Top 10 Defensive Lapses

Salt, meet wound.

I think barnes said that putting guys in the league is more important than winning because he honestly does not know how to win.

I won’t even get started on the offense because there is no prayer in getting that changed this year.

Well the year appears to be one more game. Thus, love to read your thoughts for next season.

First 5 minutes of the game or so – Baylor runs pick and roll, Dex flashes out to help on Carter (I think) who dumps it down to Lomers for a wide open dunk.

A couple of minutes later, Bradley gets nudged by a screen, looks like he gets confused, and ends up following the cutter – also being guarded by Damion – leaving Carter wide open for a 3.

So on two plays within a few minutes of each other, we do exactly the wrong thing – but in two completely opposite ways! – leading to 5 essentially uncontested points.

I remember all the way back to the Colorado game when we’d won our 15th straight, by 17 points, and feeling pretty good about our team when one of those OBK guys came over and asked WTF was up with our team defense? Dude planted a little seed of worry, which I tried to stamp down because, well, duh: Rick Barnes is nothing if not a defensive-oriented coach. He’d get it worked out, but meanwhile, didja see all those points we scored? 103! Who needs defense?

Of course, the CU game came within a week of TAMU-CC playing us to 76-70 at the FEC, and us baaaaaarely hanging on against a crap Arkansas team in Fayetteville.

The signs that something was amiss were there…

It was hard to watch and really made me sick to read it again. And that was just the second half. I feel so used and dirty after this game.

Believing Barnes would get these guys to play defense at some point in the year was realistic, his resume speaks for itself.

Looking back, it wouldn’t surprise me if our offensive struggles are deeply intertwined with the defensive struggles. They players tend to play selfish and take bad shots, more than usual, when the other team starts to get on a run. Thus, a 6 point spurt turns into a 17-2 run in no time as we take ourselves out of the game offensively. This team never seemed to want to try and clamp down on defense when a team started to make a run, and in basketball tough defense is always the answer to stopping a run.

How many times have we seen that this year? They get a few baskets and push a 2 point lead to 8. We “respond” by not passing the ball at all on offense, playing pure And One style, miss a contested shot early in the clock only to have the other team run back and score a quick bucket. We then drive ourselves deeper into the hole by coming down the court and doing the same stupid thing again. When we play well defensively (a rarity, I know) the players have patience to move the ball around on offense and look for good shots.

That was a ruthless and depressing cataloguing of failure. Thanks Hank! I think.
 
EggNog –
 
There’s no question that Barnes without point guard just doesn’t work.

Most any basketball team without a point guard doesn’t work. After losing our top two PGs, we have little room for error on offense, and we won’t go far even then. Good ball movement can only mask the lack of a PG for so long, it will be exploited. No ball movement and no PG is hopeless.

Teams can run offensive systems without a PG, but a team with a good PG will have a higher ceiling. Just like any other sport, strategy can only do so much against greater talent.

CJD,
I know exactly what you are talking about. Pitiful defense. We open the second half giving up about 4 easy buckets on run-outs. Damion shoots a three, Mason watches and does not get back, easy bucket. Lucas gets beat down court and gives a way a soft foul for a 3 point play. James gets dunked on. Trash talked by Dunn. Johnson pushes a guy in the back and gives up a 3 point play-should have got an intentional foul (ignorant).

Egg, I don’t know what’s up with this team. Either Barnes has lost his ability to coach or this is the dumbest team he has ever coached. Besides Damion, Bradley and Mason the rest of these guys are a mental meltdown.

It is hard to imagine next year. When Damion went to the bench we looked like a high school team as he is such fierce rebounder and really supplies the majority of aggression.

The prospects are not good but then I have not seen any of our recruits play so may we have recruited a Dwight Howard, Ron Artest, Gilbert Ariza, Chris Paul, and Kevin Durant….

Is Gilbert Ariza a cross between Gilbert Arenas and Trevor Ariza? A guy that will play lockdown D and then threaten you with a firearm?

dumbest, laziest team with talent i have ever withnessed. no sense of urgency. no i am gonna kick your ass attitude. no true point guard is a killer. bunch of tweeners trying to play the point.

if teams left me open as much as justin mason i would score 40 a night.

Baylor slashed and gashed thru the lane with inpunity.

Q: How many charges did Texas take?

A: None … Texas players aren’t aware that taking a charge is a better defensive tactic than swatting at the ball and creating “and one’s” …

I have a bad feeling about next year. We lose our best player and still won’t have a true point guard. I don’t even want to think about what it will be like if AB and/or Hamilton leave early.

I knew there was gonna be a good reason to turn this off.

Scip.,

Love it. We need some firearms to stop guys from running out on us. Thanks for the correction. Just don’t correct my spelling and sentence structure or I will send Ipowers out to your house with a firearm.

ipowers is easily my favorite poster on BC. The dude just brings it.

when are you ppl gonna realize that the problem is rick barnes.. If he remains the coach five years from now the conversations will be the same.Texas has been to one Final four in 12 years under Barnes..Wow thats really something…thats the same as George Mason …their quite the basketball powerhouse.