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[QUOTE="suttree, post: 2007930, member: 710"]
The last paragraph above raised a thought that's been bouncing around in my head the last few years.  It's always great to see a coach stick up for players, even if it means getting salty in the process (e.g., "Not ten ***ing games"), but the frequency and intensity of JB's rants--both to the press and his players--seem to have been on a rather toxic upswing.  As some of you know, I've lived in Austin for most of the last 22 years  and have followed the UT men's hoops program for a while now, and I've managed to obtain some insights from program insiders along the way.  The book on Rick Barnes--apart from many people insisting that he could recruit like crazy but wasn't so great on Xs and Os--eventually became that he had become too much of a disciplinarian, and got far too negative with the kids--to the point where the kids just shut down.  JB's incredibly negative comments about Roberson, plus what seems like an uptick in the quick hook factor, plus his furious, raging demeanor when addressing his doghouse residents, all leave me thinking that he may have lost this team just as we saw down here with Barnes.

There are so many other factors--including NCAA sanctions, recruiting strategies, player development, early departures, etc.--about which I know far too little, and which undoubtedly have some influence.  I'm nowhere near close enough to the Orange nucleus to say what's happening with us, but there seem to be some symptoms that remind me, hauntingly, of the demoralization that I saw here in Austin just before Barnes departed for Tennessee.  Here's hoping it ain't true.
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