Horns247 Board

How much can a guy develop in one year?

To be fair, I do think Durant made strides at Texas. Not offensively, but as an all-around player. Now to Durant's credit, he's going to be one of those guys that develop until the day he stops playing - just that type of player/gym rat.

You are entirely incorrect about UT being the worst place to develop one's game in D1 basketball.

Aldridge blew out a hip as a freshman. He wasn't about to go to war inside and risk further injury.

Guys like James and Tucker had skills that lent them to valuable roles on the team. Would you have preferred for them to sit on the bench for 3 years while they were honing skills they were not terribly adept at to further their NBA chances or for them to use the skills they had to help Texas get wins. And James moved his game farther and farther out during his career at Texas, increasing his role in the offense, the range of his shooting, and decreasing his turnovers per touch.

Brown and Hamilton were nearly worthless as freshmen because they were completely incapable of playing a role within a team game and completely incapable of paying any attention to defense. Barnes fixed that with both of them pretty well.

I don't know how wise it is to compare improvement in 1 yr with limited practice time to improvement over 2 years with no limits on a professional. Seems silly.

In fact, it's just dumb.

I feel like I could list a couple dozen guys who got better under Barnes. A few off the top of my head are: Mouton, Ivey, Boddicker , Abrams, Atchley , Buckman, Brown. Everyone that stayed for more than one year made strides in their game IMO.

Can we at least credit Barnes for developing AJ Abrams' eyelashes?

The knock on coach Barnes isn't that he can't develop players... I think it is sometimes hard to see that because of all the guys that have left after one or two seasons in the past. The knock is that his teams struggle without a good point guard (most teams would as well), and in general just struggle to score consistently. I'll also add that his teams have trouble closing out games when they have the lead in the second half. I have been a Barnes supporter in the past, and recently have started to change my opinion, but despite this disappointing season, I really like what I see. It's hard to ignore what Texas has right now and what it could be in the future. But in order to take that next step, Barnes has to go out and get some tough players who can score the basketball.

I would say Royal Ivey improved greatly in his 4 years at Texas.

TJ Ford couldn't shoot at all his freshmen year, his so. year he was the go-to scorer in close games.

Sometimes it's up to the players to put in the work to make themselves better instead of blaming others for their own short-comings.

In fact, I would say that a big reason why Barnes is struggling now is because of how his players have grown in their 1-2 years on campus, such that they leave because the NBA tells them they are good to go.

Players develop a ton under Barnes--sometimes, at the expense of the team. McClellan is a perfect example of this. Some might argue that it was Barnes' hubris, or ego, that led to him benching McClellan, but I disagree. I think that after he knew Kabongo would be out and the NCAA tournament wasn't in the future of this team, barring a Big 12 tournament win, which remains unlikely, his best bet was to develop individual players the most possible. This meant that at times he would bench McClellan in order to make him understand what type of effort, intelligence, and concentration is required on both ends of the floor.

Can this be frustrating as a fan? Absolutely. I think Barnes is a great player developer and defensive coach. His issue is widely known and that is coaching an offense, which I think he has gotten much better at.

Last point, what would you do if you were Coach Barnes and a player comes to you and says he is a guaranteed first round pick? Corey Joseph, Tristan Thompson, and Avery Bradley were in this situation. Both were first round picks, but didn't have the offensive game ready for the NBA. Nonetheless, are guaranteed millions of dollars and can focus all of their time on developing their talents. Barnes recommends these players to go to the NBA (the J'Covan Brown situation was different). These guys risk millions of dollars by coming back, which can set someone for life if they are smart with their money. I understand that it is frustrating that so many players have left even though they may have benefited by more time at UT, especially on the offensive end gaining confidence, but he is a great coach on the player development standpoint. Moreover, I think that Barnes is obligated to advise these kids to go to the NBA and not stay another year at UT. Barnes #1 goal is to win championships, but that cannot come at the expense of doing the best thing for these kids, selfishly keeping them in school beyond their time.

Barnes' biggest flaw is developing a good offense. He might be overpaid, but there are not very many other coaches I'd rather have at Texas and I'm not sure we can get the ones that I would rather have (VCU and Butler coaches etc.).

Interesting to note that in the 10 conference games without Kabongo, Texas scored 70+ in regulation only once, in a home game against TT. They scored 60 or less six times.

In 7 games with Kabongo, Texas has scored 70+ in regulation three times, with 77 and 79 in the last two home games. They've been under 65 only once.

As for closing out close games late, that has been a more recent issue, especially in the last two seasons. In the Joseph/Thompson year, they were 6-5 in games decided by single digits. The one point loss to Arizona just made it seem like they couldn't close.

Barnes' only problem is winning? He has won plenty of games here at Texas. He has developed a lot of NBA talent. One and dones have almost done him in. A deep roster is the hardest thing he has had to attain. We may have taken our lumps of late but I see this roster coming on strong next year, especially if Croaker can help some on the perimeter. I really don't think Barnes had peaked out yet. I predict a resurgence. I just hope some fans show up to witness it. I will be so happy when the wrecking ball make contact with the Drum. What a piece of shit basketball venue.

Good 13th post. +1 after midnight. Done run out of up votes - not that it matters. Post more.