C'mon man. We had a nice and unexpected mid-season run and played some good teams really close.
But, lets just stop with the idea that we were "on the bubble" or "fighting to get in the NCAA" etc. Our roster, due to youth(erratic), talent, injury, and dismissal is not close to making the NCAA from the SEC. The false "we can make it" narrative a month or so ago just created a false hope. We are NOT a tourney roster in any form or fashion.
Now, as far as Barnes on a 1-10. I'll go 6 also. I really like his character, development, and ability to court coach. But, his recruiting here has not restored the gaping hole left by CCM and CDT. Recruiting IS collegiate coaching.
That being said, it looks like were finally getting some size in the lineup soon. Filling that gaping hole combined with getting maturity for our promising young guys, holds promise for the next two seasons. If Fulkerson comes back and the new post players develop, then Barnes gets a rating raise IMO.
I wholeheartedly disagree with you. This team has shown that they can play with (and beat) the best of them. We can't just pretend we weren't on the bubble and or fighting to get in the tournament we were almost unanimously in at a month ago, and up until last game, still in the First Four Out and Next Four Out. No excuse for losing to Georgia when we had a 14 point lead, no excuse to losing to a terrible LSU team, no excuse losing Miss State with a 19 point lead. The list goes on. The truth is we could have anywhere between 3 and 7 more wins had we just no screwed away our season and given up. If we would have taken care of business in say just 3 of those games, we would be pretty securely in at this point (assuming we beat bama as well). I think he has done a pretty good job of recruiting. A bunch of underrated but good players. They're just so much youth on this team. It seems like 5 or 6 of our players have hit a freshman wall all at the same time down the stretch. To me, this is the type of roster that could make it to the tourney. They've proven that. One of the two teams in the SEC to beat Kentucky (9), almost beat UNC (5) at UNC, played Gonzaga (4) tougher than anyone up until BYU. Took Oregon(6) team to OT and really should have won that one. Besides Evans, everyone on this team has enough talent to play in this league. It's up to Barnes to get the most out of that talent and have a gameplan that sets them up for success. For a rating though, I'd give barnes a 5, the exact same as our record this year (.500).