Tooting My Own Horn

The implication is not that blogs and sport sites are useless. This is, first and foremost, a community of Texas fans and it does an excellent job serving that purpose.

My point was analogous to the fact that watching every “Law and Order” episode doesn’t qualify me to judge the inner workings of the local district attorney’s office. I may be able to judge on a macro level (criminals haven’t been going to jail—therefore the DA isn’t doing his job / Texas has top level talent and has been going to the NIT every year), but it’s much tougher to make a judgment on a micro level (why did that guy “get away with it” / why did Greg Davis call a screen on 3rd and 6).

“It’s 100% fair to discuss what their teams’ performances say about the way they’re coaching.”

I probably should have been more clear about what I meant. Yes, I agree with that point. If Mack Brown had gone 0-12 this year, I think it’s pretty clear that that would be a poor coaching job. On a macro level, coaches should be and are judged by their record of success. For example, despite whatever issues Marinelli had in Detroit (and I’m sure he had a lot), I think it’s pretty clear he didn’t do a good job in his tenure there.

I think on a more micro level (game by game and certainly play by play), our knowledge of quality is dramatically less. There’s a big difference between “Atchley isn’t a good player” and “Atchley didn’t or isn’t playing well.” The latter phrase can be concluded from a couple of games (or even a couple of plays)—I’m not sure the former can be concluded from even a full season’s work.

I believe it was your post-game analysis that asked why Balbay didn’t play more against Missouri. I have no idea and you admitted you didn’t know either. I inferred from that (and maybe I was wrong to make that inference) that you believed Balbay could have made a positive difference in the game. And you may be absolutely right. It’s also possible that Balbay could have had a negative impact on the game as well and that seems to be what Barnes believed (this is a bit simplified, as he could have been punishing Balbay or something else was going on behind the scenes). He could be absolutely wrong. But this is a situation that, with limited knowledge, I’ll take Barnes’ judgment.

Just a quick note regarding Texas hoops. I think there was far too much hand-wringing after the 3 losses when a lot of the issues were just luck. If Clemente doesn’t drop 44 (on a great defense) and Nebraska doesn’t hit some lucky 3’s at the end, Texas goes 2-1 in that stretch with the lone loss to an underrated Mizzou team. This team is probably right where it should be based on its talent. It has some very good parts and some pretty big holes. It isn’t going to the Final Four and it isn’t going to the NIT.