It’s the same question as in football.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

SCAR has a final 4 appearance with Frank Martin who was just canned.

Is their recent basketball history preferable to Tennessee's?

No, but I bet they can’t find anyone objectively better than Frank.

 

[stillwater5]

I like the coach we have because he wins with class and has a humbleness about him that far out reaches many of the other coaches I see on TV. I can't think of any coach or players who have said anything negative about Barnes except for Penny Hardaway who is a piece of work anyway. I will take class over sleaze any day.

 

[Rickyvol77]

I love Barnes, but surely you aren’t arguing that he has just been unlucky in March

I wouldn’t say it’s all bad luck but at the same time, the way refs call NCAA games it ebbs and flows towards a certain narrative usually.

- What if Zeiglar hits that 3 and we go up 9 in the 2nd half. I believe we win.
- what If against Purdue the refs correctly called the last two plays? We win and possibly go to FF?
- what if Loyola doesn’t hit a miracle bouncing buzzer beater vs Miami or us? Do we go to FF?

NCAA basketball tourney isn’t as simple as “the best team or the best coach wins”. There are so many factors that play into it and not all of it is because of coaching decisions. This isn’t like a Jerry Green scenario vs UNC in 2000 where he was to blame for the last 5 min

 

[Brick_By_Brick]

Yea but Bobby Cox actually won the World Series , Barnes hasn’t come close minus the 2003 Final Four appearance nearly 20 years ago. The facts are he routinely underachieves and chokes in the big dance. He just can’t adjust to tournament play. I would trade Barnes consistent regular seasons for a coach who could win a national title here or at least get us to the final four just once.

And who is this coach, praytell? I see a lot of verbal diarrhea being spewed about Barnes, but not one of the LOMs has provided the name of a coach (1) who would do better than Barnes has at UT, and (2) who would come to UT?

The fact that the LOM discounts consistent 20-win seasons, SEC titles, a #1 ranking, recruiting top players, and keeping the program out of trouble over winning one more game in the NCAAT is so on brand it hurts. Fools, all.

 

[Unconditional Surrender]

I wouldn’t say it’s all bad luck but at the same time, the way refs call NCAA games it ebbs and flows towards a certain narrative usually.

- What if Zeiglar hits that 3 and we go up 9 in the 2nd half. I believe we win.
- what If against Purdue the refs correctly called the last two plays? We win and possibly go to FF?
- what if Loyola doesn’t hit a miracle bouncing buzzer beater vs Miami or us? Do we go to FF?

NCAA basketball tourney isn’t as simple as “the best team or the best coach wins”. There are so many factors that play into it and not all of it is because of coaching decisions. This isn’t like a Jerry Green scenario vs UNC in 2000 where he was to blame for the last 5 min

But the thing is, we were better than all those teams. Little stuff like that shouldn't have decided the games.

 

[Rickyvol77]

But the thing is, we were better than all those teams. Little stuff like that shouldn't have decided the games.

But again not EVERYTHING is because we “played bad”. Purdue had a lights out 3 performance no matter how tight we played them out there. It took that plus three blown calls in a row to beat us in OT

 

[Lurker]

But the thing is, we were better than all those teams. Little stuff like that shouldn't have decided the games.

"Little stuff like that" often decide games between closely matched opponents. Most teams in the field of the NCAAT are, by definition, going to be closely matched. One may be "better" on paper, but it is the game result that matters and, if you know sports, you also know that's just how the ball bounces sometimes.

 

[CobbVol]

In a NBA 4 out of 7 series the better team normally prevails. In a 1 game tournament game anything can and does happen.