Is UT bb hot or what? Did Durant promise to return? My guess or wish? *********** Barnes declines Kentucky's job offer Kentucky is 0-for-2 so far. The Wildcats missed out on Florida's Billy Donovan and then struck out with Texas coach Rick Barnes. Barnes turned down Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart's offer to replace Tubby Smith in Lexington on Thursday night, according to two sources close to the situation. The 53-year-old Barnes is 216-86 in nine seasons since taking over in Austin. He was also the head coach at Clemson, Providence and George Mason. His career mark is 418-220 and he led the Longhorns to the Final Four in 2003. He has been to the NCAA tournament 12 consecutive seasons — including every year since arriving at Texas. The Longhorns lost to USC in the second round last month. "I don't want any other college job," Barnes said after the loss. Evidently, Barnes was telling the truth. Kentucky has the highest all-time winning percentage in college basketball, seven NCAA titles and a record 48 NCAA tournament appearances. One source close to the situation even said that Barnes was Barnhart's top choice all along. Kentucky, one of the most successful programs in college basketball history, hasn't won a national title since 1998. Smith led the team to a 22-12 record this past season and the Wildcats lost to Kansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Smith's biggest downfall may have been his inability to recruit high-profile players. Barnes would have been able to rectify that problem immediately — having signed McDonald's All-Americans such as T.J. Ford, LaMarcus Aldridge and, most recently, Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin, while at Texas. Now Barnhart and Kentucky will move down the list. According to the Associated Press, the Wildcats are now pursuing Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie. Michigan State's Tom Izzo and Marquette's Tom Crean, who worked together in East Lansing, are considered the next candidates. Jeff Goodman is a senior college basketball writer for FOXSports.com. He can be reached at GoodmanonFOX@aol.com. http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/6649456
umm... interesting but so is Gisele Bundchen's sisters, and you dont see them in the GARM do ya? (cuz I'd like to visit that thread! )
Interesting...Rick Barnes is too predictable as a coach, he needs to learn some more plays. Anyway, I think you're in the wrong forum.
I'd be pretty surprised if Barnes was the top choice over Donovan, since Donovan is coming off back to back national titles and has Kentucky ties. I was actually thinking Barnes was going to be gone, since I assume (like everyone else) that Durant is gone, and I was already starting to worry about who UT would get to replace him. But then again, I was also thinking there'd be a good chance Donovan would leave, since he's basically starting over at florida anyway. Shows what I know. It's good to see high profile coaches sticking around for a change. Now I wonder if Gillispie will be able to resist the lure of Kentucky- Aggies (and Razorbacks, for that matter) have to admit, Kentucky is on another level from Arkansas, history and tradition wise. Edit: Looks like Gillispie couldn't resist: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2827764
No offense to Barnes - I really like him as our coach - but why on earth was he Kentucky's top choice? His tournament history is not exactly good. He's been upset far more times than his teams have pulled upsets, and he's had a reputation for not being a very good offensive coach. He's definitely a good recruiter, but it seems like out of all the coaches out there, Barnes would not be the #2 choice behind Billy Donovan.
Sweet 16 4 of 5 years before this year (including a Final 4, Elite 8); one of only 3 teams to do it I think (Duke was one of the others). I'm sure he would've gone farther this year if all his players came back too (Donovan).
Oh I agree with that - and he's done great in the regular season to get those high seeds. But his tourney history is not that great in relation to the seeds he's gotten. That's not necessarily a bad thing if you're getting high seeds a lot (which he does), but it doesn't seem like 'top choice for Kentucky' material where the tourney is all that matters.
One of Kentucky's biggest concerns was recruiting, Barnes was maybe the best recruiter out of the coaches named. I agree that his game plan has been questionable at times, but as far as recruiting, he is one of the best in the country. Assuming Durant leaves, UT will still bring back 4 starters, including DJ/Abrams/Mason/James. Obviously losing Durant changes everything, however we are bringing in a highly recruited player in Gary Johnson and with Gillespie leaving...DeAndre Jordan could very well decommitt (word is that UT is his 2nd choice).
Barnes is from the South also. Donovan is the only argument I see. I haven't seen any other name mentioned that's more qualified than Barnes, have you? Imagine if Aldridge had been on the team this year. It happened for Donovan.
I guess that's what mystifies me a little. That Barnes' name came up before people like John Calipari or Tom Izzo or people like that. True - but this year was just icing on the cake. What made Donovan impressive (to me) was his run last year with a bunch of sophomores. Then again, before last year, he was at the top of the coaches-that-suck-in-the-tourney list.
The guys on SR610 were saying last night that Rick Barnes is also a very close friend of Tubby Smith's, and as such he probably would not want to offend him by taking his old job (or otherwise probably hates Kentucky for what they did to Tubby).
You mean imagine if Aldridge, Gibson and Tucker were on the team. Man... that would have been an awesome team.
From what I hear Donovan turned down Kentucky first. Then they offered Barnes who turned it down. To avoid further embarassment they decided to go much further down the food chain and turned to the A & M coach who naturally could not say "no."
Izzo isn't known for creative offense either. I am not huge fan of Barnes' tactical coaching, but he has a great record as a recruiter and got Texas basketball to a new level. Texas has been a consistently solid regular season team and tourney team. Now if you want guys with high seeded teams that usually underperform in the tourney, Calipari and Bill Self would come to mind. I believe only Barnes of these 3 has been to a final 4 in their recent tunures despite stacked lineups. So once you take out Donovan, K, Roy W, Izzo and maybe Pitino (though his Lou squads seem to flame out)--I think Barnes would be right in the mix for most desirable college coaches (I'd don't think Olsen, Boehim and a few others may not have much gas left, Calhoun maybe does, maybe doesn't). Then if you factor you want someone to foremost recruit in the South--it is easy to see how Barnes might have been the #2 plausible target after Donovan.
