Big 12: What Happened To Texas?
By Bobby Reagan
Take enough talent on paper to be a favorite to make the Final Four. Mix in returning 100 percent of scoring and rebounding from last season. Sprinkle in a KenPom ranking of 17 and one of the best recruits in the country. Top it off with Rick Barnes.
Wait, there’s the big problem.
Yes, this is Texas basketball and Rick Barnes is still ruining this team.
Remember when the Longhorns were talked about as a No. 1 seed right before they lost to Stanford on Dec. 23? Most likely not, since all they’ve done since then is go 4-4 with the only quality win being at home against West Virginia.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone as Barnes is a constant underachiever at Texas. I don’t want to call him a loser, since he’s won 394 games during his time in Austin. But, he hasn’t made it past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament since 2008.
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He’s made the Final Four just once with the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Durant, T.J. Ford, D.J. Augustin, Tristan Thompson and Avery Bradley playing under Barnes.
This season is trending the same way with at least three NBA draft prospects on the roster in Myles Turner, Isaiah Taylor and Jonathan Holmes.
So, what’s been going on in Austin? How can this be happening again with what was arguably the most talented team under Barnes?
The easiest thing to see is on the offensive end for Texas. In fact ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla compared this team to an old LSU football team during his call of the game at Iowa State on Monday night. He said LSU preferred to win games 16-9 and that’s how the Longhorns are playing.
There’s a lack of fluidity on the offensive side of the ball. Too often Texas’ players are passing the ball around the perimeter with no real purpose. ESPN’s Myron Medcalf spent three days with the team and said it seems like there’s no trust in roles or in each other.
So, is that it? That has to be it, right? That’s the question most Texas fans are asking.
Hate to break it to you Longhorn fans, but it gets worse.
On top of that struggling offense, the once feared Texas defense has disappeared. According to KenPom the game against Iowa State was the fifth time Texas allowed at least one point per possession. Hint: all five were losses.
Texas was struggling with a man-to-man, so Barnes implemented a 2-3 zone. Something that should be easy to do, especially with the length and depth Texas has. Only problem was Iowa State lit the zone up with a simple play of just flashing to the high post.
The other big problem was one that’s tough to figure out. Starting point guard Isaiah Taylor, arguably Texas’ best player, went down with a wrist injury in just the third game of the season. Even without Taylor, the Longhorns looked tough with senior Jonathan Holmes playing like he wanted to be called an All-American.
But when Big 12 play started, Taylor came back from his wrist injury and all hell has broken loose. It’s not fair to pinpoint the problems on Taylor, but again this has to go on Barnes. Whether he’s not doing a good job of implementing the offense by just plugging Taylor back into the role Jevan Felix ran or adjusting, something is going wrong.
With a daunting schedule remaining, Barnes needs to learn this team otherwise that seat is going to be as hot as hot gets.