Another incredibly talented Texas Longhorn basketball team is going home early, this time, after the Round of 32 game (I can’t call it Round Three yet) against Zona. The Longhorns slept their way through the first half, woke up in the second, but lost their minds with a few seconds left and the lead.
Yes, you can argue that there were a number of bad calls at the end, but a team as talented as Texas shouldn’t have even let Arizona stay close.
And the lack of basketball smarts we witnessed at the end of the game, both on the court and among the Longhorn coaching staff, was stunning.
The current reports are that both Jordan Hamilton and Tristan Thompson are coming back next year. We’ll see. I don’t believe it until the NBA draft actually happens.
Still, if one or both come back, you have to like what Texas would bring to the court.
In the meantime, the attention is beginning to focus on Rick Barnes. Twice in a row now, he’s had amazingly talented teams that faded late in the season, then didn’t make it past the first weekend of the tournament.
I’m not saying he’s on the hot seat, but I suspect some boosters might be wondering how to turn the burner on.
I’m not at the point yet were I want Rick Barnes gone, but something needs to change. Texas brings in too much talent, and has such high quality facilities, that underperformance of this magnitude can only go on for so long.
If he were pushed out, however, I can’t imagine who we’d replace him with. I think we’d be at least as likely to return to the dark days before Coach Barnes then to improve in any measurable way.