Texas Basketball Falls Just Short Once Again, Loses to Baylor 77-72

This loss stacked on top of the other close ones is just too much.

Have to give the team credit for keeping their head up after each devastating loss. But some scotch is about where I am at as well.

Hes not a MAN if he doesnt come back to play next year. There is so much unfinished business and this team has so much potential, that if he leaves, I wish him the worse in the NBA. Jordan Hamilton came back and partially redeemed himself. Its time for Kabongo to look at the right thing to do: come back.

Stupid basketball IQ; no interior defense and one of the worst officiated basketball games I have seen in a while. I can count at least 6 times Baylor wasn’t called for fouls that were blatant. Shoving, holding and bumping. They really played dirty and the refs just let it keep happening. That said, this team deserved to lose for all the things you said PB. I actually would prefer that this team go to the NIT. I believe they will have a better chance at more games and more practice time in the NIT. Right now they’re a one and done team in the NCAA tourney.

Fire Rick Barnes!

I simply could not believe the foul he committed at the end on Jackson (only Bobby Knight seemed to be more surprised). I’ll say this though. Jackson’s speed is comparable to Kabongo – either that or Myck has bad reactions to his drives.

Also, when we were down 3 at the end with the ball, I thought Rick should’ve called a timeout once it was obvious the play was going nowhere. We were either supposed to get a quick 2 or go for the tie, and instead we looked lost. Instead of Rick recognizing that, he watched JCB throw a terrible pass that was picked off by Baylor. Ugh.

We don’t have enough of it on the floor.

Listening to Bobby Knight point out all the stupid mistakes makes losing close games that much more painful. What makes these guys so dumb? Sure, we’ve got a lot of freshmen but even our seniors play dumb basketball. J’Covan Brown may be the smartest player we’ve had, so why doesn’t that rub off?

is the disappointment that keeps occuring down the stretch and in March…….and now we annually sit and wait for key players to leave. I hope Brown and Kabongo return, but given our track record of late…I’m prepared for them to bail. I firmly believe Barnes coaching style needs a team to gel over a two year period, and unfortunately that just isn’t happening with all the turnover.

It is no coincidence this team allows nearly every opponent to shoot the 3 at a very high percentage. I don’t understand how you allow Heslip to get that open for his shots, especially when he’s relying on other players to get him open shots. Page has some ability to create his own shot and why we didn’t go box and 1 on OSU I do not know. The defensive rotations are terrible, the inability by the bigs to hedge the screens are killing us on pick and roll. Jackson’s big 3 to put BU up 59-57 came off a high screen from a big and Wangmene was no where close to giving Myck any help. I had to rewind it to see where Alexii was (btw he was in the paint).

Barnes’ last 3 timeouts he called resulted in zero positive plays. The first was the JCB post up play coming out of a time-out. Poor execution to say the least on the entry pass by Kabongo, but why are we going to something we haven’t gone to all game. Second time out was the Kabongo reach around foul. Not on Barnes, but what the heck were you thinking Myck? Even if you get all ball on the reach around, 9 times out of 10 they call the fall on the basis that you are reaching in. Last time out, down 75-72 and Baylor is inbounding the ball beneath its basket with 5 seconds remaining and Barnes does not put a man on the passer. Did he not learn anything from the Arizona game last year? So much easier to make an on target pass without being harassed.

Also heard Barnes post game comments this morning and at least he keeps it real. Basically said he didn’t call timeout before the JCB turnover because if Baylor switches up its defense, team would have been lost and run the wrong play anyway. I would love to see this kind of honesty from Mack.

They exploited a less talented, less experienced team on the road. They are ranked for a reason, we are not ranked for a reason.

Games like this are dlsappointing. If you get blown out by 20 at home you don’t get this sort of a reaction. It’s when you lose all those games by six or less that it’s painful.

Think about this: We are playing six freshmen and rely on rebounding from Wangmene and Chapman and we are three plays per game away from being something like 25-3. Three plays per game. This particular loss we played lousy second half defense and had zero positive inside presence. That will change next year.

I like this team a lot. Sure they make a lot of freshman mistakes but they are growing up before your eyes and they’re a lot better team than I thought they’d be before the season started and I give Barnes credit that we’re even having these discussions. He’s done a great job with the talent we have this year and with the infusion of quality bigs next year we’ll be back in the top 25 with a chance for a run in the big dance.

So just chill already. It’s admirable that we even have a shot at the tourney this year.

which do you think will experience more success in 2012-2013?

I guess I long for the old days when you counted on a freshman PG to be, lemme see – a freshman PG. He made freshman mistakes. I get that. I am more disappointed in guys that have been in the program for years, show no consistency, and disappear in big situations. And Rick is not immune from criticism. I won’t go overboard, but the fact the team offensive chemistry has not become more consistent over the season, and that there continues to be long periods of just ugly, stagnant offensive basketball is on Rick.

“College basketball is like an apartment complex. No one wants to stay there & anyone with talent is gone after 12 months.” – @ESPN_Colin

Eleven months ago, I wrote about the annual rite of assessing Rick Barnes under a high-powered microscope.

After reading the comments on this thread, I am reluctant to come out on either side of the argument as I feel that the real truth about Rick Barnes as a coach is not quite as good as his fans would suggest nor is it as horrible as his detractors may say.

Last year, one of my big concerns is the standard that we hold Rick to. I don’t feel as if we should have any lower expectations than we do for our football or baseball coaches but assessing the job he’s done is something that’s difficult.

I feel as if in the limited amount that I’ve gotten to see the Horns this year that they have a bit more of an offensive plan but it still doesn’t look great. If JCB isn’t dominating (and even when he is) who else is going to provide the offensive spark? Last night, I longed for the days when we averaged 90+ points a game. If we aren’t going to play sound defense, then we may as well go back to that. I don’t know if it’s fair to say that the players on the defensive end look “lazy” because that would imply that I know what their expended effort or desire is. I think that they look slow and there is a lack of intensity; that is probably more fair.

Regarding personnel, there are two really good points made in this thread that I feel are so true:

1) The misses in recruiting have really hurt as much as (if not more than) the one-and-dones. Clint Chapman and Wangmene don’t look like they’ve been here for five years. They certainly don’t play like it. When guys drive to the hoop and there’s no inside domination on defense, then you are really giving up high percentage buckets to guys who have no business being in the paint. Last night, I was dreaming of what a Damion James might have brought to the defense. Heck, I would have settled for Panama Myers! Lexi Wangmene is averaging UNDER 5 points and 5 boards a game. He has LESS than a block per game. If he’s not scoring, blocking or rebounding then what the HELL is he bringing to this team?

2)The one and dones. I know that the reality of college basketball today is that you get the very top players for a year, perhaps two at the most. What is it about the Texas program though that makes it a veritable turnstyle over the last 5-7 years? We really could have used PJ Tucker the year after he left. I’m sure the Ukrainian League worships him but we needed better rebounding. TJ, DJ and most recently Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph. I was amazed that Hamilton even came back for a second year but perhaps that was because he stunk it up so bad as a freshman he had no choice. Is a year with Rick Barnes what’s driving these guys to the NBA?

For my liking, I still wonder if Rick Barnes is good as some of you say he is. He has these great recruiting classes that don’t seem to translate into “deep in the tournament” success. I’m not sure what the excuse is this year. There always seems to be one. I will offer that he was due for a real down year (i.e., no NCAA tournament) and perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that he has it this year. I think that even in down years, you can see discipline or the suggestion of improving discipline to make you think that the coach is working some of his magic into molding these players. On the other hand, could it be that his players really are this dumb and disorganized? Unmotivated or seemingly so? If it’s on the players then at what point is the man who’s recruited and coached them held accountable?

That’s just my .02.

He is complacent and drawing a very healthy paycheck. However, at least Mack brought us BCS wins and a NC. The epic collapse was caused by underlying problems with how things were run inside the program. I think the same thing is happening with Barnes.

Barnes has underperformed with more imho. I’m honestly tired of the “young” excuse. You don’t see other top programs (losing just as many, if not more players) coming back strong every year. As to Barnes’ post game “throwing his players under the bus” comments…does he not realize it is HIS job to have them ready. The blame goes to the coach as well.

If Barnes stays, things need to change and he should be in a hot seat. Making the tourney numerous times means nothing when we don’t get to the Sweet 16 on a regular basis with killer recruiting classes. Heck, I’d take getting past the first round everytime we make it but that hasn’t happened either.

1. I am a pretty solid defender of Barnes. Maybe even an apologist, who knows.

I see his faults, I think, pretty clearly though. Get guys to box out, for crying out loud. It isn’t that hard. If any one flaw of Barnes’ style has cost Texas wins this year, it is probably not boxing out.

2. But anyway, here is the question I always come back to:

What do you expect out of Texas basketball, or any other team you root for?

If your answer is, “championships, God dammit, and nothing else is acceptable,” then you are probably pretty dissatisfied with Barnes. But I have news for you, you are probably setting your self up for some serious disappointment with this attitude. For your own mental health, I hope you don’t apply this sort of thinking broadly across all aspects of your life. Sometimes things go your way, and other things don’t.

I grew up a fan of the Cleveland Browns, and spent my teenage years in Buffalo, NY during the Bills’ super bowl appearances. I think this explains a lot about my attitudes as a sports fan.

I know some of you want “higher standards and accountability,” but how are you actually going to achieve that? If Rick Barnes ends up with a record similar to Lefty Driesell, is that good enough? Or not?

3. There are only just so many championships to go around. In each year, maybe there are 5 teams with a really good chance to get a championship. Coach K, one of the all time greats, builds championship caliber teams nearly every season, and has 5 in 31 seasons.

My feeling is that Barnes has built maybe 3 or 4 championship caliber teams in his 14 seasons at Texas. It might take several more championship caliber teams before he finally gets his championship.

So if you want to replace Barnes to give yourself a better shot to win championships, you need to find a guy who will be able to build championship caliber teams at a higher rate than Barnes. You need someone who will build them 1 out of every 2 or 3 years, rather than 1 out of approximately every 4 years, like Barnes has.

Who is that guy, and how will you find him? Really good and smart programs mess this up all the time. Is Tom Crean that guy for Indiana? Was Roy Williams that guy at Kansas? (Yes, but he never could quite catch a break.) Will Sean Miller do it at Arizona? We know how Billy Clyde did at Kentucky.

4. Up thread, someone brought up Notre Dame. They kind of ran Digger Phelps out of town 20 years ago, and and the program didn’t sniff the NCAA tournament for a decade. Mike Brey has them competing again, although his track record has a lot more in common with Tom Penders than it does with Rick Barnes.

Texas’ current success in basketball is far more tenuous than many of you believe? What puts Texas in better position going forward than Notre Dame, other than the presence of Rick Barnes. Does a Texas program in 2013 minus Barnes look in better position than Notre Dame did in 1991?

is why so many folks are expecting more from this team. Our best returning player wasn’t even a full-time starter last year. Our other two returnees were foul-prone big men with limited skills and insufficient PT to help improve those skills. Everyone else is a freshman, and the one player who was billed as a Top-15 one-n-done game-changer (Kabongo) should in retrospect probably instead be ranked somewhere like 25-to-35 in his class, having given a performance so far in roughly the same stratosphere as McClellan rather than a level above.

So let’s recap: no experience, no depth and no superstars. For virtually every NCAA program, that spells: NO TOURNEY.

Now, if people want to give Barnes hell for putting the program in this mess, feel free. His refusal to recruit quality four-year players ever since Durantula left is probably the single largest reason this 2012 team is struggling. But pardon me if my eyes roll a bit when people complain that a team full of misfits and unready freshmen can’t win tight games. We should be marveling that they’re competing with experienced and skilled squads like Mizzou and Baylor, if only for 38 minutes at a time.

Really: on paper, this team should suck out loud. And it doesn’t. We should be scrapping for 17 wins and an NIT bid, not the NCAA’s. So while I’m not pleased with Barnes’ roster management, I’ll tip my cap at his job on the hardwood this year. Kabongo’s issues are entirely between his ears, and every other player has been a little better than I expected.