What is Rick Barnes' role at Texas?
by Nick Fasulo on May 17, 2010 10:34 PM EDT
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PrintYou may be wondering why the hell I pose such a question at this time of year, but I just caught a nugget of info from Longhorn guard Avery Bradley, who spent last week working out in Las Vegas with many other NBA Draft hopefuls.
Per ESPN's Chad Ford:
I spoke with Bradley after the workouts about his up-and-down season at Texas. He said he felt he was on par with the more heralded freshmen like Wall and Cousins. What he lacked was a coach who turned the keys over to him. Texas had seniors like Damion James and Dexter Pittman and he tried to fit in and defer to them -- a role he said Rick Barnes asked him to play.
Following the article, I immediately queued up a piece that ran in ESPN The Magazine back in late February. You probably caught it, as it certainly turned heads and left some college basketball fans questioning the mindset of Longhorn head coach, Rick Barnes:
"We would love to win a national championship, but we're not obsessed with it because we're obsessed with these guys trying to live their NBA dream," Barnes says, with a nod to their predecessors. "What's happened to Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, T.J. Ford -- I'd give up a national title for all of our guys to be able to live their dream."
Now, here's where this gets incongruous. If Avery Bradley, the #1 recruit in the class of 2009 (the same class that features the uber-hyped DeMarcus Cousins, Derrick Favors and John Wall), possesses a skill set that suggests he could develop into a steady and dependable NBA player, why was that not a priority to Rick Barnes; head coach at a program where churning out NBA talent is apparently a major point of emphasis?
Texas was a crash and burn team last season, one that lacked a true rotation and defined roles. While James is a likely first-round pick, Pittman may never sign an NBA contract. So why was Barnes seemingly doing them a favor by encouraging his budding young guard to defer to the team's upperclassmen? Based on his quote, one would think the Longhorn coaching staff would work to mold Bradley into a true point or shooting guard, and send him on his way.
Is it weird I find these two statements...well...weird? Thoughts from UT fans are welcome.
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If you read the “so called” statement from Avery it really isn’t a statement at all but more like a comment. Avery didn’t say Barnes wouldn’t “turn over the keys to him”. Chad Ford implied that then followed up his implication with a quote from Avery “saying” Rick Barnes asked him to “play the role of deferring to DJ and DP”.
I think the reason Barnes expected this from Avery was two fold-to help DJ and DP get more playing time which in turn would lead to more exposure for their NBA aspiration. The second reason, IMO, was to cause young Avery to believe he needed another year or two at UT in order to perfect his game so Barnes could then “turn over the keys” to him.
Now an even better question to ask is, “why did Avery suddenly decide to be a one-and-doner?” What was happening behind the scenes to cause him to believe he’d better get out now as opposed to staying another year or two waitin’ for them keys?? I’ll tell you why IMO… he saw his team go from 17-0 to total and complete meltdown due to a lack of coaching. Why stick around another year or two for that??
You might be right, but why was Barnes looking to help the pro stock of James and Pittman? And not Bradley? If you say it’s because he was hoping to keep his star guard around another year, then it really contradicts what he said to ESPN back in February.
I like Bradley and if he does develop into a reliable pro, it could end up hurting Rick Barnes.
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