Texas Hoops Post Mortem: I See Dead People

Texas teams get out-coached a lot.

Texas players display a lack of pride, a lot. Maybe the two are related.

I was extremely disappointed in our shot selection the entire 2nd half. Even when we would attack the bucket, we wouldn’t know where the outlet was and we’d end up in the air with no where to go. Jordan couldn’t touch the ball without throwing up a bad shot or turning it over. He looked like a freshman all over again.

This hurts way too much.

Interesting tweet:

mikefinger Mike Finger
J Hamilton is perturbed by people expecting another #UT collapse: “Honestly, I don’t care what anybody thinks in terms of trusting Texas.”

I think you may be on to something Trips. I don’t know the cause of this, but one thing I noticed during the whole game was that offensively the team didn’t move. Cuts were slow. Shooters weren’t catching it ready or finding spots when there was a little dribble penetration. They just stood around. The shots you mentioned that JBrown hit were the 2 times the whole 2nd half I saw a screen and cut to the arc where the shooter was prepared to catch and shoot. On about half of the offensive possessions of the 2nd half there wasn’t even a screen. It was last year’s (lack of) offense all over again.

Tristan Thompson didn’t seem to have any demons today. He posted well, made tough shots, and even shot free throws better tonight. Why he didn’t get the ball every time down the court is a mystery. KState had no answer for him. He could have fouled out another 2 players if he would have been allowed. Then at the very least Joseph, Brown, and Hamilton would have had a few more open looks. Even several times they did get him the ball towards the end of the game, there would be 1 or 2 other offensive players hanging out around the block. KState might have been doubling but it was hard to tell because the defender didn’t even have to leave his man really, just take a step or two over.

If the problem is Rick Barnes, then I see “see you later”. He can’t coach offense even after this offseason’s self-evaluation and now the defense isn’t even very good. KState shot above 50% for the whole game! Texas in the low 30s. That sucks.

One interesting anecdote, at least to me is that during warmups I didn’t see Doge miss 1 shot. Not saying he didn’t but I saw 5-6 made shots from all around the floor at about 15 ft. His stroke looked nice. It wasn’t awkward like it seems during the games. Then the game starts and its same ole same ole. It’s weird. I think Barnes at least needs a more senior assistant that can challenge some of the stuff he is doing, but all I see on the bench are former players and younger guys. Sigh.

Dammit, you nailed it.

The total absurdity of having a point guard – at any level – who is afraid/unwilling to shoot a wide open 12-footer.

The complete and utter lack of offensive contributions by Hill and Wangmene(and Chapman next year). How is it possible that a 6"10" 245 lb. 5th yr. senior(former “Mr. Basketball”) plays so scared(perhaps “uninvolved” is a better word) on the offensive end but remains somewhat of a force defensively? Do these guys practice this way? Do they seriously not know how to CATCH THE BALL IN THE POST, OR SHOOT A WIDE OPEN 15-FOOTER? How the f*** is it possible?

Free throws – no comment needed.

There are so many positives that RB brings to the table, but each is accompanied by a fatal flaw. It’s a f***ing paradox.

Nice post.

As the year progresses other teams get sharper at running their offense, lot’s of movement, passing, etc. Coach’s scout and devise defensive and offensive game plans that match specific personnel for each game. Late in a season when have you ever thought, “Barnes really out coached the other coach today”. At the game tonight my wife asked why does KSU pass the ball so well, eventuality finding the open man while Texas’ players stand around while they take turns dribbling around circles…hard to answer that one. Flat out I am not sure Texas actually gets worse during the year, I just think everyone else gets better.

Barnes has built a really good program at Texas with elite 5/4 star talent. At this point he has elevated himself to a clean version of Dale Brown or maybe a Norm Stewart. Does Texas want to do better?

Hamilton’s head was so far out of the game. KSU has the ball inbounds under KSU basket. Hamilton thought he was on offense for a split second and ran an OFFENSIVE inbounds play, left McGruder wide open in the corner for a huge 3. Seriously, he was on McGruder and then took off running the other way to get open, then realizes his goof but it is too late to get back.

While the coaching staff’s production, relative to the level of talent we bring in, is immensely disappointing, it’s hard for me not to wonder if this is the ceiling for Texas Basketball – flirt with the top 5 and conference championships, tie for the conference title every now and then (at best), have a magical tourney run every 8-10 years, and flame out in the second round to sweet 16 most other years.

It’s hard to see Barnes ever getting the boot, seeing as his reign at UT had produced the best collective years in the history of the program. Honestly, we don’t really have the richest history of basketball excellence.

Sometimes, I feel like we see the 5/4 star recruits rolling in and think that top recruits + being Texas means that we should be competing for conference and national titles somewhat consistently. But we don’t have anywhere near the basketball culture or history of a UNC, Kanses, Duke, etc. Maybe this really is the best we can expect?

Just food for thought…

Good work trips, the changes in this ball club are fascinating. Clearly our “legendary” defense and motion-offense sets are lagging. I suspect fatigue by the players as the primary culprit. It takes physical and mental energy to defend well and play intelligently. Joseph in particular you’ve pointed out has been forced to play heavy minutes in every game.

For a freshman dealing with school, life in a new city, the tempations of Austin and co-eds, and Big 12 league basketball 30 mins a night is exhausting. I think maybe a break would help this team, but I obviously don’t know for sure.

I see brain-dead people … who jack up shit shots with absolutely no conscience. What happened to the crisp ball movement and that extra pass for an open look that we were enjoying just a couple of weeks ago?

We have some incredibly stupid and selfish play going on right now … that proved last season to be a quick ticket home. Where are the coaches?

it’s hard for me not to wonder if this is the ceiling for Texas Basketball – flirt with the top 5 and conference championships, tie for the conference title every now and then (at best), have a magical tourney run every 8-10 years, and flame out in the second round to sweet 16 most other years.

You realize you perfectly described Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and UNC, don’t you? If that’s the company we now share, I’m all in it.

If only our football team could be so “average” too.

Just to be clear, I’m not calling for Barnes’ job or anything of the sort. I’m just pointing out the disturbing trend of confident basketball players turning into head cases as the season progresses. If it’s fatigue causing all of these issues then there needs to be an adjustment. The good news is that there’s time before the big dance to get our legs back and our mojo. If it’s a deeper issue, then we’ll be bounced by an 13 seed in the first round.

In the pre-game broadcast they showed a clip of K State players in the hallway getting their funk on with a pre-game “party.” They looked very loose. My first thought was, “I hope our team looks that loose.”

I don’t know if that’s one of the issues or not, but it does seem like they were doing a lot more smiling and laughing a few weeks ago.

Also have to wonder if they’re getting dead legs. Whatever the hell is going on, Barnes is quickly losing the good will he’s earned back from the fan base.

Finally, UT’s success this season was translating into future dividends with recruits. Those “investors” may start bailing if this team takes another late season dive. I’m just guessing, but I bet that DeAndres Daniels was a little closer to being a Horn because of our successful season. Now, his people can have an easier time winning the debate of KU vs UT.

Dead legs. And the traditional end of the season emotional and physical shutdown.

This is the reason I didn’t allow myself to get too pumped in Dec/Jan.

Nice write up Trips. I said in the Game thread that it seemed like Barnes practiced defense for 80% of his practice and spent the other 20% on offense, inbounds, and FTs.

There are too many examples of players who started off as decent scorers who were completely uncomfortable with the ball in their hand by the end of their time on the 40. Joseph and Hamilton (to a lesser extent) seem to be this years guy(s). Joseph falls squarely in line with Bradley, Mason and Ivey as a guy that is the 2 guard “stopper” who becomes so entrenched in that role, that the ability to play offense dissapears, then shortly after the ability to play defense follows. You are left with a shell of a player from what was a superstar. I don’t get it at all.

Sometimes I miss the fun that was Tom Pender’s teams. Sure they weren’t as good, but they never played scared. Reggie Freeman would shoot until they turned the lights off in the Erwin center. Joseph thought about a wide open three for about 4 seconds before launching a brick last night.

I don’t think Barnes should go either, he has built this program and he should go in his time, like Mack. I can’t help but think there is someone who could maximize the talent that Barnes brings to campus though. Barnes doesn’t seem to be that guy.

Avatar Image
jinx said:

March 1st, 2011 at 7:07 am

Well said.

My heart is breaking for the team and I hate to see the tremendous work everyone has done potentially vaporize. Sometimes in my business I get random
advice or information that I deem useful others times its trash. But take this for what it is from a 27 year observer of Texas basketball and please take it in love and out of my respect for you guys.

-Doge is a random Chaos generator that teams hate but they have figured us out.
-The random Chaos is negated by playing Doge at the most stable times of the games, thus enabling our foes to run the “Doge” d at those times , no outside threat ,clog the passing/driving lanes.
-This affects the entire rhythm of the game puts pressure on the O then the D -We aren’t making them work as hard on defense. Our opponents can set their watches on the rotation of our guards. We were best when they had NO FRICKEN clue who the hell was the 1 or 2 at any point in the game.

Start J Cove insert random chaos generator on your time table NOT The opponents: run the who’s on first guard rotation like at KU and Doge gets layups cause he isn’t going to shoot a jump shot
and everybody is planning that way from here on out.

By playing Dogus at the start of the 2nd halfs and games you see all you need to know, Last night on the post game its defense defense defense he forgets that he is destroying the offensive swagger of the team. He is like an alcoholic that just can’t let the kids be kids he chokes the offensive life out of kids…………..bunch of weak assistance afraid to stand up to him. They al have young families. Now I fire R Barnes and hire Ken back asap as head coach.

CAN they still bounce back? CAN they get back to the good way they were playing? Is there even now something that could be done? Rest? A players only meeting? Or a team meeting with Barnes wherein Barnes does a 180 and says “Relax guys. I care about you all a lot. Sorry if I’ve acted like a jerkoff.”

The staff is probably meeting this morning, you would figure. They, more than anyone else, are desperately trying to solve this—-right? This has to be an agonizing time for them, and you would think they are desperately trying to come up with answers. Barnes is a good man who has dedicated his life to coaching. It must KILL him to see it all blow up like this. I would surely think that he is doing a lot of soul searching, thinking to himself “How can I fix this? What is the best thing I can do right now to turn this around and save the season?”

Maybe the above is (extremely) naive, even laughable. Maybe that’s not how Barnes’ mind works. Maybe he is stubborn to a fault. Manic, convinced of his own rightness, like Captain Queeg. I hope not.

Just to be clear, I’m not calling for Barnes’ job or anything of the sort. I’m just pointing out the disturbing trend of confident basketball players turning into head cases as the season progresses. If it’s fatigue causing all of these issues then there needs to be an adjustment.

Bingo.

It was evident last night that Hamilton loses interest in all phases of the game when his shot isn’t on -including the simple act of protecting the dribble. I really believe fatigue is at the heart of Cory Joseph’s problem – the kid gets it, he cares, but he threw up a couple of shots that you can see at your lunch game at the YMCA - no rim.

I don’t know how else to put it but this team looks beat down, physically and emotionally. I found last night an interesting contrast, because if there is a coach in this league who (seemingly) pushes and pressures his players more than Barnes it is Frank Martin.

It is pretty comical to watch Martin at time outs. He generally spends the first 20 seconds just staring at whatever player committed the lastest offense to his basketball psyche-just staring at the poor guy, who usually tries to not look him in the eye.

And yet his players survive and seemingly even thrive on his tantrums. I don’t know Trips, maybe Martin has embraced his persona and does a good job of recognizing what recruits will not wilt under his pressure.

I do know that there is a pattern here at Texas, and as you correctly pointed out, unless there is a T.J. Ford or Royal Ivey, or P.J. Tucker, his teams do not come out of the fire stronger at the end of the season.

This year and last year is what it would look like if Fred Akers coached basketball.

I guess we’ll blame bad chemistry for the third consecutive year.

This whole thread reminds me of a sicussion I had one time.

Do you really want the kids who have no intent of being at your school the full four years?

On one hand, hell yes – you always want to recruit the best kids possible. On the other hand – the chemistry of a team is quite different when a bunch of the guys only plan on being there one or two years.

It seems like it takes a special coach to mold a bunch of “short timers” into an effective team. Coach K has it – I don’t think Coach Barnes does – and Coach Turgeon hasn’t had the chacne to find out.

Just my dos centavos.

Dead legs. I keep hearing how great Todd Wright is, so what’s up with that?. I’m pretty sure every team we play has played about the same number of games. KSU had several players quit and they beat us on our home floor on Senior Night.

We had a two-game lead on Kansas plus the tie-breaker and totally collapsed, losing three games in 10 days to the soft part of our schedule. Conference title down the toilet, along with a 1 or 2 seed. Do these fuckers know the meaning of the word “pride?”

AIT, good point. On Coach K, he actually didn’t have to deal with it until the Elton Brand class including Cory Maggette jumped ship. Prior to that year, all of his kids stayed and still do for the most part.

“AIT, good point. On Coach K, he actually didn’t have to deal with it until the Elton Brand class including Cory Maggette jumped ship. Prior to that year, all of his kids stayed and still do for the most part.”

Right, so it wasn’t a good point at all. And let’s go ahead and not compare any to Coach K, you can make anyone look bad.

Personally, I put the loss squarely on Jordan and J’Covan. We were dominating fairly easy inside and it just didn’t seem Jordan was fighting that hard to get open.

Trips, do you not consider Pullen a point guard?

Barnes is consistent at what he doesn, I’ll give him that.

What I know about basketball would fill a gnat’s condom. To me, the team looked like the weight of the world was on their shoulders last night. Like srr50 said, they looked beat down. They were pressing so much, it hurt. Jordan looked like a freshman playing against a bunch of seniors. He didn’t look anything like a POY candidate.

I don’t know what to think about JCB. At one point, during a timeout, he was standing a good couple of feet away from the huddle, sulking. Then a walked to the bench before the huddle even broke up. I get really sick of watching him sulk slowly off the court when he’s pulled. I can only imagine if he acts that way in public what must go on in the lockerroom.

Like Monahorns said, I too watched Doge shooting jumpers in warmup. I laughed to myself and thought, why does he bother? He should trade places with one of the walk-ons at the end of the bench and feed the ball during warmups.

As we were walking out, I heard someone say that he hoped this was the end of the skid. That’s where I am right now. I’m still hopeful that they can get it together for Baylor and finish strong. This season has been an unexpected positive surprise but to see us let a conference championship slip through our fingers really sucks.

Like Roostrman said, my hear is breaking for this team.

Yeah, Duke was a bad choice. I didn’t think that one all the way through. How ’bout Memphis? Or Syracuse? Or UCLA?

But the point is the same – some schools bring one year guys in and thrive – others seem to struggle.

AIT, Carolina and Kentucky is what you’re after, but I got your point.

dick, no I don’t. Pullen isn’t nearly as good on the ball and it was one of the reasons KSU struggled eary this year…they missed Clemente. When Spradlin comes in, Pullen gets to play off the ball and then he goes to work.

While I agree with the overall macro sentiment about Barnes’ limitations, I have to disagree with the micro picture about this game. In my opinion, this loss was squarely on the players’ shoulders.

I was concerned about K-State since pre-season, through mid-season, because this is particularly the type of team that bothers Texas. Even with the attrition, there’s size inside, a good-if-not-elite inside-out combo with Pullen and Kelly, and a body that can bother Jordan Hamilton.

The inside-out combination is a particular bane for this team. The MO is simple. You need one of two things to start, and preferably both.

One, a big that can post Tristan Thompson, thereby taking away his help D. Thompson isn’t nearly as good a one-on-one defender as he is a weakside help defender, and with smallish Gary Johnson at the other forward position, there is little threat of weakside help or a high-flyer grabbing the defensive rebound. Enter Curtis Kelly. Pair him with Henriquez-Roberts, who is not a stiff, and you negate shotblocking and glass cleansing on the inside. Same thing happened with Nebraska. The obvious fix is to bring in Matt Hill, who isn’t exactly a shot blocker but understands basic man-on-man and help D principles, and adds the length to negate the “twin tower” effect.

Two, a shot-creator that can break down stout on-ball defense from Doge (and to a lesser extent, Cory Joseph). We saw it with LaceDarius Dunn, we saw it with Alec Burks, and we saw it with the second half performance of Jacob Pullen. If the opponent’s shot creator can break down our primary defender, that forces the funnel effect from our offense that leads to dribble-drive passing and the eventual open man. Keep the lead guard in front, and the offense stalls.

The problem for Barnes is that in the optimal defensive combination, he needs both Matt Hill and Doge Balbay on the floor. But he clearly can’t leave both on, because that leads to stagnant offense.

If you were giving out player grades, there’s no way Jordan Hamilton or J’Covan Brown grades out at any more than a D-. And if both your shot creators are in a funk, you’re probably going to lose, even with a monster effort from Tristan Thompson. Both were completely lost at both ends of the court, and that’s not on Barnes, that’s on Hamilton/Brown. I’m not sure J’Covan made a single good play in the entirety of the first 47 minutes. Hamilton inexplicably would leave McGruder (the one credible 3 point threat) to help…where? I have no idea where he was rotating to. Brown was incredibly apathetic on defense. Lazy feet syndrome. Both started playing one-on-one basketball in the offensive set. If you’re putting loss responsibility on anyone’s shoulders, it’s here.

The one major quibble I had with Barnes’ offense last night was when they stopped going to Tristan Thompson inside starting at around the 10 min to go mark. That was inexplicable, but I think it was partly a combination of foul aversion, and also the aforementioned ball-hogging above. It’s like the entry pass just died on the vine.

Ok, I’ll stop here. I had meant to make this more coherent, but it ended up coming out like a stream of consciousness.

In summary, I think the MO to beat Texas is pretty simple so long as the opponent has the horses to do it. Baylor does; be scared. Attack the inside, particularly Thompson, body up Hamilton, break down the on-ball D with a quick lead guard.

I think the MO for Texas to win and make a F4 is also pretty simple. Brown and Hamilton have to get their mind right. Once the offensive scoring comes in, it eliminates such a pressing need to be perfect on defense.

jc25, you make a great point. I posted this on another thread.

“I don’t have a lot of problems with this game. We weren’t hitting and KSU was. It happens. I was pleased to see us make Tristan the focal part of the offense for long stretches. WE got away from that down the stretch, but again, that happens.

The two losses prior to this game at Nebraska and at Colorado are inexcusable however. To come in and “allow” Nebraska to dictate pace when we knew that pace would be the only way to lose the ballgame is frustrating. To not have something in the quiver going in to speed up Nebraska is crazy. In football parlance, it’s tantamount to calling a playaction pass on 4th and 20. Of course, when we decided to pressure Nebby we scored 12 points in 1 minute and nearly won the ballgame.

The Colorado game is even worse unfortunately. Up 19 in the second half and we should have been getting post touches to Tristan on every possession come hell or high water to get them out of their 4 guard 1 wing lineup. Tacticians like Izzo or Matta would have fouled out CU’s entire frontcourt with Tristan on the boxes if they refused to play honest. Instead, our coach sits idly by as guys jack up 3’s off of one pass allowing the Buffs to erase the deficit because they had all kinds of perimeter mismatches on the other end. I think Thompson had 5 post touches in the entire game playing against a midget at Boulder—that’s ridiculous. Compare that to last night when Thompson nearly fouled out a very talented KSU frontcourt and my head’s about to explode. Again, the KSU game isn’t the real story when it comes to the collapse, it’s the two other losses that really sting."

“Memphis? Or Syracuse? Or UCLA?”

I don’t have any idea which side of the argument you are arguing with those examples. None of those teams are winning more consistently than Texas these days with their one and done’s.

Even Kentucky loses all their guys to the NBA after an Elite 8 run (2010) and the next year drops to a 4 seed (2011). Texas did the exact same thing transitioning from LA/PJ/DG to Durant/DJ.

Duke and UNC do what they do because they bring in 3 or 4 top 50 national recruits a year. Texas only brings in about 2.

Speaking of seeing dead people, did anyone catch the mustachioed mopper last night?

Trips, what you have documented, but not said, is that Barnes generally does not trust his players. Permission to shoot the basketball is hard won… just think back to Hamilton and Brown last year.

There are exceptions, as you note, TJ and Royal. Durant, obviously. I’m hard-pressed to come up with others. He almost drove off Daniel Gibson as a freshman (and Gibson, like Avery Bradley, ended up leaving before his time). The thing that made them special, I think, is, first and foremost, talent. But second and almost as important, is that Barnes knew that those guys were with him on the same page. Not only that, but it was Barnes’s page. Among the hopeful signs for next year would be that Myck Kabongo could be one of those players as well, although I would note that Barnes will have had almost 10 years to harden his philosophy.

There’s nothing wrong with this in theory. You have to have a coach, and he needs to be a leader and have a vision. But Barnes’s vision is getting more restrictive as the years go by. It’s tough to watch. Bradley should have been one of Barnes’s guys, and Barnes turned him into a 50 percent foul shooter from about 75.

Steve brought up Frank Martin — the sideline contrast is evident. Barnes used to be a pacer and a screamer, but hasn’t been for years. Martin has a national rep for intensity, and he’s lost players this year. But I can’t help but think about a feature I saw before K-State played in the EE last year. CBS wanted players to do their best Frank Martin. And several of them did… not just stars. Have you ever heard of a Texas player making fun of Barnes on the record? The way his players play, or don’t, as they case may be, shows how tight a grip he still has.

I think the only guy on this staff who could talk to Barnes peer to peer is Todd Wright, because he’s the only one as good or better at his job than Barnes is at his, and Barnes can’t do Wright’s job. But in terms of basketball, it took Bob Knight to convince RB of the extent of the cluster his offense had become without a top-notch PG.

As to this game, as disappointing as it was, I put it on Barnes ahead of the players. When Texas beat Kansas, Bill Self immediately pushed the loss to the side and told his team not to let one loss become two. (They won at Colorado the next time out, BTW.) What I think happened to Texas last night is that Barnes did let one loss become two.

As Trips accurately pointed out, they had a huge advantage in the post against Colorado that they refused to work on. Instead, they took the candy, which was to push the pace and run past Colorado in the first half, and continue to try to do it in the second. But they had a short bench to start with, and ran out of gas as the game wore on. I really thought they would get it together last night, but the four guys who by and large earn their scholarships with jump shots made three of 22 in the first half. What that means is that their legs were dead, and they were wasted at CU. They played defense as long as they could manage, but that wasn’t that long, and they had no jump for loose balls, and lost rebounds and passes out of bounds. In the second half, the shooting improved, but not enough to matter. If you take away J’Covan’s two late threes in the (again) meaningless comeback, the same four guys made six of 24. Meanwhile, Martin’s guys struggled in the first half, too, coming off the win over Missouri, but they got it together in the second half and left Texas in the dust.

I thought Barnes was hamstrung by the Wangmene situation, but Wangmene didn’t get enough minutes last night to show that having him against Colorado would have made a difference. Barnes should have had a game plan to burn clock and work the post. Go ahead and take jump shots, but get the jumpers inside out. This has not happened when they’ve been in trouble lately, which makes me wonder what they do in practice, except perhaps, work too hard on defense. (But it can’t be that much, if a guy such as Hamilton wanders away from his man for two open threes — and kudos to Scooby for making me realize that Hamilton lost his mind on the first one.)

If you go to Ken Pomeroy’s Game Plan of the Texas schedule, you’ll see that the defense was much worse than normal in every one of them. They need to push when they can, but I don’t think it helps to have them go up and down unless there is a clear personnel advantage in doing so. I don’t foresee those coming along in games that matter the rest of the season.

Had to rewind that one dick. It looked like a twelve year old with a mustache that would make Tom Selleck quiver.

Best part of the game, IMO.

Oh, and regarding Lavin, here is a guy who knows he’s not the greatest X-and-O coach, so he hires his mentor, Gene Keady, to support him. Interesting concept, to recognize one’s weaknesses and figure out a way to ameliorate them.

Jesus Rick, how many times do I have to tell you this??

You’re right about the team being tight, but in my opinion a lot of the assessment in this post is not up to your standard, Trips. I see a lot of specific things with this team to address, some of which you touch on in this post, but the sweeping “Barnes is a dolt” stuff just drowns out all the real conversation to be had. I also think you’ve mischaracterized J’Covan (I don’t see him battling an I’ma-get-mine demon), and you picked an odd point to make about Thompson, who looked as relaxed and fluid as he has all year from the stripe, and has shown great improvement over the last month. Your analysis is normally much more poignant.

If you listen to Rick Barnes’ post-game interviews or his weekly radio program, you hear from his words every assessment that someone paying attention is looking for. I think he has struggled recently with managing these kids, and I think it’s fair to say that he’s best when he’s got a guy who can do some of the dictating with his play on the floor, but this post throws out the baby with the bathwater.

Which, with this fanbase, isn’t particularly helpful, in my opinion. I get that you’re ranting, and I’m frustrated, too, but look, prior to this season I looked at this roster and struggled to count 22 wins overall, and 10 in conference. We’re 24-6, 12-3, and we very much have an identity on both ends of the floor. Our recent struggles are worthy of critical discussion, but not this kind of hand-waving “It all sucks, and Barnes is in over his head.”

I offer this criticism as a big fan of your work – hopefully that was clear.

Hook ’em

@Bob In Houston

“Interesting concept, to recognize one’s weaknesses and figure out a way to ameliorate them.”

How quickly we forget this past offseason.

PB, Barnes coached like a dolt vs. CU and NU. I’m not sure you can argue otherwise. I chalked the KSU loss to what it is. One team shot it better than the other. I think I’ve said several times that Barnes isn’t the one to blame for this loss.

As for the original post, I was merely pointing out the obvious. This team’s fighting itself and an adjustment needs to be made. It seems like you’ve parsed what I’ve said into a Barnes hate-fest which wasn’t my intention.

I’m now going to head on over to BON to get your side of the story.

Fair enough, Trips — sounds like I read more into what you wrote than you intended.

Your clarification sounds much more like what I see, too. I completely agree that Barnes screwed up royally with CU and NU, didn’t think coaching was the issue last night, and think the team has important adjustments to make to get out of this little rut.

Glad we’re on the same page. Apologies for any unwarranted criticism.

“How quickly we forget this past offseason.”

true but they could install the best offense in history but if you mindfuck and alienate your players, have coaching brain farts in tight game situations, etc…that offense doesn’t mean shit when all the chips are on the table.

“the team has important adjustments to make to get out of this little rut.”

I read your K-State article at BON and couldn’t find it… What adjustments do you think they need to make?

Blueshorn said:

March 1st, 2011 at 8:32 am

Dead legs. I keep hearing how great Todd Wright is, so what’s up with that?. I’m pretty sure every team we play has played about the same number of games.

ITA. I put these losses all on Barnes. The players are in desperate need of instruction, direction, you know, coaching. I’m seeing very little evidence of it lately.

It’s happening again.

"How quickly we forget this past offseason."

And my thought is that they aren’t running the same offense (at least not with any regularity) as they did to begin the season. I don’t see any movement without the ball like I did at the beginning of the season.

Instead, I see a lot of the guy dribbling waving frantically at someone else to move in some direction, with a return look of WTF? Until this year, I thought that was the Rick Barnes offense. Maybe it still is.

PB, no worries. The timing of the post probably caused the confusion. I should have done a separate post mortem for KSU and then wrote the other stuff. I’m much more pissed about the NU and CU losses than I am about this one. I was actually pleased to see us pound with Thompson.

PB,
Stop trying to be so level headed all the time.

Brown and Hamilton have to get their mind right. Once the offensive scoring comes in, it eliminates such a pressing need to be perfect on defense.

The problem is, when their shots aren’t falling, they don’t give a damn about defense.

@texasengr

Still working on the post (slammed at work), but cliff’s notes:

• As Trips said, we’re playing tight when we face adversity, and it’s manifesting itself in a lot of the high ball screen offense that leads to too much one-on-one. We’re thinking instead of playing; standing and waiting for things to happen instead of letting motion and ball movement create opportunities; and not reversing the ball or making cuts crisply enough for them to be consistently effective.

• Defensively, Jordan is playing like ass, we’re not playing situationally smart/aware defense, and we’re communicating less well on our help/team defense.

• As our motion has slowed, our ability to hide Dogus has disappeared. Rick’s got to get his kids executing again, or Dogus has to sit.

Rick needs to take these kids to the movies, let them have some fun, and then spend a couple days just running the offense, over and over, four passes before a shot, and either Thompson or Hamilton must make a touch within 10 feet before we do. Hot potato passing, sharp and purposeful screening and cutting. Get them relaxed and in the flow of the offense again, trusting that it will create for them, rather than them thinking they have to create something.

I hope he can get them back on track. Would be a shame to waste such a brilliant 25 game start.

It’s amazing to me the difference from the mentally strong, chip-on-their-shoulder team I saw at KU to this one that just seems to panic on offense every time the game gets close.

Just saw this: 22/72 Jordan’s FGs over the last four games. What the hell is going on?!?!

PB, I counted 21 and I thought I was being generous. (I think included all of their current conference losses, but I digress.) And I think I posted yesterday that if I had been offered the record they had, the position they had and the wins they’ve had, before the season started, of course it would have been an auto acceptance. I would consider it a good season if they didn’t win another game, but I should not be in a position in which I can reasonably think that they won’t win another game.

Trips put out a macro view, and going with him that far, it’s much easier to see the frustrating side. You sign guys like Hill, Wangmene and Chapman with the idea that they are going to be productive four-year guys, and I don’t think it’s too much to have asked that at least one of them would have a senior year like Jason Klotz’s. Instead, I think I called them all recruiting mistakes last summer, and that’s hardly fair when the reason they’ve been rendered so unproductive is largely because of the way they’ve been coached. Hill, for example, shouldn’t be just a screener anymore than Hamilton should be just a shooter (and Hamilton obviously is not just a shooter). Wangmene, an actual asset at the free throw line, can’t catch the ball. How can this be?

And I’m sorry, but Thompson isn’t progressing at the line. He’s taking a step or two forward and then a step or two back. You mention great improvement in the last month…. in January, he made 29 of 61 (.475). We’ve just finished February. Yeah, 8 of 13 last night, but that only brought the month to 35 of 73 (.479). (FWIW, he went 23-for-47 (.489) in November and 27-for-53 (.509) in December.)

The issue, though, is not so much what we think or Thompson thinks, but what his teammates think. If they really thought he was even a 60 percent shooter, they would throw the ball to him more. He can’t get his release consistent, and still shoots too many FTs too flat. Every third or fourth shot comes off his hand wrong and hits a side of the rim. He really should try shooting underhand.

I also think it’s wrong to characterize the post as Barnes being in over his head. He’s not. But he has his own ideas about how things should work, and giving his players confidence has not been a high priority for some time. I don’t know that that had a specific effect on last night’s outcome, but it has contributed greatly to the kind of team he has, and that’s a problem.

well said Bob

Bob — all (very) good points. And I think that last one – about giving his players confidence – is the big one, and probably the one that got Trips into a rant. It’s worrisome, and it gets us back to the thing that we thought we knew heading into this year, but for 25 games thought Barnes perhaps had cured: that he needs a coach out on the floor.

That’s why heading into this year I was drooling for next year with Kabongo, but not so high on our chances this year. Rick’s surprised us by making lemonade, but as we start to stumble, that same nagging problem appears to be a big part of it. I hope he can get these kids relaxed and in tune again. Otherwise, we’re back to needing a Kabongo to make a Final Four run.

As for Thompson, hard to argue with that data. I guess I was more referring to his approach, which looks markedly better to me. Since that game he airballed the damn thing, his approach has gotten a lot better. But if he’s not making more of them, I guess that’s not saying much, huh?

i think kansas played a good game. every time they passed on offense at least two guys would be making cuts. us not so much

Kabongo is going to make the game much, much easier for everyone—coaches included.

PB, I think we see that championship teams do have the coach on the floor. The frustrating thing is that I think Balbay is that, but he can’t just be a coach. He has to shoot, too.

I don’t think there’s anyone who’s seen Kabongo that isn’t excited about the possibilities. I know I am.

As far as this team goes, I assume they’re getting a couple of days off. The legs should be back for Saturday. If they get at least two shooters back, they have a good chance.

PB, Kabongo will be a huge boon for this offense, but expecting a freshman PG to walk on water without appropriate support is ludicrous. Recruiting Tristan Thompson to stay for year 2 will very well be the difference between a capable offense and a truly elite one, not to mention the ability to sustain this year’s elite level defense. Otherwise, get ready for a whole heckuva lot of Clint Chapman and Alexis Wangmene inside.

JC, I’d say recent history suggests otherwise. I’m not talking about anyone walking on water, but I feel awfully good about what we’re getting from Grassroots/Findlay. Thompson and Joseph are two of the most polished and mature freshmen I’ve seen, and watching Kabongo confirms that we’re getting much of the same. Rick’s had a mixed record on teams improving within a season, but all the best ones in that regard were anchored by an elite point. I expect the same next season.

As for Thompson, he will be back. I can’t guarantee it, but I’d lay you 3:1 odds.

Why are you confident on Tristan? Barring a labor issue I bet he’s the first Longhorn taken- maybe the first player from the Big 12. The NBA drafts potential and Tristan has a ton of it.

Tristan and Myck are best friends. TT promised him a a year together at Texas. Short of becoming a Top 10 lottery pick in the next month (not likely), he’ll honor that.

Good discussion fellas. PB is still upset Black Swan didn’t win Best Picture and he’s taking it out on Trips. It happens…

Ahh, didn’t realize that V. That sounds like a good reason then. Freshman PG running a very talented squad. Sounds like a fun season.

When Jordan struggles, we just aren’t that good. He is our difference maker. His four worst games this year are USC, Nebraska, Colorado and K-State. The same four worst games Texas has played this year. That is not by chance.

As solid as some of our players are, JH is the one that you just can’t effectively guard. He either makes it or he doesn’t, he either plays smart or dumb, there isn’t much an opponent can do to facilitate it. Just hope that he has one of those games.

Unfortunately he is having one of those games a lot lately. Not sure what the problem is. Barnes or JH? Whatever, he remains the key. If he shoots/plays remotely well, we win all three of these recent games we lost. I still wonder about running the offense through him at the top at the start of the games and letting Doge work the baseline. This will let JH feel more involved as a facilitator and might get him to relax and stop pressing. Who the hell knows?

Btw, Jordan’s other real bad game was against Rice. We managed to win that one by 3. After looking over our schedule, there isn’t really much doubt. As JH goes, so goes UT.

Yeah, Martin has done a GREAT job with a team ranked no. 2 in the pre-season…..that’s sarcasm btw..

You’ve basically recapped all the same criticisms that Coach K gets from Duke fans re: his team (tight big man play (Mason Plumlee), McD 3 point winners that can’t shoot 3s (Ryan Kelly). Texas was undersized going into this year. We probably played over our talent level but its obvious that teams with length are going to give us problems.

As for free throw shooting, really? We’re installing a new offense and you’re going to work on free throw shooting (which is already a crap-shoot to coach—look at the pros)?

Barton, it’s like the correlation between bad defense and losing. They have to defend, and Jordan has to score. When those things happen, they can beat anybody.

As for free throw shooting, really? We’re installing a new offense and you’re going to work on free throw shooting (which is already a crap-shoot to coach–look at the pros)?

So being ranked 296th out of 335 in FT shooting is acceptable?

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/150/p6

FT shooting has always been a weakness w/ Barnes’ Texas teams.

Same problems are there as last year. Somehow Barnes has been able to mask them up unitl 3 games ago. All the jazz about new approach/mindset and offense has gone out the window by now and its obvious to everyone outside of the immediate team. I see Hamilon’s tweet but what else is he going to say…“here we go again” no. Thats what the fans and the media are for.

Oh, believe me, K-State has had its demons. They’re just not there right now (well, one is at Canisius and another is….) but I’m not completely sure they won’t come back before the end of this year. Actually, Jamar Samuels made some plays dumb enough to make me think he was possessed last night. Example 1: That cheap shoulder in the backcourt.

See you again in KC next Saturday?

Now you have to root for us tonight when in fact we have little or no chance at wining —Awesome. How is it you shit the bed every year in hoops?

Let’s all take a deep breath. The team did not forget how to play in the past two weeks. 1) The grind of a long season has left them gassed. Due to attrition UT has a short bench with 9, and at times only 8 players. It is tough to go unbeaten at this level without more depth. The lack of movement on O and D as well as the drop in shooting % are indicative of this. 2) They lost 3 close games, 2 on the road at tough venues to bubble teams, a third to a team playing top-10 caliber ball right now. Hopefully, only having one game between now and next Thursday will give them the rest they need. Did Barnes make some coaching errors? Sure. Is the critique warranted and is there cause for concern? Sure. I just don’t think it is as dire as it may appear. Let’s see how they do in the B12 Tourney and March Madness. I still think this is a different team than last year’s. They need their legs back. If they flame out early color me wrong. Hook ’em.