http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12588541/tennessee...
Tennessee is close to a deal with former Texas head coach Rick Barnes after firing Donnie Tyndall after one year because of NCAA violations which many knew about at the time of his hiring. Cuonzo (spelling?) Martin left the year before after a Sweet Sixteen run for Cal because he didn't get along with the Athletic office and the fans. Bruce Pearl preceded him and we all know what happened there.
Now they hire Barnes, a guy who had a team with Kevin Durant, DJ Augustine, and LeMarcus Aldridge and lost in the second round. Let me repeat that: A TEAM WITH KEVIN DURANT, DJ AUGUSTINE, AND LEMARCUS ALDRIDGE LOST IN THE SECOND ROUND TO USC EVEN THOUGH KD SCORED 30 POINTS. This years team was loaded and got an 11 seed and lost in the first round. He's inspired the hashtag #Barnesing which is on the level of #Crean and #Haith. He will out-recruit us every year and then we'll outperform UT with less every year, I'm actually giddy.
Comments
I hate Tennessee, so here's to this failing miserably.
How does Dave Hart still have a job?
Well at least they're not going after Buzz any more. And it sounds like Shaka Smart is actually interested in the Texas job. Never been a big VCU fan (sorry Hokie Fireman), but I think it might finally be time for the Rams and Shaka to part ways. He's turned that program upside down and made it relevant, but IMO they've reached their ceiling. He seems like a nice guy and a great coach, so maybe this works out for him.
I think VCU still has some growth potential. With the school growing still, money still coming in and no football to support I think the A10 and VCU have some room to go up.
Saw an interview with Shaka a few weeks ago. He talked about how he was left by his father, and many of his players were too. Said he knew what it felt like and didn't want them to feel it again. I know a lot of that could be coach speak, but he seems like a pretty genuine guy. I would bet he doesn't leave unless for a top job like Duke, UNC, etc.
Texas flies under the radar for how nice their facilities are though. Plus you can always recruit with the big boys down there. I live in RVA and the man is king of the world here right now, but these kind of opportunities only open up but so often.
Yea I would certainly agree its a decent job. Being in Big12 country you dont think of it as a basketball stopping point. Im just basing that off my gut feeling after that interview. Again, could all be coach speak, I think we all know how that goes.
Yeah but I def agree with your point about him being genuine with his players tho. He's not a Saban type where he says one thing to the media and a completely different thing internally. That's why I think he might take the job because after doing some reading up on it and him not denying anything yet, it just seems like it could be an opportunity too good for him to just stay in the Commonwealth for much longer
Looks like you may be right on this one. Texas thinks theyre closing in on a deal, look for Will Wade from UTC to be the next VCU coach if true.
Other side of the coin is that he took Texas to the tourney 16 out of 17 years. He also just happened to have a .691 winning percentage at Texas, going 404-180, thats an average of almost 24 wins a season with an OOC strength of schedule usually under 70, and overall SOS in the top 30 so dont think the man cant coach, couple that with going against a much weaker SEC compared to the Big12 in basketball terms and he could be setting up to be a perenial second team behind Kentucky. Donovan is still at Florida and Pearl at Auburn will show some spunk for a few years before getting banned again so he may have some competition.
There's two camps on Barnes. One is the 16 of 17 tourneys and that most fan bases would kill to have that kind of consistent success the other is that he's a great recruiter but his teams always underperform and he blows games that he should win. You can guess which one I'm in.
So...a slight variation on the theme of our football track record?
This made me sad because it's true.
I'd love to see what our coaching staff could do if we had the budget of Texas.
Tennessee is going to hire Rick Grimes?
Based of his ability to hold a gun, I am betting Tennessee's FT pct will be shitty.....
I'm ashamed to admit this took me a while to understand. Then, when I thought I got it, I thought, "Wait, why did he leave LSU?" Yeah, it's that kind of day
Hes probably the best we were going to do in our situation. We have an AD that is a dumpster fire right now, specifically Dave Hart (AD) and Jimmy Cheek (Chancellor). Cheek is the cause, Hart is the symptom. Cheek is an academic type that cares nothing about sports, he would be fine if we were Duke without the basketball success. Dave Hart has proven many times that he has no idea what hes doing. He backed into Butch Jones and every other hire has been a disaster. Hes also very very cheap.
Jon Rothstein on CBS said this about the SEC this morning:
I tend to agree, this is a good hire (maybe a great hire) by Tennessee and it looks like the SEC is really making a push in hoops. Maybe it is a reflection of Buzz's statement that you need to be at a football school to have the money and security to compete. We know how loaded the ACC, B12 and B10 are at hoops coaches right now. Are we entering into the end of the Mid Major Revolution? 13 of 16 teams in the sweet 16 are P5 football schools (Wichita, Xavier, Gonzaga).
Did I miss the part where we joined the SEC or regularly played Tennessee in basketball? According to HokieSports we've played 10 times ever, the last time being in 1994. I don't think it's a great hire for them but I also don't particularly understand these feelings toward a program that almost never crosses paths with ours.
And I mean... lets also be honest here... we're working on back to back Top 20 recruiting classes in Buzz's first 12.5 months on the job. If Tennessee out recruits us, more power to em, but it won't be by much, and its not like we're a team of largely inferior talent anymore.
I take it you don't live in far Southwest Virginia/Tennessee... Particularly with the Chris Clarke recruitment just this year, there's some (largely benign) animosity there.
Born and raised in Bristol and have only been out of the area for 4 years. So while I get the animosity, I would also contend it doesn't make much sense. I grew up as a UT fan and continue to follow them and haven't found it to hardly any of a conflict of interest compared to the disdain some people here seem to harbor. I can understand it a little more with regards to football, especially with the game coming up and both schools being football centric, but that attitude yoward UT in basketball seems off the mark to me.