Texas-Lamar Basketball Postgame

I really thought we had tired legs tonight, for whatever reason. We had some decent looks in the 2nd half, but things just weren’t falling. Didn’t get a real concerned vibe from Barnes, however – he seemed much more animated Saturday.

Even Barnes’ best teams have these December doldrums. I guess it is a combination of dead crowds, no-name opponents, end of the semester, etc. Plus Barnes sees these game more as teaching moments, and doesn’t put any emphasis on the actual opponent. His players reflect that attitude to a detriment.

The mixture of Top Ten teams and Joe Palookas makes it easy to sleep walk through some of these games.

Barnes said on the post-game that Dogus didn’t play more because he was uncharacteristically allowing too much dribble penetration. I did not see the game so can’t vouch.

Barnes also complained that the wings weren’t attacking the crease in the 1-2-2 or whatever it was but were dribbling diagonally across it.

He also said we worked on nothing but defense in the last 2 practices.

It’s crazy but Hamilton is turning into the leader of this team. Good for him.

I saw Dogus give up an easy basket with an overplay early, but that’s all I recall.
 
This team is much better defensively than I anticipated. I didn’t expect us to play team D so well. I really thought we’d have trouble stopping people from scoring.

“I’m curious to play him 30 minutes just to see if he could manage 13-14 turnovers and set a conference record.”

Maybe the football season has wrecked me for a while, but I am actually rooting for this to happen.

Barnes said on the post-game that Dogus didn’t play more because he was uncharacteristically allowing too much dribble penetration. I did not see the game so can’t vouch.

I told someone during the game that I couldn’t remember a time where I saw Dogus have as much trouble keeping up with his man on the dribble. He looked a step slow tonight — or maybe the Lamar guard was that quick.

I think Dogus knee – whether physical or mental, isn’t quite right yet.

I will continue to say it.

Fuck J’Covan Brown. Why anyone would want to see a whiner who bullies the weak and isn’t nearly as good as he thinks he is do well is beyond me.

I hope he sits the pine the whole year and quits the team.

Not kidding.

I don’t see how J’Covan returns for the spring semester. His bad attitude is clear even from my remote perch in the Mez. 4 turnovers in 9 minutes, and what should have been a technical foul for stupidity. I just haven’t seen a redeemable player. He’s got to be running out of understanding from coaches, teammates, parole officers…

Hamilton was really enjoyable to watch. He has embraced a leadership role on this team, a feat I never would have believed after his freshman year. J Ham could have had more points but looked to involve teammates, even to the team’s detriment when he unsuccessfully tried to force bounce passes into the paint (twice).

Matt Hill gave some quality minutes, be it timely blocks or a great body screen on the offensive end.

What a difference b/t Hamilton & J’Covan after a year. Last season, they were both selfish & made a lot of stupid decisions. Now, although it’s still a bit early, Hamilton seems to have matured greatly while J’Covan continues his bad attitude & bad play.

This team would be much better w/o J’Covan’s presence, whether on the court or off.

Hamilton last year ranked better on the selfish/team-destructive scale than J’Covan Brown this year. For one, he made shots.

Brown’s “style” would fit perfectly at Lamar … sloppy.

Brown’s rapid return to the attitude he had last season is the biggest negative thus far. Every missed shot is the end of the world, he whines to officials and he’s out of control with the ball in his hands. Just so frustrating. He’s lucky that Lucas can’t throw it in the ocean because if we had another decent shooting guard to go with Joseph then Brown would be barely getting minutes over the walk-ons.
Really good to see Joseph warming up this stretch of games. Starting to see his entire game. The maturity he and Thompson show as frosh continue to amaze. Thompson’s ability to stay out of foul trouble has been huge and most frosh bigs, particularly shot-blocking types, usually don’t have that skill. Hamilton continues to elevate his entire game. Just a pleasure to watching his maturing as a player.

Brown IS playing defense………as is Hamilton.

Josephs ball has very little rotation. Anyone remember UH’s Rob Williams?

Hamilton actually passed on a few occasions when a shot was also an option.

I don’t see much of a change in Jai Lucas from last year. I think we get the same results from last year.

" Dogus was excellent in limited minutes – 8 pts and 0 turnovers in 11 minutes. Why played so sparingly? Dunno."

Because when he was in he often passed up wide-open looks from the arc, allowing the Lamar defenders to sag off of him.

Tristan needs to work on his free throws or he’s gonna be hacked to pieces.

The only thing keeping J’Covan from being a really good player is the “poor J’me” attitude. Really like that kid and hope he learns to just get down to business.

One thing I’m paying close attention to is what’s happening off the court, i.e coaches on the bench and players/coaches during time outs. I’m seeing a lot of focus, comradery and some smiling, even from Barnes. I think this team may have “IT.”

55 points on 83 possessions is a damn good defensive result.

I was one of the 400 or so at the game last night (the south student section couldn’t have been a quarter full—I couldn’t believe how empty the joint was), anyway…

Hamilton was as unselfish as I have ever seen him, to a fault almost. There was one moment where he was clearly frustrated with Gary Johnson after a dropped pass, but other than that. I thought Hamilton’s attitude was great. He missed a couple of threes he normally would make—feet set, full extension—otherwise it would have been another relatively quiet 22. But it would have been 30 if he didn’t defer to his teammates so much. Mixed feelings.

I thought tired legs were a problem, as well. You could see it in Thompson, particularly, imo. The kid sucked it up and pulled down a ton of boards.

Dogus attacked the rim aggressively, but he did have problems staying on front last night. Bizarre game for him, lots of points in relatively few minutes. “dood” is correct — we were playing four on five for a stretch when Lamar went to zone in the second half. They didn’t even pretend to cover Dogus on the perimeter.

I was shocked that J’Covan didn’t get a technical for the thrown ball in the first half. It was blatant.

Matt Hill is a good player. Seriously, he is to this crew what Fabricio Oberto was to the Spurs last title team, absent the cool name and hair cut.

+1 on the Revenge of the Nerds reference.

Houston didn’t get game coverage (o hai, Kobe!), so I’m just boxscoring this.

Only 11 min for Doge? So teams are perfectly willing to leave Doge alone but fear Jai? Gnome was 0-4 from deep, I’d let him have the shot as well.

Terrible news yet again about Brown’s body language. He’s unfortunately important to both this year’s team and next, so expect Rick to keep working at it. With Shawn Williams gone and Hamilton likely leaving, he’s our only shooter next year, unless you really think McClellan or Lewis can come in and light up the scorer’s table right away.

Good stat line from Matt Hill. I’m going to automatically assume he was 3 inches taller than anyone Lamar could roll out.

The Thompson-Hamilton-Joseph triumvirate is coming along nicely.

“Matt Hill is a good player. Seriously, he is to this crew what Fabricio Oberto was to the Spurs last title team, absent the cool name and hair cut.”

- I preferred Matt’s freshman year Sideshow Bob doo myself.

“Only 11 min for Doge? So teams are perfectly willing to leave Doge alone but fear Jai? Gnome was 0-4 from deep, I’d let him have the shot as well.”

a) Opposing teams don’t determine who plays for UT, Barnes does.

b) You’re forgetting Jai hit two three-pointers, assisted on three consecutive Hamilton three-pointers, and had zero turnovers vs. Rice. Barnes gave Lucas Dogus’ minutes to see if he still had the hot hand, which he did not have.

Game was so sloppy it didn’t even merit an open thread. If only we can keep Billy Tubbs from throwing things on the court.

Only saw the 2nd half but I haven’t seen that bad of officiating in a long time. Totally swallowed Lamar’s…. I mean their whistles. Players took the cue and played bad playground basketball. Tough to watch.

I expect a lot of shots from JH back home in LA on Sunday…hope he’s feeling it.

JCB annoys the shit out of me.

Anyone remember UH’s Rob Williams?

I do! The back of his jersey said “Rob” instead of “Williams”. And then UH replaced Rob’s weirdo shot with Michael Young’s weirdo shot.

Speaking of those UH teams: Reid Gettys loves Jai Lucas almost as much as Craig James and Jesse Palmer love Greg Davis and the Mad Dog.

FYI (though too late for this game) – if you’ve got the bandwidth for it, always check out ESPN3 – the Lamar tilt was one of their featured games last night. I’m still not sure how they worked that out since (I believe) the game was carried by Fox sports affiliates via cable/satellite. But that could be a preview of what we’ll get out of ESPN beyond just money.

And the crowd was awful. It’s no wonder our guys couldn’t seem to get much going in the first half. I mean, they have finals and other college bullshit to deal with too.

It’s night and day the difference between this year’s team and last year’s. We’ve got probably 80% of the talent of last year, but about 120% of the effort and approach.

I’m still not sure how they worked that out since (I believe) the game was carried by Fox sports affiliates via cable/satellite.

Texas put the game on Full Court. I think the school owns those rights because I’ve frequently seen Fox-produced games on FC.

If you watch a game (or anything else) on your computer, you can run a cable from your computer to your TV to see the game on a bigger screen than your computer. Same thing as when you do a computer based presentation.

Too early to give up on J’Covan but it is past time for him to get some psychotherapy to deal with his inner demons.

Anytime the horns face a zone D or a man D that sags way off Balbay, it is hard to play Balbay.

The difference between the Human Jai-Gnome and the Doge is that Dogus doesn’t play because he won’t / can’t shoot, while Jai does play even though he can’t shoot.

If only J’Covan weren’t so severely self-constraining …

I guess everyone is hoping for a different approach and results from Barnes, I know that I still have my burnt orange tinted glasses on the end of my nose but they are still on.

“He also said we worked on nothing but defense in the last 2 practices.

“He (Barnes) also said we worked on nothing but defense in the last 2 practices.”
I also thought that we had tired legs, and I also figure that Dog is 85-90% recovered from his ACL. I also wondered if Barnes had Dog resting during the last two days of Defense?

“Cory Joseph had his second aggressive game in a row. This time against an athletic backcourt. 16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists”

But it was small and not all that good on defense. Cory is so much better and aggressive when he runs the point instead of playing off the ball. When Dog is playing with Cory Dog should be setting screens and going to the basket, while Cory and Ham work a pick and pop/roll from the top of the key. Getting easy shoots for those two will pay off big time.

"I’m curious to play him (J’CB) 30 minutes just to see if he could manage 13-14 turnovers and set a conference record."
I also would like to see if going 25-30 minutes if JCB could handle it or not . Then settle the issue for good. Maybe giving more time to the walk ons would drive home the point. Time to do something different.

“Congrats to Barnes on his 300th win at Texas. Best coach in Texas basketball history and it ain’t even close”
Congrats to Barnes also. Saying he is the best coach in UT history is saying very little to compare to. The tinted glasses need to pulled a little away to see the whole picture.

skymonkey -
 
I see the whole picture just fine. You compare it to what UT basketball was before his arrival.
 
Barnes is the best we’ve ever had. And compared to college basketball widely, we’ve had a Top 12-15 program nationally during his tenure.

hey Tex,
From being a Barnes person ; I went from a big supporter to just marginal the last two years and taking a wait and see attitude this year with our motion offense. See USC!

The last two seasons, even with the freshmen of last year, the buck stops with Barnes. The last 2 years were far below the Mendoza basketball line.

Will Barnes take us to the next level in the next 3-5 years / 10years?
 Have we seen any changes during the first 6 game concerning Barnes in game management style?
Set plays for a needed basket ,30 seconds before half time and the end of the game.
TO to stop runs / hot shooters.
Substitution patterns, hard and long practice times, attacking the zones that we are going to see all year long. Putting 5 players out there that will not forget and just stand around even if they are walkon
 Recruiting big men that can contribute, not like the last 3-4 bigs that we have had and we all know who they are.
Top 12-15 is fine if we are content to settle for that, 95% of the teams would like it I know.
Barnes is a fine coach that may have seen his best years with the type of players that he has coached. He does recruit good wing players and 2 transcendent skilled PG.
The whole book ,maybe not.
The book has been published on us and is being scanned by several big 12 coaches.