Irrational Rick Barnes takes (merged)

[VaBornVol]

Did we not sweep them this year? Are we really going to ignore the regular season completely?

Didn’t Pearl sweep both of Florida’s NC teams in back-to-back years?

 

[VOLINVONORE]

He's accomplished more career wise, but right now, today, you think he's better than Oats?

I love RB, but Oats is pretty dang good

I will take Barnes over Oats every minute of every day.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Tennessee basketball has had very limited success, and if you had bothered to read the full conversation you would’ve seen the comment was about Rick Barnes. In the spirit of full context, Rick Barnes has a history of not making it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament throughout his college coaching career.

Barnes should not be fired, but it is very foolish to expect anything more from him than what we have seen at Tennessee over the last 9 years or the previous 17 years at Texas.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Barnes has made it past the 2nd round 8x in the last 23 years. Which coaches have matched that or were better and how many of those weren't at the blue blood programs. Few, Izzo, and who else?

 

[VaBornVol]

Barnes has made it past the 2nd round 8x in the last 23 years. Which coaches have matched that or were better and how many of those weren't at the blue blood programs. Few, Izzo, and who else?

Agreed! But he doesn’t make it out of the second round. Why are we so surprised and defensive when he doesn’t?

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Didn’t Pearl sweep both of Florida’s NC teams in back-to-back years?

No

 

[OrangeInKy]

Didn’t Pearl sweep both of Florida’s NC teams in back-to-back years?

3–1 those two years with the loss being when Lofton was out.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Agreed! But he doesn’t make it out of the second round. Why are we so surprised and defensive when he doesn’t?

I just pointed out that he made it out of the 2nd round 8x in the last 23 years.

Name the coaches that have done it as frequently and how many of them were at the blue bloods and the next 5-10 historically best programs (Nova. UConn. Cuse, UL)? How many coaches have been in the last 2 Sweet 16s?

What’s not surprising is the same clowns coming around after every loss to attempt to crap on the program. It’s not having a discussion. It’s taking an opportunity to troll the board.

 

[DuckInAPen]

I wasn't on VolNation in 2010. Was Pearl taking this kind of criticism after his Elite Eight loss?

P.S. -- I strongly approve of the new subject line.

 

[VaBornVol]

I just pointed out that he made it out of the 2nd round 8x in the last 23 years.

Name the coaches that have done it as frequently and how many of them were at the blue bloods and the next 5-10 historically best programs (Nova. UConn. Cuse, UL)? How many coaches have been in the last 2 Sweet 16s?

What’s not surprising is the same clowns coming around after every loss to attempt to crap on the program. It’s not having a discussion. It’s taking an opportunity to troll the board.

You are correct. I misspoke. Instead of second round, I should’ve said second weekend.

That’s when the party stops for us.

I have no clue, nor do I care what coaches at other schools are or aren’t doing. I do good to keep up with my own Alma mater.

I rarely post during basketball season, so I’m not one of the trolling “clowns” you’re referring to. I really do apologize if my pointing out something incredibly obvious has upset or added to this loss for you. As I have stated before, I’m as disappointed as any Vol fan today. However, I cannot share in the shock/surprise.

 

[TrippieRedd]

Imagine if we had the center from Creighton today

 

[cardvolfan]

Tennessee basketball has had very limited success, and if you had bothered to read the full conversation you would’ve seen the comment was about Rick Barnes. In the spirit of full context, Rick Barnes has a history of not making it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament throughout his college coaching career.

Barnes should not be fired, but it is very foolish to expect anything more from him than what we have seen at Tennessee over the last 9 years or the previous 17 years at Texas.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Are you really going to argue this point tonight, on a night when coaching had absolutely nothing to do with this loss? Take a deep breath and back away from the keyboard. This loss today cuts to the very core of many posters here. Let this narrative rest for a few days, please.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

You are correct. I misspoke. Instead of second round, I should’ve said second weekend.

That’s when the party stops for us.

I have no clue, nor do I care what coaches at other schools are or aren’t doing. I do good to keep up with my own Alma mater.

I rarely post during basketball season, so I’m not one of the trolling “clowns” you’re referring to. I really do apologize if my pointing out something incredibly obvious has upset or added to this loss for you. As I have stated before, I’m as disappointed as any Vol fan today. However, I cannot share in the shock/surprise.

4 teams make it out of the “second weekend”. Barely 1% of the teams competing. You are delusional and posting all of that garbage now is a clownish, troll move. So is your sincere apology. I’m skeptical that you really are a UT grad - that claim could just be enhancing the troll persona.

 

[BigALWiLson]

So what else does he need?

A Point Guard and a Big Man who WANTS to play for Championships and earn them. The biggest reason for the loss today was the total disappearance of ZZ. His defense was not very good and his shooting and free throw attemps were not good or even average. We had a good run I would say it was a successful season. The biased officiating helped Purdue win that game. Anytime a single player has 20 plus FT attemps you got screwed.

 

[Other_Guy]

Let the record reflect my original post was not an irrational take

 

[Other_Guy]

Great season overall and nothing I can really fault Barnes for today. Our star carried us but 2-3 complimentary guys didn’t come through which was my greatest concern all along, particularly Aidoo versus quality post players.

This was the best Barnes could ever realistically expect to get out of this team late in the season to win the SEC and make this run.
I'm not sure if the program is capable of winning it all. Even a FF run probably requires a luck of the draw like Bama got.

 

[Volprofch05]

Let the record reflect my original post was not an irrational take

Except Barnes wasn’t a sweet 16 coach this year and he didn’t underachieve

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I wasn't on VolNation in 2010. Was Pearl taking this kind of criticism after his Elite Eight loss?

P.S. -- I strongly approve of the new subject line.

No, most were overjoyed we finally made an EE.

Pearl was getting heavy criticism that he wasn’t a good postseason coach going into that NCAAT. No one saw that run happening.

 

[EaglesVols91]

But where are the NCAA championships or even final four appearances ? Before you answer Bama is in the final 4 and Barnes is not. Does that make the Bama coach hall of fame too ?

Look, it’s hard to go on a run and win the NCAA Tournament. Takes a lot of luck and some ref calls going your way. We & Barnes have been on the short end of the stick, but I’d much rather make the tournament every year with a chance instead of reverting back to the days prior to Pearl where we had curtains covering the upper deck because we were so bad and irrelevant that nobody was coming to the games

 

[Other_Guy]

Except Barnes wasn’t a sweet 16 coach this year and he didn’t underachieve

And if they regress from who they're losing and lose in the 1st round I won't call Barnes a "barely makes the tournament average coach" either.

 

[05_never_again]

No, most were overjoyed we finally made an EE.

Pearl was getting heavy criticism that he wasn’t a good postseason coach going into that NCAAT. No one saw that run happening.

Bruce is a great coach. IMO, any coach who consistently gets into the tournament, particularly at high seeds, is a great coach.

However, his NCAAT performance is overstated, not just by Vol fans but the media at large. At Auburn and Tennessee, out of 11 total tournament appearances, he only has 2 Elite Eights. He's made it out of the first weekend just 4 times (36%). At Auburn, if it wasn't for the Final Four run in 2019, he's done absolutely nothing of note there in the NCAAT (hasn't gotten out of the first weekend otherwise). At both Tennessee and Auburn, he dodged numerous first or second round upsets (Winthrop 2006, Butler 2008, San Diego St 2010, Charleston 2018, New Mexico State 2019).

I don't hold this against him - again, he's a great coach. However, by the way many on this site talk about him you'd think he'd been to the Elite Eight or beyond every single season he's coached or something. In fact, I'd say most of the folks who pine away for him were his loudest critics when he was here. Every NCAAT criticism you can make about Rick you can make about Bruce.

 

[aWhiteLoftonChism]

We were prepared. Why JJJ wasn't in on the offense in the 2nd half is a mystery. It's not as much on him as it was Ziegler, who had a poor game. He can direct JJJ to favorable positions in the offense we run. ZZ has come up so big, so often, that's it's easily excusable

I agree BKG
The ball was in the hands of ZZ or DK 85-90% of the 2nd half. I think they should’ve ran some actions for JJJ and Gainey more than the 3 or 4 times they did. Or at least DK pass out of the doubles occasionally. I think we needed to get JJJ and JG to the nail more than we did.

 

[knoxvol52]

Fired Rick Barnes yet? Good grief the guy has resurrected this University in college basketball and some of you want to put him out to pasture.

Find a freaking hobby, I suggest fishing it's a calming sport.

 

[JMSqb11]

Just a lazy take. We didn't shoot a lot of FTs because we couldn't attack the rim due to the 7'4 giant rim protector.

It isn't that lazy of a take....


I have never seen a game where in the first 1/3 of each half, a team is basically at the bonus and then magically the team that racked up a lot of fouls goes no to one or two more fouls for the next 1/3..... And conveniently the runs we made were in those second 1/3's where we went ahead or tied the game up.

Now I don't htink they are solely to blame. Another big blame that has to be said that will be very unpopular is ZZ. He played hard on defense, but that was it. Going 3-12 / 1-8 from 3 / sub 50% at the FT line was the difference. He missed so many open 3's....

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

It isn't that lazy of a take....


I have never seen a game where in the first 1/3 of each half, a team is basically at the bonus and then magically the team that racked up a lot of fouls goes no to one or two more fouls for the next 1/3..... And conveniently the runs we made were in those second 1/3's where we went ahead or tied the game up.

Now I don't htink they are solely to blame. Another big blame that has to be said that will be very unpopular is ZZ. He played hard on defense, but that was it. Going 3-12 / 1-8 from 3 / sub 50% at the FT line was the difference. He missed so many open 3's....

81 attempts versus 41 attempts is a big problem. Bringing back the rule for 3-second violations would be a good start at addressing it.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

Didn’t Pearl sweep both of Florida’s NC teams in back-to-back years?

3 out of 4.