kansas is the class of the conference and though some of you might deny it, Kansas can cherry-pick its recruits.

A lot of you "babble" about metrics. Ok, give the rest of us (Barnes supporters) some hard numbers of what you expect--lay it out. How many Final Fours/Elite 8s/Sweet 16s do you expect in any given 5 year period? How many points get deducted for not making the tourney at all?

There's only two coaches that I see that coach better than they recruit at this level. One is Jim Calhoun. We might be able to throw Brad Stevens in there (and perhaps Boeheim).

Coach K underperforms compared to his recruiting. Self gets criticized for his No. 1 seeds crashing. Dixon at Pitt has gotten knocked out early. Howland had a good run but didn't even make it into the tourney last year. Donovan had his fair share of early bumps (cough NIT). Gary Williams has fallen off the map at Maryland. Huggins is dirty, Calipari seems dirty, Pitino--enough said.

We won't get Self, Izzo, Calhoun, Williams, Coach K, Donovan, Stevens, Calipari. Who's your messiah?

Look at the Coach G hire. Consistent top 5 at Duke, great recruiting. She had the perfect pedigree for Texas and hasn't been able to make a splash at all. It just seems that some of you are intentionally obtuse about how competitive basketball is. Penders got the recovery going, Barnes has taken the next step. For the final step, I don't know who you think will come in and do a better job. Want to gamble on Sean Miller? Really????

PS Barnes took a player that NC State didn't even want and turned him into a 2nd rounder (PJ Tucker) and a big fat kid who wasn't a top 100 prospect and got him a shot (Dexter Pittman) and even Connor Atchley is playing in the D-League (look at his Rivals raiting his senior year). Don't think Barnes ever needs to apologize for giving his players a chance to make the NBA (esp to anonymous posters like us).

PPS And if you want to win at all costs, we can hire Scott Drew. Want to go there??

 

2222, I don't necessarily disagree with you. The problem with most of your examples is that all of those coaches have had at least one breakthrough of some sort and some have had multiple breakthroughs - Coach K (multiple), Self (1), Calhoun (multiple). Barnes has yet to make a real solid breakthrough of any sort. One could argue that Barnes did the best he could do in 2003 and that is about the best we can expect. I understand that most fans are happy with this, but I am not. I want a championship and I do not think I am asking for too much.

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The coach G formula doesn't come close to fitting in this scenario. She was charged with rebuilding the program first and then maintaining success. Next year will be her first year with all of her own recruits and a full roster. Also it will be the first top 10 recruiting class of her tenure here. So you are very wrong in your caparison of her and barnes because she hasn't had nearly the talent at Texas that he has had. This is her first year with real sweet 16 expectations and aspirations

 

Back in 2008, Barnes had us in 2 Elite 8s in 3 years and he was gold. Just a year and a half ago, we hit a No. 1 ranking and he was untouchable. We go 28-8 this year and now Barnes is being pegged as not being able to do it. I just don't agree.

As for Coach G, I'm a huge fan. Her assistant coaches would play pick up with the law students at Duke and that's when I got to know how she ran her program. Let's face it 7 straight 30 win seasons at Duke and now 4 straight 19-21 win seasons at Texas is a big disappointment. If there was such a glaring hole in the talent level at Texas, I really thought she would have brought in some top 5 recruiting classes right away to fix that and she hasn't been able to do it. I'm just saying with both coaches i'm willing to give them more time based on their track records.

 

Are there any official reports of either declaring?

I did a search on NBA.com and ESPN.com for 'Tristan Thompson' and both returned nothing recent (i.e. last posts were during the tournament).

FWIW, I checked TexasSports.com, and they did post an article when Avery Bradley declared last year (April 8th, 2010). Still no articles about Thompson or Hamilton.
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Nothing official.

 

You guys were missing my point about Oklahoma and Coach G. I am not comparing either situation to Barnes. As you pointed out, the situations are not even comparable. What I was saying, and what I have said, is that it is a legitimate concern for the Texas program to make a move with Barnes and we wind up taking a major step backward in the program. However you slice it, the OU men and Texas women programs have taken a step backward and I do not think any fan wants that to happen.

But I also don't want to continue going down the same road we are in and just be frustrated year after year and have players basically use us as a stop gap on their way to the NBA.

Bob, I don't care as much about the stats and the numbers for the coaches as you do. I would gladly give up the tournament appearances every 4 years (like Calhoun) for 3 championships over that same span. I would gladly miss the tournament 2 years in a row to win back to back championships like Donovan (heck, I would gladly miss 5 tournaments in a row if you gave me back-to-back championships). Making all these tournaments in a row is great, but if you don't do much when you get there, then you are going to get questioned.

Maybe it is Mack Brown syndrome. As soon as Barnes wins a NC, then all the questions will go away. But I think there is a fundamental flaw in the way Barnes coaches offense and the way he recruits. It is this fundamental flaw that will leave us with quick exits from tournaments with an occassional Elite 8 or rare Final 4 if we are able to get that Elite PG that can lead the offense despite Rick Barnes.

 

Can you imagine the meltdown and whining if one year we missed the tourney completely?! Even if it meant Rick would win it all 2 years later, people would not want him to have that time.

He has not won it all nor has he ever missed the tourney.

 

So you would consider Hakim Warrick and AJ Abrams the same player?

Texas played arguably the worst team defense in the Durant year that it has played under Barnes. They had short guards and inexperience all over the floor. Syracuse in 2003 had freshmen, but had several players who had had at least some experience playing the Boeheim zone. There has never been a team with as little experience that gained as high a seed as Texas did with Durant.

The Memphis team this year was comparable to the Durant team. It wouldn't have made the tournament but for winning the CUSA tournament. The Durant team got a four seed. I wouldn't say that every bit of that difference was Kevin Durant, but clearly most of it was, him and Augustin.

Look, the Durant team went 24-10, with many ups and downs. They went out to a pretty good USC team, with an excellent defensive coach who realized that the most important player on the team was not Durant, but Augustin, and had the defensive ability to cut him off.

Here is the difference experience makes. The next year, without Durant, the team won seven more games and made the EE.

 

The problem with recruiting "one and dones" is that save for Aldridge and Durant, you don't know for sure that you've recruited a one-year guy. Bradley and Thompson were not really considered one-year players -- could've gone (Bradley did), maybe wouldn't.

Gibson left on the early side. So did Augustin. If those guys had stayed one more year, if TJ Ford stayed one more year, you might have been looking at a NC, and a couple more FFs. But for every one of those, I can give you an Ohio State from this year, KU from this year, KU last year, etc. But the "problem" wouldn't be as evident in terms of Barnes's record.

The trend is that younger teams will win because the "dominant" teams of high D-I are sliding toward the Barnes model. Syracuse was the first team that was able to do it. Florida '06 was pretty close, and the UConn championship team probably is on the list as well. Kentucky would have been, had it won.

But that's still not the recent majority. A lot more young teams end up on side of the road than in the final four.

If you're trying to get me to say that Barnes should have done better the last couple of years, I have agreed with you. I just don't see a better path today.

As I said earlier, there are three options: Stop caring, live with it, or mull the alternative. The coaching stats are designed to point out there are no sure things as an alternative. So it's down to the first two. When I first read this report, I was strongly considering option 1. Having thought about it, and how much I like college hoops, I'll probably be with option 2. That's where reviewing Barnes's record comes in. He's recruited well, he's won games, he's won tournament games and advanced far in the tournament several times.

I agree, one-and-dones are potential program killers, certainly enthusiasm killers. If it happens this year, and then happens again next year, Barnes will not be as popular. And then maybe I'll be looking harder at option 1.

 

Yeah, I cannot "not care." I have tried that and I like basketball (and Texas basketball) too much. I was really expecting very little out of this team this year with the crap that Hamilton and Brown spewed out on the court at the end of last year. But Barnes surprised me and he really got those guys to play well (and within themselves) and I had really high expectations when we were in the top 5. But I saw Barnes piss that away with his inability to coach offense (namely, his inability to coach his first year player TT against Arizona) and now, I see Hamilton is leaving just as Barnes is getting him to play the way he wants and TT is leaving before he is ready, and I just get really frustrated and upset.

I think Barnes is a good coach when he gets time with players. This is not to say that I think he is an offensive genuis of any sort. But when you have more time with players you can get them to do the right thing on the court and make the best decisions and that will win you a lot more games than you will lose (especially with the talent).

Losing Tristan Thomposn makes it that much worse. That guy could really benefit from another year of college and think he could be really great and do great things with a second year under Barnes. But now we have to see him go and basically start over with a new crop of guys.

And then I have to listen to the other Longhorn fans just accept things for what they are and just tell me that "it could be much worse" or "be glad you weren't a fan in the 80s." I get even more frustrated because this program could do great things and win championships and I think we are selling ourselves short by accepting things the way they are.

I guess what I am trying to say is that it is hard to be a fan of this basketball program.