Texas Drops Second Straight at Home: Quick Thoughts
by awiggo on Feb 5, 2009 12:06 AM CST
in Texas Longhorns Basketball
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PrintWow, where to begin? I'll let PB take the critical, more thorough look and only offer a few brief thoughts before trying to erase the last two home games from my memory.
- This team has no identity. Are we a team that pounds it into Gary Johnson and Dexter Pittman? Are we a team that relies on dribble penetration? Are we a team with an entire offense designed around getting a 5-10 guard catch-and-shoot opportunities? Are we a team with so many athletes who are such poor shooters that an up-and-down helter skelter full-court press should really be our offense? I have no idea and neither does Rick. The sooner we figure this out the better.
- Our half-court offense is so bad that we have only a razor thin margin to work with. The defense was great early in the season and is still acceptable now, but our offense is so inefficient that we simply can't blow anyone out. We don't shoot the ball well enough to pull away when we grab leads. We don't sink free throws at a high enough rate to always know that games are out of reach. And we don't have a go-to, consistent offensive player to lean on when we go a couple of possessions in a row without a bucket.
- This team is so inconsisent, it's scary. BigRoy touched on this in his preview and I've mentioned it as well in reviews and other comments. Rick Barnes doesn't know who is going to show up on a given night. Sometimes it's AJ with solid shot selection, sometimes it is Justin Mason taking care of the ball and attacking the rim, sometimes it is active Gary Johnson on both ends, sometimes it is Dexter Pittman who is owning the paint, and sometimes it is Damion James who looks like his hours of jump shooting in the summer are finally paying off. But on any given night, who freaking knows?
- Not have a true point guard hurts, but so does having just a single three-point threat. I laughed at the Missouri defense in the first half. I simply couldn't figure out how they were allowing Texas to beat them with Dexter Pittman over the top. How hard is it to pack the paint with three guys, apply light pressure on the ball (Mason or Ward), and shadow Abrams everywhere? Mason isn't a threat to shoot from the perimeter, neither is Varez Ward or Connor Atchley, really. Rick Barnes can't insert Dogus Balbay either. He won't/can't shoot even when he gets inside the lane. Our typical high pick-and-roll offense isn't difficult to defend either. Who cares if Connor pops open for three? He doesn't have the confidence to knock down the 20 footer. Who cares if Mason or Ward or Balbay is left alone for a second as the defenders sort out who is taking who. It doesn't matter. None of the three of them can sink a three-pointer, so leaving them free for a second or two is fine. Sure, not having a dribble penetratingpoint guard has hurt our offensive efficiency but not having anyone, other than AJ, who can make a simple open three-pointer has been equally crippling.
- Something wasn't right with Damion James tonight. There were reports of knee/leg pain that required an MRI a few days ago. He didn't play great defense, only played 27 minutes, and didn't seem to have the same explosiveness that we normally see.
- New goal: top four and a Thursday bye in the Big XII tourney. My pre-season thought was 12-4 behind OU and Kansas. After the Baylor win, I started dreaming of 13-3 and possibly playing through the final weekend with a shot at a shared title on the line in Lawrence. Well, after two straight home losses, the goals have changed. We must protect our home court the rest of the way. This includes beating Oklahoma State, OU, Texas Tech, and Baylor. To be certain of a top four conference finish, we'll need all four home games left and probably need at least two more road wins. The most likely two are Nebraska and Colorado with tougher road games at A&M, at Oklahoma State, and at Kansas also left.
In summary, Longhorns drop their second straight, 69-65, at home to Missouri. Texas falls to 15-6 overall and just 4-3 in Big XII play. PB will post a full review tomorrow. The sky is still not falling but man it's starting to feel like it is.
Vent if you need to.
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Agree with all points
I’ve got early morning commitments so the full review won’t run until tomorrow afternoon, but I’ve got a lot to say on the game…
Rick’s in a tough spot with this team, having a squad that can thrive in the halfcourt for 15-20 minutes a game, and one that is a disaster in the halfcourt the other 20-25 minutes. The question is whether we can be one team for part of the game and, with Pittman on the bench, an entirely different one for the rest. Maybe that’s not possible. Who knows. But I think after tonight Rick’s got to throw the kitchen sink at the problem and find out.
One last thought before I retire (and much more on this tomorrow) — I wasn’t happy with Barnes’ coaching tonight. We’re big Rick Barnes fans around here in general, but this wasn’t a good night, all things considered. The failure to seek points in transition was unforgivable. The decision not to switch on all screens on Mizzou’s final possession was incomprehensible.
Damnit.
--PB--
geez
what a horrible game. Did anyone else see this stat that popped up: Total starter’s points = 30, Dexter Pittman = 25 of those 30 points? Did anyone else see Pittman drawing fouls left and right every time he got the ball? Even if he didn’t score from the free throws, he would have gotten half the Mizzou team to foul out by the end of the game if the plan stayed with getting him the ball.
I agree with awiggo. We started strong with Pittman (of course after getting shut out for the first 5 minutes it seemed), then tried to add a few little tricks here and there, letting Mason shoot (good Lord, what a bad idea), and trying to get Abrams involved (another horrible idea).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the team and will root for them and hope they can pull out the wins. But when a process is working against a team (Mizzou had no answer for Pittman down low), why change it and give the ball to the two guys in the worst slump of their career? Goodness, Mason shooting the ball makes Brad Ausmus’ batting percentage look good.
I both blame and can't blame Barnes
Identity is key, we have none: For this, I have to blame Barnes. We are a different team depending on who is in the lineup and our lineup is NEVER the same. I think this goes in line with your point about consistency. We are far enough into the season where we should know who we are, what we want to do, and how we are going to do it. Yet, it seems to me like every game we try to feel our way into it and go from there.
Benching players cause they screwed up: There was a point early in the second half, where Chapman dunked and was late to get back down the court. James helped on Chap’s man and they almost had him but he passed to James’ man for the score. Our next possession, I could hear Rick yelling at James from Nashville TN. The whole possession, DAMION! Our play never ran smoothly, and we immediately benched Damion. In non-conference play, I loved this aspect from Rick. But seriously, its conference play, we need our best players in the game.
Lineups: There was a point when we had Connor, Chapman, Ward, Abrams, Mason.
NO.
NO. This can not happen. ever again. It was a disaster and possibly caused future home tickets to go up on ebay. The film won’t lie. NO.
I still think the key is identity.
In my opinion, we should be an inside team first, no matter who is in. Always goes down low first, Johnson, James and of course Pittman! It’s Money 75% of the time we focus on it, easy layups.
Although, wait…. We should run and gun and play full court press. Oh yeah, our press can be so intimidating, Mason, Balbay and Ward’s size guarding guards. AJ getting open three’s, it’s perfect! Easy layups.
Exactly, this is why I can’t blame Barnes.
I would love to see us have a consistent rotation that our players are used to. Have two teams, with AJ and DJ being intertwined into both or something. Either that, or abandon depth and run 7-8 strong. Most of the best college teams do actually run 7-8 strong. Our best teams did.
But atleast now I am starting to understand why I think Rick is having a terrible year.
This team STINKS
The current Texas team needs a PG.
Balbay isn’t very good at all. He can’t shoot worth a crap. Teams don’t even guard him when he’s in the 3 point range.
James and Johnson are the best players, and there is a HUGE drop-off after them.
Abrams isn’t very good either. He’ll make a 3 pointer, and then air ball the next.
You're right, every player on the team sucks.
Also, the sky is falling, the ship is sinking, and we’re all doomed doomed DOOMED!
by Meekrob on Feb 5, 2009 9:30 AM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Who is the leader of this team?
The play of Atchley, Abrams and Mason this year compared with last season show that this years team has no leader to direct this team. Last season DJ was the leader, he had good basketball intellignce and intuition so he knew how to run the offence and when to get each of his players the ball when they were in the best postition to do something successful.
This season there is no person on the court to do that and the decisions are made by each individual on the court. Nobody on this team has the basketball perception to know if a team mate is beating their man and to get them the ball in a way to take advantage of it. A good team leader like DJ and TJ know the capabilities of their teammates and are constantly accessing how well each player is doing against the different opponents on them throughout the game. They then adjust the game play to take advantage of those factors.
It really shows up in the half court offense, that’s when those leadership skills are needed the most. That’s why the half court offense is so dismal, who going to decide when the set play is not panning out to make adjustments on the fly and use the capabilities of their teammates against the weakness of the opponents.
We had TJ and then the teams had go to offensive skills of Aldridge and Durant ( looking at his NBA numbers 25.1ppg-47fg-423p-85%ft) that masked the factof not having someone to run those teams then we had DJ. Now we have neither the good leader to make guys like, well everyone else on the team shine or a bailout super skilled individual who can get his own shot with regularity.
Defense takes less team leadership to accomplish well and the same goes for defense to offense transition scoring. The team is left with a half court offense that is very ineffective because first and foremost it lacks on someone to lead the team.
This may be blasphemy
But why not put AJ back at the point for more plays? He’s currently contributing almost nothing on the offensive end—he hardly ever touches the ball unless it’s a designed play to bring him across the court, around screens, to shoot a hopefully open but usually contested 3 pointer. Witness the late game floater to tie. You’re telling me that having Abrams play the 1 20-25 times a game is worse than what we have now?
He’s the only credible threat from beyond the arc, so at least if you’re running perimeter screens with Abrams handling, the defense can’t sag in; they’ll have to play the ball. At the very least, it gets the ball into the hands of your most prolific, if not proficient, scorer. That’s gotta be a hell of a lot better than seeing the pick play with Mason and Atchley, neither of whom is any sort long-range shooter at this point.
That sucked hard. We have lost the Drum.
Why do we let AJ chuck up a three with 25 seconds left when the game is tied and Texas has had success, albeit moderate, going inside?
Our offensive / shooting deficiencies are patently clear.
But I thought a key difference last night was player rotations and conditioning. Mason was working his tail off, but he simply wore out in the second half against the Mizzou ball pressure. (I didn’t know that Balbay was sick?) The lame defense in the last 20 seconds was, at least partly, a result of being tired, it seemed to me.
I'll never forget ol' what's-his-name.
Lousy, Just Plain Lousy
Anyone here still want to taunt me for declaring the 2008-9 version of UT BB is D.O.A. in a early 1st or 2nd round tourney loss? This team has a future, but it won’t be delivered for another nine months. For now they honestly don’t deserve a top 25 ranking, probably forty teams would beat them in a best of three series.
I seriously wonder what AJ’s premature move at the end of last season to test the NBA waters did to him and his psyche. I thought the way he and his dad handled that marked the end of AJ as a Texas Longhorn team guy and the beginning of AJ as NBA “show me the money guy”. He’s been nowhere near the same player since. I thought the way that whole thing went down was hugely disruptive to the team chemistry and even Barnes’ approach to this season. I don’t see AJ maintaining Longhorn pride once he leaves, nor do I get any sense he’ll come back to visit with the guys like KD does.
Balbay continues to be euro-trash, a much-hyped Darko-clone, with similar results. Sorry, but they just don’t play BB in Europe as well or as athletically as is done in the good ’ole US of A. The euro-rules slow down the game to allow all the slow white leaping-impaired guys to compete with blacks. Here they let ’em play, fast, and with athleticism. Sure, a tiny few euros are able to break through, but the risk/reward is too pathetic to gamble a scholarship on. I hope Rick learned his lesson for good with that one.
Barnes should dump this season’s tournament goals and focus on teaching these kids the game style and discipline they’ll be wildly successful with when next year’s incoming talent arrives and the dead wood moves off the UT bench and into the archive records. I don’t mind him benching anyone for freelancing or non-performance, even if it costs them some wins this season. He’s got to get control of this team and this program now or all his hard work in bringing great talent to Austin could be for naught. With this season destined to be unmemorable and a slide backwards, the rest of the year is his bowl game that allows him to get a jump start on the next one.
I want to taunt you b/c your a d-bag.
Balbay is pretty damn athletic.
I do agree with you about AJ. I hate his me first attitude. He whines to officials. If he was backing it up with solid play it would be one thing, but he hasn’t.
by jimmer on Feb 5, 2009 12:30 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
While I Normally Don't Engage with A - - jammers
like you…
Balbay may be athletic in how he moves his body around, he has a poor concept of what it’s like to play around other athletic bodies. His ball distribution is a product of the euro-trash competition he spent his life playing against. He has no clue how to get the ball to the best player and spot on the court at any given time, he’s always a second late and makes bad choices – choices that had he grown up around athletic talent and without the speed governor the euro-rules impose he wouldn’t be making.
Yep, AJ and his daddy messed up a good thing he had going at the end of last season. After this season’s selfish, uninspired and underachieving performance he’ll be lucky to get drafted in a lower round. He probably will end up as a free agent, make a training camp and then go play ball in … Europe … against the Balbay’s of the world.
Feel free never to engage with me again
and I will continue to call you out on your consistent douchetardness whenever I feel like it.
Balbay will be fine by the end of the season, you’ll see. So will Texas. Just b/c we are sucking right now doesn’t mean we can’t piece something together in March.
Umm, can I get a shithead? You bet.
by jimmer on Feb 5, 2009 1:18 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
You're Quite the
Loser Homer aren’t you?
Loser Homers like you inflate yourselves in your own minds as being better, more loyal fans because of your unflinching optimism, even if that means burying your heads in the sand. At the same time you call other fans names for daring to identify the flaws and limited potential of the team they also love and are loyal to in any given season, because we actually take a look at the carnage as it’s happening.
How’s about this, you don’t post a comment on any thread I start, or respond to any post I make, and I won’t post a comment on any of yours. Deal? Now go back and look at the earthworms crawling around your buried head.
I'd rather be a Loser Homer than a RMHorn
You don’t seem to mind calling people names yourself. My response has nothing to do with me being a better fan than you.
Sorry everyone else for starting in with this guy. I’m done.
by jimmer on Feb 5, 2009 2:27 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Facts are Stubborn Things
Especially when all can read that YOU started in with the “d-bag” thing from the git. If you dish it out against other posters here you’d better be able to take it you punk-ass piece of s- – -!
Go F – - – yourself (since that’s probably what your doing right about now)
Last regular season game is March 7th.
9 games + Big XII tourney = plenty of time to regroup.
March 19th – 1st round starts.
Xenophobia will get you nowhere on this blog.
Stop it with this “Eurotrash” nonsense. Have you ever seen the Olympics? European teams play a much faster pace than American teams, which have perfected the slow-down-and-isolate-our-best-player technique. And beyond that, Balbay’s problem for most of this year hasn’t that he can’t keep up with “blacks” (as you so inelegantly put it, you people-person you), but rather that he plays way too FAST for this team. He’s probably the second most athletic player on this team after Damion James and can get up the court with the ball much faster than anyone else on the team.
Your unexplained hatred of Europe has absolutely no place here (and no, this is not an invitation to explain it). If you have a criticism of Balbay the individual basketball player, then make it, preferably using facts and not blatantly incorrect “stereotypes” (insofar as something can be a stereotype when it’s actually the exact opposite of what the obvious stereotype is). Just cut out the damn xenophobia and we can start talking about how we disagree about basketball rather than how you’re acting like a bigot.
by billyzane on Feb 5, 2009 2:53 PM CST up reply actions 4 recs
Whatever
Your unexplained love affair of all things European has absolutely no place here. If you want to defend a style of play and players that has nothing in common with American ball (the place that originated it), that’s fine if it makes you feel good, but that’s all it does, ‘cause it ain’t based in reality. Just cut out the damn America hating and we can start talking about how we disagree about basketball rather than how you’re acting like a self-hating loser.
Fact is, Balbay has turned out to be a big fat zero as far as impact players are concerned. I remember reading here on BON this time last year that we should “just wait until 2008 when Balbay is playing”. He was sold to us, yes, us readers of BON as being some larger than life, mythical combination of all things that ailed our team last year. And he’s been nothing but a big fat zero!
There are easily 100+ starting point guards in the NCAA this year who are far better than him. And probably one-third of them are from his recruiting class or newer. billyzane, I’ve read enough of your posts here over the last two years I’ve been visiting the site and know that you’ll still be defending Balbay when he’s a senior starter who still sucks because “he plays way too FAST” for his team. That means he’s a loner, not a team player, not able to adapt to what his team needs. You’re probably that guy who when he first starts dating and sleeping with someone who tries to force the techniques you learned when you were still in high school that got her off on a thirty year-old woman who is wholly unimpressed. You gotta find out and then know how to adapt to her sexual preferences if you want to be any good, you can’t just make her like what the last honey did.
Same thing for Balbay and this team, if he really has the talent that you claim he has then he’s simply a selfish bastard trying to force his techniques he learned in Turkey on American players. Doomed to fail. Throw in a “show me the money” NBA-fantasizing Abrams for good measure and you have the 2008-9 Texas Longhorns. High on talent. Low on team. First round loser in the NCAA’s.
All I want out of this season now is Barnes to diminish the role of the guys who won’t be back and bring in the guys who will based on their performance, team play and heart. Bye bye Abrams. Bye bye Conner. Bye bye anyone else (including Balbay) who is a part of the problem, not the solution.
- I agree on your AJ comment (he is only concerned about himself). He is at his best as a third/fourth option, as he has been the last three years. He is not a go to guy. It is interesting that at the end of last year on the NBA thing that AJ and DJ did not talk to each other for a month. AJ should not force shots.
- Balbay is athletic, did you see his block against Kansas State. His issue is that he cannot shoot. Last I checked the NBA had many white guys from Europe.
No one has ever questioned Balbay's speed and athleticism.
It’s his productivity that’s in dire need of improvement.
I'll never forget ol' what's-his-name.
A football analogy
You can have a great defense, but if you have an inept offense, full of fumbles, interceptions, and three and outs, you put your defense in a terrible position, where they have to stop the other team when they already have really good field position. And since the defense is always on the field, they get tired and give up scores.
This is what I’m seeing with this team. I still contend we’re a damn good defensive team. Top 10 for sure. But when your offense continues to turn the ball over and brick shots, the other team will feast on that in transition. Most of their threes at the end were pretty much a result of transition. Also, whenever we do have a nice defensive possession, we have to finish it by getting the rebound. We gave up a few offensive rebounds in the 2nd half that killed us.
Our problems of offense, identity, and inconsistency have already been well documented here, but I’m not going to give up on them yet. Other than the OU loss where we were blown out, lets take a look at the other 5 losses.
Lost by 1 point to Notre Dame
Lost by 4 points to Michigan State
Lost by 6 points to Arkansas
Lost by 4 points to Kansas State in OT
Lost by 4 points to Missouri
Clearly, we can see that we were right there in all 5 of these games because of our defense, but it was our offense that let us down in pretty much all these games, especially late in the 2nd half. We’re talking about a couple of possessions here that would’ve changed the outcome of the game! The point is if Barnes and co. and figure out some things on offense and establish an identity, we can win these games. Never forget that in college basketball, it’s always how you finish.
There is no doubt that lack of perimeter shooting is killing us. I wouldn’t be surprised if Harrison Smith was the 2nd best perimeter shooter on the team next to Abrams (he did make a three in the OU game), but I doubt he’s going to be part of this team in the future. Other than AJ, we should just abandon the three point shot and go inside. That would be the identity I’d want for this team, to play a slow, half-court game that revolves around our post players, Pittman, Johnson, and James (yes, I would like to see him post up a lot more). I would like to see Balbay play more, because he’s probably the best ball-handler on the team and would be able to set up the offense better.
by goingforthecorner on Feb 5, 2009 11:26 AM CST reply actions
I agree with your go inside comments. The one big issue is Pittman’s fouls and defense. If you want to play Pittman more minutes, you need to protect him in a zone. Barnes does not like Zone (neither do I). When we go to a zone it is always awful. So the question is what do you do when Pittman is out.
When Johnson is out with fouls Barnes cannot pull James because he is mad at him. There are times when James, Johnson and Pittman are all on the bench and that is a disaster waiting to happen.
I'm beginning to think that Barnes is starting to lose this team
There were long stretches of the game last night were the guys were pretty clearly just mailing it in, on both ends of the court. Having your head coach respond to every mistake with screaming and benching can’t possibly be helping anyone’s confidence or desire, either.
What is so completely inexplicable to me is how they can manage to go from the violent explosiveness of the early run to the half-assed quit-fest of the last four minutes before intermission in the blink of an eye with no obvious trigger, and then do exactly the same thing in the second half.
A stupid system that works exactly like it's supposed to is still a stupid system.
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