Texas Longhorns Basketball

How hot is University of Texas head basketball coach Rick Barnes' seat today?

After more than a season of speculation, Barnes' counterpart, Mack Brown, resigned as the Longhorns' head football coach, and UT has now hired Charlie Strong as its next gridiron boss.

Officially, Brown's departure does not impact Barnes' future.

But, new UT athletic director Steve Patterson has been on the job for less than three months. Since he did not waste time evaluating the football program, you have to think that he is not going to tolerate mediocrity in the basketball program either.

Before Patterson's arrival, Barnes already entered this season with pressure to turn things around on the hardwood.

Even though he has compiled a 365-155 record in Austin and led the Longhorns to the NCAA tournament in each of his first 14 seasons, the program has been declining over the last few years.

After finishing in fifth place in the Big 12 with a 9-9 record in the 2011-12 season, life got worse for the Longhorns last year. They went 16-18 overall (7-11 in conference play) and were knocked out of the College Basketball Invitational in the first round.

To make matters worse, UT players started leaving town. Hook'em Headlines' Jeff Kubiszyn described the mass exodus:

Fans witnessed a program mired in turmoil and unrest. Sheldon McClellan, Jaylen Boyd and Julien Lewis transferred to different schools. Myck Kabongo left early for the NBA Draft, and Ioannis Papapetrou signed with a professional team in Greece.

Over the years, Barnes has earned the reputation of being one of the best recruiters in the country. He has consistently brought elite-level talent (such as, T.J. Ford, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant) to campus during his watch.

But, over the last few years, he has not signed the same level of players. Of those who have come to Austin, many have either left early or not panned out.

Not surprisingly, the decline on the court has led to a decrease in attendance at the Frank Erwin Center:

This year has been no better. In the Longhorns' first 10 home games, they are averaging 8,853.

It is one thing to be tussling on the court if your fanbase is still engaged. It is a whole different matter when you are off to a decent start but your attendance keeps trending down.

Looking Ahead

For right now, Barnes' young team has started the 2013-14 season better than expected. The Longhorns have won 11 of their first 15 games.

However, Texas' best wins so far have been against average Temple and Vanderbilt teams. Furthermore, they have opened their Big 12 slate by losing at home to Oklahoma and to Oklahoma State on the road.

When the basketball team at a place like Texas starts losing and ticket sales start drying up, it is not long before people in high places at the university take a long hard look at the program.

In light of current events, how ironic is it that Mack Brown and Rick Barnes rode into town at virtually the same time and could possibly leave within months of each other?

The Big 12 Conference has been full of surprises this season, and the latest team to start receiving some recognition is Texas. 

Rick Barnes' Longhorns were mired in the Myck Kabongo eligibility saga last season; as a result, they finished their regular season with a 15-16 record. 

This season, with one nonconference game against Rice remaining, the Longhorns are five wins away from their 2012-13 win total thanks to a reenergized program.

During their first 12 games, the Longhorns have been tested and have come away with some big victories, with the biggest one coming in Chapel Hill on December 18 over then-No. 14 North Carolina. 

The Longhorns' resolve was also tested back on December 7 as they defeated Temple in Philadelphia, 81-80, in overtime. 

There have also been a few bumps in the road as the team has lost to BYU and Michigan State during nonconference play. 

Despite falling in two of their high-profile games this season, there is plenty of hope that the Longhorns will pose a challenge to the rest of the Big 12 when they open their conference schedule against Oklahoma on January 4 at the Erwin Center. 

Texas currently boasts five players who average more than 10 points per game and two who have recorded more than seven rebounds per game. 

While the play of Jonathan Holmes and Cameron Ridley has been impressive in the paint, the real catalyst of the team is sophomore guard Javan Felix. 

Felix is a point guard who could easily give the likes of Kansas and Oklahoma State trouble during the Big 12 regular season due to his shot-making and his ability to distribute. 

In 24.6 minutes per contest this season, Felix has put together some very respectable numbers with 10.9 points and 3.1 assists per game; he is also an 80 percent free-throw shooter. 

But, Texas is about more than just Felix and the two big men as they have a strong nine-man rotation that has plenty of quality players. 

Barnes has shown his trust in the bench by handing four non-starters more than 10 minutes per game. By giving those players some valuable experience during the early part of the season, it will prepare them well for the conference campaign. 

The Longhorns will have to put everything together early on in Big 12 play as four of their first eight contests are against the four ranked teams that the conference currently has. 

During their first eight Big 12 games, the Longhorns will be at home against No. 14 Iowa State and No. 16 Kansas, while they must travel to Stillwater on January 8 to face Oklahoma State. No. 11 Baylor will host the Longhorns on January 25 in Waco. 

If the Longhorns can win a few of those matchups at home as well as defeat the weaker teams in the conference like West Virginia and Texas Tech, their confidence could easily rise as the season moves on into February.

If all goes well for Barnes and company during the first month of conference play, their real litmus test will come in mid-February when they have to visit Iowa State and Kansas in back-to-back games. 

Being able to weather the storm that Hilton Coliseum and Allen Fieldhouse present is no easy task, but if the Longhorns can come out of that stretch rather unscathed, their path to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship tournament is an easy one. 

The final stretch of the season presents a home game with Baylor followed by games against Oklahoma, TCU and Texas Tech, which the Longhorns should win. 

Winning at least 10 games in the Big 12 this season should be enough to put Texas in the conversation for an NCAA tournament bid, and if they win a few big games like they did against North Carolina, we could easily be talking about them as a sleeper to win a few games in March.

Follow me on Twitter, @JTansey90. 

A good University of Texas coach, the best in the history of the program, could get pushed to resign in a few months.

I didn't write this two months ago. It's not about Mack Brown, who resigned on Saturday after 16 years and a national championship because UT football just wasn't good enough anymore.

I'm writing about Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes.

Barnes could find himself in a very similar situation in March to the one that faced Brown over the last few weeks.

Barnes is undeniably the best basketball coach Texas has ever had. He led the Longhorns to 14 straight NCAA tournament bids in his first 14 years in Austin. He took Texas to its only Final Four in the last 60 years in 2003. He has coached 10 first-round picks at UT.

But lately, just like with Brown and the football program, Barnes has not met the expectations he created.

The Longhorns missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in his tenure last season and five players left the program in the offseason—three transferred, Myck Kabongo declared for the NBA Draft and Ioannis Papapetrou left to play pro ball in Greece.

It was a frustrating season—only the second time in his 26-year career that Barnes had a losing record—but it hardly generated the kind of headlines that a Texas football season that doesn't end with a BCS bowl bid generates.

Texas basketball is not Texas football.

Basketball is an afterthought, mostly. A distraction between the bowl game and spring ball. But that doesn't mean there aren't still expectations.

Texas is one of the best jobs in America—maybe even top 10—because the money is good and the recruiting ground is fertile. Texas makes more and spends more than any athletic department, according to USA Today, and Barnes has a $2.4 million yearly salary. 

In the last five recruiting classes (2010-2014), the state of Texas has produced 20 top-40 prospects, according to Rivals.com. Barnes has signed only one, Cameron Ridley, and he has a chance with one of the four in the 2014 class. 

It's hard to say why the Longhorns have missed. There seems to be a perception that any coach who couldn't get to a Final Four with Kevin Durant cannot be a good coach. A perception that ESPN columnist Bill Simmons helped create. 

But that's hogwash to anyone who really knows college basketball. And the job Barnes is doing this year is proving he can still coach, even if the talent is not what he had been accustomed to in the past. 

The Longhorns are off to a 9-1 start. They don't have any wins of great significance, but the product looks a lot better than what anyone could have anticipated after Barnes lost his four leading scorers. 

"There was no question that was going to happen," Barnes told Bleacher Report a few weeks ago when his team was playing in the CBE Classic in Kansas City, Mo. "Halfway through the season last year I made that decision, 'This is the way it's going to be.'

"And the guys that were in the program that came back, they knew what we were looking for."

Barnes realized early on last season that the culture of his program needed to be fixed. After a loss to Division II Chaminade in the Maui Invitational, Barnes said one of his players strolled through the locker room and asked: "What's the big deal?"

So Barnes had no qualms about parting ways with UT's three transfers. What the Longhorns had left was two project big men and a few role players. Barnes also signed four freshman guards.

It wasn't the kind of recruiting class that gets noticed, and Texas was picked by the league's coaches to finish eighth in the Big 12.

But the Longhorns are playing good basketball. I was convinced this would be Barnes' final year in Austin until watching the team play live at the CBE.

Cameron Ridley is quietly turning into a future pro after looking lost last year. He's averaged 13.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.2 blocks over the last six games.

"Our guards look for the big men unlike last year," Ridley said.

Ridley and Prince Ibeh form the best shot-blocking tandem in the country—the Longhorns block rate (20.8 percent) ranks second nationally, per KenPom.com (subscription required).

Offensively, freshman point guard Isaiah Taylor has been a pleasant surprise. He's helped the 'Horns play faster, and he's taking good care of the ball.

"I think things are different. We're a lot more focused," sophomore guard Javan Felix said. "We're a lot more detail-oriented. We're working toward being a team. I don't think last year at all times we were a team."

It's apparent when you watch the Longhorns play that they actually like each other. That might seem like an insignificant observation, but last year's team played like it was ready to get the season over with.

"The whole thing's different," Barnes said. "I like this group of guys. I didn't enjoy coaching basketball last year, the last couple years, but I enjoy coaching this basketball team because of the way they want to be good. And we're going to be good. We're going to be a good team."

Maybe Barnes is still trying to talk himself into it. He'll know a lot more after this week. The Longhorns travel to North Carolina on Wednesday and then play Michigan State in Austin on Saturday.

A win in either of the two could help how Barnes' new boss, Steve Patterson, sees the program.

Most likely, Barnes is coaching an NIT team that could turn into an NCAA tourney team next season. Texas does not have one senior on the roster, and unless Ridley's stock soars, everyone should be back.

Texas is also in the hunt for in-state recruit Myles Turner, one of the best high school big men in the country and the highest-rated prospect still unsigned in the 2014 class.

Patterson will have to decide whether that kind of progress is worth leaving Barnes alone. Brown also had a semi-resurgent football season with an 8-4 record after a 1-2 start, but that wasn't enough to stop the money men from asking for change.

Those in power might not care as much about basketball, and that could ultimately buy Barnes some more time.

Assuming this season doesn't end in drama and transfers, Barnes deserves to see if he can resurrect the program like he did in 1998-99 when he took over with seven scholarship players and won the Big 12.

Once Barnes decides to go or is forced out, he will have left the program in much better shape than when he arrived. Everyone at UT should respect him for that. Brown accomplished the same thing with the football program. And he left like it was his idea. The example has been set.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @cjmoore4.

The end of the Rick Barnes era at Texas is in sight, and it’s a cruel reality.

Winning is how coaches are judged, and Barnes deserves a kind jury. He made the NCAA tournament in his first 14 seasons at Texas, a streak that ended in 2013. He has won. Consistently.

The perception of Barnes as a coach has not always lined up with the results. I’ve written about that before.

But the defense is about to rest. It might be a lost cause at this point.

Since the Longhorns finished their 16-18 season, they have had three players transfer and another, Myck Kabongo, declare for the NBA draft. That’s the program’s three leading scorers and a rotation big man. Gone.

Then athletic director DeLoss Dodds, always a supporter of Barnes, told the Austin American-Statesman this:

If I said I was not concerned, that would not be accurate. I am concerned. I am troubled by it, and we need to get it fixed.

Win, and win quickly. That’s the message of any AD who has to come out in the local paper in defense of his high-profile coach.

Well, that’s going to be an issue.

In the past, Barnes has been able to reload as quickly as a Texas gunslinger. Since 2006, Texas has had 11 players drafted in the NBA. Only Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas have had more in that same time span. Nine of those players left school early. A 10th Longhorn, J’Covan Brown, left after his junior year in 2012 and went undrafted.

Talent leaves. Talent comes in. That’s how Barnes kept racking up the NCAA tourney bids.

But last season without Brown as a senior and after the NCAA decided to punish Kabongo with an unnecessary suspension that stretched into mid-February, the task was impossible. Barnes had the youngest team in college basketball—he played all freshmen and sophomores—and the only true NBA prospect was showing up to games in a suit.

Barnes had a laundry list of excuses he could give for only the second losing season in his career. Everyone should get a mulligan.

But next season will count, and it’s not looking promising.

The Barnes detractors can argue that he has lost his touch in recruiting. The Horns had opportunity to sell to the 2013 class, and what they came up with was a class whose top player is ranked 105th by Rivals.com.

The state of Texas produced 11 players in Rivals.com’s top 150. Barnes landed one of the 11.

Barnes has not always depended exclusively on local talent. He has had a national presence on the recruiting scene, but Kabongo is the only high-profile recruit from outside of the state he’s recruited in his last three classes.

Those classes were good enough to tread water until Barnes could land another big-time recruit or two. Had Sheldon McClellan, Julien Lewis, Jaylen Bond and Kabongo stuck around, Barnes would have had a roster that could have competed in the top half of the Big 12.

What’s left is a roster without stars or experience.  Jonathan Holmes is the only player left from the 2011 class of six, and he’ll be the only upperclassman in the rotation next year.  

Barnes’ PR campaign that has followed the departures—listen to the video below for a sample—is that the bad seeds are gone now. What’s left are guys who really care about the program. That’s nice and all, but what Barnes has won with is great talent.

When he arrived at Texas, Barnes coached a team of seven scholarship players to a Big 12 title in his first season. That kind of better-than-expected season in 2013-14 could buy him more time. Or, Barnes will have to dust off his recruiting game and score big with the 2014 class to give a fanbase that has turned apathetic something to be excited about.

The clock is ticking. 

Myck Kabongo had a strange freshman year, but he is certainly wise to head to the NBA after just one season.

The sophomore for the Texas Longhorns declared for the NBA draft on Friday, according to ESPN.com.  This was after playing in only 11 games this past season due to a 23-game suspension for receiving airfare and personal training while lying about it to the program.  The point guard from Toronto was a five-star recruit out of high school (via Rivals.com).

In the 11 games that Kabongo played in, he did quite well for the Longhorns.  He averaged 14.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game during those final 11 games  His best game was against the Oklahoma Sooners, as he scored 31 points while grabbing eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.  He also shot 9-of-13 from the field in the overtime win.

The decision to go the NBA is certainly the right decision for Kabongo.  Had he decided to stay at Texas, he would’ve been surrounded by the controversy of his suspension at all times.  By declaring for the draft, he will be able to put the incident in the past and move on with his life as well as his career.

Foregoing his final two seasons will also give Kabongo the opportunity to get paid for his talents. 

Fans and critics will argue that staying in college is about getting an education or bringing home a title for the school, but the fact of the matter is that there is no other place to make the kind of money that you can as a professional athlete. According to a piece by Forbes, the average NBA player makes approximately $5.15 million per year.

Can you really blame someone for wanting to take advantage of that opportunity?

Kabongo will also likely excel in the Association.  At 6’1’’, he is a talented scorer at the point guard position, and is capable of having the offense run through him. 

Point guards who can score have become quite popular in the NBA.  With guys like Russell Westbrook and Kyrie Irving at the position, it’s not unrealistic to think Kabongo could thrive at the professional level.

At the end of the day, Kabongo made the right decision for his future.  The NBA is a rewarding place for guys that can play at a high level, and there is little doubt that he can be one of those players.

By all accounts, Myck Kabongo failed to live up to the hype as a freshman at Texas. Without a first-round guarantee, he returned to school to boost his draft stock and develop into a point guard teams will covet in June 2013.

But Kabongo was forced to miss the first 23 games as a sophomore for receiving impermissible benefits, and Texas' season was flushed down the tubes before Kabongo's even began.

While ineligible, the Longhorns lost eight of the team's first 10 conference games. Since Kabongo's return, Texas has won four of seven, including two in overtime in which Kabongo played a big hand.

He's already into draft-stock rejuvenation mode, showing noticeable improvements from where he left off last year.

Before laying out the blueprint he needs to ultimately follow, it's important to point out where he struggled as a freshman.

Freshman Blues

As a high schooler, Kabongo had the freedom to do whatever he wanted with the ball in his hands. Defenses weren't quick enough and the offense had no script.

Making the transition from the loose high school courts to the methodical college game was a hurdle that Kabongo just couldn't get over.

He struggled adjusting to the speed of the game, not knowing when to pull back and facilitate or when to look for his own offense. Kabongo finished the year shooting 39 percent from the floor and 32 percent from downtown, along with a 5.2-to-3 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Kabongo was inefficient, and frankly did nothing to differentiate himself from his direct positional competitors. 

But in just seven games so far as a sophomore, Kabongo has made visible strides as an orchestrator and it's made Texas a better team.

The Blueprint

Kabongo needs to continue running the show while balancing playmaking and scoring efficiently.

Everything starts in the half court with recognizing opportunities.

Kabongo needs to think of himself as a traffic controller directing the offense. It's the simple plays he needs to recognize when to make.

For example, finding his shooter coming off a down screen.

Texas was down four with more than a minute to go in the game against Oklahoma; watch how Kabongo sees his man running his route and hits him in rhythm for the catch-and-shoot three-pointer:

It sounds simple, and it is. But a timely pass that arrives in the shooter's comfort zone can be the difference between three points and zero points. Recognizing what routes his scorers are running and what time they'll be arriving is an important aspect of a point guard's job.

Pick-and-Roll

The pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop is another tool Kabongo needs to get used to working with.

In the example below, Kabongo runs the pick-and-roll, allows another shooter to drift toward space before hitting him for the spot-up jumper in rhythm:

Executing off ball screens is a must at the next level, and he won't get floor time until he proves he's capable of using them proficiently.

Dribble Attack

One of Kabongo's most glowing strengths is his ability to create off the dribble. But he's got to be careful and not overuse it. Recognizing when to use each trick in the bag is just as important as having them in the first place.

Here's an example where Kabongo uses his quick dribble to attack the rim after recognizing the spacing he has to work with.

Below, the floor is spread and there's nobody home inside for Oklahoma to help or contest an attacking guard.

Notice how once Kabongo gets into the lane there isn't anyone standing at the rim. This was an opportunity that Kabongo recognized and seized using his strengths as a ball-handler.

Here's the play at full speed:

Knock-Down Shooting

At the next level, it's extremely important for point guards to shoot off the dribble. Kabongo will see a good amount of ball screens designed to create space for him to either pull up or attack the rim.

Kabongo didn't really stand out as a shooter last year, getting little elevation and showing minimal outside range.

But he rarely showed a confident stroke like this one as a freshman:

Considering how much point guards have the ball in their hands, it's more important they prove they can shoot off the bounce, rather than just off the catch. He has to improve at stepping into mid-range jumpers and taking advantage of any space defenders give him.

NBA Draft Stock

In Texas' win over Oklahoma, Kabongo led his team back after being down over 20 earlier in the game. Showing NBA scouts he can put an offense on his back will help them remember why he was so coveted out of high school.

To really rejuvenate his draft stock, Kabongo will have to continue recognizing opportunities and strike when the time calls. Sometimes it's the simple play; at other times he needs to be aggressive.

Without a full year to showcase his improvement as a point guard, another year at school would be in his best interest as a prospect. It's unlikely he'll receive a first-round guarantee this year, yet he's got the skill set and potential to earn one after his junior year.

However, college hoops isn't the most ideal setting for his particular game and he might decide that his time at Texas has run its course.

Either way, NBA teams will give him looks based on his reputation as a coachable kid and his talent level.