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Posted

IMG_8219.thumb.jpeg.f2a2acdb4c965c4e8a8f1a4d98bab20c.jpeghe’s going to finish with 900+ wins and barring any health setbacks he’s got a legit shot at 1,000. he’s a half of game, legendary coach. i sincerely hope he wins a title before he retires. he deserves it.

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...
Posted

this tennessee team is going to come back down to earth and regress to the mean, and people are going to call it a choke job, but ask yourself: just how good should this team be?

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la owe is the only guy with any chance of playing in the nba, and that’s as a role player. zeigler is their best player, and he’s a 5’8” college lifer who isn’t a great shooter. for as mediocre as he is in the tournament, rick barnes is seriously an amazing regular season coach. there’s a reason he’s going to retire with 900-1,000 wins and end up in the hall of fame. this year has been another inexplicably successful coaching job thus far.

Posted (edited)

this team should not be this good. rick barnes is an outstanding college basketball coach. he’s got nowhere near one of the best rosters in america, but his team is one of the very best, even with injury and transfer issues. i thought they’d get blown out tonight, but instead they held the best offense in the country to 53 points and very nearly won. he’s done this for more three decades now, taking lowly rated recruits and creating teams which are far greater than the sum of their parts. i honestly don’t know how he does it.

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Edited by Derka
Posted

tennessee has lost 3/4 and i spent all of last weekend arguing with their dumbass fans who once again think they deserve better. but game against florida in knoxville tomorrow. his seat won’t actually be hot if they lose, but those fans are basically only happy whenever they’re mad at rick barnes, and they will have a field day the vols lose that one.

Posted

btw, the end of rick barnes’ tenure here was not nearly as bad on paper as it was experiencing it in real time. i am by no means saying we should have retained him- his time here was done. i’m just saying that the story on paper isn’t nearly as bad as it was when actually experiencing those seasons in real time.

for example: 

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that’s probably not as bad as you remembered post-2006. then you take his final season here as another example of it being a lot worse in real time than how it looks on paper: we went 20-14 (just not acceptable to lose 14 games with that team, and some of the losses were bad) but we didn’t actually lose to any bad teams. here’s our 14 losses by final kenpom ranking;

39 stanford in OT

38 osu in OT

at 38 osu

at 25 west virginia 

20 butler in the ncaa tourney 

16 isu away

16 isu home

16 isu big xii tourney 

at 14 baylor

12 kansas home 

12 kansas away

11 ou home

11 ou away

1 kentucky

talk about a brutal schedule. yeesh.

Posted

there’s been some discussion lately in other threads about me “pining for texas to hire rick barnes” or how im “obsessed”, or “pretending to be a vols fan now”, so i just decided to address those posts here, in the pertinent thread. none of this is new, it’s all just a reminder:

i did not/do not personally know rick barnes very well. i’ve had a limited number of conversations with the man. i was in 7th grade when he was hired, and i was still around the program at that time, and i met him at his first ever Texas practice, where i spent the day playing 1-on-1 against his on nick, who is my same age.

barnes took over for tom penders, a man i’d known my entire life. one night when i was like 10 years old i got out the family address book and called up coach penders and told him that i thought he should change his starting lineup. that was my relationship with the Texas HC for as long as i could remember, and for 13 year old me, rick barnes was just the new guy in that spot, and i was excited to meet him and to get to know him and his team.

so, barnes takes over, we win the league his first year, and we spend the next decade as one of the 10 best programs in college basketball. rick barnes has taken the thing that i love the most and brought it to greater heights than i’d ever imagined. the guy is hugely responsible for so, so much happiness and fulfillment in my young life. i really do cut for the guy, no doubt.

then things go downhill. and when things go downhill, the torches and pitchforks come out, and i’m here on these boards every day taking exception to the way that people are talking about and treating rick barnes. i get labeled a barnes apologist/sycophant, and this only serves to dig me further in to my position of supporting barnes and disavowing any and all personal shit talk and ill will towards him. i already really really liked him, but i had been radicalized at this point.

now, he gets fired in a horse shit move by the feckless steve patterson who didn’t have the balls to just go ahead and fire barnes, instead hoping barnes would fire all of his closest friends himself in order to save his job. so that was bullshit too.

but here’s what you’ve really got to remember: i had, and still have, many close relationships with several former players and coaches who were here under rick barnes. so when he got fired, so did my friends; so did my mentor. on top of that my mentor’s wife was a teacher at my school at the time and i was very close with her and their children as well. these people’s lives were uprooted when this happened, on top of which is the fact that all of these people who i am friends with genuinely love rick barnes themselves. like actual, real life love. all the while his name is getting dragged left and right on these boards, and im being attacked for defending him. it was personal to me. it affected the lives of lots of people who i really really care about, people who themselves are extremely close with rick and his family. it was a hard time. 

so now, with all of that said, all i have left to say is this: if you really still think im just some rick barnes fanboy who is “obsessed” with our former coach, simply because i still root for him and wish him success, then i just don’t know what to tell you other than it says a lot about your maturity level and understanding of the situation. i am not infatuated with some random former coach, i simply, and unabashedly still support our former coach, a guy who has meant a lot to me without me personally knowing him particularly well, as well as a guy who is very important to lots of people who are very important to me. this is basic human shit here. if you still don’t get it, you probably never will. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

god damn i miss getting to listen to this man talk about the game. he’s among the best if not the best post game interview in cbb. just unapologetically honest at all times, totally transparent and willing to share exactly what went down in the game, in great detail at that. we’re never going to have another rick barnes. i sincerely hope that we get a coach (soon) who can take this program beyond where barnes took it, but as far as the man behind the HC title goes, we were very fortunate to have rick barnes here for 17 years. there have been very few like him: honest, self critical, open and transparent with his team’s expectations, and just a great molder of men. also just funny as hell. again, we were lucky to have him for so many years.

https://x.com/emcochranetv/status/1895991946516340976?s=46

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Edited by Derka
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

barnes has two top 15 finalists for the wooden award (lanier and ziegler) and the NDPOY in mashack. barnes is one of the all time greats at getting the most out of lowly rated recruits and role players. he really is.

beyond that, i am honestly thankful to have had the tennessee program to watch and enjoy over these last however many years its been since Texas was a program that signed and then developed players over the course of 2-4 years. its been really enjoyable seeing the same faces year after year for the Vols as Texas has not only gone the mercenary route, but done so ineffectually. watching players grow and develop into studs over time is something that i sincerely miss from our own program. just makes every season feel hollow.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
38 minutes ago, troph said:

Still the best coach we’ve ever had looking at longevity and results on the court. 

Yeah, but still glad Barnes left.  His lack of tournament successes late in his career at Texas, along with his stale offenses towards end warranted the change at Head Coach.  It also likely made Barnes a better coach at Tennessee.

I remember Jimmy Johnson saying something along the lines that  after 8-10yrs in the same location sometimes it's better for a coach to move on...

 

Texas just did a terrible job hiring Shaka & Terry and we were unlucky with Beard fiasco.   

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted (edited)

what’s that? rick barnes is doing for tennessee exactly what he did for Texas? he’s taking the program to entirely new heights and breaking records year on year? he’s in his third consecutive sweet 16? he’s the best and most successful HC at both UT’s? he’s top 10 all time in wins? he’s a lock for the hall of fame? 

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im sitting here with this gargantuan plate of crow, and im just wondering if there’s anyone here with the balls to come and eat it? you know who you are. all of you. you’ve been LOUD for years about how Barnes sucks and how he’s a huge failure in march. where y’all at? why is it so quiet in here? what happened? 

 

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Edited by Derka
Posted
7 hours ago, Derka said:

what’s that? rick barnes is doing for tennessee exactly what he did for Texas? he’s taking the program to entirely new heights and breaking records year on year? he’s in his third consecutive sweet 16? he’s the best and most successful HC at both UT’s? he’s top 10 all time in wins? he’s a lock for the hall of fame? 

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im sitting here with this gargantuan plate of crow, and im just wondering if there’s anyone here with the balls to come and eat it? you know who you are. all of you. you’ve been LOUD for years about how Barnes sucks and how he’s a huge failure in march. where y’all at? why is it so quiet in here? what happened? 

 

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Now do his final seven seasons at Texas.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
what’s that? rick barnes is doing for tennessee exactly what he did for Texas? he’s taking the program to entirely new heights and breaking records year on year? he’s in his third consecutive sweet 16? he’s the best and most successful HC at both UT’s? he’s top 10 all time in wins? he’s a lock for the hall of fame? 
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im sitting here with this gargantuan plate of crow, and im just wondering if there’s anyone here with the balls to come and eat it? you know who you are. all of you. you’ve been LOUD for years about how Barnes sucks and how he’s a huge failure in march. where y’all at? why is it so quiet in here? what happened? 
 
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For 8 out of 9 seasons at the end of his Texas tenure, we did not advance past the first weekend of the tournament.  Not gonna go season by season analysis, but this either means 1) we were upset by a lesser seed or 2) we had a seed reflective of a team not in the top 20 in the country.

“He’s a good basketball coach who raised the floor of the program” and “he had a string of completely unacceptable seasons that led to a justified firing” are not mutually exclusive, although to be fair, it is a more nuanced take than one generally expects at 2am on a message board.
  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted

Barnes is a really good coach and represented Texas well.  As noted, his latter years here were marred by early exits and teams that stalled near the end of the season. 

2014-2015 closed out 3-5 and lost in first round of tourney
2013-2014 closed out 3-5 and lost in 2nd round of tourney
2012-2013 16-18 overall; closed season 6-6; lost to Houston in round one of CBI
2011-2012 closed out season 3-4; lost in first round of tourney
2010-2011 closed out season 4-4; lost in 2nd round of tourney
2009-2010 closed out season 4-6; lost in 1st round

Yes, I cherry-picked where to look in each season, but in his final 6 years here, Texas was 2-5 in the NCAA tournament and missed it altogether 1 year.

He had a reputation for physically and emotionally wearing out players at the time, if memory serves.
There were rumblings of a personal digression, but I might be misremembering.

It was time for a change.

Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Js1 said:

Yep. Some selective cherry picking of data and ignoring the end of his tenure 

😂😂😂

every single response is about shit from a dozen years ago. even the people who actually reply can’t admit that they were wrong about barnes. allllllll of the comments in recent years about “free money” betting against barnes in march, how he’s the worst tourney coach ever, choker, blah blah blah. 

typical shit talker behavior. sooooo loud just banging that drum all day and night, until reality hits, you’re proven wrong (again), and suddenly it’s radio silence. tsk tsk tsk.

 

to clarify: i’m not talking about you specifically @Js1. i’m using the “universal you” to refer to a gaggle of posters who’ve been very very loud for many years, but who are now conspicuously silent.

Edited by Derka
Posted
3 minutes ago, Derka said:

😂😂😂

every single response is about shit from a dozen years ago. even the people who actually reply can’t admit that they were wrong about barnes. allllllll of the comments in recent years about “free money” betting against barnes in march, how he’s the worst tourney coach ever, choker, blah blah blah. 

typical shit talker behavior. sooooo loud just banging that drum all day and night, until reality hits, you’re proven wrong (again), and suddenly it’s radio silence. tsk tsk tsk.

 

to clarify: i’m not talking about you specifically @Js1. i’m using the “universal you” to refer to a gaggle of posters who’ve been very very loud for many years, but who are now conspicuously silent.

But those folks aren't wrong with regard to Rick's final years at Texas.

Both parties needed to move on, Rick as much as Texas.

Posted

it’ll really be this easy: many of the posters i’m referring to will come running in here with vim and vigor should tennessee lose their next game. that’ll be as close as they get to identifying themselves.

top 10 all time in wins, best coach in two major program’s histories, HOF lock, has now taken two different schools to three straight S16’s, and oh yeah, is beloved by all of your favorite players, including/especially the Godfather, TJ Ford.

all of that and we can’t even get one person to just say, “hmm, looks like i was wrong about barnes.” those who can dish it but can’t take it should probably stop dishing it so fervently and frequently.

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Posted
On 3/23/2025 at 12:38 PM, Derka said:

😂😂😂

every single response is about shit from a dozen years ago. even the people who actually reply can’t admit that they were wrong about barnes. allllllll of the comments in recent years about “free money” betting against barnes in march, how he’s the worst tourney coach ever, choker, blah blah blah. 

typical shit talker behavior. sooooo loud just banging that drum all day and night, until reality hits, you’re proven wrong (again), and suddenly it’s radio silence. tsk tsk tsk.

 

to clarify: i’m not talking about you specifically @Js1. i’m using the “universal you” to refer to a gaggle of posters who’ve been very very loud for many years, but who are now conspicuously silent.

You are the epitome of everything you complain about. 

Posted

I’m rooting for Rick to finally get his title this year. His coaching in 98/99 resulted in a Big 12 championship with a very limited 6 man rotation. That is likely the best coaching job in my lifetime on the 40 acres.

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