For the Texas Longhorn fans, it's a bad nightmare. It's the reoccuring one that keeps happening during the months of February and March where they just fall apart as a team. I for one cannot believe this team caught the Rick Barnes' disease. I said a month ago, I bought into this team after they beat Kansas on the road. I had not seen a performance like that this season to be quite honest and generally made a deep impression on me. Granted, they have young talent in Jordan Hamilton and Tristan Thompson who by all means can fall apart, but both of those guys play at such a high level. They have the talent to take this team to the next level like T.J. Ford's squad did in 2003. But it appears that this is just another year in Longhorn nation.
I really do not know how a school with alumni like Ford, Kevin Durant, D.J. Augustin, LaMarcus Aldridge, Daniel Gibson, Chris Mihm, Royal Ivey, Damion James, and A.J. Abrams. All of these guys were great college basketball players, and Barnes has only one Final Four to show for it. I have hard time making sense of it all. Not to Jon Gruden hyperbole you, but Barnes might be the most overrated coach in college basketball. He does not get results in March, simple as that.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why. Barnes isn't looked at as an authoritarian or a snake in college basketball. I rarely hear anything negative about Barnes, so that leads me to believe... is he too conservative? When have you ever seen him speak out, or act out? Maybe Barnes has a soft likable personality that attracts big prospects, but does not yield results in the postseason. I have no idea why Barnes-led team gets so tight during the final month of the season.
The only close comparison I can make with Barnes is Jim Calhoun. The UConn Huskie coach didn't even get to a Final Four until his 26th year as a head coach and afterwards it became a common occurrence for the Huskies in the next 10 years. All coaches are different, but I think we can all agree Barnes has to switch something up to create that next step. I know one thing, I will not take the Longhorns deep in a crazy NCAA Tournament. I could accept the Horns losing on the road, but not blowing a 22 point lead then on top of that, losing at home. Bevo continues to hang his head.
-Charlie.
I really do not know how a school with alumni like Ford, Kevin Durant, D.J. Augustin, LaMarcus Aldridge, Daniel Gibson, Chris Mihm, Royal Ivey, Damion James, and A.J. Abrams. All of these guys were great college basketball players, and Barnes has only one Final Four to show for it. I have hard time making sense of it all. Not to Jon Gruden hyperbole you, but Barnes might be the most overrated coach in college basketball. He does not get results in March, simple as that.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why. Barnes isn't looked at as an authoritarian or a snake in college basketball. I rarely hear anything negative about Barnes, so that leads me to believe... is he too conservative? When have you ever seen him speak out, or act out? Maybe Barnes has a soft likable personality that attracts big prospects, but does not yield results in the postseason. I have no idea why Barnes-led team gets so tight during the final month of the season.
The only close comparison I can make with Barnes is Jim Calhoun. The UConn Huskie coach didn't even get to a Final Four until his 26th year as a head coach and afterwards it became a common occurrence for the Huskies in the next 10 years. All coaches are different, but I think we can all agree Barnes has to switch something up to create that next step. I know one thing, I will not take the Longhorns deep in a crazy NCAA Tournament. I could accept the Horns losing on the road, but not blowing a 22 point lead then on top of that, losing at home. Bevo continues to hang his head.
-Charlie.
