How glad is UCLA Barnes had a buyout?

#2
#2
I feel like the fact Barnes was fully ready to bounce to UCLA doesn’t get pointed out enough
 
#4
#4
He made it business and that’s fine with me. Now it’s business with me and he ain’t earning his money.

No coach is Mother Teresa, at the end of the day it is business.
 
#6
#6
UCLA is one of the true blue bloods with their history in John Wooden. I don’t blame him one bit for entertaining that opportunity.
Don't tell that to many in the basketball forum. They speak about Tennessee BB as though it is a top 5 program all-time.

Barnes is good for Tennessee. He's kind of like Mark Stoops at Kentucky. Having said that, there's no way in hell they make a run to the national title game last year if Rick was their coach.
 
#8
#8
Don't tell that to many in the basketball forum. They speak about Tennessee BB as though it is a top 5 program all-time.

Barnes is good for Tennessee. He's kind of like Mark Stoops at Kentucky. Having said that, there's no way in hell they make a run to the national title game last year if Rick was their coach.
By “many” in the BB forum you must be referring to the fly by posters who lose their **** after every loss.

Also who knows what UCLA would have done. Prior to that run Cronin was routinely bounced in the first weekend of the tourney. I think many fail to grasp the randomness in basketball.
 
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#9
#9
Top 5 in the SEC, sure. But top 5 in the country all-time is lunacy.
I think they do it because of a combination of 1) football is bad and 2) Tennessee basketball under Pearl and Barnes has been better than its long-term historical average.

We've been pretty good on balance since Pearl arrived, but UT basketball has never even made it to a Final Four and has just been to just one Elite Eight. If you read the BB forum knowing nothing about UT basketball, you'd think our program slots in right behind the blue blood programs, but we're just nowhere near that good historically.
 
#10
#10
By “many” in the BB forum you must be referring to the fly by posters who lose their **** after every loss.

Also who knows what UCLA would have done. Prior to that run Cronin was routinely bounced in the first weekend of the tourney. I think many fail to grasp the randomness in basketball.
I wouldn't know - I don't even read that forum, or the FF forum, during or right after games. It's by far the worst time to be on this site.
 
#13
#13
By “many” in the BB forum you must be referring to the fly by posters who lose their **** after every loss.

Also who knows what UCLA would have done. Prior to that run Cronin was routinely bounced in the first weekend of the tourney. I think many fail to grasp the randomness in basketball.
The BB forum is dog crap, they have about 4-5 posters over there that act like weird gate keepers
 
#17
#17
He sure as hell isn't earning that salary
Well, that was pretty much understood to be a given the moment the contract was signed, unless he starting making deep tournament runs with regularity and winning SECTs.

We are paying him that much not because he is worth that salary, but because that was the price we had to pay to not have a coach worse than him. Thing is - Rick is great for Tennessee. I do not want him fired. However, the expectations for Tennessee basketball have changed over the years (rightly or wrongly), and people don't really tolerate going a few games over .500 in conference play then getting bounced early in NCAATs anymore. That was considered good 20 years ago, but not today.
 
#19
#19
Well, that was pretty much understood to be a given the moment the contract was signed, unless he starting making deep tournament runs with regularity and winning SECTs.

We are paying him that much not because he is worth that salary, but because that was the price we had to pay to not have a coach worse than him. Thing is - Rick is great for Tennessee. I do not want him fired. However, the expectations for Tennessee basketball have changed over the years (rightly or wrongly), and people don't really tolerate going a few games over .500 in conference play then getting bounced early in NCAATs anymore. That was considered good 20 years ago, but not today.
Tennessee is always going to struggle to keep up with the Jones's in basketball. They thought they were by keeping Barnes but in reality we're just white trash with money. Tennessee could save a pile of money and get the same results.
 
#20
#20
And lord, if you say anything negative about Barnes they absolutely lose it. He's not the saint many make him out to be, far from it
In my experience I've found that they don't really like nuanced or conflicted opinions about him. You either have to love the guy and think he's an incredible coach or think he's a terrible/overrated coach.
 
#21
#21
In my experience I've found that they don't really like nuanced or conflicted opinions about him. You either have to love the guy and think he's an incredible coach or think he's a terrible/overrated coach.
Barnes is what he is.... He's a middle of the road coach, won't embarrass the program but you're going to be an early out in March. He doesn't relate to young talent, his militant style only works on those who have to listen to it not the 1st round pick.
 
#22
#22
Barnes is what he is.... He's a middle of the road coach, won't embarrass the program but you're going to be an early out in March. He doesn't relate to young talent, his militant style only works on those who have to listen to it not the 1st round pick.
Which is funny, because consistently at Texas and once he got his feet under him at Tennessee he's recruited a ton of really talented players.

I don't think it is a coincidence his best teams at Tennessee were made up exclusively of lightly-recruited players who overachieved.
 
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#23
#23
By “many” in the BB forum you must be referring to the fly by posters who lose their **** after every loss.

Also who knows what UCLA would have done. Prior to that run Cronin was routinely bounced in the first weekend of the tourney. I think many fail to grasp the randomness in basketball.
Cronin was 22-10 and 13-6 last year. UCLA came in as an 11 seed in a play in game and made a run. Somehow that makes Cronin who had never advanced past the sweet sixteen before a better coach than Barnes.

March is absolutely wild in college basketball. You might even call it “madness”. Coaches are like nfl quarterbacks. Everybody overpays and it only works out for like three teams. Coach K hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2015, only four times since the turn of the century, and I think Duke was glad he was around. Cal hasn’t been back to the FF since 2015 and only has one championship to his name. Kentucky has never seriously considered letting him go.

Just imagine how this board will behave if Heup has a hiccup next year and loses to Mizzou or USCe
 
#24
#24
Cronin was 22-10 and 13-6 last year. UCLA came in as an 11 seed in a play in game and made a run. Somehow that makes Cronin who had never advanced past the sweet sixteen before a better coach than Barnes.

March is absolutely wild in college basketball. You might even call it “madness”. Coaches are like nfl quarterbacks. Everybody overpays and it only works out for like three teams. Coach K hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2015, only four times since the turn of the century, and I think Duke was glad he was around. Cal hasn’t been back to the FF since 2015 and only has one championship to his name. Kentucky has never seriously considered letting him go.

Just imagine how this board will behave if Heup has a hiccup next year and loses to Mizzou or USCe
Assuming that your coach is good enough to develop a sample size, you can't judge a coach purely on getting bounced in any single season's tournament. Coach K hasn't been to a FF since 2015, but he has been to a Sweet 16 and 2 Elite Eights. He pretty consistently makes tournament runs.

Cal, even though seemingly everybody (including now UK's own fans) think he's overrated, has made it to at least the Sweet Sixteen 8 times in 12 seasons at UK. Exact same clip as Coach K, and both have titles to show for it too. That's pretty damn good.
 
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#25
#25
I'm glad he stayed and he's still here. Am I disappointed in some of these losses? Absolutely. Do I have any confidence our athletic department at the time would have found someone nearly as good? Nope.
 

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