You can't be serious. Of course it's the freshmen. You could see the deer-in-the-headlights look to all of them last night. It was a great atmosphere. If it wasn't for college basketball's ugliest court (not just my opinion), you'd never think that was College Station, TX. Texas starts 4 freshmen and a sophmore. They bring another sophmore, a freshman, and the teams only junior off the bench. I would have to think that inexpierence plays a gigantic role in their play last night and in the losses to K-State & Villanova. Their pure talent destroyed Tech in Lubbock (same place A&M had their only conference loss to date). A&M is a very good team that can very well get to the Final 4 this year. Gillespie is a very good basketball coach. So is Rick Barnes. Texas is only going to get better and will be one of the teams no one wants in the tourney.
Calling Rick Barnes a bad coach shows that some Aggies still don't get basketball. It's ok, you will one day if Gillespie never leaves.
Well, to be fair this is a Rockets message board. I doubt most Aggies who visit here are the "football-only" fans you're probably thinking of. I still don't know how to handle the Aggie basketball success. After four years in college of witnessing some of the worst basketball I've ever seen played, it's just kind of surreal. Guess I just never thought I'd see the day.
Are you serious? He lost the K-State game all by himself! How many great coaches lose games all themselves? Texas gets world class recruits, they deserve a world class coach. They underachieve way too often. Yes it includes the TJ Ford teams.
I just thought of something funny... The Rockets tear me from my Aggie friends who are pro Dallas/San Antonio. The Aggies tear me from the Rockets family who are pro Texas/UH, whatever... Is there no peace for me?
I see tons of people calling Rick Barnes a bad coach on the Texas boards so there are a lot of Longhorns that still don't get basketball either. btw ... I think he is a good coach, but there are fans of both A&M and Texas are not that basketball smart in these Football king schools/
The TJ Ford teams brought a Final 4...for the 1st time in UT history. No one would call that underachieving. Please explain how Rick Barnes lost the K-State game all by himself? Because he chose to stick with the zone rather than go to man to man when this team is a terrible man to man team? What kind of coach was he when they beat Tech by 9 in Lubbock? Rick Barnes is one of the best coaches in the country. Frankly, UT is pretty lucky to have held on to him this long...just as A&M will be lucky to hold on to Gillespie for any length of time.
Damn Leroy...I was just about to post the exact same comments. Weird. Kind of funny how some people from a school and call another school "underachievers" despite not making the tournament themselves for almost 10 seasons in a row. A&M has a good team this season and ya'll could go deep in the tourney. But I wouldn't be calling Barnes a bad coach until you guys make an Elite 8 or Final 4 appearance, or at least out of the 2nd round.
underachieve way too often? final four appearance? elite 8 appearance? i wouldn't call that underachieving.
While I agree with you that Barnes is a good coach, I am amazed at how many Longhorn fans think that because they've had a good team in recent years that makes them basketball aficionados compared to A&M fans, especially on a basketball board where most here have watched basketball for many years. And besides being a good coach, I don't think I've heard a coach whine near as much as Barnes lately either (ok well lets not count Tom Penders because he is on another level and is blinded by hate for both UT and A&M).
I forgot to mention this one, too... UT 76 - LSU 75 LSU 64 - A&M 52 I think, this year, A&M is a better team. They have some very good players, have expierenced players, and a very good coach. UT is simply a very talented and very young team. If there is any chance that we can be graced by another season of Kevin Durant, UT could be the preseason #1. However, like gucci888 said, until you do something in the tourney...until you've done something in the tourney over the last 20 years...please don't call anyone underachievers.
Wow, I suppose the Texans are the real super bowl champs because they beat Indy. Translational analysis in college basketball is even worse than it is in Football. Why do you have such a problem with people calling the Longhorns underachievers? I know plenty of Texas fans that have been disappointed with the results. With some of the teams they've had recently, you have to be disappointed as a Longhorn fan. I don't blame that on the coach though. It's just the nature of college basketball where in the tourney you are one sub-par game away from going home in March. It's not a slam against Texas, but do you really think they achieved full potential? A lot of programs can say that ... I mean look at Kansas' dissapointments. I think it is very rare that the best team actually wins it all.
you...THINK?! As for mentioning the LSU thing...umm, that stat...means jack ****. Seriously. Think about all the other teams in different sports that have beaten good teams. Like the texans beating Carolina when they went to the super bowl. or beating Indiana last season.....
I'm pretty sure I said that I believe that A&M is better than UT. They have talent, depth and very good coaching. Ziggy was bashing Barnes for the K-State and A&M losses. I was trying to point out that in common games, UT beat opponents that A&M lost to. I wasn't saying they're better because of that. I just meant that they have the ability when they play as they are coached...tough defense & efficient offense. They got away from those things in the A&M game, I believe, because of inexpierence. Not because of bad coaching. That's the nature of starting 4 freshman and a sophmore.
I don't think we have a problem w/ people calling us underacheivers, just Aggies that our calling us underachievers. But seriously, like you said, you are one sub-par game away from going home in the tourney. And hell, we were a couple points away from going to the Championship game a couple years back (losing to the eventual Champs). I'm sure a lot of Longhorn fans are disappointed or whatever. But to be called underachievers or having your coach bashed by a rival school who has nowhere near the success we've had is another thing IMO.
I don't care about the good coaching thing, but if you do a good search, about 4 or 5, maybe 6 years ago, Barnes absolutely tore into the student body after a home game on a Saturday. And since the tickets were technically sold but many fans didn't show up, Barnes was even suggesting they take the tickets back from people who don't use them. The problem was that Saturday UT was having FINALS!!!! I'm an Aggie who is as pro UT as any Aggie can be. And search my history for my cred is absolute, connections to players from both teams back in the day. So I have no opinion on the coaching capabilities of Rick Barnes, but he absolutely deserved to be fined, suspended, or fired after his anti-home crowd tirade. He was being a moronic dumbass ripping into his own fans for not coming to the games and support enough when it was during freakin FINALS. UT is weird. It was just a Finals weekend, but they actually take Finals on Saturdays. At least this was the case back in the day.
The crowd at UT bball games has always sucked; they deserve to be ripped. In "Sweet" Company Texas has reached the NCAA "Sweet 16" four times in the last five years. The Longhorns are one of just three schools to have advanced to the "Sweet 16" in at least four of the last five seasons, joining Connecticut and Duke. That's some serious underachievement right there. UT is a football school by the way.
IIRC, he wasn't ripping the students as much as he was ripping the season ticket holders. You're being way over the top saying he should've been fired. Also, when I was at SWT, we had finals on Saturdays as well.
Yup. He's ripped the administration and season-ticket holders multiple times, and as a result, he's gotten a host of changes made, including the introduction of the O-Zones to get students closer to the floor. I don't think anyone - alumni or students - really have a problem with what he said, because it basically boiled down to this: If UT wants to have a top-rate basketball program with a great home court, it needs to make changes to the arena to get fans into the seats and students into seats closer to the floor. And to the admin's credit, they've made at least some progress in that regard after the complaining by Barnes.
If I remember correctly, they also instituted a ticket return/exchange system for season ticket holders that can't go to games, to help fill the seats and get other fans into those seats. Not sure the details of exactly how it works.
