Rick Barnes has emerged as a serious candidate the for UCLA job, reportedly has interviewed

Are we basing all the fulmer blame off of basillio? Baffling if so.

If Barnes leaves it’s because he knows he has a rebuild here (grant/bone leaving) and feels UCLA would be an easier rebuild. And it would be. 4 and 5 star recruits are easy to come by there.
If Rick Barnes leaves for UCLA I think he will leave being pissed off at Phil Fulmer for something
 
If Rick Barnes leaves for UCLA I think he will leave being pissed off at Phil Fulmer for something
I could see a scenario where he would want to take a serious run at a FF or better. Let's be honest he's going to have to rebuild this team most likely and he's pushing 70. This team was his best shot.

Not convinced this is the case but it's plausible.
 
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Barnes is not leaving. He knows im getting old and cant handle another 10 years of mediocrity. He promised me that he was staying put. I have an inside source. He works at a Holiday Inn. This is very credible. He used to work for Geico. Insurance salespeople dont lie.
 
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There is absolutely no reason for Barnes and Fulmer to be meeting at 9pm on a Sunday night if he didn't have intentions of leaving. And you're right, the situation would be weird, which is why we won't experience that. He's gone and I'd bet it breaks in the morning.

And Grant tweeting out to Auburn basketball....ironic. Is Bruce about to "Kiffin" them?

VERY PROPHETIC!!
 
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There is absolutely no reason for Barnes and Fulmer to be meeting at 9pm on a Sunday night if he didn't have intentions of leaving. And you're right, the situation would be weird, which is why we won't experience that. He's gone and I'd bet it breaks in the morning.

And Grant tweeting out to Auburn basketball....ironic. Is Bruce about to "Kiffin" them?
I hope Bruce does Kiffin them:D
 
I am just really confused. Barnes has raved about Knoxville and the fan base since he got here. He currently makes $3.25 million, which is top 15 in the country. We have great facilities and although we want to further develop the basketball program, we’re not an elite basketball school that expects a final four every season so the pressure isn’t as high. He has built this program back to where it is and next year the team will truly be his. Plus his wife is a UT grad.

I know we do not see what happens behind closed doors in the Tennessee AD, but I do not buy the story that Barnes is so upset with Fulmer he’d leave either. I know that’s his boss and he can impact his livelihood, but you’re making $3.25/mil and you supposedly love Knoxville and the Tennessee fans. Also, when you see Fulmer and Barnes together, like at the Big Orange Caravan or press conferences, they always seem friendly and appear to get along. Fulmer also attended games and spoke out in support of the basketball team. I also do not see Barnes as a guy that likes to jump around. I think he’d still be at Texas, probably until he retired, if they didn’t fire him.

If this is about money, then Barnes has to be realistic. Yeah, we won 30+ games and had a great year, but we still failed in winning the SEC regular season, SEC tournament, and final four. How much more is he truly worth? I agree that if he does leave, it probably means something is wrong behind the scenes. If this is a publicity stunt or attempt for more money, I just hope it does not impact recruiting or start putting doubt in recruits’ minds about Tennessee. We have a lot of positive momentum in the basketball program.

It just does not make sense for him to leave for UCLA and start over. The fan base is not as supportive and the pressure to win would be higher. They’d also have to offer him substantially more money to get the same value with what we pay him. I hope it is just a sham and we can keep progressing the basketball program. It’s nice to have something to take the pain away from football season.
 
There is absolutely no reason for Barnes and Fulmer to be meeting at 9pm on a Sunday night if he didn't have intentions of leaving.
I agree, but based on our local media and our board's "insiders" track record for accuracy who knows if they even actually met tonight? When all the records of the last football coach search were finally made public it was revealed that alot of the stuff they were reporting and which were being batted about here as fact were total fantasy. I'm not saying he's staying. I'm not saying they didn't meet, but it's just as likely that they didn't as it would be if they did. What I am saying is that we know very little FOR SURE, other than that it has been reported he's talked to UCLA.
 
I am just really confused. Barnes has raved about Knoxville and the fan base since he got here. He currently makes $3.25 million, which is top 15 in the country. We have great facilities and although we want to further develop the basketball program, we’re not an elite basketball school that expects a final four every season so the pressure isn’t as high. He has built this program back to where it is and next year the team will truly be his. Plus his wife is a UT grad.

I know we do not see what happens behind closed doors in the Tennessee AD, but I do not buy the story that Barnes is so upset with Fulmer he’d leave either. I know that’s his boss and he can impact his livelihood, but you’re making $3.25/mil and you supposedly love Knoxville and the Tennessee fans. Also, when you see Fulmer and Barnes together, like at the Big Orange Caravan or press conferences, they always seem friendly and appear to get along. Fulmer also attended games and spoke out in support of the basketball team. I also do not see Barnes as a guy that likes to jump around. I think he’d still be at Texas, probably until he retired, if they didn’t fire him.

If this is about money, then Barnes has to be realistic. Yeah, we won 30+ games and had a great year, but we still failed in winning the SEC regular season, SEC tournament, and final four. How much more is he truly worth? I agree that if he does leave, it probably means something is wrong behind the scenes. If this is a publicity stunt or attempt for more money, I just hope it does not impact recruiting or start putting doubt in recruits’ minds about Tennessee. We have a lot of positive momentum in the basketball program.

It just does not make sense for him to leave for UCLA and start over. The fan base is not as supportive and the pressure to win would be higher. They’d also have to offer him substantially more money to get the same value with what we pay him. I hope it is just a sham and we can keep progressing the basketball program. It’s nice to have something to take the pain away from football season.

California's ever-increasing income tax should be enough for Barnes to steer clear of UCLA if money is the issue.
 
North Carolina...Duke.....Kentucky....and Kansas are the Big4 bluebloods. Indiana and UCLA...maybe Louisville....used to be in that group. Mich state...Syracuse...and Nova are a notch below imo. But UCLA isn't what it used to be. If Barnes leaves for ucla it is a bad decision imo.
 
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North Carolina...Duke.....Kentucky....and Kansas are the Big4 bluebloods. Indiana and UCLA...maybe Louisville....used to be in that group. Mich state...Syracuse...and Nova are a notch below imo. But UCLA isn't what it used to be. If Barnes leaves for ucla it is a bad decision imo.
UCLA is a competent coach away from being a top tier team.
 
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Let's be honest here. If Rick leaves, we aren't hiring a Bruce Pearl. We hired a coordinator as HC of the football team. We are apparently looking an assistant, mid major coach, or even TV personality for the LV job. We're probably going to go that same route for this job if it opens.

I'm not saying these will be bad hires, just I've seen zero from Fulmer to make me think he's going to slap $5M a year down for a proven commodity.
 
Let's be honest here. If Rick leaves, we aren't hiring a Bruce Pearl. We hired a coordinator as HC of the football team. We are apparently looking an assistant, mid major coach, or even TV personality for the LV job. We're probably going to go that same route for this job if it opens.

I'm not saying these will be bad hires, just I've seen zero from Fulmer to make me think he's going to slap $5M a year down for a proven commodity.

We hired a coordinator that was part of 4 NC’s just like UGA did.
 
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Considering who we can hire, it wold be awful timing as most of the mid major coaches are picked over.
Yep, our roster isn’t going to help us in pursuing a coach either. Without Grant and Bone our roster is bare. We aren’t much better than when Admiral and Kyle first came in. If Barnes leaves, he will be pulling a Cuonzo.
 
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Even if Barnes us perfectly happy at UT and has no intent to leave, it's not a bad idea at all to let this play out. If he stays it gives CRB and UT a lot of cred with future recruits. "Yes, UCLA (the program with more NCs than every other college basketball program) wanted me to leave UT for their HC job. I turned them down because TN is special. You should join us and help build THIS program. Now sign this LOI right by the X."
 
Let's be honest here. If Rick leaves, we aren't hiring a Bruce Pearl. We hired a coordinator as HC of the football team. We are apparently looking an assistant, mid major coach, or even TV personality for the LV job. We're probably going to go that same route for this job if it opens.

I'm not saying these will be bad hires, just I've seen zero from Fulmer to make me think he's going to slap $5M a year down for a proven commodity.
Then both the men's and women's basketball programs will be heading into the crapper if what you say is true:rolleyes:
 
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We hired a coordinator that was part of 4 NC’s just like UGA did.

And like I said, that may end up being a good hire. Time will tell. I'm just saying we're not Texas A&M, who is willing to money whip whoever they want into taking a job with us. We're going to gamble on a lesser known/ less proven coach. We always do. The 2 exceptions were Johnny Majors because he was alumni and Barnes because he was being pushed out the door at Texas.
 
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