As Longhorns Swoon, Coach Faces More Questions

Rick Barnes is a dream candidate for NC State fans to be Sidney Lowe’s replacement. As coaches stay longer and longer in one place, expectations rise and criticism grows if results don’t continue to trend upward. It happened to Tom O’Brien at Boston College and it happened to Herb Sendek at NC State. Will it happen to Rick Barnes at the University of Texas as well?

Link to article.

There is no way anyone can call Barnes a bad coach. He has won more than 500 games and will lead a team to the N.C.A.A. tournament this year for the 16th consecutive season, a stretch that dates to his days at Clemson. That ties Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski for the longest active streak. Texas is one of six colleges to advance to the Round of 16 in five of the past nine years. Included in that run is a trip to the 2003 Final Four, the first time since 1947 that Texas advanced that far.

But the ghosts of N.C.A.A. tournaments past still haunt Barnes. He is 0 for 5 coaching in first-round N.C.A.A. tournament games between No. 8 and No. 9 seeds. In his 12 N.C.A.A. tournament appearances at Texas, eight of his losses were against teams with lower seeds.

Some of those were forgivable, like when the No. 1 Longhorns lost to the eventual national champion Syracuse, a No. 3 seed, at the 2003 Final Four. But some losses still make Longhorns fans grimace, like the first-round losses to Temple, a No. 11 seed, in 2001 and to No. 10 Purdue in 1999.

“I don’t care,” Barnes said late Tuesday of the criticism. “I’ve been in this so long, I could care less about what other people think. I quit a long time ago worrying about that.”

Barnes is worried about his team, which showed that it had Final Four potential in victories over Kansas, North Carolina and Texas A&M. But Texas has also shown enough flaws lately to be the prototypical office pool head-scratcher.

Will their N.B.A. talents and once boundless promise translate to March success? Much will depend on whether Barnes has any magic stored up his sleeve.

General

106 Responses to As Longhorns Swoon, Coach Faces More Questions

  1. Pack05 03/01/2011 at 3:45 PM #

    it’s cool Rick, just head on over this way. We’ll take ya

  2. nycfan 03/01/2011 at 3:52 PM #

    I’ll post the same excerpt that interested me from above article (from my post in the Tubby thread) … though it could be a little prickly defensiveness on his part, that doesn’t sound like the quote of a man aching for a rebuilding job. OTOH, maybe a homecoming and shot at some worship for a while as he rebuilds State is just what the doctor ordered at this point …

    **********from above linked nytimes.com article***************
    With a talented Texas roster in a late-season tailspin for the second straight season, questions about Barnes’s shaky history of coaching once he arrives in the N.C.A.A. tournament are being revived.

    “I would have cared 10 years ago,” he said of critics questioning his 19-18 N.C.A.A. tournament record. “This is not the most important thing in my life. It’s what I do, but it’s not the most important thing in my life.”
    **************************************************************

  3. Daily Update 03/01/2011 at 3:58 PM #

    NYCfan: Barnes can recruit and he would be handed a pretty good initial roster. Maybe it isn’t that much of a rebuilding job?

    I do agree he may not have enough in the tank. However, maybe a change of place would get him motivated again for one last career move?

    Not likely I admit.

  4. jbpackfan 03/01/2011 at 4:06 PM #

    I enjoy all the speculation and coaching search conversation. I wonder who the real candidates are? Yow had her list of prospective coaches prepared before she even arrived on State’s campus, by the way.

  5. blpack 03/01/2011 at 4:40 PM #

    He’d be a great candidate, but it is likely he will stay in Austin. He would look good on our sideline though.

  6. jo2g5 03/01/2011 at 4:43 PM #

    Ok, once again I ask, someone please tell me why we want Rick Barnes?? At best I see him as a small step up from Sendek. Instead of losing out in the first round on the NCAA every year, we will lose in the second round.

    Barnes can recruit the whole state of Texas with little to no competition. He has a decent program every year, but he has still yet to win anything meaningful. Over here he will have to recruit against Duke and UNC-Cheat without the free reign he has in Texas. Just don’t see him as the answer to get us back to the top of the league.

  7. Daily Update 03/01/2011 at 4:46 PM #

    He has been to more S-16s in the last 9 years than all but 5 other programs. How is that Herb Sendek results?

  8. Wulfpack 03/01/2011 at 4:50 PM #

    Can’t but help to wonder if he sees Baylor and A&M as serious contenders now.

    I like Barnes a lot. He’d be perfect here. We’d welcome him with open arms. But it almost just sounds too good to be true.

  9. codebrown 03/01/2011 at 4:53 PM #

    jo2g5 If he can bring the pipeline from Texas, I’m totally Team Barnes.

  10. bms 03/01/2011 at 5:12 PM #

    jo2g5, if Barnes is not good enough for you, who is?

  11. whitefang 03/01/2011 at 5:23 PM #

    “Ok, once again I ask, someone please tell me why we want Rick Barnes??”
    He is so much better than what we have, it is not even close. Plus he is from NC, my hometown to be exact, and definitely has both recruiting AND coaching skills. Heck I would take him in a second.

  12. Wolfy__79 03/01/2011 at 5:25 PM #

    man what you talkin bout! barnes would be great.. i don’t see it as a realistic outcome.. he’s not a nc state guy but i think he hates unc as much or possibly more. …still, i don’t see this happnin

    ^^i hope dY did already have a list in hand at the time of hire!! hopefully she’s found the checkbook too..

  13. jo2g5 03/01/2011 at 5:31 PM #

    Has he actually one anything? He finished with the best record in the Big 12 his first year coaching there and finished tied for first two other times. With all at his disposal at Texas I just think if he was a gotta have coach he would have accomplished more.

    Anyone know what his record is against Duke or UNC?

  14. wolf_at_my_door 03/01/2011 at 5:34 PM #

    Rick Barnes’ weakness (choking) is too well known for me to want him. I love that he went nose to nose with Deano but he did that because he lost his cool. He loses it quite often this time of year and his teams flounder.

    Jimmy V was great under pressure. Barnes not so much.

  15. jo2g5 03/01/2011 at 5:39 PM #

    If you want 20-25 wins a year and then fizzle out in the ACC and NCAA tournament every year than I say Rick is your man. He has not proven over his career that he can take a team the distance, what make anyone think that will change at NC State. Hey if I thought he could lead us to that 3rd championship I would be right there on the Barnes band wagon, but I just don’t see it.

  16. packalum44 03/01/2011 at 5:47 PM #

    I don’t see him winning a championship either. Calipari would have, assuming he stayed long enough. Damn it that was a big WHIF.

  17. one00_proof 03/01/2011 at 6:02 PM #

    jo2g5, if you just want a coach that wins something, then you must want Coach K, Roy Williams, Bill Self, Tom Izzo, Jim Calhoun or Billy Donnovan.

    Seriously, if you’re complaining about a guy who gets his team routinely in the top 10, has a final 4 and two elite 8 and two sweet 16 appearances in the last 10 years, who recruits like a fiend, and who has not even missed the NCAAs in his ENTIRE tenure at Texas (11 years)… then you are on drugs…

  18. Wufpacker 03/01/2011 at 6:04 PM #

    I don’t believe Calipari ever seriously considered coming here. I think the visit was nothing more than making his current employers (at the time) nervous so they’d pony up the cash he wanted.

    If Calipari had come here, I really don’t believe he would have done very well, and I’m pretty sure he would have landed us on probation fairly easily and fairly quickly.

    As far as Barnes, it would definitely be a good hire, an upgrade. But there are other candidates that seem to be a better fit currently. Admittedly, however, it’s all a crap shoot once the hire is made.

  19. oceanman 03/01/2011 at 6:11 PM #

    Don’t forget Barne’s stint at Clemson. He could not win the big one there and that has not changed. Keep him in Texas or send him to Ga. Tech. He is a light weight and we need a heavy weight.

  20. Lunatic Fringe 03/01/2011 at 6:42 PM #

    Keep him in Texas or send him to Ga. Tech. He is a light weight and we need a heavy weight.

    ^^ “a lightweight” Really? Please provide me this list of these realistic heavy weights that have a better track record than Rick Barnes.

  21. packalum44 03/01/2011 at 6:48 PM #

    “If Calipari had come here, I really don’t believe he would have done very well, and I’m pretty sure he would have landed us on probation fairly easily and fairly quickly.”

    Except winning at perennial powerhouses Mass and Memphis yeah he couldn’t win at this dump.

  22. tann84 03/01/2011 at 6:57 PM #

    I’d swap Lowe for Barnes any day of the week and twice on sundays. I don’t care if he hasn’t been able to win the big one, we haven’t been to the big one, lets get there before we start complaining about that. I’d say keep lowe on as an assistant, let him learn from Barnes and when Barnes is ready to retire he can gauge if Sidney is ready, if not go another direction. But I sure he can come in and have instant success and keep the recruiting going. I’d be foaming at the mouth if we got Barnes.

  23. CaptainCraptacular 03/01/2011 at 6:59 PM #

    I believe people who can find fault with the idea of either Barnes or Tubby coaching State would manage to complain if someone handed them an unclaimed winning powerball jackpot ticket.

    The comments about Barnes failure to win anything at Clemson as justification for not hiring him at State especially make me want to punch someone in the face. Nobody has managed to win anything at Clemson. No prior coach at Clemson. Nobody. I repeat, no coach has ever won anything at Clemson. But all Barnes did there was to lead them to their best 3 year run in their history. And take them to within one cheating Bobby Jackson miracle Overtime performance away from their only Final 8 appearance. But noooooo, because Barnes didn’t actually “win” anything at Clemson, he’s a bum. Please. If he can do that at Clemson, and all told go to 16 straight NCAAs with multiple deep runs at 2 football schools, he should be at or near the top of the list of coaches State fans should be overjoyed at having a chance of getting.

  24. wolfpack15 03/01/2011 at 7:08 PM #

    Hold on, Can someone please help me out? I have logged off and back on my computer 3 times now thinking that there was a glitch in my computer or that maybe i was just reading wrong. But, all three times that i have reread some of the post above i have actually read complaints about a possible RICK BARNS hire at State. COMPLAINTS!!!!!! There is no way i am reading those post right……right?

  25. eas 03/01/2011 at 7:21 PM #

    Barnes or Smith would be a one in a million catch for us period. Nuff said

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