I saw where after the Auburn game CBB said that the constant second half collapses were due to mental barriers. If a coach is going to say that his team can’t play well because of mental barriers, then he’s basically saying that he can’t do the job. A coach should only say something like that when he’s announcing his resignation. It is the job of a coach to get the players to meet their potential and to play as well as they can. If the players just aren’t good enough, then that’s one thing. However, they should always be playing and competing as well as they can. There should never be any mental barriers for the whole team.
What CBB is essentially saying is that his team is incapable of playing to their potential. Even the 4 star recruits can’t play well due to mental barriers. In other words, even if we had the talent to win big, which we don’t, it wouldn’t matter because of the mental barriers. This is what hopelessness looks like when it comes to being a fan of a sports team. Even if CBB were able to recruit better it wouldn’t matter because he can’t get the most out of his players by his own implicit admission. He is saying that this is a team of losers. They have a loser mindset and so can’t come back in games when down at the half, and even when up, will probably collapse and lose. And this isn’t just mental barriers that are effecting the team this year. They have effected the team ever since CBB has been the coach. His record at Arkansas when losing at the half is something like 0-18. So this is a 5 years long mental barrier. It kind of reminds me when Stan Heath was the basketball coach, and he said he might need to bring in a sports psychologist. When the coach says that, you might as well give up if you’re a fan. There’s no chance if the players have mental barriers to winning.