Rick Barnes and the Nagging Question

" Would it be better to put together a team of hard-nosed, well-executing overachievers and go deeper into the NCAA Tournament? Or is it better to bring in the best prep players in North America and develop them for a year or two before releasing them into the NBA wilds, even if that means inconsistent post-season results? "

It is interesting that Barnes “system” seems to require different talents and abilities than those of the players he recruits I.e. you don’t need Kevin Durant to play lock down defense. Even an player with average (Div 1) athletic ability can play lock down defense if he has the desire. My contention is that you are much more likely to have the desire to play defense if you don’t have Kevin Durant’s ability to score.

I will never understand why Hamilton called that timeout. Never.

I’ll beat the dead horse again: Barnes’ problem isn’t that he’s recruiting stars and churning them into the NBA. His problem is that he hasn’t been able to develop “hard-nosed, well-executing overachievers” to complement these stars. We can go through the list briefly, but to cite one specific example, Doge Balbay. Barnes turned a very good defender into a world-class defender, even after Doge suffered an ACL tear. Ok, that’s nice. But dude still couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn on an open 18 footer, much less make a free throw. Then the Doge plays in a couple of showcase games and people like Chad Ford (or someone of his ilk) talks up Doge as “intriguing” and a potential NBA player one day. If he has that potential, why wasn’t it developed under Barnes?

I have no problem with Rick going out and recruiting the best of the best. Like any other team and like any other star range, some guys will pan out beyond expectations, some will take time to develop, and others will flame out. My problem is that Rick, in looking beyond the trees, is only growing the trees that already started off shadowing the rest. Other than Gary Johnson, every other role player in recent Texas memory has either (1) initially started off intriguing only to regress (see: Justin Mason) or (2) hasn’t really developed to be a useful piece at all (see: Matt Hill). Then I look at someone like John Calipari, who recruits stars that turn into lottery picks, but develops players to be useful parts (see: DeAndre Liggins & Josh Harrellson this year). Until Rick can accomplish the latter, the former is as worthless as those first weekend flameouts.

Seems to me that Barnes created this false choice himself with his initial answer and subsequent follow up. From the outset he should have said “well Bob, the two aren’t mutually exclusive”, and proceeded to talk about helping kids realize their dreams and one of those dreams being winning a national championship etc.

What is troubling to me is seeing how Barnes actually does view the two goals as being almost at odds with one another, or at least enough so that he continues to make a distinction of some sort.

jc25 – I share your frustration with the staff’s inconsistent results in player development. They’ve definitely missed on those players you mentioned, but should also get credit for turning guys like Dexter Pittman and Damion James into high draft picks. I ask the following without knowing the answer: how much success in player development is due to the staff, and how much is put on the player?

t1climb1 – Agree. That’s what so puzzling. Barnes is a media-savvy dude. He must know that the safe answer is “they’re not mutually exclusive”. So when he he overexplains these particular answers (more than once), isn’t that a signal of some psychological angst?

“Why is it so difficult for Barnes to give a good answer to that question?”

“Because I’m smart enough to realize if these guys live their dream, we’re going to keep putting ourselves in position and one day it is going to come together, and we’re going to win it.”

" “I’m glad that’s not a actual choice I have to make’ defuses a no-win situation.”

I’m sorry Jeff…but didn’t Barnes effectively say what you wanted him to say. I don’t see the difference between what Barnes said and what you wanted him to say. He said if we keep getting 1st round talent guys, we are going to win a national championship, which means that’s not a choice that he has to make. People are so upset with Barnes’ resulSt that they are hearing things that he is not saying.

T1…
tHow can you say Barnes sees winning and developing players as being at odds with each other…when the man said if he keeps getting players into the league, they will win a national championship? The false choice was set up with the original question that Barnes was asked, which was “would you rather have guys go to the NBA or would you rather win a national championship?”. Barnes didn’t create it.

How dare you, sir?

If Rick Barnes wasn’t a national title-caliber coach, he would not have just received a sweet 200 grand raise & be among the top 10 highest-paid coaches in the nation.

Not reaching the Sweet 16 in 4 of the past 5 seasons, & 8 of his 13 seasons @ UT, are mere facts. So are having a 6-5 record in the NCAA tourney the past 5 seasons & beating a higher seed just once.

JoeTex

If you think our coaches salaries are based strictly on game performance than you haven’t been paying attention.

SMUHorn,

I hadn’t seen that other quote from Barnes. When I said he created the false choice, I understand the way the question was posed, perhaps I should have said that in answering the way he did, he reinforced the false choice that was presented to him by not calling it such. The quote you supplied that I had not seen makes me feel a little better though.

@ srr50 – I know. That’s the point.

I think it’s admirable that Barnes is so conscious of his responsibilities to the athletes he coaches. Winning a championship is going to make a lot of spoiled fans (us) happy, and give these players a memory that will last a lifetime. Going to the NBA can change the life of a player, and his entire family, forever. They aren’t mutually exclusive, but if, hypothetically, it ever does come down to championship vs. professional career, I think it is admirable that he would hypothetically put his professional glory, and our reflected glory behind what’s best long term for the kids.

At this point I think we all know what we are gonna get with Rick. We will recruit exceptionally well and win between 20-25 wins a year. I do find it odd our tournament success has gone down while are recruiting has gone up. I just don’t know if we can do any better than him. All of the sure fire coaches I would replace him with will never leave their respective schools.

@ TexasGarcia

That was all on RB. If you watched, every player on the court tried to call a timeout once Hamilton rebounded the ball.

Give Barnes a handful of players who can create offense for themselves and their teammates and Barnes can win a title. Right now, without changing a damn thing. They bring the offense and he brings the defense. He almost did it once, in fact, but sadly it was also the only year that Carmelo Anthony was in college.

I think a big contributing problem over the past few years is that his recruiting has been too good and yeah that sounds stupid, but hear me out. Too many of the minutes have (deservedly) gone to kids who end up one-or-two-n-done, not enough to the guys who’ll stick together and contribute for three-plus years and possibly grow into a dependable and diversely-talented unit the way Ivey and Mouton and Boddicker did.

Barnes has had good recruiting classes every single year for years and yet this Fall we return three scholarship players – J’Covan, Lexi, and Chapman. Three players! Marshall returned more players the year after their plane crashed.

And it’s been like this to some degree for years – we’re always counting on true freshmen to play a critical role on the team, and our depth has become an annual crapshoot. That matters because when you have no offensive system to speak of, then you’re relying on spontaneous offensive chemistry to win you games. And we can’t develop any chemistry if a yearly rotation of feature players radically change the strengths and weaknesses of the team every damn year.

Admittedly, it should be said that Marshall returned more players than every D-I basketball team, because that was a football team and 13 players missed the flight. But hey, I’m not lying.

Thanks Dagga, for succinctly expressing what I could not.

The reason he gave that quote is because that’s what he wanted to say. And if I was a recruit from Ontario, you know what I would think when I heard that? That’s whatsup.

The reason our recruiting success has gone up while our tournament performance has gone down is simple — elite recruits don’t give a shit! The ones who might certainly aren’t coming to Austin; not when they could go to Lexington or Chapel Hill or Lawrence — you know places that actually care enough to consistently sell out games.

You think Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph view their year in Austin as a waste because they didn’t make the Sweet 16? What they did for their draft position is going to be a huge boost for us recruiting-wise. Shelvin Mack may have played in two Final Fours, but he’s fighting for a career after going in the second round while Joseph is set for life if he has a good accountant.

The NCAA Tourney is a complete crap-shoot, unless you really think VCU is a better team than Kansas. As long as Barnes keeps rolling in squads full of NBA players in there, we’ll break through eventually.

I don’t have a problem with either of these answers.

The answer I (and BIH) DO have problems with came at the pinnacle of last seasons success when asked what his team needs to do to get better. That was a more telling answer to the programs long term problems as any.

SMU, Dagga
Perhaps last seasons newly installed offense will return dividends with the 3-4 year players.
A couple of seasons certainly shows on the defensive end.

I will never understand why Hamilton called that timeout. Never.

Barnes wanted to have J’Covan Brown shoot free throws, and just as much, he didn’t want anyone else to shoot them.

Jeff, I disagree with you in that I think that Barnes did give a good answer in his most recent iteration. He really does take seriously his responsibility to help his players move to the next level, whatever that is for each of them. He would sacrifice his own goals for them, as parents sacrifice for their children. But he does not believe that he has to sacrifice his goals to accomplish both (and I agree with him). I was bummed about the loss of the freshmen, but I realize now he’s gotta keep working the plan.

Where he screwed up initially was giving in to the demand for an either-or answer. And, because of the failings revived on this thread, his failure to advance in the tournament, while continuing to push players through to the NBA makes it appear that he really is sacrificing his goals.

UConn won the championship with a roster a lot like the one Barnes had, but with more support from the lesser talents — it’s proof that the plan can work. The problem has been with RB’s coaching or recruiting, or some combination of them. It’s not the philosophy.

lowdenswain – I don’t recall – what was the answer he gave when asked what his team needed to do to get better?

Bob in Houston – I see your point. I still think that the most recent answer to the question is long and rambling enough to leave it open to interpretation, but I understand the message coming through that he’s willing to sacrifice some goals important to him and fans (winning in the tournament) to help players become better and move on to the NBA. That’s not totally selfless, of course. Barnes and the UT program benefit as one high-profile recruit begets another. My amateur pop psychology senses an interesting internal struggle going on there.

lowdenswain – I don’t recall – what was the answer he gave when asked what his team needed to do to get better?

He said he thought they could get better on defense, when at the time the team had the best defense in the country and the best defensive stats a RB team had ever had.

In his post-halftime interview against Arizona, when they were down 13, he said, “We’ve got to play better defense as a team.” They were outscored 36-23 in the first half and scored 47 points in the second. Decide for yourselves what made the difference.

I’m convinced that one reason — not the only reason — the team staggered at the end of the regular season is because Barnes continued to focus intently on defense. The offense devolved from the screening and cutting machine that started the season to the high-post screen and drive crap that made 2010-11 so unwatchable.

If they do that this year, at least they have Kabongo, and it will have a chance to work.

“Barnes wanted to have J’Covan Brown shoot free throws, and just as much, he didn’t want anyone else to shoot them.”

Someone can refresh my memory on the specific game… but remember earlier in the season when Barnes freaked out on Hamilton for passing to TT late in the game? Hamilton barked back at Barnes. Fast forward to the Arizona game and Hamilton calls a timeout versus dribbling or passing.

Part of being an elite coach is knowing how to push the right buttons with different players. Elite coaches (and teachers) have great communication skills and help the players grow into making the right decisions on their own. If your players are scared to make ANY decision you haven’t done right by them. I think we are seeing that type of behavior from our players late in the season, and it’s magnified come conference and NCAA tournament time.

I don’t think it was fear of making a mistake… in this case.

The argument was at KU. They were killing time late, and Hamilton got himself into a position where he would have walked if he hadn’t passed the ball, and he passed to Thompson. Clearly, they had been told not to pass the ball to Thompson (who, ironically, made both FTs).

Against Arizona, not only Hamilton, but also Johnson and at least one other player whom I can’t recall are calling for time.

But you’re right, Barnes definitely tore down Mason, Balbay, Hill and Wangmene in terms of shooting and never built them back up.