As usual, Rick Barnes paces down the sideline with that idiotic look on his face as his team gets out hustled. Tim Floyd is all smiles; Texas may have Kevin Durant, but they also have the anti-Durant: Rick Barnes. USC has blown out Texas, in which many predicted would go the exact opposite way. The horn sounds and Barnes has wasted the one shot he had with Durant.
Barnes needs to be fired for the following reasons:
- His in-game coaching ability can be likened to a retarded 5 year old kid on crack.
- His inability to call a timeout to slow down the momentum of the opposing team.
- His inability to have his team prepared for games that matter. Texas went 2-8 against top 50 competition (1-6 against top 25).
- His inability to get Durant to play with fire. As great as Durant was, he never had that killer instinct the great ones have. He was extremely lackadaisical in most games, often disappearing for 10-15 minutes without scoring. Durant's defensive play was at best below average and his shot selection at times was ridiculous. Durant scored a lot of garbage points which inflated his statistics. Great statistics don't win championships (Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady). Heart and Defense does.
- His preference for sticking with the zone defense even when opponents were consistently hitting open shots from the outside.
- His inability to get his teams to play defense with a passion.
- His stupidity in believing Connor Atchley and JD Lewis can actually play. Atchley and Lewis suck. Wait, the are AWFUL. Yet Barnes seems to stick them in the game during crucial moments.
- His inability to use Dexter Pittman. When Pittman was in the game, opponents rarely scored in the paint or grabbed an offensive rebound. When Atchley was in the game, opponents had no problem doing either.
- His preference to expose his team's weaknesses. A coach is supposed to hide them, not expose them.
- His belief that his team could play like the Phoenix Suns. No one in the NBA can play like Phoenix, so how does an idiot like Barnes believe he can? Starting Dexter would have given the Longhorns a paint presence (something the team seriously lacked) as well as allowed them to run multiple offensive sets, which Barnes obviously knows little about.
- His inability to keep talent from leaving early. He lost Ford, Gibson, Aldridge, & Tucker. Yet somehow Florida never lost a player from a CHAMPIONSHIP team. So why did these players leave early? They realized Barnes was nothing more than a mediocre coach and probably questioned a lot of his on court decisions. He will likely lose Durant this year and Augustin in the next.
Texas has gone as far as it will go with Rick Barnes. We need a coach with passion. Bring in Bruce Pearl or Jeff Bzdelik. So Please Dodds, do us a favor and can Barnes.
Sincerely,
The Burnt Orange Faithful
