it’s not a diss on rodney terry to talk about the special love that barnes’s players had for their coach who was here for 16 years in an era where you recruited guys at 16, signed them at 18, and stayed with them until 21-22.
as was posted in S16 thread only one of our top 6 players this year started his career at Texas. that’s not the same for tennessee who had 4/5 starters recruited by barnes and in the program for 4-5 years, just like he did at Texas. that’s what i’m talking about. that kind of love. the kind of love that takes place when you’re with a guy from boyhood through his transition into manhood. we haven’t had that here since barnes was here, that’s just a fact.
maybe RT will be here long enough for that to be the case with him, but until then, rick barnes remains a one-of-a-kind coach in the annals of UT Hoops history, and i miss the continuity of his program, as well as the family feeling that we had for the majority of his career here.