Barnes builds up program, returns to face Razorbacks
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks will see a familiar face on the visiting bench when they play California State University, Bakersfield tonight in Walton Arena.
It will be the first meeting between CSUB and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, but the 29th time Rod Barnes has taken on the Razorbacks.
For a change, Barnes isn’t facing Arkansas as an Ole Miss player or coach.
Barnes is in his seventh season as CSUB’s coach and has led the Roadrunners (7-7) to a 113-94 record, including a Western Athletic Conference Tournament title two years
ago and a regular-season championship last season.
“There are a lot of memories playing Arkansas — some good and some not so good,” Barnes said with a laugh. “Early on, they beat our brains in.”
Before Arkansas joined the SEC, Barnes was 0-2 against the Razorbacks as an Ole Miss player. He scored 12 points in Arkansas’ 70-56 victory over Ole Miss in Memphis on Dec. 3, 1986, and 15 points when the Razorbacks beat the Rebels 79-40 in Pine Bluff on Dec. 9, 1987.
In Barnes’ first season as an Ole Miss assistant coach to Rob Evans during the 1993-1994 season, the Razorbacks swept the Rebels 87-61 in Fayetteville and 90-73 in Oxford, Miss., on the way to winning SEC and NCAA championships.
“Back then it wasn’t a question of whether Arkansas was going to beat us, but by how many points?” Barnes said. “Arkansas was the standard in the SEC at that time. They had great athletes and played extremely hard.”
“When you went to their place, there was always a great crowd. They were respected. They played with a certain type of attitude.
“Our feeling at Ole Miss was, if we could ever get to the level where we could compete with Arkansas, then we could compete with anyone.” Ole Miss got there. In Barnes’ final four seasons as an assistant and his eight seasons as the Rebels’ head coach after Evans went to Arizona State, Ole Miss went 15-9 against Arkansas and made five NCAA Tournament appearances and played once in the NIT.
The Rebels of the 1990s beat the Razorbacks with several players from the state of Arkansas, including Anthony Boone, Keith Carter, Jason Smith, Jason Flanigan and Jason Harrison.
“After we beat Arkansas a couple of times, our kids started to believe,” Barnes said. “That’s when we got over the hump at Ole Miss.”
Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson was an assistant to Nolan Richardson in 20 games when Barnes previously faced Arkansas.
“If anyone knows anything about Rod, this team mirrors him,” Anderson said of CSUB. “They’re intense, hard-nosed, tough, scrappy kind of players.”
Barnes was fired at Ole Miss after the Rebels went four seasons without an NCAA Tournament appearance. He then was an Oklahoma assistant for one season and Georgia State’s coach for four seasons before going to CSUB.
The Roadrunners won NCAA Division II national championships in 1993, 1994 and 1997, but CSUB was going into its fourth season as an NCAA Division I independent when Barnes took the job.
“You come into a situation like that with a lot of questions,” Barnes said. “Can we get in a league? Can we take our program to the NCAA Tournament? Can we get some national recognition?
“But I thought, ‘Let me take a run at it and see if I can do it.’ ”
CSUB joined the Western Athletic Conference during Barnes’ second season in 20122013 and will move to the West Coast Conference in 2020.
The Roadrunners made their first NCAA Tournament appearance as a Division I team in 2016 and lost to Oklahoma 82-68.
Last season CSUB got more national recognition when the Roadrunners won their first WAC championship and advanced to the NIT Final Four by winning road games at California, Colorado State and Texas-Arlington before losing to Georgia Tech in New York.
“There’s a sense of validation to take a program from being an independent and do what we’ve done,” Barnes said. “We feel like we’ve laid the foundation to be a good program, and we can continue to grow it.”
Anderson said he’s not surprised by Barnes’ success at CSUB.
“Rod is a very, very good basketball coach and I think it has been on display in the SEC and now at Cal-State Bakersfield as well,” Anderson said. “He went out west and his DNA continues to be all over his team.”
The Roadrunners lost four starters from last season’s team, but Barnes has rebuilt by adding some newcomers from Mississippi.
CSUB freshman guard Jarkel Joiner, averaging a teamhigh 11.6 points, is from Oxford, Miss.
“Jarkel’s dad used to cut my hair when I was at Ole Miss, so I kind of had a good inside track for the recruiting process,” Barnes said. “As a little kid, he’d sweep the floor at the barber shop.
“He’s been really good for us and really consistent for a freshman. He’s a guy we run a lot plays for to get him shots. He’s got that kind of explosiveness where he can get you points in a hurry.”
CSUB junior guard Rickey Holden, averaging 10.6 points and 3.3 assists, is a transfer from Jones County (Miss.) Community College and native of Laurel, Miss.
“Rickey’s real steady and sound,” Barnes said. “He doesn’t make a whole lot of mistakes.”
Fallou Ndoye, a 6-11 senior averaging 4.1 points and 4.2 rebounds, transferred to CSUB from Mississippi State.
Barnes said he never expected to coach a player from Mississippi State.
“Even though Ole Miss and Mississippi State are rivals, you just try to get the best players you can, and Fallou has been a good fit for us,” Barnes said. “He’s still developing and is kind of a raw kid, but he’s physical.”
Barnes recruited Arkansas senior guard Daryl Macon, a former Little Parkview standout who played at Holmes (Miss.) Community College.
“Daryl was kind of under the radar when we started recruiting him,” Barnes said. “But the more I watched him play, I knew he was going to the SEC. He’s doing a great job at Arkansas.”
Arkansas will be the third team from a Power 5 conference the Roadrunners have played this season. They lost at Arizona 91-59 and at UCLA 75-66.
“When you live in the world we do, you’re going to have to play so many guaranteed money games,” Barnes said. “So if we’re going to play teams from the major conferences, I want to play the top ones.”
The Razorbacks (9-2) have victories over Oklahoma, Minnesota and Connecticut.
“There’s no question Mike has Arkansas in a great place,” Barnes said.