Losing Balbay is the best thing that could happen to Texas. Barnes loves the guy and so plays him, but he is absolutely terrible. This will force Barnes to play his better players.
My dad hired and fired a bunch of coaches during his life and he used to tell me that the single biggest difference between coaches is the commitment level they choose to impose on their teams. He said the second biggest difference between coaches was the level of organization they had. He said the third biggest difference was the most suprising of the three, and that is that many, if not most coaches, are too close to their players to really know who their best players are. He said they allowed "coaching things", as he called them, to interfere with their judgment about who should play.
In my opinion, Balbay is an example of this. He simply isn't the best player, but likely because of his effort, unselfishness etc, barnes likes him and perceives of him as his best option. Or on the other hand, I'm wrong and he is their best point guard.