Is it time for Rick Barnes to go?

[whatsmyname]

Do you reallythink hamilton and thompson are coming back? Even durant said he wasn't sure after his las game? Just emotions from game... unfortunately, an agent will get a hold of them and tell them how much money they will make. Thompson is a top 10 pick.

At least now brown will start at pg. Balbay could defend, but come tournamant time, teams wouldn't even gaurd him and it became 4 on 5 which hurt offense. They have to gaurd brown. I just wish brown would have dumped the ball to johnson for a wide open dunk at the end of the game.

[Guest040616]

Like several other posters, my first love is not UT. Although being around Austin as much as I have during the past year is starting to change the way I think about UT sports. With all of that said, UT has outstanding athletic talent in just about every sport, including basketball. I find Rick Barnes to be an excellent recruiter and a very good instructor of young basketball players. He is a much better than average bench coach. Is he Coach K? No, he is not but quite frankly there is not another Coach K to be found anywhere other than Duke.

From my perspective, the average UT fan is spoiled. There, I have said it! If the Horns fail to win the whole enchilada in any of the major sports, the fire the coach crowd quickly jumps on the "the sky is falling" bandwagon! Nationally, UT's men's basketball program is not on a par with the top 4-5 basketball programs in the country. And probably never will be! But they consistently fall in the 2nd or 3rd tier of schools and they occasionally play at the top tier level. I went to 3 UT games this season and they are very good. Not great but they do play sound fundamental basketball.

My unsolicited advice: UT fans, be thankful for what you have. I have been a lifelong UH fan and you can believe me when I say, "it could be a hell of a lot worse."

[sixxbach]

Originally Posted by bigtex

From my perspective, the average UT fan is spoiled. There, I have said it! If the Horns fail to win the whole enchilada in any of the major sports, the fire the coach crowd quickly jumps on the "the sky is falling" bandwagon! Nationally, UT's men's basketball program is not on a par with the top 4-5 basketball programs in the country. And probably never will be! But they consistently fall in the 2nd or 3rd tier of schools and they occasionally play at the top tier level. I went to 3 UT games this season and they are very good. Not great but they do play sound fundamental basketball.

Not spoiled when it comes to basketball. I was on the Barnes has got to go for 2 years now. He is a very good coach but there is something lacking. It is not the talent. His players don't always play fundamental basketball. Why in the world would Hamilton rebound the ball with 14 seconds with the lead and call a time out? Try to burn some seconds off the clock and take a foul. Then of course the 5 second violation.... why would the guy not call an immediate time out to see the defensive set that Zona was going to use when you still have one more timeout in the bank?

I love UT but out of the 3 big sports at Texas, the basketball team is the one lacking sound fundamentals. That is the coaches fault...

My unsolicited advice: UT fans, be thankful for what you have. I have been a lifelong UH fan and you can believe me when I say, "it could be a hell of a lot worse."

Very true!

sixx

[wiilyp613]

Well, to start, we got screwed at the end, go luck at the tape. But that is neither here nor there. Rick Barnes is a hell of a recruiter. If what I am reading is true,with Myck Kabongo coming in next year(5*point guard) from Canada, the other two Canadians want to stick around a play a year with there guy. Add in if Jordan Hamilton comes back, which he should, no way he or Tristan is ready for a 82 game NBA season.We have the makings of a top 10 team,now if Barnes' coaching were as up to snuff as his recruiting we might be up there with the Dukes, UNC's, and the like. Good thread.

[Yssup Rider]

Ahh, right you are bigtex... ain't nothin like going into the four-corner stall with 10 minutes left in the game.

Or ... having a 29-2 season and getting your ass beat in the first round by Southwest Louisiana State.

Or ... losing the THIRD PLACE game (they don't have them anymore) to Ohio State after Lew Alcindor's eye "got better."

Or ... ARRRGH.

Guy V. should have eaten that damn polka dot towel!!!! There was more than one time I tried to get down to the court and feed it to him!

HAIL COUGARS!

[Guest040616]

Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

Ahh, right you are bigtex... ain't nothin like going into the four-corner stall with 10 minutes left in the game.

Guy V. should have eaten that damn polka dot towel!!!! There was more than one time I tried to get down to the court and feed it to him!

HAIL COUGARS!

Guy V would have driven the average UT fan absolutely crazy! For the better part of three decades, his UH basketball teams were consistently considered a top tier college basketball program. Shhhhh, don't tell anybody but he never won the biggest game of all! I suppose the most gut wrenching sports defeat I ever suffered through was the Coogs heartbraking loss to NC State at the buzzer in Albuquerque.

Guy V's Jamma era Coogs were the very first team in NCAA history to play an entire basketball season above the rim! They were a very special collection of talented basketball players who played spectacular team ball on both ends of the court. Despite an entire season of high flying exploits, the final 10 minutes of the year were played trying to protect a comfortable lead in the National Championship game. Unfortunately for the first time that entire season their transmission became stuck in reverse. Sadly, despite being widely considered (at the time) as having one of the greatest college basketball teams of all time, Phi Slamma Jamma failed to win a national championship.

I digress with a little known fact about the Jamma team: with the notable exception of Olajuwon, the rest of the starting 5 which included Clyde Drexler (and almost all of the backups) were all products of Houston area high schools. Very few Houston area basketball players escaped Guy V's clutches. He was a hell of a recruiter. Sadly, I do not believe that UH has recruited the top Houston area basketball player since Guy V retired.

Despite all of his Final Four appearances, Guy V was often criticized by the Htown media, fans and UH alums. Myself included! In hindsight, he was a hell of a basketball coach and it is truly a travesty of justice that he has never been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame! From Elvin Hayes to Ken Spain and on to Hakeem Olajuwon, there was not a better big man coach around.

I suppose I should apologize for my tearful journey down Memory Lane! But I say all of this to put the Rick Barnes debate into perspective. If Barnes is forced to ride off into the Longhorn sunset, it just might take years for his replacement(s) to get the program back on track! After all, you need look no further than the once proud Coogs and the revolving door of basketball coaches they have suffered through since Guy V's departure!

Bottom line: Throughout the 60's, 70's and 80's, UH consistently ranked in the Top 10 in all three major collegiate sports. Football, basketball and baseball! Does any of this sound familiar to UT fans? Now the UH is lucky just to get a Top 10 school to give them a second look. I readily admit to occasionally being guilty of second guessing Guy V Lewis. If given a choice today, I would give my left nut to see Guy V once again sitting courtside in Hofheinz Pavillion, with his arms resting on his knees while holding that ever present polka dot towel!

Ahhh, those glorious days of yesteryear! Sniff, sniff!

[SecretE]

I think a better question is when will Rick Barnes leave UT to go to a more legendary b-ball school that has fallen on hard times. Think UT is lucky they had him for this long.

[derek303]

Watching the games the color commentators which are ex coaches (Bobby Knight being one of them) all said the same thing. Texas has no ball movement. They are all bunched up and try to create to much off the dribble. Nobody but Brown can do that. Balbay can if he can get to the rim. Hamilton sucks doing it and he tries. Barnes is a great defensive coach. Mediocre offensive. We were scoring and playing best when we played smothering defense and fast breaking down the court. Set up a play and unless Thompson caught it down on the block and made a move or kicked it out for an open J for Hamilton, Joseph or Brown we went nowhere.

[E2]

They (including all of his old schools {George Mason, Providence, Clemson}) don't call him "Regular season Rick" for nothin' !!

24 years coaching
22 years - post season play (admittedly Impressive)
9 – outs in the 1st round
5 – outs in the 2nd
Only 1 final 4.

Let’s not even go into the Conf. Tourney!!

ONLY 1 Conf Championship. (tied for 1st, 2 times)

He is good, but he can’t close.

Kind of like me at Kenichi!!

[E2]

Not a hater. I like Rick, personally and professionally. He is a good coach.

We continuously recruit the talent, they need to be coached.

See Mack Brown.

[Guest020916]

Btw, sixx, you have TJ Ford listed and he got the Horns to the Final 4. As Yssup pointed out, Melo and his good Cuse squad beat Texas to win it all.

I still want Barnes around. Got a good class of freshmen coming in next year.
Tristan may go. Hamilton needs to step it up and improve his game. There is no player in the current roster that is on the next level like Durant or Ford. Hope the Canadian stays.
Barnes may not be a Coach K, but he makes a lot of right decisions. It's just a time when his questionable decisions are being scrutinized.

Throughout the season as someone else pointed out, there wasn't much substitution to rest up the main squad for March. Also, there was no major development with Hill, Lucas, and Wangmene. It contributed to a tired Texas team coming into the tourney.
Lucas was disappointing this season. He really doesn't have much feel for tempo, it's just full throttle all the time.
Brown had heart, but where was he all season? That guy needed to show that earlier and be a consistent team player. We'll see how he fares next season.
Potential pro players in NCAA leaving early is just part of the game. These guys aspire to be a pro and playing longer in NCAA means a risk of injury & potentially a career. It would be nice if NBA would have a higher age requirement, but it's not the case now.


The time out called on Texas rebound was definitely a planned time out. You can see Thompson and Johnson signaling T. Not sure why a team with the lead and about 12 seconds remaining would stop the time, but that was the call. Questionable call from the Horns.

The ref not giving a full 5 seconds also is suspect and shown as proof on video.
Those seconds go by quick and you look for the open man within 4 seconds and call time out when nothing is available as planned by Barnes. That's why Josef didn't just signal for time out on 2nd second. Josef executed fine.
Interesting that Hamilton was open if he had come to the ball, but he was setting a 2nd pick (Johnson setting the 1st) for Brown to get the inbound pass (called play). On the Zone show, there was a caller who thought Hamilton should've improvised and come to the ball instead of setting the pick. Who knows what would've happened? Hindsight is 20/20.

Last, Brown was shoved in the back and it was reallly obvious on the last drive. It's difficult to pass the ball when a defender shoves your body as you drive 3/4 to full stride. No foul called even though the earlier times he drove, those type of fouls were called.

When the Arizona player admits to just throwing the ball up there and soften the fall and the ball goes in, it's just meant to be. What's done is done. Ref made a couple of mistakes (not giving .5 seconds on inbound & talking about it postgame).

Sorry for the long post. A lot of good insight in this thread.
Longhorns turned out better than expected this year. Glad to watch a handful of home games too. I'll expect more next year.
Texas basketball may have more expectations than Texas football.