We constantly get blown out of the water. I understand players have to play, but the coaching has been abysmal this year. Can Scott Drew come coach Texas?

Stinks.
Dexter Pittman is the poster child for what this team lacks. Basketball IQ. Barnes’ comments last week that he would rather have guys in the NBA the win championships or some such, has me hoping that he goes away. Yes, yes, he has done more blah, blah and I have always been his biggest defender. But Texas can get a coach that teaches the game.
Dexter Pittman had me thinking of Jason Klotz. If you recall robot Jason took a big mans camp in the offseason and improved his post play dramatically. Jason has 1/10 of the NBA promise that Dexter had going into this season but he decided to work and improve himself. While never a world beater the improvement was fairly significant as I recall.
Meanwhile Dexter smiles and loafs and gets tired, can’t jump, can’t rebound because he is a slob and lazy. This shit is really old and this team beats me senseless.

We’ll probably beat Iowa State – that will be the last “W” for this collection of poorly coached kids. James deserved better than what this season delivered. Barnes let him down, big time.

Barnes’s failure to bring this team along was obvious. Pittman got worse as the season progressed. Hamilton showed some progress on offense – but his defense is a liability that his shooting can’t counter-balance – his +/- is appaling. Mason tries hard, no question about his effort. But he is another example of a player who has gotten worse under Barnes guidance (or lack thereof). You can throw Bradley and Brown into that bag as well as Balbay. Johnson is the lone exception – but as witnessed today, his defense was almost totally absent. He scored 25 but his man may have scored that many as well.

In summary, let’s hope Barnes picks the brains of some of the coaches he respects (Knight, Coach K, etc.) and brings something to the table next season in addition to a bunch of talented individuals.

thank goodness…………this team is ready to be put out of its misery.

I’ll watch, but expect the worst.

Gotta pattern here lately of showing up big in every sport at first to just be upset later on, but I’ll take it. Its been exciting none the less.

You just can’t turn the ball over like we do. It’s hard to defend constant fast breaks. When you turn it over and brick mid to long range shots you have no chance on defense. We were killing Baylor in the paint yet we would go minutes at a time without attacking it. This is the worst passing team I have ever seen. Pittman has been bad. He wouldn’t be near as bad if we had one player who could deliver a pass in the post. I don’t know how many times he sealed his man deep in the post only to not get a look. The atmosphere was tough but I felt like our effort wasn’t there. Several of those offensive boards were all hustle on Baylor’s part. Our guy’s just weren’t trying hard enough. It’s the first time I have been embarrassed representing my school on the road.

As much as I’m hearing on this blog about Barnes needing to be run out of town, I have to say you people are nuts. You’re probably the same ones who wanted to run Mack out of town when he had trouble beating OU in the first several years of his tenure as well, right?

Here’s the basic problem: No matter how good a coach you are, you can’t teach intelligence. Barnes, and every other coach in the world, recruits athletic talent. He’s done that better than any other coach Texas basketball has ever had. The problem is that we as fans got spoiled with the basketball IQ that players like Durant, DJ, TJ, etc. exhibited from Day 1. The trio we have now just don’t have that.

They are as athlectically gifted as anyone, and have shown flashes of that. But they are typical FRESHMAN! They aren’t the superstuds we expected them to be, because our perception of McDonald’s All-Americans were guys like Durant, DJ, TJ, etc. None of these three were ever expected to be one-and-done players like the three I just mentioned. Therefore, we should have expected there to be a longer learning curve with this three. That’s exactly what we’re getting. And it’s highly disappointing.

But basketball IQ at this level comes with experience. These three are talented and they will get it. But you can’t teach it. You can tell them. You can work on things in practice. But the light bulb has to go on during game times, and that comes with experience. Nothing that Rick can do but keep playing them, letting them learn, and trying to help them with their mistakes. You can see his frustration in comments like, “I don’t know. I don’t understand.”

He expected these guys to be smarter from Day 1 than they are. And right now, he’s searching for ways to make them smarter on the floor. It’s something that you just can’t do.

If we’re going anywhere, we have to go to the Durant rule. In Durant’s only year on the 40 acres, there was a point during the season where, because we didn’t have the supporting cast necessary, we put the ball in his hands at the top of the key; then let the offense run through him almost every time down the floor.

In the first 17 games of the season, James was the leading scorer in almost half those games (8). We all know our record during those 17 games. We have to put the ball in James’ hands at the top of the key or at the free throw line; then let him make the decisions. He’s our leader, he has the most experience, he can hit jumpers or drive the hole, which forces defenses to play more honest than they have been. He can drive and dish to Hamilton, who is deadly when he gets his feet set. And James’ decision making is the best on team, which will lead to fewer turnovers, which should allow us to help set up defense on the other end.

Then you spend all offseason taking the three freshman into the film room, running drills without the ball, becoming better defenders, and try and help their basketball IQ. You can’t work on those things that much during the season.

Finally, to whomever it is that keeps bringing up Barnes’ Clemson record: SHUT UP! I’ve looked at his records and you can’t compare. He was never able to have the type of recruting classes at that time in the ACC because Duke, UNC and Maryland took them all. Period. This is the first year in his tenure at UT where he’s had great talent and it’s been wasted to a point. He never had that type of talent at Clemson. So not only should you stop beating that “dead horse”, it’s an imaginary horse to begin with. Enough.

Sorry for the long post, but I waited until the end of the season to finally say my peace.

Barnes should be on the hot seat entering into next season if thiis team doesn’t raise eyebrows from it’s play in the Big XII and NCAA tournament.

for the conference, 2 of 8 on the road, 6-2 at home.

out of conference, 14 games, only 2 road games against Rice and Arkansas. We would have had a clue if the Horns played a quality opponent on the road in the first part of the season.

During the 17-0 streak only 3 roads games Rice, Arkansas and Iowa St. hid the team weakness.

NOTE for Next Season, pay way more attention to the scheduling.

maybe this team has given up, and is ready for the season to end.

Road games mature a team. Without them you’re only half-baked. Maybe Baylor defeating Xavier, Arizona State, South Carolina & Arkansas on the road helped them build the necessary self confidence. I know the home games put a lot more $ in the bank but are they good for the team?