Rick Barnes thread

[Goo Punch 4275]

2 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

That is weird. Guess Rick was unhappy with the backups and wanted to make a statement? Gotta be careful with that, though.

Anyway, hope he has a great season and proves the haters wrong.

was thinking the same thing, which is classic Rick. i remember watching something on the LHN when he was here where he made the team keep running a drill over and over and over because Ryan McClurg wasn't running it correctly. He was chewing him out like he was going to be counting on him to beat Kansas. Pretty funny, and classic Barnes.

[perfectchaos007 6621]

Rick Barnes v Kansas tomorrow. Top 5 matchup. Barnes doesn’t have a good record against Kansas let’s see how this ends up 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Big game tomorrow against Gonzaga. The Zags are -2.5. I would pick them to cover that. Tennessee is going to have to fit their shots tomorrow in order to win. Should be a pretty good game though. I'm excited to see how Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield play in their first really big game as known commodities.

[Underdog 28544]

Forgot this was on, looks to have been a good one so far. 

[Underdog 28544]

Very nice win for the Vols, feed at worked went to shit the final few minutes. 

[CurlyDumps 4466]

Damn, Rick.  Why couldn’t your Texas teams shoot 41% from 3?

[Guest Lobo]

Always liked him.  Wish him the best.  Great win today for his Vols.  Shaka looks forward to matching it with a 9-point loss to Purdue this evening.  Stay tuned!  

[kopp0e 1135]

They Volunteered for the loss, when the 'Zags signed on for this game:

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Tennessee has lost to KU in OT, beaten Louisville by 11, and now knocked off undefeated #1 Gonzaga. They are for real, and as advertised. Rick moved into a tie for 25th on the all time wins list today. I really hope they stay healthy because they will be a serious contender come March.

[Underdog 28544]

The Admiral is just a fucking stud. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams are Tennessee's Damion James and PJ Tucker. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

cool clip of Barnes and Schofield after the game (you have to click the link)-

 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Goo Punch 4275]

I'm just now going back and watching the game, and it's reminding me of many of the topics for debate among UT fans surrounding Coach Barnes. There are many myths about Rick Barnes which people believe in because they were true for some period of time, and for whatever reason people hold onto certain areas where he struggled at his worst as if they were perpetual struggles throughout his career.

•People say he's a terrible offensive coach and compare him to Shaka, which simply isn't true at all, and I've posted the numbers that prove this countless times here. Rick had a bunch of really really good offenses at Texas, especially during the aughts. For a decade Texas was one of the best offensive teams in the country.

•People say he squandered talent worse than any coach ever, but that's not even close to being the truth. First off his best teams all did extremely well save the one very notable exception in 2010. 2003, 2005, and 2008 combined to go 10-3 in the NCAA tournament (just unreal at Texas) and 2005 was an epic choke job by our players. Texas should have gone to the FF that year and probably would have played UF in the title game had they not shit the bed vs LSU. We also won the conference in 05 and 08 and finished second in 03 going 12-4 when KU and OU were both top 10 teams. These are three of Rick's four most talented teams and they are the three best teams in school history. That's not squandering talent, that's maximizing it. 

Yes, KD's team getting blown out by USC sucked but our team wasn't that great to begin with (another topic I've written extensively about), and the talent that we "squandered" after KD had as much to do with the one and done Canadian players as it did with Rick Barnes. Whether they were soft, not fully committed, or not as good as advertised, there's blame to spread around. By now we've all seen a dozen examples of more egregious talent squandering than what we saw during Rick's latter years. He didn't win like he should have with that talent, and that started the chain of events which led to him being fired, so don't think I'm saying that he didn't play a part. It's just been way overblown by bitter Texas fans.

•Finally, what prompted me to even start this post- inbounds plays. He is awesome at calling inbounds plays. There were a couple years there where we struggled at them, but for the overwhelming majority of his career he has been great with inbounds plays, and that includes his final years at Texas. Rick gets his best players easy looks off inbounds plays more than most coaches, and it's been on display here vs Gonzaga. Wide open threes for their shooters, or getting Grant Williams open in the paint; they're getting easy buckets either way.

Say what you want about him, but when he has players who buy in and who understand what's needed of them his teams look like they are very well coached because they are. As of today Rick is firmly in the "Hall of Very Good" in college hoops. He wins a title at Tennessee and he becomes a lock for the HOF. I'm rooting for him. He's as important to Texas basketball as DKR was to Texas football, and TJ is his Earl. It's a real shame that so many of our fans don't appreciate him.

[Goo Punch 4275]

Wow, Schofield is unreal down the stretch.

[Goo Punch 4275]

They're loving it in Knoxville:

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Schofield is ridiculous. What a performance down the stretch. Williams fouls out and Schofield just says, "alright, I'll make every play in both ends." What a performance.

[Goo Punch 4275]

The players going up into the stands to celebrate with their families- this is what makes sports so awesome.

 

 

[Catdaddyhorn 3444]

1 hour ago, Goo Punch said:

I'm just now going back and watching the game, and it's reminding me of many of the topics for debate among UT fans surrounding Coach Barnes. There are many myths about Rick Barnes which people believe in because they were true for some period of time, and for whatever reason people hold onto certain areas where he struggled at his worst as if they were perpetual struggles throughout his career.

•People say he's a terrible offensive coach and compare him to Shaka, which simply isn't true at all, and I've posted the numbers that prove this countless times here. Rick had a bunch of really really good offenses at Texas, especially during the aughts. For a decade Texas was one of the best offensive teams in the country.

•People say he squandered talent worse than any coach ever, but that's not even close to being the truth. First off his best teams all did extremely well save the one very notable exception in 2010. 2003, 2005, and 2008 combined to go 10-3 in the NCAA tournament (just unreal at Texas) and 2005 was an epic choke job by our players. Texas should have gone to the FF that year and probably would have played UF in the title game had they not shit the bed vs LSU. We also won the conference in 05 and 08 and finished second in 03 going 12-4 when KU and OU were both top 10 teams. These are three of Rick's four most talented teams and they are the three best teams in school history. That's not squandering talent, that's maximizing it. 

Yes, KD's team getting blown out by USC sucked but our team wasn't that great to begin with (another topic I've written extensively about), and the talent that we "squandered" after KD had as much to do with the one and done Canadian players as it did with Rick Barnes. Whether they were soft, not fully committed, or not as good as advertised, there's blame to spread around. By now we've all seen a dozen examples of more egregious talent squandering than what we saw during Rick's latter years. He didn't win like he should have with that talent, and that started the chain of events which led to him being fired, so don't think I'm saying that he didn't play a part. It's just been way overblown by bitter Texas fans.

•Finally, what prompted me to even start this post- inbounds plays. He is awesome at calling inbounds plays. There were a couple years there where we struggled at them, but for the overwhelming majority of his career he has been great with inbounds plays, and that includes his final years at Texas. Rick gets his best players easy looks off inbounds plays more than most coaches, and it's been on display here vs Gonzaga. Wide open threes for their shooters, or getting Grant Williams open in the paint; they're getting easy buckets either way.

Say what you want about him, but when he has players who buy in and who understand what's needed of them his teams look like they are very well coached because they are. As of today Rick is firmly in the "Hall of Very Good" in college hoops. He wins a title at Tennessee and he becomes a lock for the HOF. I'm rooting for him. He's as important to Texas basketball as DKR was to Texas football, and TJ is his Earl. It's a real shame that so many of our fans don't appreciate him.

I know which seasons you're referencing here, but bouncing back and forth between denoting the season by the fall year and the spring year is bound to confuse a lot of people reading  this post. We lost to LSU in the 2005-2006 season and lost to Memphis in the 2007-2008. My favorite season not named by you was the 2010-2011 year. And it was another notable year that should've been much more successful. For about 16 or 17 games we looked like the best team in the country and started off the first 10 or 11 games in conference beating all but 1 team by double digits including a double digit victory at Kansas at Phog Allen and a 30 point demolition of a ranked Aggy squad. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

8 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

I know which seasons you're referencing here, but bouncing back and forth between denoting the season by the fall year and the spring year is bound to confuse a lot of people reading  this post. We lost to LSU in the 2005-2006 season and lost to Memphis in the 2007-2008. My favorite season not named by you was the 2010-2011 year. And it was another notable year that should've been much more successful. For about 16 or 17 games we looked like the best team in the country and started off the first 10 or 11 games in conference beating all but 1 team by double digits including a double digit victory at Kansas at Phog Allen and a 30 point demolition of a ranked Aggy squad. 

I mentioned that team. It was the one notable exception where one of Rick's most talented teams didn't at least reach the Elite 8 and/or win the conference. And we were the best team in the country that year up until around Christmas. I watched us beat UNC in a track meet at Jerryworld, and then two days later own Sparty in Austin. Damion James was a front runner for NPOY at that point. And then the bottom fell out. 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Catdaddyhorn 3444]

11 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

I mentioned that team. It was the one notable exception where one of Rick's most talented teams didn't at least reach the Elite 8 and/or win the conference. And we were the best team in the country that year up until around Christmas. I watched us beat UNC in a track meet at Jerryworld, and then two days later own Sparty in Austin. Damion James was a front runner for NPOY at that point. And then the bottom fell out. 

 

2 different seasons

2009-2010 is the year that we started the season 17-0,  beat UNC and Michigan St, and reached a #1 ranking.

2010-2011 is the year we went on a run of winning 17 of 18 with only a loss to the eventual national champions Kemba Walkers. And we started the conference season 11-0 with 10 double digit victories including beating KU at the Phog by double digits. It was my favorite season not mentioned by you. 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Catdaddyhorn

[Goo Punch 4275]

7 minutes ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

 

2 different seasons

2009-2010 is the year that we started the season 17-0,  beat UNC and Michigan St, and reached a #1 ranking.

2010-2011 is the year we went on a run of winning 17 of 18 with only a loss the the eventual national champions Kemba Walekrs. And we started the conference season 11-0 with 10 double digit victories and beat KU at the Phog. It was my favorite season not mentioned by you. 

Oh right right right. I confuse those two seasons a lot. Yeah I remember making a drunken, ranting, anti A&M video during that game when Jordan Hamilton locked down Khris Middleton. The boys over at TexAgs did not take it well.

And that team got *boned* out of a Sweet 16 appearance after J'Covan's heroics vs Zona. I think that's why I confuse those two seasons so often- the trauma from each was substantial.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Catdaddyhorn 3444]

Yeah it's easy to want to remove those seasons from our collective minds. Nobody will agree with me, but that run of 18 games from December 2010 to February or so of 2011 is the best run of basketball that a Rick Barnes Texas team has ever played. Our on the court efficiency and team play was absolutely phenomenal.  After we went on a 30something to 11 run at the Phog I would've literally killed you if you told me right then that we wouldn't even make it to the sweet 16. 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Catdaddyhorn

[Goo Punch 4275]

That team's national rankings:

21st in AdjO

4th in AdjD

5th overall by KenPom

21st in FGM

13th in 2PM

42nd in 3P%

21st in FTM

5th in FTA

4th in TRB

8th in DRB

6th in OREB

67th in AST

13th in BLK

23rd in PPG

 

The team was basically 6 guys, and we had a two headed PG who, if you combined each's respective game, would make the ultimate PG. Doj Balbay was an elite defender, an elite athlete, and had an elite AST/TO ratio. Unfortunately he was also the worst shooter in school history. J'Covan Brown could score in a bunch of different ways, he could create his own shot, and he had the ability to create for others, if not the highest basketball IQ ever. Those two plus Hamilton, Tristan, Gary Johnson, and Cory Joseph were absolutely on fire during the stretch  you mentioned. It was a six man unit that played all of our minutes and they were clicking and running and defending and feeding off of each other. How beautiful is this:

edit: aaaaand my phone is broken and i can't take a screen shot. our schedule on kenpom (wins in green, losses in red) looks glorious. So much green all over the screen. 

Unfortunately, here's what followed:

We seemingly were going to snap KU's conference title streak by winning the league outright, and then the world imploded. First we lost by 3 @NU when Rick drew up a play for Hamilton, only to have J'Covan hijack the play resulting in a terrible fade away corner three that never came close. J'Covan then went to twitter to trash Barnes for not drawing up the play for him, and that was the beginning of the end. Tvat loss would kick off a four game stretch where we lost to NU by three, at CU by two, and at home to K State by 5, remarkably blowing the conference title. We lost to KU in the conference semis, and then were boned out of the tourney vs Arizona, capping off the most brutal two seasons of basketball one could imagine. Those years were much harder to take than these barren years under Shaka. Absolutely gutted. 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Goo Punch 4275]

what also makes it so much worse is that in reality the 2011 team that went 28-8 played way above its head. fans would have paid money in the preseason to ensure a 28-8 season like that, with such a short bench and no future pro stars (a couple of roles players but not stats) on the roster. we were never supposed to be that good, and when you realize it's a six man rotation with two solid but ver flawed PG's splitting time, it's fairly unbelievable that we did play to such a high level for such a long time. and yet anyone who remembers or looks back at it likely sees "just another failure", "just another season where texas choked". we were never supposed to be where we were in the first place, and then we get screwed out of a S16 date with Duke to cap it off. Ugh. Brutal. 

[Catdaddyhorn 3444]

Yeah that team definitely over achieved. That's why the 17 out of 18 win run is so imprinted in my mind. We started it after damn near a 20 point loss to an inconsequential USC team. So when we went out to just dominate for a such a long period of time I was absolutely stunned and completely loving it. And the level of play we saw on the court was coming from guys who weren't necessarily obvious stars or physical talents. It was just good, quality team basketball night in, night out. Had the season ended differently it would've been comparable to Mack's 2008 squad in terms of all-time great Texas coaching jobs. I remember Alexis Wangmene and even Matt Hill playing more than you give them credit for, but it wasn't for anything other than to play tough defense and rebound for 3 and 4 minutes spells, but the main cogs were the 6 your referenced. 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Catdaddyhorn

[Fozzz 152]

10 hours ago, Catdaddyhorn said:

Yeah it's easy to want to remove those seasons from our collective minds. Nobody will agree with me, but that run of 18 games from December 2010 to February or so of 2011 is the best run of basketball that a Rick Barnes Texas team has ever played. Our on the court efficiency and team play was absolutely phenomenal.  After we went on a 30something to 11 run at the Phog I would've literally killed you if you told me right then that we wouldn't even make it to the sweet 16. 

I got to watch us beat Illinois in the Garden that season.  I remember Thompson destroying them in that game.

[Revolution512 1487]

It’s a very weird thing to be evaluated against a standard you set.

This is an interesting job and I wonder if both Shaka and Rick sacrificed a piece of their culture for highly ranked national recruits. You absolutely have to go after the best but if there’s no buy in, what did you gain?

[Brian Fantana 6677]

Can someone translate that word salad

[Guest Lobo]

36 minutes ago, Revolution512 said:

It’s a very weird thing to be evaluated against a standard you set.

This is an interesting job and I wonder if both Shaka and Rick sacrificed a piece of their culture for highly ranked national recruits. You absolutely have to go after the best but if there’s no buy in, what did you gain?

He knew a coach in a similar predicament and he ended up being sorry.  Don't be naive Brian, each of us faces a clear moral choice when coaching basketball.  Early to bed, early to rise makes a player healthy, wealthy, and wise.  How true.  Golly.  

[LonghornJudas 1097]

Now a little beef with Penny Hardaway.

https://deadspin.com/penny-hardaway-tells-rick-barnes-get-the-fuck-out-of-h-1831188268

 

Quote

Tennessee’s 102-92 victory over Memphis on Saturday featured a very chill imitation of a scuffle between the two teams in the final minute. A few days after the game, however, this once-lean beef is starting to look pretty appetizing. At his Tuesday press conference, Memphis first-year coach Penny Hardaway threw some heaters in the direction of Volunteers coach Rick Barnes, then walked out of the room cussin’ like a sailor:

Hardaway’s insults were prompted by Barnes’ reaction to an assertion Hardaway made after his team’s loss. In the post-game press conference, Hardaway said that Tennessee players were itching for a fight, and came to the Memphis bench “with their fists balled, talking trash to our guys.”

On Monday, Barnes laughed off the accusation, then on Tuesday, Tennessee guard Jordan Bone tossed out one of his own. “We knew they were going to come out and flop,” he said of the Tigers, “And that’s what they did,”

The use of “flop” apparently got under Hardaway’s skin, and prompted the Memphis coach to use a different f-word. The official video of the availability, unfortunately, doesn’t include the spicy ending, but Hardaway gets asked about Barnes at the very beginning of the press conference, and responds with some muscle:

I don’t know who Rick Barnes thinks I am, but I’m not a dude that likes to mess around about anything ... The comments that he made about my team, when it came to the flopping and all that, that’s no-class. I would never do that to another team.

Memphis is off to a rocky 5-5 start so far this season, though most of those losses do come to respectable programs. Maybe Hardaway increasing the beef in his team’s diet will help the Tigers when conference play begins.

Correction (8:57 p.m. ET): The article original stated that Rick Barnes made the “flopping” accusation. It was, in fact, Vols player Jordan Bone.

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Penny Hardaway is fucking retarded and is showing his ass. I saw the original press conference after the game, and just like Rick i laughed it off. Go look at the tape- Penny is full of shit. His players started it, and then Schofield calmly came over and grabbed his guys and got them out of there. It was a total nothing incident, and for him to sit here and act like we don't have the tape is completely stupid.

The truth of the matter is that Memphis is a ghetto, garbage city full of some of the worst neighborhoods in the country, and they are the ones who get off on acting hard and being violent, not the crew from Knoxville. They are the hoops equivalent of Thug U. Instead of a bunch of dudes from Liberty City going to Miami you have a bunch of dudes from Parkway Village and Shelby Forest going to Memphis. And Penny is doing them no favors by perpetuating every stereotype about the people where he comes from. He's being ignorant, classless, and dishonest, he's talking tough mike he's going to fight someone, and he's doing so in an arena where 99% of his peers are not young-ish black dudes from the hood who relate to/respond to this type of stuff, but rather mostly white dudes in their 50's and 60's who could not be more nonplussed with this whole tough guy, street attitude crap. It's embarrassing. 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Goo Punch

[LonghornJudas 1097]

38 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

Penny Hardaway is fucking retarded and is showing his ass. I saw the original press conference after the game, and just like Rick i laughed it off. Go look at the tape- Penny is full of shit. His players started it, and then Schofield calmly came over and grabbed his guys and got them out of there. It was a total nothing incident, and for him to sit here and act like we don't have the tape is completely stupid.

The truth of the matter is that Memphis is a ghetto, garbage city full of some of the worst neighborhoods in the country, and they are the ones who get off on acting hard and being violent, not the crew from Knoxville. They are the hoops equivalent of Thug U. Instead of a bunch of dudes from Liberty City going to Miami you have a bunch of dudes from Parkway Village and Shelby Forest going to Memphis. And Penny is doing them no favors by perpetuating every stereotype about the people where he comes from. He's being ignorant, classless, and dishonest, he's talking tough mike he's going to fight someone, and he's doing so in an arena where 99% of his peers are not young-ish black dudes from the hood who relate to/respond to this type of stuff, but rather mostly white dudes in their 50's and 60's who could not be more nonplussed with this whole tough guy, street attitude crap. It's embarrassing. 

[Brian Fantana 6677]

Yeah I didn't see anything bad. He's just butthurt.

[immortal13 4059]

Disagree. It was Barnes' crying about flopping and calling out a specific played that was bitchass. What happened on the court was just basketball, and should've been left there. Hardaway defended his players, nothing more. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

1 hour ago, immortal13 said:

Disagree. It was Barnes' crying about flopping and calling out a specific played that was bitchass. What happened on the court was just basketball, and should've been left there. Hardaway defended his players, nothing more.

wrong. he made up some story about tennessee's big bad players (a bunch of three star choir boys) coming over and menacing his poor little defenseless team (Memphis' finest) "with clenched fists ready to fight", when the fact of the matter is that it was Penny's guy who started it in the first place, and the stuff about Tennessee wanting to fight is a complete lie. Look at the tape. Nobody on either side even came close to fighting, and Tennessee's team leader (Schofield) calmly walked over and grabbed his own guys and then walked away. Penny is being petty and dramatic and starting shit where there is none.

Then, on top of that, he brings in the old, "I don't know who he thinks he's talking to" shit into it like we're in the streets or something. That's embarrassing and unprofessional, but of course nobody in Memphis will care because their favorite son has come home and thus far he's been able to keep their best HS players in town for college.(actually i'm sure that some of Memphis old white dude donors will grow tired of that shit pretty quickly). Still, Im sure that all of Memphis' best HS players will be very impressed with how tough and real and gangster with it Anfernee Hardaway is, but that shit was Busch league. He's acting like a child, and instead of teaching his players how to act like young men he's acting like them. It's stupid. 

Edited December 19, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Clintonaldo 2572]

Barnes said his team was prepared for Memphis to try and draw charges with flops and it worked. Penny sounds retarded. 

[Clintonaldo 2572]

14 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

wrong. he made up some story about tennessee's big bad players (a bunch of three star choir boys) coming over and menacing his poor little defenseless team (Memphis' finest) "with clenched fists ready to fight", when the fact of the matter is that it was Penny's guy who started it in the first place, and the stuff about Tennessee wanting to fight is a complete lie. Look at the tape. Nobody on either side even came close to fighting, and Tennessee's team leader (Schofield) calmly walked over and grabbed his own guys and then walked away. Penny is being petty and dramatic and starting shit where there is none.

Then, on top of that, he brings in the old, "I don't know who he thinks he's talking to" shit into it like we're in the streets or something. That's embarrassing and unprofessional, but of course nobody in Memphis will care because their favorite son has come home and thus far he's been able to keep their best HS players in town for college.(actually i'm sure that some of Memphis old white dude donors will grow tired of that shit pretty quickly). Still, Im sure that all of Memphis' best HS players will be very impressed with how tough and real and gangster with it Anfernee Hardaway is, but that shit was Busch league. He's acting like a child, and instead of teaching his players how to act like young men he's acting like them. It's stupid. 

Penny is just mad he could never beat Tennessee as a player and now as a coach. The nickname Penny sums his bitch ass up nicely. 

[huge 3793]

Plus it was Jordan Bone that brought up “flopping” not Barnes

[Goo Punch 4275]

PTI on the beef:

 

[SwanderedTalent 5761]

Penny Hardaway was a pussy as a player and his recruitment was dirty, so that should tell you something about how he's going to run Memphis' program. Fucking glorified JUCO anyway. 

He became an uber pussy when he signed his first big money deal and decided playing hard was for guys who didn't have said big money deals.

All things being equal, I would say he'd be about as successful at Memphis as Clyde Drexler was at Houston except Penny understands that the kind of kids his program needs don't give a fuck about Memphis or playing for one of Memphis' legends or anything else other than that sweet sweet under the table money. Calipari got it, Penny will too. I expect Memphis to be one of those knuckleheaded 8-loss Final Four teams with six future NBA players on their roster. 

[Brian Fantana 6677]

2 hours ago, SwanderedTalent said:

I expect Memphis to be one of those knuckleheaded 8-loss Final Four teams with six future NBA players on their roster. 

Don't forget lose a national title when you're led by Derrick Rose because you didn't practice free throws all year. 

[Michael Knight 12976]

On 12/20/2018 at 10:00 AM, SwanderedTalent said:

Penny Hardaway was a pussy as a player and his recruitment was dirty, so that should tell you something about how he's going to run Memphis' program. Fucking glorified JUCO anyway. 

He became an uber pussy when he signed his first big money deal and decided playing hard was for guys who didn't have said big money deals.

All things being equal, I would say he'd be about as successful at Memphis as Clyde Drexler was at Houston except Penny understands that the kind of kids his program needs don't give a fuck about Memphis or playing for one of Memphis' legends or anything else other than that sweet sweet under the table money. Calipari got it, Penny will too. I expect Memphis to be one of those knuckleheaded 8-loss Final Four teams with six future NBA players on their roster. 

Butch was just trying to take care of his momma

 

 

[Brothahorn 10087]

Yeah it's easy to want to remove those seasons from our collective minds. Nobody will agree with me, but that run of 18 games from December 2010 to February or so of 2011 is the best run of basketball that a Rick Barnes Texas team has ever played. Our on the court efficiency and team play was absolutely phenomenal.  After we went on a 30something to 11 run at the Phog I would've literally killed you if you told me right then that we wouldn't even make it to the sweet 16. 

You are probably right. But I have to mention the 17-0, 2009 run. Beating UNC and MSU back to back was pretty impressive. IIRC, only 3 games were less than 10 pts wins, during that stretch
I was at the UNC game and thought we had arrived.

[Goo Punch 4275]

The FEC was *rocking* during that MSU game. My buddy and I started a Texas Fight chant during a 2H TO, and even though we were in the mezzanine (front row though), our initial "TEXAS!!" was so loud that both coach's huddles kind of broke up and looked at us when we screamed it. Within a few seconds the entire arena was screaming TEXAS FIGHT. This was around the time in the game where we had that crazy sequence of a bunch of defensive stops turning into transition dunks, heavily featuring Gary Johnson on both ends. I feel bad for anyone who's never been to one of those games at the FEC- KU, OU, MSU, Nova, UCLA, the Acie Law game in 07, Wake Forest, and so on. The Drum is a terrible venue for basketball in general, b when it's packed the place is insane.

[Goo Punch 4275]

This probably made for a pretty cool picture:

The computers are finally starting to give the Vols some love now, despite having them outside of the top 10 for most of the year, even after knocking off Gonzaga. KenPom has the team up to no.5 nationally, with the Vols ranked second nationally in AdjO. It's fascinating that there are still so many Texas hoops fans who believe that Barnes is a terrible offensive coach despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I know it's still early in his tenure there, but this could be the best team he ever has at Tennessee. I'm rooting for them. 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Goo Punch

[Underdog 28544]

Barnes should go Old School Ray Mears and breakout the unicycles and orange/white basketballs during warmups. 

[Js1 85258]

Still don't care.  His last 7 years included 3 one and done trips in the tourney, 3 two and done trips and a CBI appearance. Finished 4th, 6th, 2nd, 5th, 7th, 3rd, 6th.  Complacency can be a bitch; sometimes you're the victim of your own success.

It was time to move on.

We chose poorly.  We will choose someone else. It won't be Rick.  Good for him if he makes the SEC his bitch and we don't have to watch Kentucky take the league all the time. 

[MrPhlegm 3413]

You guys are so blind in your hate for the best Texas coach in our lifetime. Pathetic.

Miss you, Rick.

They hate Rick not Abe you twit.

[Disco Missile 456]

I'm happy that Barnes is having a lot of success. Always liked him. I don't even mind watching his Vols play and I'll admit that I'm pulling for him...and I hate the Vols.

I wish I understood how he deserved to be fired and Shaka doesn't though. The success Barnes is having right now? I want that here. Fuck Smart.

[Goo Punch 4275]

This Tennessee team looks just so many of his best teams from the 00's. Very enjoyable for me to watch. 

Edited January 18, 2019 by Goo Punch