Five Questions – Texas Men’s Basketball | Horns Illustrated

By Steve Habel/Senior Editor

AUSTIN – Plenty of people have pushed the panic button on the Texas men’s basketball team after the highly-touted Longhorns lost six of their first 10 Big 12 Conference games and stumbled to a 15-8 overall record with just eight regular-season games left on the schedule.[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] 

Along with that, many Texas followers – including four out of every five people who have responded to tweets by Horns Illustrated during and after games – have called for the head of coach Rick Barnes, demanding that he be fired and claiming that he somehow forgot to how to coach in the past month.

It’s time to take a big step back and inhale to clear our collective heads. While there is no question that Texas has not performed to the high expectations placed on the team at the beginning of the season, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The Longhorns are good enough to beat any team on their schedule – it’s just a matter of execution and making one or two plays in every game better than they have been.

“It all about execution and it comes down to where all five guys on the floor have to be on the same page,” Barnes said last week after the Longhorns lost to Oklahoma State in overtime. “We have to make plays and we sometimes don’t make plays in games that we do in practice.

“It’s a fine line,” Barnes added. “Mentally, players want to win. There’s no doubt about it, but you can’t ever be hesitant playing any game. We have a group of guys that work at it, but we can’t doubt ourselves in games when the ball has to move. Our real problem has been consistency.”

It’s easy to point fingers and say Barnes hasn’t gotten all he can out of his team. He is the first to admit that the buck stops squarely on his desk when the Longhorns don’t win.

Some people criticize Barnes for continually throwing his players “under the bus,” but what he’s searching for, and still not getting in most of Texas’ games, is for one or two of his players to take the team by the throat and make them refuse to lose.

“It’s up to me and my staff to make sure they know that if we put it all together, we could go on a run and do this,” Barnes said. “But it’s not about a run right now. It’s about tomorrow and taking it day by day and continually doing the things we need to do to win.”

Junior guard Demarcus Holland, who’s likely the Longhorns’ most vocal player, said the team has a lot of confidence despite its difficult stretch.

“As hard as it seems to understand, we trust each other and we all believe in the system,” Holland said. “We all know that we still have a lot of games to play. We don’t have one selfish body on this team, and everyone can compete at a high level. I trust my teammates, and we aren’t panicking.”

Let’s not forget how tough things are in the Big 12 this season. Six of the conference’s 10 teams are ranked in the latest Associated Press poll (Feb. 9) and Texas has fallen from the top 10 to completely out of the rankings.

Or that Texas has played stretches of the season without three of its key players, first powder-keg point guard Isaiah Taylor (who missed 10 games with a broken left wrist), and the past two games without outside shooting threat Javan Felix (concussion). Jonathan Holmes, the Longhorns’ unquestioned leader and lone senior scholarship player, also missed the past game and a half with a concussion and is day to day.

The Longhorns beat Kansas State 61-57 in Manhattan on Feb. 7 without Felix and Holmes, the first win by Texas at Bramlage Coliseum since Feb. 25, 2008. The victory halted the Horns’ four-game losing streak and may be an indication that the tide has begun to turn for Texas.

“I am not surprised with my guys – I am not,” Barnes said. “We lost Isaiah (Taylor), Jon (Holmes) and Jevon (Felix), not to mention the number of days in practice when we had to play with eight guys, nine guys.”

Five of the Longhorns’ final eight games are against ranked teams, including on the road at Kansas, West Virginia and Oklahoma. First up are two “easy” games at home against TCU and Texas Tech this week, two must-wins for Texas.

 

What has been the biggest surprise for Texas this season?

It’s likely been that super freshman and supposed phenom Myles Turner has not taken on a bigger role for the Longhorns. He’s been good but is still struggling to find his role and impose his will on opponents.

Turner has played in all 23 games but started just five and averages 11 points (third on the team) and 6.3 rebounds per game (the second-best average behind Holmes). He leads the Horns in total rebounds with 167 despite averaging 22.2 minutes per game (sixth most on the team).

But there are times when he shows how much he still has to learn, like in Texas’ second loss of the season to Oklahoma State when he played just eight minutes and scored only two points in the second half and in overtime combined.

“Myles is still not fluid in the offense,” Barnes said. “That comes with him understanding that at times we can’t get him the ball where he wants it.”

One of the real keys to the remainder of the Longhorns’ season will be how Turner plays out the stretch.

 

What do the stats show us about the Longhorns after 23 games?

We all know the Longhorns were going to be great on defense and the number show that Texas can keep itself in any game with its combo of zone and man-to-man attacks.

Texas has allowed 60.1 points per game (36th in the nation and fourth in the Big 12) while outscoring its opponents by an average of 9.1 points per outing.

Teams have shot just 36.4 percent against the Longhorns (fourth in Division I and best in the conference) and Texas enjoys a 10.2 per game rebounding margin on its opponents (41.3-31.1). The Horns have held 15 of their first 23 opponents to under 40 percent shooting.

Texas leads the nation in blocked shots, racking up 176 in total and an average of 7.7 per game. Turner has 64 of those blocks, with Cameron Ridley a distant second (39) and Prince Ibeh third with 28.

The only team stat that Texas trails in is steals as the Longhorns average 3.8 per game while opponents nab 6.4 steals per outing.

Individually, Taylor is the Horns’ leading scorer at 14.5 points per game and he’s been especially hot of late, as he’s averaged 18.3 points, 5.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game over his last six contests.

Taylor tied his season high in scoring with 23 points and set a career high in free throws made (11-of-15) during the win at Kansas State.

 

What has been Texas’ Achilles heel?

The main problem Barnes is that he doesn’t know what team is going to show up from game to game.

“The things we need to do are as mental as anything,” Barnes said. “It’s just about our guys really understanding. There is a sense of urgency every game. There is a long way to go. I mean, we can win them all – I believe that.”

Barnes has remarked on occasion that his players haven’t learned some of his plays, and they get lost in the flow of the game.

“Sooner or later we have to know who we are,” he said. “We have to play harder and we have to compete. What I want to see is a group of guys that are hungry and have pride and play hard and compete.”

It also hurts that the Longhorns don’t have a real “go-to” player that is going to take the bull by the horns (pun intended) or shoot the team out of offensive doldrums.

 

What will it take for Texas to make the NCAA tournament?

The Longhorns have only missed the Big Dance once in Barnes’ 16 seasons on the 40 Acres. Expect them to play well enough down the stretch to get to the tournament again this season.

If Texas takes care of business as it should against TCU and Texas Tech, the bottom two teams in the conference, it will take a 17-8 mark and a 6-6 record in Big 12 play into the final six games. Wins in half of those final six and a first-round victory in the conference postseason tournament should stamp the Horns’ ticket to the NCAAs.

With Texas’ overall talent, once it gets in the tournament anything can happen. I have predicted that the Longhorns will make the Elite Eight, and I’m sticking to that pick.

 

Will Barnes be the coach at Texas next year and will Turner be back for at least one more season?

Yes and yes.

Detractors question Barnes’ ability to coach a team to a championship and point to the fact that the Longhorns have earned just one trip to the Final Four in Barnes’ 16 seasons on the bench, despite coaching 16 players that were drafted by the NBA and producing two national players of the year in T.J. Ford (2003) and Kevin Durant (2007).

They opine that Barnes is able to coach a top-tier, history-filled program loaded with the best facilities without being under the microscope because Texas is considered a football school first.

But don’t be fooled or foolish. Barnes, who is shooting for his 600th career win Wednesday against TCU, is one of the best coaches in the business. And he can lead the Horns to a championship. It would be silly and counterproductive for there to be any change.

Turner should return to the college game because he still has so much to learn. He’s a future star at the next level, but is not yet a prime-time player at the one he’s currently at.

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