The Official Rick Barnes discussion thread

Barnes is in his 11th year as the head ball coach.

6 of the 9 times TN has won 25 or more games, Barnes was the coach.

2 of the 5 highest winning percentages in a season since 1950 and Rick Barnes was the coach.

The 30 games won LAST year is the third most in UT’s 117 seasons. The 78.9% winning percentage was the 10th best ever.

You LoM posters wanting CRB to leave are idiots. Stop eating paint chips.
…but, but: Tasty paint chips…
 
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I'm not saying Barnes sucks. The players he brought in are bad. Burg the best 2 guard he could get. Come on. You can't win with projects anymore.
Is anybody thinking Burg wasn’t a fallback option when we struck out on several others? Burg was an afterthought who they hoped might be able to provide some solid backup minutes and lately that’s just what he’s been doing. CRB never could have been thinking Burg was going to provide all-conference type of play. Hammer the staff for striking out on their first 5 two guard wants, but for a last second pick up Burg is finally playing some decent backup minutes
 
I won't lie to you, a part of me hopes that Coach Barnes hangs on until after ADDW moves on to a better job then retires. Right now I have zero faith in ADDW's ability to replace Barnes with a competent coach upon retirement; worried he might try to "experiment" again like he did with the Lady Vols hire.
I made this exact point in another thread!!!! ADDW had to be put in his place already for the baseball situation and the good folks involved made Elander happen or DW was going to screw that up. IMO, when Heupel goes, so does DW. In Randy and Donde we trust!
 
It's so laughable how this thread stays dormant during win streaks, but after any of the few losses we have each year, the know-nothings pop in to tell us what Barnes is doing wrong. Same guys. All with low level knowledge who wouldn't have a clue how to prepare or coach a team through a game

I’ve come to conclusion those folks don’t like Barnes and make up any narrative they can to put down the guy.

Those type of low IQ fans give our fanbase a bad name.
 
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I’ve come to conclusion those folks don’t like Barnes and make up any narrative they can to put down the guy.

Those type of low IQ fans give our fanbase a bad name.
There’s always a few at the end of every season that crawl out of their hole when the team gets knocked out of the SEC or NCAA tournament. I use it as a time to activate the Ignore list. And I see a couple of culprits that are about to join it. Got no time for fools, trolls or the incessantly negative.
 
Yes it is true. If that is the ceiling I guess nothing more to be said. You are a good poster Thunder but why not us? That is the question. When we bow out in the 2nd round again this year, the question will remain.

Todd Golden who has far less experience than Barnes wins the championship in his 3rd year in the program and is seemingly taking over the league at Florida. Some perhaps are appreciative of Barnes but at least once would like more. I guess we are content with being in the conversation but that’s it.
Seems that way.
 
Not at all. He’s changed playing with fouls. See Gillespie yesterday and did it earlier in the season. He’s also adjusted quite nicely to the NIL era with transfers and high schoolers. The game has not passed him by. He’s embraced it.
He adjusted his offense as well. It’s not worked quite as well this year and that happens, but our last 2 Elite 8s were not luck.
 
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He adjusted his offense as well. It’s not worked quite as well this year and that happens, but our last 2 Elite 8s were not luck.
Metrics show offense is better this year than the same point the previous 2 years. Our offensive ranking is lower because college teams have better offense this year on average than previous years.
 
I’ve come to conclusion those folks don’t like Barnes and make up any narrative they can to put down the guy.

Those type of low IQ fans give our fanbase a bad name.

Who cares what others think of us?

We all believe other fanbases are dumb or rednecks. They feel the same about us.
 
Metrics show offense is better this year than the same point the previous 2 years. Our offensive ranking is lower because college teams have better offense this year on average than previous years.
Really? I was going by our rank. Do you have something you can post to show what you’re talking about? Based on the eye test, we don’t look better, so I’m curious to see what you’re seeing.
 
Who cares what others think of us?

We all believe other fanbases are dumb or rednecks. They feel the same about us.
I agree with you. Every school has fans that think their favorite school is every coach's "dream job", and every player wanted to attend their school but was paid more to go elsewhere, or that every game the refs are calling fouls on their team while allowing the other team to get away with muggings. They just cannot imagine that most/many coaches and players could not care less where they work or attend school as long as it enhances their career goals (player) or earning potential (coach).
 
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Really? I was going by our rank. Do you have something you can post to show what you’re talking about? Based on the eye test, we don’t look better, so I’m curious to see what you’re seeing.
I'm using Bart Torvik since I didn't have a subscription to KenPom, which is not free. For free you can only view the final numbers, which include NCAA tournament results.

For this year:

121.5

2025 after SEC tournament:

118.7

2024 after SEC tournament:

115.4

 
What is that, like points per 100 minutes?
That's an adjusted efficiency rating, which is affected by the opponent's defensive efficiency rating. KenPom works the same way, with a different formula. You can click through for the metrics. The big ones that affect us are shooting efficiency (affected by accuracy and share of 3 point sitting) and rebounding (we are the top offensive rebounding team). We're not great at shooting but we're not dire like A&M was last year, and we're even better at offensive rebounds.
 
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Personally, I think we have one of the very best coaches leading us. Great talent evaluator, great in-game coach, great game plans, and seemingly great character that you would feel good about leading young men (whether or not they are professionally paid or not). I think we will miss him once he retires.
 
His worst teams seem to be the ones that have an all star freshman on them. No knock against ament. Just seems Barnes needs a veteran led team. I’m surprised we haven’t leaned in more on okpara/estrella this year. We seem to do well in those games. And I don’t see barnes ever going beyond the elite 8 at this point. Just doesn’t seem to be able to have teams that can consistently score enough to win all the games they should. I’ve got us out in R32/S16 this year.
 

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