Texas Turns the Page

If we want Avery & Jordan to come back. And if we want any chance of a decent team next year. I think Barnes needs to declare some changes are in store for next year, asap.

These changes could be as simple and painless as:
1) declaring a mea culpa with Barnes saying he may have been too tough with this bunch
2) announcing a more aggressive offense for next year

Or, they could be more dramatic like hiring an asst coach that’s more offensive minded.

Let me qualify that, “if we want Avery & Jordan to come back.”

What I mean is that if we want to up the chances that they will come back. I think one or both may come back anyway, but the current situation is more precarious for having both return.

Hamilton needs 1-2 years to seriously work on the deficiencies in his game. He goes now, and in a couple of years he’s “whatever happened to …?”. The risk is while he might get drafted now on potential, if he can’t/won’t develop as a player he won’t even have that to offer in the next draft or two.

The non-existent basketball IQ of some of these kids is really disappointing. This bunch makes Buckman look like James Naismith.

My other issue with Barnes – in addition to the well-documented disgrace he just turned in – is player identification and development. Chapman, Hill, Wangmene – these were supposed to be the answers to a rotation on the front line. Misses all. Other schools – let’s take Baylor as an example – produced players I’d never heard of prior to this season who could play and produce. The careers of Pittman and Mason – for all of the promise Mason showed early on – have to be marked as failures versus expectations. Recruit all of the Mickey D’s you can, but if you’re missing badly on the rest of the lineup it’s going to largely be a struggle.

AAS wrote a dumbed down version of this subject today. Barnes says he’s bringing in another guard. Good, because I feel very confident in our depth in the front court. Alexei, white stiff #1, and white stiff #2 make me ooze with confidence especially behind a true freshman and undersized 4…….

Barnes, asked Thursday if Brown is the most likely candidate for the position, said not necessarily.

“I’m not going to say that anybody’s going to fill anything, because we are definitely not through recruiting,” Barnes said. “We are going to sign another guard. We’ll do what we do every year: put it up for competition.”

“AAS wrote a dumbed down version of this subject today.”

When is this not true.

Good write up… personally, I don’t think any of the three headed monster should leave; none of them were that impressive this year, IMO. I would be seriously surprised if Bradley gets told that he would go as high as 15-18. If he had a good season, then yeah but I think everyone sees that he needs more development, esp as a guard tweener. When Damion was recruited, most people thought he was one or two and done. He obviously wasn’t ready either and I think there is a fair chance that Bradley comes back; if he doesn’t, it will probably have more to do with getting out of the system than draft pick, IMO.

You think Thompson will start? I don’t. I think he will get a lot of minutes; maybe more than the person that starts (Chapman?). I think Barnes has a little Mack Brown syndrome of being loyal to seniority. You mention Cory Joseph… he would be a great pickup but even more than that Rick needs to get an athletic big man in the rotation. Alexis was suppose to be that type of player but hasn’t developed. Matter of fact, as good of a recruiter rep that Rick has, he hasn’t done much with the big uglies since maybe Larmarcus.

I would like to see a breakdown like this with assistant coaches. I think that is one of Rick’s biggest problems: he’s trying to do everything and doesn’t have enough talented input. Keep Todd, the two best recruiters and go get some energetic future head coaches to inject some new blood creativity, Xs & Os, skill development. Right now, it looks like only one assistant coach has any meaningful college coaching experience. Promoting guys from within and esp ones he coached doesn’t add to a variety of perspective, IMO.

Barnes has lost two longtime assistants and gained Paulino and Ogden—two guys who really only know what he’s taught them. Seems like he should look to the outside for some methodology.

Two, got to recruit fewer projects. Fewer spindly white guys that need to gain 30 pounds of muscle. Fewer all-purpose guards who you hope can learn how to play the point. Fewer 6’6" power forwards. Get some guys who are really built to play their position. I think Barnes has liked this idea of taking a hunk of clay and molding into his vision—but it seems like by the time players are getting to college, they pretty much know where they need to play. It’s not football.

Lets not get too happy about tristan thompson. I’ve seen his film and the allstar game. He’s all size and no polish, see Pittman, Dexter; Hill, Matt; Chapman Clint. He doesn’t really have a shot away if hes away from the basket. He looks kinda slow too. Why does Barnes recruit these “bigs” that are nothing but…big. Size doesn’t make you a great baller. (insert size joke now)

I am thinking more in the vein of Ken McDonald and Frank Haith who are now head coaches. I think ideas and development has gone stagnant since then.

Texoz,

As much as we need to find an identity on offense, we also need to address our defensive schemes. If JCB and JH are two big contributors and we play a 6’6" guy at 4 and a foul prone freshman in the middle then we need to re-examine our principles on defense. We won’t have the foot speed on the perimeter (Ward and Balbay will be coming off major injury) and the awareness in the middle to erase mistakes. More zone or sagging m2m help would be much better. I’d welcome a half court trap game if we want to push tempo.

Scholes,

I agree. The “misses” of these three particularly Hill, who has eaten up a scholarship for going on five years is beyond frustrating. We got killed on the boards vs. Wake and people wonder why? Our average height was under 6’4" (DJ, BJ, AB, JM, JCB) for a lot of the game.

Soldier,

Thanks. I also think that all three need to come back, but if AB can can get the top 15 type of money, he may need to go. The other two really shouldn’t be entertaining the idea, but egos and emotion are funny things. I think we have no choice to start Tristan unless Chappy makes a huge step forward. I could see one of the backups starting the first few games but by conference play, we will HAVE to start Thompson if we want to optimize our potential.

Owenh,

Thompson definitely is a WIP offensively, but he can rebound, run the court, and shot block. He’s a better version of Connor his senior year and that’s without any improvement on offense. He should be able to finish too. He’s a top ten recruit for a reason, but your correct, he’s awfully raw skill wise…

…but by conference play, we will HAVE to start Thompson if we want to optimize our potential.

Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!

Pains me to hear that, as we all pined for Hamilton to start all season long (except ipowers, that is). What makes you think it will be different with a big guy?

Texas needs to recruit another head coach. No matter who Texas recruits they will have the same problems next year if Barnes remains the coach. Fire, Barnes and hire an up and coming head coach like the head coach at Butler someone that can actually coach. But, we all know that won’t happen. Texas lacked toughness on the defensive end thats a reflection of the head coach. Teams like A&M; didn’t have half the talent Texas had but their coach instilled toughness in them and they competed every possession on the defensive end. Rick is busy recruiting guards he figures an great point guard can hide his horrible offensive coaching abilities like T.j, Ford and Augustin did. Texas has absolutely no inside presence for next year I doubt they will even make the tourney. Barnes needs to be looking over all the JUCO ranks trying to sign a legitmate center.

Hmm, great article, more or less of the same subject I wrote on for today.
I think we are in exact agreement that Bradley should probably go if his draft grade holds steady in the 15-25 range because he’ll probably not get a better contract if he waits but simply demonstrate his ceiling as a player.

we will be better than an 8 seed if all 3 of those come back. i’ll be adjusting my expectations accordingly which will make season much better

I watched UT a dozen times or more this year on TV. I have never seen a more perplexing team. Bradley has a future in the NBA but I assure you it isn’t next year. I am really not sure about Hamilton. He has a long way to go. Brown? See Warren at OU. Not just a head case but way over rated. Smooth shot and everything else is horrible. No ability to lead. He makes poor decisions and can’t do much else better than other point guards in the big 12. Gary Johnson had some nice moments this year but is he a showcase guy?

With the emergence of A&M and Baylor on the national scene in bb, pressure is seriously on Barnes. He did not act nor appear to be holding it together this year. There is pressure on him and can he turn it around fast enough? Not unless he cleans out starting with Brown.

Don’t see Bradley as a kind of guy that goes through that kind of disappointment, sees how unprepared for the NBA he is, and goes to “get his” in the draft. Maybe Hamilton, but not AB.

Nickel,

Yea, I think AB may move if he can get assurances he won’t slide past the teens. Going 25 or so is a much different story. I think he should probably come back if he’s in the mid-20’s but not having a clear vision of what the rookie salary scale might look like after next season makes it difficult to be definitive.

The other thing to consider is the scary stats that CNNSI put out that 60% of pro basketball players are broke 5 years out of the league. The prevailing thought has been you make the real money on your 2nd contract but that’s only for superstars or solid starters in the league like Durant or LaMarcus. What if you go in the league and after three or four years, don’t get past 3 or 4th off the bench? No education, little financial discipline and lacking financial security. Hmmmm, maybe staying that extra year in college and growing up and improving a draft position doesn’t sound so bad…….Jordan needs solid advice like this too. I really wish the draft system in the NBA was like MLB. 1 year is a joke….

Hearing nothing that leads me to believe Cory Joseph is on his way to save Barnes’ ‘offense’. Hope this staff is making some contingency plans.

How about teaching these guys about basketball IQ. This team was the damn dumbest team in the country. They would repeat then same mistakes in almost every game after starting 17-0. Incredibley dumb fouls, the inability to make point blank shots or layups, 3 pointers at the wrong time and of course, missing free throws. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Rick is making the same mistake Mack Brown was making before he and VY had their little talk. He is trying to force the guys into his system regardless of whether they fit it or not. He needs to take the talents he has and build a system around those talents. As much as it may hurt his ego to admit that his isn’t working, that is something he has to do if he’s going to take the team to the next level. A square peg doesn’t fit in a round hole.

gotta,

I think your overall point is a good one. Barnes is a “system” guy especially defensively, which plays into how he overall plays the game. He wants to play a high pressure, overplay man2man scheme predicated on effort, good technique and overall quickness. Similar to Duke, but even Coach K (in fairness it took him a little while too) recognized what he did and didn’t have and it’s been well documented about how he’s loosened up his man2man principles to sag a little more because he doesn’t have great quickness on the perimeter, especially with Scheyer running the team. Not exactly going 2-3 zone but a minor tweak that’s helped Duke immensely.

Offensively, it’s frustrating, but Rick’s actually had been trying to give his players more rope by playing a NBA system that requires quick and sound decision making by your guards. Hence, it’s very guard an point guard oriented. High p’n’roll offenses are always left to the guards to create or knock down shots. Unfortunately, in his attempt to be less hands off, he allowed his youngsters to make unsound and silly decisions b/c we don’t have a true PG. He made things worse by losing his patience as his youngsters continued to make the same mistakes over and over and the whole thing spiraled. At least that’s my contention.

Ironic, in his attempt to not be a taskmaster, he gave his guys too much freedom and not enough guidance early and then for whatever reason wasn’t able to have them learn from their mistakes. Regardless, he needs to do a better job recruiting players that can play his system or tweak his system to the identity of his players. Rick needs to understand that it’s not a sign of weakness to tweak systems towards personnel….

This season absolutely stupefied me. Typically, Barnes gets more out of his kids than one would expect. This year was the absolute opposite – he had an embarrassment of riches, yet turned in the worst performance I’ve seen in his time at Texas.

I’m not sure how to fix the situation. But I know what his players should be doing for at least an hour EVERY day during the off-season.

Get your asses to the gym and shoot free throws.

http://espn.go.com/nba/lottery2010/mockdraft

Chad Ford’s mock draft lottery has Avery Bradley going to the Rockets at #14. As long as he’s on one of my teams next year, I’d be happy with that.

and now he has dropped Bradley about 5 spots out of the lottery to later in the first round. I think I would leave if I were Avery.

Thanks, dick. Sounds like AB is gone and everyone else is coming back. Tweet from NBAdraft.net

Texas staff expects Jordan Hamilton and the rest of the underclassmen to return besides Bradley.

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