Barnes gets it done
Rick Barnes, who may have been a victim of his own success at Texas, is excelling again
COLLEGE STATION — One would never call any spot in Aggieland home for Rick Barnes.
Then again, College Station is in Texas. (No Aggie jokes, please.)
Barnes moved to the state a little over 20 years ago and made himself at home all over, winning basketball games wherever they were scheduled.
The dominant basketball coach in the state over the last couple decades brought the top-ranked team in the country to Reed Arena on Saturday night and added another “W” to his ledger.
Barnes and UT in orange. The other one.
Instead of the Longhorns, Barnes rolled out the now 20-1 Volunteers against the Aggies, who hung tough for a while before the Vols’ relentless offensive pressure proved the difference in a 93-76 victory.
Though it has been four years since his departure from Texas, it still looks odd.
As he changed from his game suit to travel warmup in the coaches’ dressing room afterward, he was the same ol’ Little Ricky From Hickory.
Hugs for his grandkids, who made the trip from Austin for the game, chatter about how much he loves his team, talk about the state of basketball in the state, especially how well Kelvin Sampson is doing at UH.
Barnes is in a good place. It helps to have the No. 1 team in the country at a place that cares.
The day Barnes announced he had been fired at Texas, he said he dreamed of a fairy-tale ending, but “sometimes, you don’t get what you want in life.”
Texas, which lost to No. 20 Iowa State on Saturday, certainly hasn’t.
Barnes set the table for what should have been a feast for Shaka Smart. It hasn’t worked out that way.
Smart is 62-60 in his four seasons in Austin, with an 11-22 campaign in his second season, sandwiched by two first-round NCAA Tournament exits.
His best year at Texas was his first. It is the only season in which he won 20 games and the only one he finished above .500 in the Big 12, something Barnes failed do to just once. With Saturday’s loss, the Longhorns dropped to 4-5 in conference play this season.
In hindsight, the decision to run off Barnes isn’t looking so good.
But there is no question Texas appeared to hit a wall under Barnes. The Longhorns failed to make it to the Sweet 16 in seven consecutive seasons, after advancing at least that far in five of the previous seven.
It is easy to say Barnes was a victim of his own success, and certainly Texas fans were spoiled by Barnes’ early achievements.
All that they thought the program should be was because of what he turned the program into.
Barnes never won a national championship and made it to just a single Final Four, so understandably, UT wanted more.
UT boosters pushed athletic director Steve Patterson to blow up a relationship that should have been more of a lovefest. One that should have had a happy ending.
Patterson couldn’t have done a worse job if he was a spy whose assignment was to destroy UT athletics, but this wasn’t his fault.
Patterson put Barnes on the spot, threatening to part ways with the all-time winningest coach in program history unless Barnes fired his staff.
Barnes’ underlings were so loyal that when they got wind of the ultimatum, they offered to resign. So loyal to the men who helped him build a nationally respected program at Texas, Barnes wouldn’t let them. That’s the type of man he is. And if you needed a reminder, this year’s team is showing what type of coach he is.
Barnes is doing at UT what he did at UT. Making history.
Barnes has Tennessee, which has never been to a Final Four, on track for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee already has sold out the remainder of its home games, and a sizable portion of the nice crowd at Reed on Saturday sported bright orange gear.
The Volunteers got their 16th straight win Saturday, setting the mark for the longest win streak in the program’s 110-year history, and they are off to their best SEC start since the 1981-82 season.
Barnes has long been known as a tough defensive-minded coach, and Tennessee is physical. But his Volunteers are second in the country in fieldgoal percentage and offensive efficiency. They hit 40 of 62 shots (64.5 percent) against the Aggies.
In many ways, this group would be deemed unacceptable at Texas, where Barnes regularly lured future NBA lottery picks. Barnes doesn’t have a McDonald’s All-American on his roster at Tennessee — none of his players was even a top-100 recruit — but he has a squad that can beat any team in the country.
Can Tennessee, which has been ranked No. 1 for two weeks and is trying to win back-toback SEC titles for the first time, handle the pressure of being a targeted team?
The Volunteers won 26 games and finished in a firstplace tie in the SEC a year ago, but their season ended with an upset loss to Loyola-Chicago in the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Barnes, 64, swears he hasn’t been re-energized by the move to the Tennessee, but he looks so refreshed. He was worn down when he left Texas.
Maybe he had to leave Texas to go get the only thing missing from his résumé. A championship.
You don’t always get what you want in life.
But sometimes you do.