Bring on Rick Barnes Rick Barnes may be the best basketball coach in the state of Texas. There's a reason he was voted Big 12 Coach of the Year this year. Although he doesn't have any NBA coaching experience, the guy gets the absolute most out of his players. He is the complete opposite of Rudy T. I would describe Barnes as a "no-nonsense" guy who demands 110% from his players. He doesn't make excuses, and knows how to win big games. Despite having undertalented teams under TJ arrived, Barnes has continued to succeed at UT. He has put Texas on the basketball map, and I have no doubt he can do the same. He might not be as media savvy as Rudy T was, but he knows how to get the job done. He's got a tremendous amount of basketball knowledge, and knows how to teach defense. UT has always played as a very cohesive unit, shared the ball well. and everyone knows their roles. For example: Royal Ivey: defensive stopper and slasher. Brad Buckman: low post scoring threat who can also hit from outside James Thomas: bruiser who crashes the boards, blocks shots and stays in position for putbacks Brandon Mouton: spot up shooter, who can hit from long range I see no reason why Rick shouldn't be able to implement a similar game plan with the Rockets. With James Posey taking on a similar role as Ivey, Mobley becoming a combination of Mouton and Sydmill Harris, and Francis as our own playmaker like TJ. Francis would be placed in a pass-first system that allows him every opportunity to drive to the basket and find the open man. Where does Yao Ming fit into all of this? Yao would be a combination of Brad Buckman and James Thomas. Coach Barnes would turn him into a banger down low, who doesn't take any crap. He'd push around smaller guys despite his slender upper body. Basically, it's not always the most popular guy who gets the job done. Silas and Van Gundy are very knowledgeable basketball minds. But it's going to take a different type of coach with a radical basketball philosophy to take the Houston Rockets to the next level. Rick Barnes can take this team to heights previously unheard of.
Please people don't wasted disk space with Rick Barnes threads. We need a real coach. Must have been UT fan. FYI- Out of the 50 greatest nba players UH has the most. Yes even more the NC, UCLA and Duke. 1) Drexler 2) Dream 3) Big E (Elvin Hayes for those that don't know) Go COOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have no problem with Rick Barnes. And for all of those that have a problem with college coaches, take a minute to consider that Larry Brown was a college coach and Rick Puttino did a much better job coaching NY his first time in the NBA.
Remember Larry Brown and the fact that Pittino had the Knicks playing good ball in his first run in the NBA.
Larry Brown was actually a Pro Coach first with Denver Back in 1976. His collegiate head coaching stints came in his between time. But he is the one who got Teams to thinking that great College Coaches can be be great Pro Coaches. So as I stated Before. NO COLLEGE COACHES!!!!! REMEMBER TIM FLOYD & RICK PITINO & JOHN CALIPARI.
Before his stint at Kentucky, Pitino served as head coach of the New York Knicks for two seasons. In his initial year there in 1987-88, the Knicks improved by 14 victories and made the NBA Playoffs for the first time in four seasons. The Knicks won 52 games in 1988-89 and swept the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
No, no, no. No College Coaches. I love Rick Barnes, and I think he's a fantastic coach - but if we get a crew like the Mavs-Spurs game 1 - we'd have our opponents shooting four hundred free throws a game. Rick Barnes' team get up in people's faces, and play gritty, tough defense, relying on excellent role players and one star that ignited the offense. He's got the blueprint for success at college. But, like so many coaches before him - most far more NBA-ish than Barnes - he woud fail at the pro level. No College Coaches. Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Leonard Hamilton, Tim Floyd, Lon Kruger, the list goes on and on, and on. Coaches who had success in college, but when they went to the pros, they were not succesful. No College Coaches.
Are you Pitino's agent or did you major in Revisionist History in college? Pitino coached at Boston U. and Providence before the Knicks. He's a collegiate coach. Bad rap in Boston? How the hell do you figure that? He was the GM and Coach. He was in charge of everything and screwed that franchise over badly. (Considering he got paid $50 million in the process)
Why not? He won the big 12 his first year with 7 scholarship players. He led an average talented team to the final four this year. His team never quits.
Revisionist History my ass. You can not change history. Puttino was not good with Boston but he was outstanding with the New York Knicks. That is a fact, no revisions needed. And of course Pittino is a college coach. Don't try to revise anything I said by trying to say I implied that Pittino was an NBA coach first. As bad as Pittino was in Boston, he was terrific in New York. Fact.
Oh and BTW. Pittino screwed things up so badly in Boston that they have been a play-off team since the second he stepped down. And just to clarify things a little more, the team has been going to the play-offs on the talent that he assembled.
