Would You Trade Barnes for Smart?

#1

VolnJC

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#1
Remember when Smart's name was rumored for almost every opening? I know the Longhorns are young, but they also have good talent yet they're sitting at 8-13 and losing to Texas Tech at home tonight.
 
#2
#2
Remember when Smart's name was rumored for almost every opening? I know the Longhorns are young, but they also have good talent yet they're sitting at 8-13 and losing to Texas Tech at home tonight.

Barnes is a solid floor coach, and his staff are unreal talent developers. My only issues with Barnes are his recruiting and age. We have to recruit post players better. Could you imagine if we had just one skilled 6'8" or bigger post player to go along with this team? In the end, I really appreciate what Barnes is doing for us. I think Barnes is a solid coach, and I think we'd be fools to even think about another coach until Barnes says it's time to hang em up.
 
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#3
#3
That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.
 
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#7
#7
Barnes is a solid floor coach, and his staff are unreal talent developers. My only issues with Barnes are his recruiting and age. We have to recruit post players better. Could you imagine if we had just one skilled 6'8" or bigger post player to go along with this team? In the end, I really appreciate what Barnes is doing for us. I think Barnes is a solid coach, and I think we'd be fools to even think about another coach until Barnes says it's time to hang em up.

That's something I've never understood about Barnes even when they were winning at a high level he never really seemed to recruit that well....I think he just looks for guys that fit into his system...almost stubbornly so imo..he would probably have a NC if he had recruited better at Texas
 
#8
#8
The better question should be would you want Pearl back or keep Barnes?
 
#9
#9
Guy I want to replace Barnes(hopefully after our rebuild in 3-4 years when he retires) is Tony Bennett...man his teams are awesome on D...doubt we could pay him enough to come here though
 
#11
#11
That's something I've never understood about Barnes even when they were winning at a high level he never really seemed to recruit that well....I think he just looks for guys that fit into his system...almost stubbornly so imo..he would probably have a NC if he had recruited better at Texas

I think he simply doesn't want to hit the recruiting trail anymore due to his age, so his assistant coaches do it for him.

In terms of winning a NC, I never look at Barnes as a failure there. A lot of people have an issue with his postseason record, but in college basketball it is really hard to win NCs. A lot has to go right for you, and many times the "best" team doesn't even advance to the championship game. The best, and arguable the worst, aspect of basketball is that any team can get hot and win. If you ride that momentum wave it can carry you into the elite 8 or final four. Again, college basketball is just a hard sport to win NCs. You have to have a lot go right for you in the span of about a month. However, I get why people have issues with his final four appearance(s), or lack there of.
 
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#12
#12
Rick is recruiting 5 star players. He first wanted to build a strong foundation of good solid Basketball players which he has done then try and add 5 star players. Two in Nashville one 2018 class at Brentwood Academy 1 2019 class at Ensworth Tn will have a legitimate shot at both.
 
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#13
#13
Besides taking a young group of players and molding them into a team, he has done what was needed and kept us out of the news for bad things going on. I heard no negative blow back when he dismissed a player recently.
 
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#14
#14
I don't know that there is a better fit for our program at this time. First of all I wish we would have pulled a coach of his level and style when we let buzz Peterson go. Rick was a safe hire for a program that was experiencing turmoil outside the lines of the court. A program that had seen much instability that needed a solid and stable figure on the sidelines. Tennessee met those requirements when they hired coach Barnes. However, what they didn't realize from a basketball perspective, we hired a guy that could evaluate talent and go after guys that we could realistically land in our program at that time who stilll had the potential under the development of rick barnes to overachieve and have an imeadiate impact. This coach is something we have never seen at UT a basketball coach that can not only coach and recruit but can succeed with freshman 3 star players. Imagine if we would have hired him 8 years ago and watched him develop the top recruits in the country these past 3-4 years. This guy can flat out develope players and teach them to play the game to the point they will beat teams they are under matched against. The longer he stays the more we will see that. Barnes will develop kids regardless of their rating and if he stays long enough to recruit top prospects, look out.
 
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#15
#15
Not now. Barnes has done an amazing job this year. We need to recruit better and get bigger.
 
#16
#16
I don't know that here is a better fit for our program at this time. First of all I wish we would have pulled a coach of his level and style when we let buzz Peterson go. Rick was a safe hire for a program that was experiencing turmoil outside the lines of the court. A program that had seen much instability that needed a solid and stable figure on the sidelines. Tennessee met those requirements when they hired coach Barnes. However, what they didn't realize from a basketball perspective, we hired a guy that could evaluate talent and go after guys that we could realistically land in our program at that time who stilll had the potential under the development of rick barnes to overachieve and have an imeadiate impact. This coach is something we have never seen at UT a basketball coach that can not only coach and recruit but can succeed with freshman 3 star players. Imagine if we would have hired him 8 years ago and watched him develop the top recruits in the country these past 3-4 years. This guy can flat out develope players and teach them to play the game to the point they will beat teams they are under matched against. The longer he stays the more we will see that. Barnes will develop kids regardless of their rating and if he stays long enough to recruit top prospects, look out.

I agree. Barnes has gotten more out of his teams in his two years that the last 2 clowns we hired!!! These guys are well coached and know Barnes does not play favorites with anyone. They play hard every play and get up and down the floor better than any team we have had since Pearls team one year. We would not be on the bubble if Fulk had not gotten hurt IMHO!! We would be in. Barnes knows what he is doing and the guys love him as well.
 
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#18
#18
I don't think Hubbs is big enough or a good enough ball handler to play in the NBA but he can play overseas. Without Barnes Robert is a high school teacher/coach like his father is next year. Great kid from rural West Tennessee!!
 
#19
#19
Those of you worried about Barnes' recruiting need to take a look at his track record and relax. It's kind of funny to read some of these posts... At Texas, many of their fans regarded him as a great recruiter but were very critical of his skills as a bench coach especially in the NCAA tournament. Here is a short list of future NBA players he recruited to Texas:

Kevin Durant
LaMarcus Aldridge
Tristan Thompson
DJ Augustin
Chris Mihm
TJ Ford
Dexter Pittman

Now, I know some of you will say, "Yeah, but it's easy to recruit to talent rich Texas with all of the players who come out of Dallas and Houston." Take a closer look at where some of those guys are from though. Durant was from Washington DC, Thompson was from Toronto, Augustin was from New Orleans, Mihm was from Milwaukee.

Our recruiting will be great under Barnes. If you can win at Providence and Clemson, you can win at Tennessee... Be patient.
 
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#20
#20
That's something I've never understood about Barnes even when they were winning at a high level he never really seemed to recruit that well....I think he just looks for guys that fit into his system...almost stubbornly so imo..he would probably have a NC if he had recruited better at Texas

Good lord this is just so wrong... See my above post.
 
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#21
#21
Barnes is a solid floor coach, and his staff are unreal talent developers. My only issues with Barnes are his recruiting and age. We have to recruit post players better. Could you imagine if we had just one skilled 6'8" or bigger post player to go along with this team? In the end, I really appreciate what Barnes is doing for us. I think Barnes is a solid coach, and I think we'd be fools to even think about another coach until Barnes says it's time to hang em up.

So, you have a problem with his age? He is 62.

3 of the 4 coaches in the final four last year were older than Rick Barnes:

Roy Williams (UNC) 66
Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) 72
Lon Kruger (Oklahoma) 64

Here are some other coaches who have made the final four since 2010 who are currently 62 or older (in some cases much older) and still coaching:

Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) 69
Tom Izzo (Michigan St) 62
Rick Pitino (Louisville) 64
John Beilein (Michigan) 63
Bob Huggins (West Virginia) 63

What age would you be comfortable with? Coaching college basketball at an elite level doesn't appear to be for young men. The fact is that most of the best coaches are at least 54 years old (John Calipari is 57, Bill Self is 54, Jay Wright is 55).
 
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#22
#22
That's something I've never understood about Barnes even when they were winning at a high level he never really seemed to recruit that well....I think he just looks for guys that fit into his system...almost stubbornly so imo..he would probably have a NC if he had recruited better at Texas

Seriously? If he had recruited any better at Texas, he'd be on a Calipari level as a recruiter in terms of reputation. Kevin Durant, TJ Ford, DJ Augustin, Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, LaMarcus Aldridge, etc. All those guys were 5* players, or darn close.

The knock on Barnes at Tennessee is that many unrealistically expected him to immediately replicate that recruiting success, even after he admitted to changing his recruiting philosophy. Even now, with all this team's unexpected success, peoole still complain about his recruiting.

Your theory seems to be the reverse of reality.
 
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#23
#23
Obviously, RB still has a lot left in the tank. He is a outstanding game coach. I really don't like his recruiting methods, but it's working so what do I know.

If you don't think Smart will have Texas back to elite status sooner than later, then you're fooling yourself.

So, I would trade 60 year old RB for 39 year old SM
 
#24
#24
So, you have a problem with his age? He is 62.

3 of the 4 coaches in the final four last year were older than Rick Barnes:

Roy Williams (UNC) 66
Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) 72
Lon Kruger (Oklahoma) 64

Here are some other coaches who have made the final four since 2010 who are currently 62 or older (in some cases much older) and still coaching:

Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) 69
Tom Izzo (Michigan St) 62
Rick Pitino (Louisville) 64
John Beilein (Michigan) 63
Bob Huggins (West Virginia) 63

What age would you be comfortable with? Coaching college basketball at an elite level doesn't appear to be for young men. The fact is that most of the best coaches are at least 54 years old (John Calipari is 57, Bill Self is 54, Jay Wright is 55).

One, why you attacking my post when I'm over here praising Barnes? You act like I just said we should can Barnes due to his age. Two, almost every coach on that list is a better recruiter than Barnes. Moreover, no one is in here saying we need to find a coach in the waiting because Barnes has limited time. Facts are, Barnes doesn't want to hit the recruiting trail due to his age. He simply is here to close the deal, and unfortunately UT doesn't recruit itself for great basketball players. You can't even argue this because his assistant coaches are on record saying Barnes doesn't feel the need to travel 24-7 to recruit.

On top of all that, over 2/3 of those coaches you mentioned are hall of fame coaches at big time basketball schools. Truth is, no one knows how long Barnes wants to coach for, but once you hit the 60s mark people start to ask that question. On top of that, Barnes has to work about three times harder than most those coaches you mentioned to get talent here, and like I said, UT doesn't recruit big time basketball players here usually.
 
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#25
#25
Obviously, RB still has a lot left in the tank. He is a outstanding game coach. I really don't like his recruiting methods, but it's working so what do I know.

If you don't think Smart will have Texas back to elite status sooner than later, then you're fooling yourself.

So, I would trade 60 year old RB for 39 year old SM

Smart getting Texas back to an elite level is hardly a sure thing. Plenty of coaches that tore it up at mid-majors have been busts at big schools. Smart's predecessor at VCU Anthony Grant was considered a home run hire at Alabama and he tanked.
 
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