Texas Basketball question about firing Rick Barnes in 2015

[bierce]

3 hours ago, Gerry Hamilton said:

To add to all the knowledge ... Rick wasn't putting in the level of time needed in recruiting either - especially in DFW. 

There are always stories like this behind good runs for a program ... but three assistants were so key in Rick success getting players. People know Rob Lanier (TJ, James Thomas, Boddicker, Royal Ivey and Mouton - he literally recruited the FF starting 5) and Frank Haith (convincing Barnes to take PJ Tucker without the HC seeing him in person prior to the commitment is so rare) ...

But Russ Springmann was massive. He ran the summer camps and early recruiting before he became a bench assistant. He was huge in the early recruiting of guys like Daniel Gibson, Lamarcus Aldridge, etc... before handing it off to Haith/RT. Then when he became an assistant ... he was the reason it stayed together longer - he was the entire reason Kevin Durant came to Texas, same for DJ Augustin and Damion James. The three first rounders in the same class. 

And there was the shhh, get very quiet now, very quiet.  Get so quiet that you have to put your lips right next to the next person's ears to be heard by him and him alone.

The input from Ro Russell. 

Uh.  I need to scrub myself now. 

[Gerry Hamilton]

Just now, bierce said:

And there was the shhh, get very quiet now, very quiet.  Get so quiet that you have to put your lips right next to the next person's ears to be heard by him and him alone.

The input from Ro Russell. 

Uh.  I need to scrub myself now. 

haha

[Jerry K]

Texas has always been a “what have you done for me lately” environment along with most other blue bloods. Barnes’ work/success became ho hum. That and he got “comfortable” in his position and personal I believe he felt like he’d done enough to be respected and that doesn’t work. Getting let go or forced out sometimes can reignite the fire. 

[bierce]

22 minutes ago, Jerry K said:

Texas has always been a “what have you done for me lately” environment along with most other blue bloods.

Since when are we a blue blood in basketball?  We have never gone beyond the Final Four, we made the Final Four only once since the NCAA tournament became more important than the NIT, we won only one NIT title before the NCAA tournament expanded to 68 teams, and our only "National Championship" is the title the Premo-Porretta archive duo retroactively awarded us in 1995 for the 1933 season.

Edited February 7 by bierce

[Jerry K]

2 minutes ago, bierce said:

Since when are we a blue blood in basketball?  We have never gone beyond the Final Four, we made the Final Four only once since the NCAA tournament became more important than the NIT, we won only one NIT title before the NCAA tournament expanded to 68 teams, and our only "National Championship" is the title the Premo-Porretta archive duo retroactively awarded us in 1995 for the 1933 season.

Texas is a blue blood program as a whole. That’s what I was referring to. 

[bierce]

7 minutes ago, Jerry K said:

Texas is a blue blood program as a whole. That’s what I was referring to. 

Ok, I guess I can get that part of it. 

[Jerry K]

9 minutes ago, bierce said:

Ok, I guess I can get that part of it. 

Yeah I agree definitely not in basketball. 

[bierce]

1 minute ago, Jerry K said:

Yeah I agree definitely not in basketball. 

Do you have any idea how many coaches have managed to win more NCAA tournament games than we have in our entire school history?

[Jerry K]

Just now, bierce said:

Do you have any idea how many coaches have managed to win more NCAA tournament games than we have in our entire school history?

Lol no. You’re it going to get any disagreement from me that Texas basketball is not on par with the program as a whole. 

[qaertyisthatdude]

If CDC was the AD back then, Barnes might still be the HMBB coach today.

[Tuco Ramirez]

On 2/4/2025 at 12:39 PM, bierce said:

Barnes's unfortunate comment about not being obsessed with titles didn't do him any favors.  I think it was poorly phrased, but it was much more poorly received. 

Yep,“We would love to win a national championship, but we’re not obsessed with it because we’re obsessed with these guys trying to live their NBA dream. What’s happened to Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, T.J. Ford — I’d give up a national title for all of our guys to be able to live their dream.”

That’s where he lost me.

[Neil Leininger]

Barnes was also never gt the Mak Brown discount on players leaving for the pros. There were several years when he could have built monster rosters if a few players had returned.

[Jc Dobbs]

On 2/3/2025 at 9:58 PM, thatdude2 said:

He also had a style of play that was less entertaining. They thought Smart would bring excitement to Texas and winning in the tournament. It did not happen.

Smart's VCU teams were fun and exciting to watch. Texas fans were used to Barnes' style which was rasslin' on a basketball court.

I'll never understand why Smart changed his whole approach. We never got a chance to see "Havoc" in Austin. We thought we were getting something like the old Nolan Richardson full court press style. Uh, no.

I liked Barnes but his style had grown a bit stale. I'll admit having thought I wish he'd have accepted some stylistic help and stayed at Texas.

[bierce]

33 minutes ago, Jc Dobbs said:

Smart's VCU teams were fun and exciting to watch. Texas fans were used to Barnes' style which was rasslin' on a basketball court.

I'll never understand why Smart changed his whole approach. We never got a chance to see "Havoc" in Austin. We thought we were getting something like the old Nolan Richardson full court press style. Uh, no.

I liked Barnes but his style had grown a bit stale. I'll admit having thought I wish he'd have accepted some stylistic help and stayed at Texas.

Any coach who is willing to let his AD tell him who he needs to hire as an assistant and which style he needs to play is a coach who isn't worth a damn.  The coach should coach, and the AD should get the coach the things the coach needs, not tell the coach what to do.  Patterson gave a jackassedly stupid ultimatum to Barnes, and Barnes quite rightly told him to stick it.  Barnes is now doing quite well in Knoxville, thank you very much, but he became persona non grata around most Texas HS and AAU teams, so he kind of hit a wall here.

 

[thatdude2]

1 hour ago, Jc Dobbs said:

Smart's VCU teams were fun and exciting to watch. Texas fans were used to Barnes' style which was rasslin' on a basketball court.

I'll never understand why Smart changed his whole approach. We never got a chance to see "Havoc" in Austin. We thought we were getting something like the old Nolan Richardson full court press style. Uh, no.

I liked Barnes but his style had grown a bit stale. I'll admit having thought I wish he'd have accepted some stylistic help and stayed at Texas.

With Shaka he landed a different type of group. Barnes landed a lot of one and dones, but his teams had two weaknesses imo. Shooting (free throws included), and small at the 3 position. He played two bigs, and we were really good rebounding team, but we played with 3 guards, and we would get killed by teams more offensively skilled than us. Shaka was just Shaka. If Texas just took bad shots against SFA, we beat them probably comfortably. We just had too many turnovers. We would scored off of offensive put backs by the game pressure caused our team to pass too much looking for good shots. Beard/ Terry teams have not had adequate size to be able to dominate on the boards. Disu and Abram’s imo were wasted talents last year.

[bierce]

Just now, thatdude2 said:

With Shaka he landed a different type of group. Barnes landed a lot of one and dones, but his teams had two weaknesses imo. Shooting (free throws included), and small at the 3 position. He played two bigs, and we were really good rebounding team, but we played with 3 guards, and we would get killed by teams more offensively skilled than us. Shaka was just Shaka. If Texas just took bad shots against SFA, we beat them probably comfortably. We just had too many turnovers. We would scored off of offensive put backs by the game pressure caused our team to pass too much looking for good shots. Beard/ Terry teams have not had adequate size to be able to dominate on the boards. Disu and Abram’s imo were wasted talents last year.

Beard doesn't seem to give a s*** about rebounding, judging from his teams' usual numbers, the last two Mississippi teams, and his comments this year after losses. 

[horns96]

It's really interesting to watch Barnes coach the Vols.  He stands the entire time, constantly in the officials' ears.

I swear he didn't stand his last three years in Austin.  He seemed disengaged.  Just sitting, passively watching the game dribble by...

[dentonhorn]

My all time favorite basketball coach and I have folllwed since Leon Black. He had some surprising one and dones and of course transfers weren’t as easy. I was then and still am convinced he would have adjusted and been a legend in Austin. Second part , yes I would obviously take him back but he ain’t coming. We screwed that one up.

[bierce]

7 minutes ago, dentonhorn said:

My all time favorite basketball coach and I have folllwed since Leon Black. He had some surprising one and dones and of course transfers weren’t as easy. I was then and still am convinced he would have adjusted and been a legend in Austin. Second part , yes I would obviously take him back but he ain’t coming. We screwed that one up.

Who was a surprising one and done under Barnes?  Joseph is the only guy I can think who didn't reek of one and done on arrival, and even he was a top 20 recruit.