Texas Hoops vs. Baylor: Post-Mortem, kinda

Coach Barnes is the new Tom Penders.

Trips are u retarded ? Seriously ? How long r u going to keep making excuses for Jordan. He has not really improved all year long. U refuse to admit that he wasn’t and isn’t as good as u thought he was, so u just blame it on Rick Barnes. Their isn’t a coach in the country that would allow him to play the way he has. Barnes has done great by still playing his ass. U don’t reward bad shots, turnovers, little to no effort on defense and just downright selfish play with more minutes dummy. Fran Fraschilla said the same thing that I said a few weeks ago on this site. Texas needs a true point guard and they simply don’t have it. All this bullshit u spew about floor balance is just another attempt to make yourself seem smarter than u actually are. It is real simple. Like Fran and I have said, Texas’ best teams were when T.J. Ford and D.J. Augustin were running the show. Yeah the random screen offense works for Phoenix because Steve Nash has the keys to the car, not Justin Mason or Dog Balbay. As talented as J’Covan is, he is not a point. If they had Tweety Carter or even Roberson from Texas Tech they would be a top 5 team. The point guard is too important to the college game to not have one. I don’t give a fuck how much talent u have. If u don’t have the right person behind the wheel, it is irrelevant. Any of the starting point guards in the conference or at least 80% of them would be a huge upgrade over what Texas currently has on the roster. Texas might not make it out of the first round this year.

I have to disagree with Barnes’ coaching of Hamilton. He seems to be one of the few players who grew and played better as the season progressed (James and Johnson did as well). Hamilton’s problem has always been that he thinks he is playing a game of 21. Defense isn’t necessary, even picking up a man isn’t necessary, no reason to pass the ball because you don’t have any teammates, and there certainly isn’t a shot clock to worry about. He needs to learn about this sport of basketball if he is to help us in any real sense, and if he wants to play in the NBA one day. Hamilton played his best ball, and helped the team the most when he was doing as he was instructed. He helped take us out of games whenever he reverted back to his “instincts”. If you were to tell any other player in all of Division I, “Just don’t shoot a contested three as soon as you get the ball, and 30 seconds are left on the shot clock; and you will get all the PT you could want”, they would happily oblige. Since our team IQ seems to be a big problem, what does it say when we have probably the only guy in Division I that will hear that and say, “Fuck it, here I come”?

Egg, that’s all fine and good, but what did JH do tonight to warrant the benching? You’re talking in generalities parroted by know nothing ESPN color analysts who watch one or two Texas games a year. I saw one egregiously bad shot tonight. The other shots were significantly better than most any other shot we’d get on a given possession.

You’re better than that, man.

I’m just now sitting down and watching the game, I’m talking about what Hamilton has done all year long. I have no insider info, but it seems Barnes made it clear to Hamilton what will keep him on the floor and what will keep him off. Hamilton has a shorter leash than other players for bad shots, I assume, because he is the only guy on the floor who is willing to shoot 10 straight shots on 10 straight possessions without passing the ball once. And I’m not exaggerating.

The growth Hamilton has had, and ipowers is very wrong – Hamilton has improved, is because he was starting to go long stretches where he would look to move the ball. The shots he gets pulled for he can get anytime he wants, and he should be taking those with under 10 seconds on the shot clock. The fact that he is still willing to come into the game, catch the ball on the wing, and take a 25 footer with a hand in his face with 30 seconds on the shot clock shows that he still needs more work. That is the one thing he gets pulled for, and he keeps doing it.

I had to run laps way way way back in the day because I didn’t bounce pass the ball into the post, in practice, two times in a row down the court. You know how often I do that here 15 years later in pickup games? Never.

Hamilton plays through defensive lapses and he plays through turnovers. He doesn’t play through contested early shots. It’s not a grey area Barnes lets him learn in, and it is because Hamilton will not show any of his own restraint in that one regard. Getting 20-30 minutes a night with the defense he plays shows Barnes can be very forgiving!

granted…I’ve been out a bar drinking…but it’s just really fucking difficult to accept that BU beat us 3 times this year in basketball. really bent us over the last two times and made us look bad. it fucking sucks losing to BU ONCE in any sport. never mind 3 fucking times in hoops.

Barnes has been great for UT. but if this shit continues, he won’t last long…

I’m praying he “figures it out” in the big dance. winning 2 games would be a huge relief.

ipowers – ok, we have no PG. Williams isn’t one either. So what the fuck are you trying to say?

Fran Fraschilla? What the hell has she done since ‘Nanny and the Professor’?

Good write-up, Trips. I laughed and learned. It was like an episode of Family Ties.
 
ipowers -
 
You’re happy with our transition defense? Because that’s what Trips is referencing with respect to floor balance.
 
And your typing about point guards is something we’d pretty much discussed, established, and put to bed about fifteen games ago. So Trips reiterating it in every post-game isn’t particularly valuable.

I thought ipowers was arrested naked in a lake?

Defensively the team has been slipping that really goes without saying, but that’s not the main problem. Offensive futility is the problem plain and simple. Kids these days are fueled by their offense. If they see the ball going in the hole they get energized on defense. It’s backwards but these are the type of kids that play college basketball today. Scipio fyi, it wasn’t put to bed cause when I originally posted it 15 games ago Trips dumb ass had some stupid shit to say about it, because he’s the professor. So once again shut the fuck up.

I bet Hickory, NC is one hell of a shithole.

Barnes has built Texas into the 3rd best basketball program in Texas.

Quite an accomplishment considering his limited resources and lack of institutional support. The Drum, the archaic drabness of The University, boring Austin, and a fan base that has little understanding of the nuances of the game have all made Barnes’ accomplishment that much more astonishing. Almost miraculous.

Baylor, under Drew, has so many inherent advantages in Waco that it isn’t really fair. When he took over the Bears he didn’t have to deal with all those top heavy scholarship numbers that Rick must sort through. He got a blank slate. He also has a real baketball arena and the rabid Bear fans that support him. When you add in the nearly unlimited wealth of Baylor, the private Baptist institution, the exciting experience of downtown Waco, and the ivy-covered campus buildings of that pearl on the Brazos campus, who couldn’t build a powerhouse basketball team there?

And in College Station, Turgeon recruits to that same Brazos River beauty with all the lush garden spots, a thriving young liberal and diverse student base which embraces its athletes of color like no other, almost as much fiancial support as the Baptists give Baylor with their rabid 12th Man support (Aggies tithe while Longhorns tip), and longterm history of success with basketball that only schools like Kansas, N. Carolina, Duke can match.

We must be patient as Barnes tries to chip away at these 2 monster basketball schools. These things take time. We’re getting there.

Enjoy the ride.

I’m over Texas hoops and taking up scrimshaw and needlepoint. More exciting and rewarding.

Thanks for the writeup Trips. It’ll all be over soon. Mercy killing, imo.

Albert Einstein says Rick Barnes is clearly insane.

Since it hasn’t been posted yet….

Fuck Rick Barnes

Sorry, Federal Reserve Bank, but we’re gonna have to repurpose FRB.

Thinking ahead, what are the chances that JCB DOESN’T transfer after this season? I know it was just about a miracle that he was cleared to play at Texas, but nothing about his sideline demeanor says he has any interest in continuing to play for Barnes.

I just heard on the radio that Bobby Knight is spending a lot of his time in Austin these days and that Barnes is spending a lot of his time with Knight. There can’t be a correlation, can there? Well, now that I think about this Texas team looks about like RMK’s last 10 IU squads and just about all of his TT ones. Hmmm

beowulf – I am laughing so fucking hard……

You, sir, are going to get me in trouble at work

That being said, you said third best in Texas. What about UTEP? And they have the tremendous advantage of simple task of selling kids on living in El Paso.

Hey, Trips will slit your throat if you start dissing EP, ese.

But, point taken. Damn it.

FRB

Unless this guy is validating his shoe size by exposing himself at midcourt, you have to play him as many minutes as possible to get him ready for primetime.

I love that.

I just heard on the radio that Bobby Knight is spending a lot of his time in Austin these days and that Barnes is spending a lot of his time with Knight. There can’t be a correlation, can there? Well, now that I think about this Texas team looks about like RMK’s last 10 IU squads and just about all of his TT ones. Hmmm

I seriously doubt that. How could Knight influence Barnes without a single motion offense principle or man help defense principle rubbing off on him? Certainly he can’t only contribute his stubborn jackassery.

I have been a fan of JH’s improvement over the last few weeks. Yes, he took a bad shot at the beginning of the half after zero passes in the offense, but he compounded the problem by not stopping the ball in transition d and it led to a very easy layup. In fact, he showed very little effort on that play and did the old ole. You must always stop the ball first in transition. Make the ball handler make a decision with the ball. That’s rule #1.

Our first three to five possessions of the 2nd half were abysmal. James jacked up a quick shot with no passes, JH did the same, Bradley took a bad shot, and Pittman and Johnson didn’t finsish strong in the paint and were rejected on back to back put backs. All of a sudden a 4 point deficit is a 12 or 13 point deficit and the game is over. That’s what took place the first 3 minutes of the second half.

We also happened to make our run when Hamilton was on the bench and Brown played well last night although he wasn’t able to knock down any crucial shots, but that happens. We had the ball down by 8 with 5 to play and what happens. Brown misses a good shot at a three and Baylor comes down to stroke a 3 and we are down by 11.

This team is schizo. We can’t get all the freshman to play well on a given night. Bradley played poorly last night. Our transition D stinks and the fact that Mason was backdoored twice in the final crucial minutes stems from poor coaching. How does a senior lose sight of the ball and/or man twice? Butt to the ball see man and see ball. Hell, we have guys on our team that don’t even display these basic fundamentals.

Gary johnson plays better when facing the basket. James played lights out last night. Lucas is terrible.

Barnes and the players have a lot of soul searching to do. There is plenty of blame to go around for this team.

They have played their way into an 8/9 game and likely first round exit, which is a shame for Damion James, as he deserved better.

Trips, thanks for hanging in there. It is therapy for some of us.

Thankfully, it is almost over. The problem is that it all starts over again next year. Barnes doesn’t strike me as one to change. He should probably just clean house and go out and recruit his kind of players and quit recruiting highly ranked kids. He is never going to win a title, so he may as well play hard nosed ball, defend and rebound, and if we happen to score then it’s a bonus.

Mo Evans was right. So was DGib. Get the fuck out as soon as you can, even if it means playing in Europe. You aren’t likely to get any better getting beaten down here. Isn’t confidence more important in hoops than even in football or baseball? I think so. You just can’t treat kids like Knight did anymore. That is a societal discussion, but for good or bad, you just can’t in today’s day and age.

There is a reason why Howland is falling on his face this year at UCLA. The word has gotten out how he treats his players. He is a great coach, but kids don’t want to play for him anymore, his schtick has grown old. He reminds me of Barnes in a lot of ways. I fear this is the beginning of the end unless there is some sort of epiphany.

Let’s all thank God for Mack Brown and Will Muschamp. Maintaining is tough, I think we are finding that out in basketball. Next year will mark 3 straight mediocre teams, the trendline doesn’t look good.

FRB

beowulf for the win!

I needed to smile this morning. Plus Friday is donut day at the office, so there is that.

Donut day is rarely a bad day.

General,
You make a good point. But this attitude of my way or the highway seems like it is being reinforced somehow and it’s killing the team.

Kolache Day >>> Donut Day

(pats inflated belly)

Texas basketball post-mortems must be the opposite of necrophilia … because we’re the ones getting fucked by the corpse of what used to be a respectable basketball program.

Lets see next year with no interior offense and defense we will be the same team except that Triston will add to the team. If Ward And Balbay come back from their leg problems we will have

PG : Ward ,Balbay, JCB, Travelocity
SG : Bradley, JCB
SF : Jordan, Williams
PF : Gary J.
C : Tristan T. , Hill, Chappy, Wang

This could be an interesting team . Will we play up tempo and push hard? Naw not in the cards. We are in trouble again. Damn this looks ugly .

Well, these Post-Mortems are cathartic, so thanks for that Trips. ipowers, dude, there are exactly two extra letters in the word “you” than you normally employ. Now the explanation could be unheard of laziness and it could be something organic, either hand-eye or cognitive. Whatever the case, maybe you could get an i-phone that auto-corrects? It might do wonders for your panty-wadding.

My thoughts are similar to BC’s. I do not think Barnes is ever going to get us a championship. I’m not sure I know enought to gauge his handling of Hamilton, but I don’t understand why you’d ever bench your best player (“best” meaning most likely to cause you to win or lose — I understand that DJ and possibly GJ are more consistent, etc.). Barnes’ personnel decisions, and failure to settle on a rotation, have really cost this team. No one knows how many minutes they are going to play on a given night, who they are going to play them with, or apparently anything else. We all hoped that would stop after the first crush of games. Unfortunately, it appears that our early success led Barnes to believe that he didn’t need to shorten his bench and settle on a predictable rotation. WIthout some certainty, players are, in turn, too timid for fear of being pulled and then too bold in hopes of making enough of an impression to stay in. You can’t run a team that way, which is why no one does.

milksteak,

I was thinking the same thing. It went from “his team” to “him playing 5 minutes per game” … With no explanation? His transition D is bad? That’s what Rick said after the Mizzou game, right? The entire team completely fails to get back in transition. It’s not just J’Covan. So what is it?

He looked pissed off on the bench, and I would be too. Then he walks on to the court and gets T’ed, haha, the guy can’t do anything right can he?

On that note, I thought it was pretty clear why Dunn got T’ed up. “FUCK YOU NINJA! FUCK YOU NINJA!” Then he starts to get in J’Covan’s face. He wasn’t breaking-up anything at that point, Bobby.

The problems for this team are equally as bad on offense as they are on defense. However, there was a period in the second half when Mason was at point and JCB and
Bradley were at the wings and we had some good ball movement from those three with some penetrations and dump offs to Pittman that lead to some easy baskets. I thought they had a chance to make a game of it… but contrary to ipowers opinion there was no step up of intensity on D and Baylor matched us bucket for bucket. The problem seems to be that the team can’t play a complete game…if the offense is playing decent the defense isn’t and vice versa… very frustrating to watch.

Unless iPhone’s have an auto-substance feature (or auto-unwad?), I don’t think it really makes a difference.

Last line of the article is a classic

I am with ipowers on this one. I would rather go down with guys who give a crap then to let guys play who are so selfish they jog back on every defensive fast break . It just comes down to the character of the team and the chemistry. Hamilton and Brown bring down the character and the chemistry despite the fact they are capable offensive players.

I can live with a bad shot every now and then but I can’t live with a guy who is so selfish he refuses to play any meaningful minutes on the defensive end. Trips, you said it before. How can this guy be so bad on defense? He has zero effort on D but when the ball touches his fingertips on offense his adrenaline sky rockets and his effort goes up.

Playing D sucks. it’s hard work and requires discipline and desire. Another 2 things Hamilton and Brown lack.

This said, I agree Barnes has done a horrible job not finding a zone defense, half court trap, full court press or some hybrid that these guys could have done a better job with.

We both agree that this offense is as advanced as my daughter"s 3rd grade AAU offense (our girls actually set screens.) It is embarrassing to watch the lack of movement and quality looks we do not create on a Division 1 level. Barnes had better get this changed or he will be looking for new work after next season.

What seed to we get?

I think Barnes will be too stubborn to change. I don’t see him putting 50 cent on his ipod. He knows he has Dodds by the balls and will just hint at interviews once another job comes open, especially if he feels threatened. He’d be a great fit at an nc state but I think he got all of our hopes up a little too much. How do we not luck into winning the big 12 tourney at least once over the last 11 years?

DO you guys think Brown will be back with the team next year or do you think there’ll be some fallout in general?

I think next season will be far less painless due to the fact that we will all have fairly low expectations going in. Please, Trips, do us all a favor and pretend we are going to really really suck next year in all your preseason analysis. Even if we might be good, I just don’t think my UT basketball fandom can handle another pantsing like this.

milksteak, I don’t think that’ll be a problem.

Despite all the bad body language, I would be very surprised if Brown and Hamilton transferred. Those kids didn’t play last year. They don’t want to sit out another year.

Neither had a NBA type of year in what is supposed to be a very deep draft.

Hank Dudek has some real win in his post. I’ve said most of the season that our personnel would be much more suited for zone principles than overplaying man2man.

Milksteak,

I don’t get the JCB is transferring thing. He very well might, but it would an unbelievably bad decision for him. Like Zack Mayo(naisse), he’s got nowhere else to go. Where’s Texas State going to take him? Kids are generally overemotional beings, but that would be beyond dumb.

What we have here, is a failure to communicate. Barnes had big problems connecting with Jordan and Brown. To be fair, both guys were big challenges from a management perspective. Coaching is mainly about handling people. Public humiliation, anger, and yelling doesn’t work well with most players. The strategy part is mostly about understanding the strengths/weaknesses of your guys vs the strengths/weaknesses of the foe and tailoring your strategy accordingly. A one size fits all strategy makes it easy for an opponent to prepare to play you and makes it difficult for you to fully exploit specific matchup opportunities.

You have to be supple wrt to both people and strategy, one size fits all does not work for either strategy or handling people. Barnes has not been very adaptive or flexible recently. This problem was compounded by recruiting guys who were not a good match for Barnes’ O and D strategies. Barnes would be better served by a more conventional recruiting approach, recruit more athletic guys who can play the demanding man D that Barnes coaches and run a more conventional motion O that compensates for the O skill deficiencies of these more athletic players.

Barnes’ job is probably safe until Deloss retires.

Monahorns said:

March 12th, 2010 at 7:36 am

Relative to the last 10 years at IU:

Was that Knight’s Final Four team that lost to Duke? Or maybe the Elite 8 team that lost to Kansas? Or one of the 10 straight years to the NCAA?

Looks like Knight’s worse decade at IU was Barnes’ best decade.

Ohhh… Ninja. He was saying fuck you ninja. I see. James does have the quickness and speed of a ninja, but I think he would kick a ninja’s ass since he is much bigger and stronger than most. In fact, the glare that he was giving everyone last night could probably kill on it’s own. I thought he was going to rip someone’s throat out. I didn’t know if it was gonna be a Baylor guy or one of ours, but I thought he was going to get someone. I feel bad for the guy. He intensely cares about this team. I wish some of that had rubbed off on our other players.

I wonder how the news of the day would be different if it was Lomers who was on national television blatently yelling "fuck you “ninja” " at James. That is probably for a different thread.

I agree, Bateman. It would be incredibly dumb, and pretty much the end of his college career. That being said, I just don’t see JCB’s moody ass sitting at the end of the bench for three more years. At some point, it seems like that relationship is going to quit bending.

Milk,

I don’t think JCB is going to sit at the end of the bench though. He needs to understand what his coach and team needs. Better sustained effort, better ball protection, and better defense. He has offensive skills that someone like Justin Mason just doesn’t possess, but yet lacks the physical talent to really be a viable NBA player currently. Reminds me of someone like Curtis Jerrells (not as physical) or Byron Eaton. Not physical build but combo guards that learned the point to a degree that were 4 year players.

Barnes waited and stayed loyal to JCB, when he could have moved on. I think although they’re frustrated with each other, that they like and respect each other far more than we know. Just a general feeling though and I have nothing to support that contention.

My big problem is that we’re going to be in the same bind next year if JCB doesn’t “get it”. Still no real PG that doesn’t have a major deficiency. All will be better players, but can anyone become the court general??? We need to change our offense to something less PG oriented….

I think so. You just can’t treat kids like Knight did anymore. T

One thing about Knight, he was rough on players, but he wanted to win more than anything, so he might have been tough to his players in practice but he did not pull them when they were needed in games plus he didn’t give a shit about the NBA it was all about winning the Big Ten and advancing as far as possible.

smh:

The Travelocity at PG made the entire day worth it. That was freakin’ hilarious

beowulf:

You took what I would try to say and made it, you know, really fucking funny.

No, one can use the excuse that this is a young team anymore…it’s march the freshman are basically sophomores now. The sign of a great coach is one that motivates and challenges his or her team even when they win. Rick Barnes allowed this team to get content with their position..just because you are 17-0 and beat a bunch of nobodies doesn’t mean the team is getting better; just because you score more points than the other team doesn’t mean the team was actually getting better on offense or defense. It’s the head coach jobto challenge players even when they win and never allow them to get content. When Texas was cruising along they werestill struggling with these problems in november and december but they just happened to have more talent than the other teams and they were playing out of conference and opponents didn’t know their tendencies that well..once they reached conference play it was all down hill; this is were a great coach earns his or her money because every one knows what your trying to do on offense and defense. When Texas was 17-0 ; Rick Barnes never made any changes; even though the team was struggling. Take Bill Self; for instance even when Kansas is winning he will often bench a starter and challenge them before it leads to a long losing streak; he will correct the minor problem before it becomes a major one. It’s March and Texas doesn’t have any offensive identify at all; you dont know what to expect from game to game; they don’t even get back on defense or stop the ball which is basic 4 grade defense. Rick Barnes built Texas when the conference was the 4 th or 5th best conference he capitalized on beating bad teams coached by bad coaches; now all of those coaches are gone and we are finally realizing that he is a coaching fraud with more cons than pros and its time for the oldest tenure coach in the big 12 to go!!!!!

UTBX,

Okay maybe Knight’s last 6 seasons. But the trend is still the same comparing the two, down. That was my point.

1990–91 Bob Knight 29–5 15–3 T-1st NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1991–92 Bob Knight 27–7 14–4 2nd NCAA Final Four
1992–93 Bob Knight 31–4 17–1 1st NCAA Elite Eight
1993–94 Bob Knight 21–9 12–6 3rd NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1994–95 Bob Knight 19–12 11–7 T-3rd NCAA 1st Round
1995–96 Bob Knight 19–12 12–6 T-2nd NCAA 1st Round
1996–97 Bob Knight 22–11 9–9 T-6th NCAA 1st Round
1997–98 Bob Knight 20–12 9–7 T-5th NCAA 2nd Round
1998–99 Bob Knight 23–11 9–7 T-3rd NCAA 2nd Round
1999–00 Bob Knight 20–9 10–6 5th NCAA 1st Round

What was the point of putting bob knight finally 10 seasons at indiana? would u wanna go play for a depressed individual in his then 50’s that will eventually throw a chair at u and maybe choke u during a game? Not 2 mention make you wear shorts that come 14 inches above the knee; that even spring break girls wouldn’t consider wearing. Coaching is a young man game ; knight problem was he could relate to the players anymore and he couldnt recruit; rick barnes problem is he just cant coach totally different problems.

Monahorns said:

March 12th, 2010 at 2:55 pm

I get it. I guess the one difference, is that Knight brought something new to the game and dominated before his declinel:

(12 years – 3 National Titles) + A Final Four 3 years before this period and another Final Four 6 years after this period.

At this point Barnes = Norm Stewart

Well, Norm never made the FF. But I suppose I get your point.

I wouldn’t put Hamilton being back next in ink, as the odds are long he’s going to be here. If you want to get really depressed think about our front line next year sans Hamilton. Now staring down the barrel of a multiple year problem.

“Another Dipshit Poster said: Edit
March 12th, 2010 at 3:32 pm

I wouldn’t put Hamilton being back next in ink, as the odds are long he’s going to be here. If you want to get really depressed think about our front line next year sans Hamilton. Now staring down the barrel of a multiple year problem."

Wow if true. Not only is it a multi-year problem but it wastes some of the recruiting capital we built up with Durant.

Opposing coaches are going to brow-beat Texas targets with the Jordan Hamilton/Avery Bradley cautionary tale.

I’m guessin this doesn’t end well.

I am wondering if we are getting to the point where we have to wonder how low things must get before something is done.

And I’m usually a guy who will look at the overall record and try to find a positive somewhere. Problem is that this is now the most talented bubble team in basketball, but not so talented that it can overcome a disconnect with the coach.

beowulf..nice post…pretty funny

Everybody step back and absorb some facts. Barnes is paid 2 mill a year and is the 7th or 8th HIGHEST paid coach in college BB.

Let that sink in. We have the 7th -8th highest paid coach in the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think his resume is rather thin for this kind of money so I just waisted a few hours googling around and found a few nuggets like he coached under Gary Williams ( I am not that impressed with Gary Willaims teams) and a year under Wimp Sanderson at Alabama . And 5 years under a dude named Joe Harrington at George Mason who was a .500 coach. Now back under Williams at Maryland . ( Former teamate of Gary Williams) how nice to take care of old friends. But the biggest nugget can be found when you look for former assistants that have had sucess.
When I started looking for how his asstants were doing I found 2 biggies, there may be others so feel free to chime in:

http://www.wkusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&SPSID=28995&SPID=2259&DB_OEM_ID=5400&ATCLID=204789573&Q_SEASON=2009

When Ken was an asst at WKU before coming to Texas they had success then he was Barnes assist during our deep runs and now he has a Sun Belt Conf Championship last year and just got beat by Troy in the Sun Belt conf tourney. This is the key paragraph in McDonalds Bio"

"

McDonald’s first stint as a coach under Barnes came from 1994-98, when he was an assistant at Clemson. In four years, the Tigers were 74-48 while making the NCAA Tournament three-straight seasons for the first time in school history. That included a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1997, a year in which Clemson would climb as high as number two in the national polls."

And here:

http://hurricanesports.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/haith_frank00.html

In my mind I was not that impressed by Haith but he seems to be doing pretty well at a Football school.

He is the CEO and the CEO is responsible for making SURE his recruits mesh and his assistants are top notch. So like anything in life we get a little fat and happy (Sucking 2 mill a year makes you fat and happy trust me.) So yes Deloss would be crazy not to have an evaluation of the program meeting with coach Barnes. Clearly something is wrong and based on my NON scientific historical run of Barnes it is clear he needs help, major league help from the bench. So he IS responsible for seeing to that and HE is responsible for WORKING beyond the game day stuff. For 2 mill a year you are paid for running "THE ENTIRE " program.

It is clear to me that his time as an assistant coach was under ok coaches but nothing stellar and when he has had good teams he has had a strong bench of assistant coaches.

So depending on what he does after our first round or second round loss is going to be the key. If he digs his heals in and gets all pissy like we (Texas athletics) are not grateful and gets defensive then he is done at Texas. If he steps back and says "Hey I need a Ken MacDonald-Frank Haith to help me " then he gets more time. His /our BB program is absolutely at a critical stage, where if he or we mistep all the work of the last 10 years can be set back a decade . Staying with him if he is done can be just as bad if we fire him and get the wrong coach. There had better be some “come to Jesus” meetings with his staff soon after the season or its a done deal in my mind that he probably implodes.

He needs help with the X and 0’s of offense and needs to be more open to zone principles if he doesn’t have the perimeter personnel to play man2man.

All the rest of the stuff will take care of itself with wins. I’m watching the Big12 championship right now and no one’s saying Frank Martin is a big baddie that yells too much at his players. He’s winning so he’s a tough, kickass SOB. Get an identity on offense that exploits the talents of our personnel and we’ll rebound….He’s definitely is not earning his paycheck this year…

I like Rick Barnes I really do but something is wrong and I think its his coaching staff.
Springman was the former film boy and Ogden replaced Ken McDonald. If you look at Springmans Bio you see a bunch of talk about how we put players in the NBA???? Perplexing since he was a film boy and admin asst before being elevated to asst coach. Ogden has no other coaching tutalage beside Barnes. For that matter Springman has very little but Barnes Kool -aid in his glass also. So we have all this talent being coached by
Barnes by himself with very inexperienced assistants. And I think Barnes knows it.
He had McDonald at Clemson then he brought him back until he left for WKU. You can track the beginning of our suckage with McDonald leaving. I think if you see some changes at the asst coach area then Rick will be ok. What I want to know id who were the eyes that got Dj and Aldridge? The WKU web site seems to think it was McDonald.

Who is deciding to bring a Jai Lucas versu a guy like Hobson at UNM. 6 7 guard juco .

Watching KSU KU it is sad to see how far we are from being good again.

Roostrman, that’s great stuff.

Watch any game for crying out loud and it’s going to be better, crisper basketball than what we play. New Mexico State and Utah state looked like they’d run us out of the gym.

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