No more this about Barnes:

#26
#26
Rick Barnes is by far the best coach in Tennessee basketball history. There is no one else remotely close. Bruce Pearl would be second but very distant.

Ray Mears is typically in discussion but I remember Ray well. While he was relevant within the SEC in a time that half the conference could care less about basketball, the man never won an NCAA tournament game even with King and Grunfeld. The Vols were irrelevant nationally and Don DeVoe was better than Ray in my humble opinion.

Coach Mears deserves honorable mention in his era and there was some exciting basketball and great rivalry games with Kentucky but Al McGuire referred to Tennessee basketball as an "Orange Circus" and there was truth in that statement.
 
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#27
#27
VolGee4 said:
He has had close ones. He had Clemson as a 4 seed. Lost to 1 seed Minnesota in double OT.

9 seed Providence lost to 8 seed OSU by one in OT.

6 seed Texas beat 3 seed Miss. State and lost to 2 seed Oregon by 2.

7 seed Texas lost to 2 seed Duke by 5.

Looking at his brackets over the years, he has lost a bunch of close games. Half of it is coaching, but you certainly have to have luck, too. He’s gotten better with age.
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Half of it is coaching? Players count some too.
 
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#29
#29
knox73 said:
Rick Barnes is by far the best coach in Tennessee basketball history. There is no one else remotely close. Bruce Pearl would be second but very distant.

Ray Mears is typically in discussion but I remember Ray well. While he was relevant within the SEC in a time that half the conference could care less about basketball, the man never won an NCAA tournament game even with King and Grunfeld. The Vols were irrelevant nationally and Don DeVoe was better than Ray in my humble opinion.

Coach Mears deserves honorable mention in his era and there was some exciting basketball and great rivalry games with Kentucky but Al McGuire referred to Tennessee basketball as an "Orange Circus" and there was truth in that statement.
Click to expand...
DeVoe deserved better treatment towards the end of his Tennessee career IMO. But Doug Dickey didn't really care about Tennessee basketball, at least not enough to commit serious resources to it
 
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#32
#32
VolGee4 said:
He has had close ones. He had Clemson as a 4 seed. Lost to 1 seed Minnesota in double OT.

9 seed Providence lost to 8 seed OSU by one in OT.

6 seed Texas beat 3 seed Miss. State and lost to 2 seed Oregon by 2.

7 seed Texas lost to 2 seed Duke by 5.

Looking at his brackets over the years, he has lost a bunch of close games. Half of it is coaching, but you certainly have to have luck, too. He’s gotten better with age.
Click to expand...
And beat He77 out of Duke, among others.
 
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#34
#34
knox73 said:
Rick Barnes is by far the best coach in Tennessee basketball history. There is no one else remotely close. Bruce Pearl would be second but very distant.

Ray Mears is typically in discussion but I remember Ray well. While he was relevant within the SEC in a time that half the conference could care less about basketball, the man never won an NCAA tournament game even with King and Grunfeld. The Vols were irrelevant nationally and Don DeVoe was better than Ray in my humble opinion.

Coach Mears deserves honorable mention in his era and there was some exciting basketball and great rivalry games with Kentucky but Al McGuire referred to Tennessee basketball as an "Orange Circus" and there was truth in that statement.
Click to expand...
The Vols weren't irrelevant nationally with King and Grunfeld. As far as DeVoe is concerned, he recruited much better than some here say. He had good players. He recruited Dale Ellis who is the second best player of all time here
 
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#36
#36
BernardKingGOAT said:
The Vols weren't irrelevant nationally with King and Grunfeld. As far as DeVoe is concerned, he recruited much better than some here say. He had good players. He recruited Dale Ellis who is the second best player of all time here
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Irrelevant probably isn’t the best word for it. But we certainly weren’t a major factor outside the SEC with 0 NCAAT wins.
 
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#37
#37
knox73 said:
Rick Barnes is by far the best coach in Tennessee basketball history. There is no one else remotely close. Bruce Pearl would be second but very distant.

Ray Mears is typically in discussion but I remember Ray well. While he was relevant within the SEC in a time that half the conference could care less about basketball, the man never won an NCAA tournament game even with King and Grunfeld. The Vols were irrelevant nationally and Don DeVoe was better than Ray in my humble opinion.

Coach Mears deserves honorable mention in his era and there was some exciting basketball and great rivalry games with Kentucky but Al McGuire referred to Tennessee basketball as an "Orange Circus" and there was truth in that statement.
Click to expand...
Terrible take about Mears.
 
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#38
#38
knox73 said:
Rick Barnes is by far the best coach in Tennessee basketball history. There is no one else remotely close. Bruce Pearl would be second but very distant.

Ray Mears is typically in discussion but I remember Ray well. While he was relevant within the SEC in a time that half the conference could care less about basketball, the man never won an NCAA tournament game even with King and Grunfeld. The Vols were irrelevant nationally and Don DeVoe was better than Ray in my humble opinion.

Coach Mears deserves honorable mention in his era and there was some exciting basketball and great rivalry games with Kentucky but Al McGuire referred to Tennessee basketball as an "Orange Circus" and there was truth in that statement.
Click to expand...

When Mears coached at UT, most of the years only one team per conference were given NCAAT bids.

The NCAAT (and the NIT) were more like football bowl games. It was barely televised and was more of an award for having a good season.

In 1972 TN was the SEC co-champion and weren’t invited to the NCAAT.

The NCAAT didn’t seed teams until after Mears had left.

King was out with an injury in one of the appearances.

Include some context instead of just posting dumb comments.
 
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#41
#41
Thunder Good-Oil said:
When Mears coached at UT, most of the years only one team per conference were given NCAAT bids.

The NCAAT (and the NIT) were more like football bowl games. It was barely televised and was more of an award for having a good season.

In 1972 TN was the SEC co-champion and weren’t invited to the NCAAT.

The NCAAT didn’t seed teams until after Mears had left.

King was out with an injury in one of the appearances.

Include some context instead of just posting dumb comments.
Click to expand...
Mears would have made 15 straight NCAA tournaments in a 64/68 team field.
 
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#42
#42
Thunder Good-Oil said:
When Mears coached at UT, most of the years only one team per conference were given NCAAT bids.

The NCAAT (and the NIT) were more like football bowl games. It was barely televised and was more of an award for having a good season.

In 1972 TN was the SEC co-champion and weren’t invited to the NCAAT.

The NCAAT didn’t seed teams until after Mears had left.

King was out with an injury in one of the appearances.

Include some context instead of just posting dumb comments.
Click to expand...
All of these are great points. Playing Syracuse in the first round in 1977 is like playing St John’s today in the first round. There wasn’t 15 mid major bids in those days. Most of today’s mid major conferences didn’t exist.

The 1967 team lost to Dayton by 2 who went on the final game vs uCLA.

One of the great stories about the difference in the tourney then vs today is Maryland, I believe in 1973, went undefeated thru the ACC, lost in the ACC Conference tournament championship in triple overtime to NC State & DIDNT GET IN THE NCAA due to 1 team per conference.
 
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#43
#43
wmcovol said:
All of these are great points. Playing Syracuse in the first round in 1977 is like playing St John’s today in the first round. There wasn’t 15 mid major bids in those days. Most of today’s mid major conferences didn’t exist.

The 1967 team lost to Dayton by 2 who went on the final game vs uCLA.

One of the great stories about the difference in the tourney then vs today in Maryland, I believe in 1973, went undefeated thru the ACC, lost in the ACC Conference tournament championship in triple overtime to NC State & DIDNT GET IN THE NCAA due to 1 team per conference.
Click to expand...
It was even more lopsided in relation to seed comparisons than a St John's match. Syracuse was 6th in the nation when the tournament started and we were ranked 7th. It was the equivalent of two 2-seeds getting matched in the first round. We played that game in Baton Rouge, Middle Tennessee got to play Detroit Mercy in that location in the opening round.

Kentucky got to open against Princeton. There was zero fairness in how they matched teams up.
 
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#45
#45
wmcovol said:
All of these are great points. Playing Syracuse in the first round in 1977 is like playing St John’s today in the first round. There wasn’t 15 mid major bids in those days. Most of today’s mid major conferences didn’t exist.

The 1967 team lost to Dayton by 2 who went on the final game vs uCLA.

One of the great stories about the difference in the tourney then vs today is Maryland, I believe in 1973, went undefeated thru the ACC, lost in the ACC Conference tournament championship in triple overtime to NC State & DIDNT GET IN THE NCAA due to 1 team per conference.
Click to expand...

I think conference tournaments are pretty dumb anyway but back then that sounds even dumber.
 
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#48
#48
Volstylexx said:
Click to expand...

Barnes has been historical to be sure. But in all fairness when Ray Mears was coaching only 16 to 32 teams made the tournament. And Mears only coached a couple years when 32 teams were allowed. 3 SEC championships in 15 years with a .713 winning %.

Played much fewer games per year and never had a losing season. If there were 68 teams in the tourney during his tenure he would have made it in 14 out of 15 years.
 
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#49
#49
Namorto1 said:
Barnes has been historical to be sure. But in all fairness when Ray Mears was coaching only 16 to 32 teams made the tournament. And Mears only coached a couple years when 32 teams were allowed. 3 SEC championships in 15 years with a .713 winning %.

Played much fewer games per year and never had a losing season. If there were 68 teams in the tourney during his tenure he would have made it in 14 out of 15 years.
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I love Barnes, but Mears was a very good coach. You make good points, I am glad we have had both of them running the Volunteer basketball programs. GBO
 
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#50
#50
Get ready to laugh,guys,but I still believe character matters. I believe my Alma Mater is judged partially by what represents it on a field of play and the coaches that are there.
There is no doubt in my mind that CRB is the best coach that UT has had in my 75 years but, outside of possibly Coach Neyland, the best person we have had to represent UT. To me that counts even more than the records. And that reflects directly on all of us as fans and vice versa. Yeah, he deserves a statue.
 
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