Matt Cotcher
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Texas basketball held their preseason media day on Wednesday, making Rick Barnes and 11 players on the roster available to media. After going 24-11 in 2014, the Longhorns return virtually the entire roster for 2015. With a deep and experienced roster, Texas was ranked No. 10 in the initial USA Today Coaches Poll.
Head Coach Rick Barnes led off the event, fielding questions from reporters for a solid 30 minutes. To open the conference, Barnes commented that the team's workouts had been extremely physical. To build off that thought, Barnes invoked some Jon Gruden coachspeak saying, "If you're not getting better, you're getting worse."
That thought was punctuated by Barnes crediting Jon Holmes and Demarcus Holland for being, "the hardest workers we've ever coached" and saying that those two players were rubbing off on the entire team and showing them, "what it takes to be an every day player."
— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011
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Barnes confidently talked about the team's depth and versatility, refusing to name a starting five at this point and adding that the coaching staff might opt to rotate starters based on the needs of a specific game. At a base level, this roster provides the coaches so much flexibility in terms of lineups, that fans will be better off not thinking in terms of the five traditional roles on a team.
This year's Texas squad has the ability to feature such a wide array of looks that trying to shoehorn these players into a specific role (like a power forward) is a disservice to their expected style of play. To further the point, Barnes talked about the luxury of having enough depth that players could fill specialized roles, such as 'rebounder' or 'defender', saying, "That's what we're hoping to develop. At some point in time you're going to be called on and you need to be ready to play."
In talking about his concerns for this team, Barnes said he had just watched video tape of the most recent practice. When asked what the team needs to improve, Barnes cited plenty of fundamentals - footwork, spacing, being ready for put-backs on misses, and concentration. He called it "hard work" and said the key for the team is to learn how to carry it over, day-to-day, adding "that's basketball."
The speech on what the team needs to improve on reminded me of another coach on the 40, Charlie Strong. Listening to Barnes focus on the game's fundamentals is very similar to hearing Strong talk about teaching defensive football.
When talking about this year's hoops team and their ability to defend, Barnes dropped into an excited comfort zone. There was talk of man-to-man, zone, physical play, great length, the team's ability to defend the perimeter - Barnes clearly likes this squad's versatility on the defensive end.
However, the best quote about the team's defense didn't come from Barnes:
— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011
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At the end of the press conference, Barnes was asked about his team's chances of winning a championship. To his credit, Barnes didn't shy from the talk at all, instead he addressed it in a very matter-of-fact way, "I've always believed, you've just gotta go do it. We're one of a lot of schools that want it. You gotta do it - when you just talk about it, you lose sight of it."
Head Coach Rick Barnes led off the event, fielding questions from reporters for a solid 30 minutes. To open the conference, Barnes commented that the team's workouts had been extremely physical. To build off that thought, Barnes invoked some Jon Gruden coachspeak saying, "If you're not getting better, you're getting worse."
That thought was punctuated by Barnes crediting Jon Holmes and Demarcus Holland for being, "the hardest workers we've ever coached" and saying that those two players were rubbing off on the entire team and showing them, "what it takes to be an every day player."
— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");
Barnes confidently talked about the team's depth and versatility, refusing to name a starting five at this point and adding that the coaching staff might opt to rotate starters based on the needs of a specific game. At a base level, this roster provides the coaches so much flexibility in terms of lineups, that fans will be better off not thinking in terms of the five traditional roles on a team.
This year's Texas squad has the ability to feature such a wide array of looks that trying to shoehorn these players into a specific role (like a power forward) is a disservice to their expected style of play. To further the point, Barnes talked about the luxury of having enough depth that players could fill specialized roles, such as 'rebounder' or 'defender', saying, "That's what we're hoping to develop. At some point in time you're going to be called on and you need to be ready to play."
In talking about his concerns for this team, Barnes said he had just watched video tape of the most recent practice. When asked what the team needs to improve, Barnes cited plenty of fundamentals - footwork, spacing, being ready for put-backs on misses, and concentration. He called it "hard work" and said the key for the team is to learn how to carry it over, day-to-day, adding "that's basketball."
The speech on what the team needs to improve on reminded me of another coach on the 40, Charlie Strong. Listening to Barnes focus on the game's fundamentals is very similar to hearing Strong talk about teaching defensive football.
When talking about this year's hoops team and their ability to defend, Barnes dropped into an excited comfort zone. There was talk of man-to-man, zone, physical play, great length, the team's ability to defend the perimeter - Barnes clearly likes this squad's versatility on the defensive end.
However, the best quote about the team's defense didn't come from Barnes:
— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");
At the end of the press conference, Barnes was asked about his team's chances of winning a championship. To his credit, Barnes didn't shy from the talk at all, instead he addressed it in a very matter-of-fact way, "I've always believed, you've just gotta go do it. We're one of a lot of schools that want it. You gotta do it - when you just talk about it, you lose sight of it."
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