Enough, Rick. Time to go away. You have had 12 years and an incredible recruiting base, and what we get is the embarrassing first round loss we watched tonight. Your only trip to the Final Four was with the national player of the year and a gift-wrapped regional in San Antonio. You are not the guy to get us there. We appreciate what you've done for us, but you're not the guy. For the future of our program, time to go away..
I think Barnes is sick, or burned out. He looks awful, and the only emotions I see from him are anger, and .. nothing.
And also for benching the guy who led us with 20 second-half points, and the only reason we stuck around with the team that led by 12 at one point.
I don't think this can be totally pinned on Barnes. This team collectivelly has no heart, no fire, no toughness and can't shoot worth a darn. I feel bad for James since I feel like he generally left it all on the court, but he had to play with a bunch of little girls. This team diserved to lose tonight.
he has had that look at the end of the season for about 3 years, IMO. I think he needs an Urban Meyer style leave of absence, and try to get some good assistant coaches that can coach blocking out, rebounding, taking a charge, defense, free throws, etc. IMO, he really had some great assistant coaches that have gone on to bigger and better things, and he didn't have the amount of stress then that he has now. The D is what is so shocking. I bet Wake had as many put back dunks in today's game as we had field goals during the first 30 minutes of the game. And yet, we were still in the game at the end. I think basketball has been set back about 12 years this year. Even though the overall record doesn't reflect it, I think we're back to where we were at the end of Penders time. Of course there is no scandal now like there was at the end of Penders time, and we're not a basketball school, so I don't see Rick going anywhere. Next year, probably go something like 20 and 13, just slightly worse than this year, go to tournament, lower seed than 9.
I agree this team has no heart, toughness or whatever else you said . . . and who's fault is that?? What is worse is that Barnes had 1 guy keeping him in this game for the first 20 minutes - Jordan Hamilton - and he may as well have been in street clothes for the first 17 minutes of the 2nd half. I won't blame this loss completely on him - J'Covan deserves some of the credit for his charge - but if you can't motivate your players, then it is time to find someone who can.
In the last 80 seconds of the game, Brown (our PG - i.e. floor leader) . . . -- committed a charge with 26 seconds on the shot clock -- missed 3/4 FTs He played great before that, but with the game on the line he had a big hand in the defeat.
I made reference to Abe Lemons in another thread, who I consider to be the best basketball coach we have had here at Texas. While he didn't always have the best players, he usually got the best out of them. They were fundamentally sound and could shoot, pass, rebound, make free throws and play defense. Most of them left as much better players than when they got here. Abe's problem was that he said what was on his mind, which at times ruffled the feathers of the establishment at Texas and the recently hired Athletic Director Deloss Dodds. He just couldn't play the games off the court that coaches at large universities are required to - something that Barnes and Mack Brown seem to do quite well. Perhaps he was out of his element, but he was one hell of a coach.
Rex: You and I have disagreed over a lot of stuff regarding both basketball and (especially) football over the past year. That said, I'm not sure it's humanly possible for you to have made more correct points on this page of the thread. Agree completely with everything you said.
I have been as critical of Barnes as anyone, but I am not quite ready to run this guy out of town. I still think the answer is to hire an "offensive-minded" assistant to be the offensive coordinator. Barnes can run the defense and recruit. We don't need 5 assistant coaches that are all known as great recruiters (not sure of the exact number, but I think it is 4 or 5 assistant coaches). Now, can Barnes admit he needs help is the next question. Mack had to swallow his pride to bring in some big-time D coordinators. It is Barnes' time to do the right thing.
Brown is not a smart player. Period. He is not a natural PG and he never will be. That's not his fault. Barnes teams have never played smart except when they have a true 1. Somehow, we never have a backup plan when we lose our PG's and we are always trying to make a 2 play the 1. I am very curious as to some of our scholarship players that do not even have the look of Div I talent. The Big XII coaches have gotten better while barnes has refused to do what Mack did and grow with his team. From Jan on this team was almost unwatchable. Sloppy passes, bad defense, bad decisions, bad shots, stupid fouls, and lack of hustle. Ironically, these USED to be pros of a Barnes team. Something is wrong and I am not sure if he needs to clean house with coaches or what but I see us as being worse this season than we were last season and I do not see this trend changing next year.
UT needs to decide what it wants in a basketball program and whether Barnes is the man to get UT to that point, whatever it is. Barnes needs to decide what he wants to achieve in his coaching career in the next 10 to 15 years that career will probably extend. He needs to decide at what school he wants to be. He needs to decide if he is going to make any changes in the way he coaches or the way he treats his players. The vast majority of UT fans (the ones who don’t care about basketball very much at all) need to decide whether they are ever going to care about basketball or create a basketball culture at UT. All three of the above decisions are intertwined.
Stat: Your analysis of the play is a blocking foul by the purest definition. Defender moving laterally = blocking foul. It is not the offensive player's duty to anticipate the defender's reaction and not be there, it's the other way around (the defender has to beat the ball handler to the spot). This is basketball 101. Sometimes the ref gives the defender a charge call in this instance if the offensive player thrusts his arm or shoulder into the defender. Neither of these happened. Awful call.
You have the right to move laterally as long as you arent impeding the ball carriers current drive. However, my understanding is that even if you do move laterally without bumping the defender, your FEET still have to be set. His were still moving, he never truley gained his position. However, JCovan had no reason to run into him so the right call was probably made. I still think it was a block though...
Rex, I think you make some very solid points. It is baffleing to me why Brown was benched so much of the time. clearly he was in Barne's doghouse. Barnes may have been trying to teach the kid some lessons in team play or discipline or whatever. i hope Barnes and Brown get on the same page soon, because Brown seems like a super talent to me. However, I cannot think of any reason Barnes defensive plans were so lame. The uncontested dunk put backs, the repeatedly getting beat down the court which led to easy baskets seem to be on Barnes totally. Just poor coaching and scheming. As someone said earlier, if we don't have a lottery pick running the offense, Barnes' teams consistently get beat by inferior talent. the weaknesses of his overly simple offensive plan really shows against top competition.
If someone has a clear lane to the basket and a defender comes in laterally and hasnt established his position.. its a block. Thats all I was trying to say. I guess thats not the rule anymore? JCovan chose to drive into him when he could've backed off and gone to mid court or somewhere else. I think thats half the reason it was called. There were other options and he chose one of the worst thinking he would get the call.
Texas got some bum calls in the end. The refs seemed to let the guys play most of the game until the end. Sad
