A Reluctant Criticism of Barnes

#26
#26
This team had no inside game whatsoever, needed a true point guard and we could not knock down 3 pointers consistently to save our lives. Once Florida exposed UT and how to defend us in the first meeting every team we played used a similar approach. Also we did not have a true leader like Grant or Admiral to lead this team and I think the true freshman are good , but showed their youth and inexperience at critical times. Barnes needs to get aggressive in the transfer portal and fill some glaring weaknesses in the roster

And clear out half of our roster. Too many lower level players sitting on the bench
 
  • Like
Reactions: BreatheUT
#27
#27
Barnes is robbing us. Paying anybody $5M to get the type of results we have gotten is nothing more than highway robbery. Stubborn and arrogant are two perfect descriptions for him. He came here to ride out his retirement and our previous administration bought into it we Will continue to suffer for it. He is possibly one of the worst coaches in March ever to coach. The only worse one I can think of is Mick Cronin
Can't agree on the robbing comment. No one forced some fool to pay him $5mil per year that escalates going forward. Can't blame the man for accepting such a fool's offer. Blame the idiots that throw out these lunatic contracts not the guy that accepts them. Hell, every single poster on this board would do the same and not one person would be giving money back.
 
#28
#28
I’m pissed off just as much as the next guy. Am I satisfied? Hell no. I think yesterday’s loss was embarrassing, can’t make excuses for it.

However, do I think Barnes should be fired? Absolutely not. It would be a huge mistake to let him go at this time. I know everyone is in their feelings and want to point at the guy making 5 million a year but you can’t fire your way to success.

There’s plenty of coaches I’d love to have over Barnes even though the chances of them coming here are slim to none. Tennessee has never been a big name in basketball nor gotten the respect from the NCAA. We don’t have a history of winning Final Fours and hanging National Championship banners from the raptors. It sucks but that’s reality.

We all know White has had success as the AD. Can he really find a better replacement for Barnes? Maybe. However, he’s going to choose who he thinks is best and it may be somebody that you don’t like. Then who are you going to start blaming?
 
#29
#29
Can't agree on the robbing comment. No one forced some fool to pay him $5mil per year that escalates going forward. Can't blame the man for accepting such a fool's offer. Blame the idiots that throw out these lunatic contracts not the guy that accepts them. Hell, every single poster on this board would do the same and not one person would be giving money back.
Maybe the wrong word to use, however, it’s no secret that Barnes is very lazy when it comes to recruiting. If not for his assistants, we wouldn’t have any of these 5 star players. Barnes doesn’t like to travel much
 
#30
#30
I’m pissed off just as much as the next guy. Am I satisfied? Hell no. I think yesterday’s loss was embarrassing, can’t make excuses for it.

However, do I think Barnes should be fired? Absolutely not. It would be a huge mistake to let him go at this time. I know everyone is in their feelings and want to point at the guy making 5 million a year but you can’t fire your way to success.

There’s plenty of coaches I’d love to have over Barnes even though the chances of them coming here are slim to none. Tennessee has never been a big name in basketball nor gotten the respect from the NCAA. We don’t have a history of winning Final Fours and hanging National Championship banners from the raptors. It sucks but that’s reality.

We all know White has had success as the AD. Can he really find a better replacement for Barnes? Maybe. However, he’s going to choose who he thinks is best and it may be somebody that you don’t like. Then who are you going to start blaming?

“You can’t fire your way to success.“. Tell Alabama football and basketball programs this
 
#31
#31
And clear out half of our roster. Too many lower level players sitting on the bench
If it were me, I'd keep Fulky and Walker to go with this incoming class and fill in the rest with transfers who can at least get off the damned bench and give us some quality minutes. Thought about Pons, but he's disappeared way too many times for my taste. Not just scoring either. A guy like that should never have a game with fewer than 5 rebounds and a block or 2. Time to flip the page on this roster.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1985Vols
#32
#32
“You can’t fire your way to success.“. Tell Alabama football and basketball programs this

That’s your problem.

You’re comparing Tennessee to Bama and what they’re doing. It doesn’t work that way.

If that was the case then every school would be getting upgrades over their previous coaches.
 
#33
#33
That’s your problem.

You’re comparing Tennessee to Bama and what they’re doing. It doesn’t work that way.

If that was the case then every school would be getting upgrades over their previous coaches.
No it just shows some schools have AD’s that do a much better job than others
 
  • Like
Reactions: lifeisdeep
#35
#35
Maybe the wrong word to use, however, it’s no secret that Barnes is very lazy when it comes to recruiting. If not for his assistants, we wouldn’t have any of these 5 star players. Barnes doesn’t like to travel much
Then White needs to decide if that's acceptable and Barnes better be beating the bushes for a hotshot recruiting assistant to replace English. Really hope we don't waste the 1 or 2 seasons we'll have a talent like Chandler. That would be such a TN thing.
 
#36
#36
Barnes isn't getting fired and we'd be stupid to even entertain it.

But he needs to take a look in the mirror and realize he needs to change some things, and he needs to win in the postseason. This season piled on his already shaky reputation as a guy that is good but not great.
At his age, I wouldn't place a lot of hope in Barnes changing. It's what makes Saban all the more impressive. He recognized the game had changed and he adapted. It's why he's the best to ever coach the college game IMO...and yes, I truly hated to type that.
 
#37
#37
Then White needs to decide if that's acceptable and Barnes better be beating the bushes for a hotshot recruiting assistant to replace English. Really hope we don't waste the 1 or 2 seasons we'll have a talent like Chandler. That would be such a TN thing.

If there’s one thing we’ve learnt about White so far, he’s going to hire whoever “he” thinks is best even if we don’t agree with the hire.

Our opinion really doesn’t matter to him and that’s worrisome.
 
#38
#38
JJJ is NOT a bust. He didn't have a good offensive game, but he pulled down 13 rebounds and only played 24 minutes.
Yeah, the thought of JJJ being a bust really shows a lack of knowledge and a superficial lens on the program by some. I will agree that the head coach of any program is ultimately responsible, but none of us will ever have all the info we need to even begin to understand what these last 12 months have entailed. 13 rebounds was phenomenal, but more than anything, support these kids and coaches. You can disagree, but the overboard toxicity is something you can control.
 
#39
#39
I’m not ready to fire Barnes yet but it’s time for him to start thinking about retirement. He’s a good coach but good is all he’s ever been and he’s not going to ever be great.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ttucke11
#40
#40
I can't believe people worship this guy after his continued underachieving and the fact he tried to bail on us for UCLA then pinned the whole thing on "god" when he didn't get the contract he wanted.
He asked god for a sign in it came in the form of $$$.
 
#41
#41
Then White needs to decide if that's acceptable and Barnes better be beating the bushes for a hotshot recruiting assistant to replace English. Really hope we don't waste the 1 or 2 seasons we'll have a talent like Chandler. That would be such a TN thing.
Totally agree!
 
#42
#42
Maybe the wrong word to use, however, it’s no secret that Barnes is very lazy when it comes to recruiting. If not for his assistants, we wouldn’t have any of these 5 star players. Barnes doesn’t like to travel much

You’re FOS, VQ put this to rest a couple years ago...Barnes used the max number of evaluation days allowed for a HC each year he’s been here. That was a Tony Basilio driven narrative early on because we weren’t landing highly recruited players.
 
#43
#43
Then White needs to decide if that's acceptable and Barnes better be beating the bushes for a hotshot recruiting assistant to replace English. Really hope we don't waste the 1 or 2 seasons we'll have a talent like Chandler. That would be such a TN thing.
Recruiting isn’t really an issue
 
#46
#46
At his age, I wouldn't place a lot of hope in Barnes changing. It's what makes Saban all the more impressive. He recognized the game had changed and he adapted. It's why he's the best to ever coach the college game IMO...and yes, I truly hated to type that.

That's my fear. Barnes seems like a principled yet sometimes stubborn guy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CAVPUT
#47
#47
CB did a poor coaching job with the talent he recruited. It appeared to me, the team lost something as he worked in the talented freshman. Earlier in the year, they were a final four team. CB lost this team and he better figure out why because none of his players appeared to enjoy playing at the end of the season.

He doesn't need to worry about a "lost team". The ones that count are leaving due to graduation or NBA or likely transfer. As as it has seemed for some time, we will be starting over next season.
 
#49
#49
I can't believe people worship this guy after his continued underachieving and the fact he tried to bail on us for UCLA then pinned the whole thing on "god" when he didn't get the contract he wanted.
Half of y’all still worship Pearl who won the same amount of hardware at UT that Barnes has, and tried to get involved with 3 other jobs while at UT.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kungfuman2000
#50
#50
JJJ isn't a bust. He is just not the kind of 5* player that most people wanted or think of when they see five stars by the name and they go gah-gah. You were warned before he ever stepped foot on campus not to expect immediate dominance, that he wasn't an alpha personality, or a big-time scorer. The 5* label was as unfair to him as it was to Robert Hubbs. Good players, but not great. People were warned about both and to cautiously temper expectations. Thru the first third of our season, JJJ was our team MVP, in my opinion. We were also undefeated. Not sure what happened.

If this be the case why do some many guys get labeled "5*"? Should they be labeled with a lesser * or should there be a 6* for the truly good guys?
 

VN Store



Back
Top