Actually, what happened with Rick Barnes was he went away from what made him successful and he started chasing one and done type players. The 2012-13 team was talented, but did not work with his system. It was basically a giant recruiting misfire.
Barnes actually quickly recovered and started rebuilding a “Rick Barnes style” team.
The 2013-14 team tied for third in the Big 12 with an 11-7 conference record winning 24 games overall. They won their first round tournament game. Barnes had built a team that could make the sweet 16 or better the next two seasons.
The problem was impatient Texas fans were demanding he win big now and giving him no leeway.
Between his 1963 national title and 1969 and 70 national titles, DKR had a dry run of three consecutive 4 loss seasons from 1965-67. DKR didnt need a fresh start. He made some mistakes, adjusted, Texas was patient and he won two more titles.
Barnes had already adjusted and learned. Two bad things happended in 2014-15. The major issue was Isaiah Taylor got hurt and derailed the team. Even without Taylor, that team played Kentucky pretty close so the talent and team was there. However, losing Taylor really killed it. Taylor’s injury was not Rick Barnes’s fault or due to Rick needing energy or something.
The other was Barnes picked up one and done Miles Turner hoping he would provide a Kevin Durant type boost and put us over the top. Turner, however, was not developed enough to be a year one major contributor and he was really only interested in the NBA. Unfortunately, Barnes picked up the wrong “one and done”. To the people that complain Barnes misused or did not develop Turner, that is nonsense. Rick Barnes entire career is filled with fantastic player development. Look at the recruiting rankings of his classes at Tennessee. Like many of the 2012-13 players, Turner was not a good fit. As with Garret Gilbert, I am not sure there was any way to know he would not fit. He seemed like a one and done that would fit Barnes’ style. Turner was probably the last lesson Barnes needed to learn.
Barnes had learned and had his act together. He left Shaka Smart with a veteran team that should have EASILY made the Sweet 16. With Barnes at the helm, Ridley injury or not, I have no doubt that team makes the Sweet 16. If we leave Barnes in place one more year, that team makes the Sweet 16, Barnes rebuilds in 2016-17 and we are near or at where Tennessee is now.
Instead, our impatient and arrogant fanbase in the dumbest move in Texas sports history forced him out. Everything Barnes learned, he applied at Tennessee and they reaped the benefits. We fired him on the cusp of what could be his best coaching years.
Everyone has started this “he needed to get re-energized and stop being lazy” which is a bs excuse narrative that somehow is transitive from football with Mack Brown and honestly never made sense with Barnes. I think partially if fooftball never goes downhill, Barnes may still be our coach. Part of the problem was everyone kept attributing what was going on with football to everything.
Anyway, the only part of the “fresh start” narrative that is true is that at Tennesse, Barnes did not have a fanbase that had gone full retard on his back demanding he get to the final four now or be fired. He actually had the leeway to build for two years. He did not have to take risks on one and dones and could build a 2000s style Rick Barnes team. Anyway, Barnes benefited from a “fresh start” in that he got away from an idiotic fanbase and was able to build. If you put our dumb fanbase aside, I guarantee he would have rather stayed at Texas as he had a great team that could win and he had better recruiting. It would have been easier to rebuild in 2016-17 at Texas than take over a complete dumpster fire at Tennessee and start from scratch. However, I guess our impaitent and unwise fanbase made Tennessee the better opportunity for him.
Anyway, if you do not want to admit getting rid of him was stupid, keep telling yourself he was tired and needed to be re-energized to justify supporting an epically bad decision.
