Jump to content

Rick Barnes thread


Goo Punch

Recommended Posts

Jesus I miss this about Barnes. No excuses, no punches held, and he holds people accountable, publicly. To me this is easily one of most tangible traits that shows the gulf in class between Barnes and Shaka. Shaka is over here telling his Jase Febreses and Kerwin Roaches how great they are and they suck, year after year. Meanwhile Barnes is ruthless with honesty and criticism of his players, from publicly calling KD to worst defender he's ever coached, to constantly demanding more from his Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams type players.

You can feel a helluva lot better about your program and where it's going when you know that your head coach is just as pissed as you are and plans to do something about it. A Barnes team will be winning by 20 against a shitty team and he's over on the sideline steaming, chewing out the fourth guy off his bench for not doing something. I miss that. The program misses it. There has been zero accountability under Shaka, and I miss the shit out of it from Barnes. Anyway, here's his presser after his team got mashed at home today in their first game without their senior leader and best player: 

https://247sports.com/college/tennessee/LongFormArticle/Tennessee-Vols-Basketball-Everything-Rick-Barnes-said-after-68-48-loss-to-Wisconsin-141198014/Amp/ 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ON THE STRUGGLING OFFENSE WITHOUT LAMONTE TURNER (SHOULDER)
“Believe me, we’ve struggled on offense even with Lamonte. That has nothing to do with it. It has to do with, you start the game out, you miss wide-open layups. Three of them. One-and-ones. And we know our guys. When you see it in their face that they’re getting tentative, then they get hesitant. We have some pretty good looks at it and they don’t go down. That’s part of the game. The ones that hurt are when you have great execution, get a pass to the rim and don’t finish it there. You get fouled. The one-and-ones hurt."

"But let’s give Wisconsin a lot of credit. I thought they were terrific. They could’ve beat a bunch of people today. They played great. I thought defensively we were trying to grind it with them. They run good offense. But our offense, right now, we’re not very good. I mean our guards, our starting backcourt, three guys on the perimeter, were 5-for-27. And our frontline goes 5-for-7. And all we had talked about was playing inside out. But with that said, I think Wisconsin did a good job pushing hard, playing good hard post defense. Where we were just trying to force it in there opposed to continuing to move it within the offense, see what would happen."

"Then you see someone that thinks they have to go do something and they end up embarrassing themselves. Throwing the ball here, throwing it there, all over the place. It gets back to, I realize we have a bunch of guys that are older, that are playing different roles. Some of the younger guys are going through this for the first time and this is all new for them. But the fact is, we’ve got to get better guard play. To make our offense work the way we want it to, we have to get better decisions made by our guards.”
 

ON COACHING THE HESITATION OUT OF THESE PLAYERS


“Well you try a couple things. You try to hit them right between the eyes and then you try to encourage them. You try push every button you can to get them. You know the guys. You know what’s affecting them too. We come right out of the timeout and it looks like certain guys are simply stuck in mud, because they don’t let it go. Their mistakes. Again, we’re going to make mistakes. That’s not a problem. I do think when guys miss wide-open layups, wide-open shots, I do think it affects them. But to be mentally tough, you have to let it go. That’s part of it. Even though you want those plays. Obviously we don’t have the same margin of error we’ve had in the past. Then it kind of just snowballs on you. But the way we came out, again, I know these guys are going to compete and try to play hard. But their decision-making has to get tenfold better. It’s got to. We just can’t turn it over the way we turn it over.”
 

ON WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN TO IMPROVE GUARD PLAY, OUTSIDE OF BETTER DECISION-MAKING

“Well I think we have some guys. You have to admire Ticket (Davonte Gaines). He’s going out there and he wants to play. We need that from Jordan Bowden. Two-for-12, that’s a high number (of shots from the field), whether he’s pressing or what. Again, we need to drive the ball some. Josiah (Jordan James) has to get more of a scoring mentality. When he’s open, shoot the ball opposed to driving in and throwing a pass, putting the guy in a tough situation. Josiah has the ability to go in and dunk the ball on guys. He has to create that mindset."
 

ON IF JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES WAS OVERTHINKING IN HIS FIRST GAME AS THE FULL-TIME POINT GUARD

“I think any freshman that struggles is understanding that this is a totally different game than they’ve ever played. I think that’s a big part of being a freshman in college, especially when you’re playing with as many freshmen as he’s playing with at times. But now, think about it, he tried to throw a 55-foot pass at the rim, it hit the rim. I haven’t seen that since he’s been here, you know? I haven’t seen Jordan Bowden drive down the floor and throw the ball out of bounds. But again, that’s guys that are doing things out of character."
 

"Then you have to ask the question: Do they care? I know they care. It goes back to they have to understand where they are in the game and the importance of staying together as a team. I think (James’) struggles are when he gets away from the team concept. And he’s not doing it on purpose, I’m telling you. It’s just that it’s a whole lot different than he’s ever faced before. What he was thinking on that pass, I can’t tell you. What Jordan Bowden was thinking on that pass, I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you what Davonte (Gaines) is thinking when he tries to drive and throw his body into a guy that weighs 100 pounds more than him. Other than guys are trying to do things right at that point in time that they shouldn’t be doing.”
 

ON HIS CONCERNS WITH THIS OFFENSE AFTER SCORING LESS THAN 50 POINTS IN TWO OF THE LAST THREE HOME GAMES

“I’m concerned. You know what? We’re a better team than 10-for-19 at the free-throw line. And I’m going to tell you, those free throws early in the game. Those are huge. You have a guy on the line that normally shoots the ball pretty well (Yves Pons). Then he came back and hit a three. Then the next one he shot, he wasn’t even close. We know him. It’s like he guided it. But that’s where we settled as opposed to really understanding how to work the game of basketball."

"Again, I don’t have a problem with us shooting threes. But I have a problem with us not understanding how it’s supposed to come. But again, I do realize that Yves, (John Fulkerson), (Jordan) Bowden are in a role they’ve never been in before and they’re going to have to learn to deal with it. It is what it is. I have confidence in all of them because I’ve been around them. I expect us to learn from this. But again, I don’t think we can underestimate how well Wisconsin played. They played really well. They played really good basketball.”
 

ON DAVONTE GAINES BEING THE FIFTH STARTER, WHAT CAN KEEP HIM THERE

“Well normally, defensively. I told you guys the other day, normally the defensive side is going to take care of who starts there. And again, there’s not much divide between he and Jalen (Johnson). Again, we’d like to see Drew Pember help us some, but he’s going to have to get more physical, he’s going to have to guard better. I’d say the same thing about Jalen and Ticket. They’re all learning. Jalen should be further along on that part of it. Like he gave up a big three at a critical time today, where they ran a little screen, re-screen action. We talked about that numerous times during our scouting report. But again, I think with those guys we’ll play who the hot hand is.”
 

Man. More substantive sound bites in one interview than we've gotten from Shaka in five years. Being completely frank about his team and their expectations, calling players out by name, citing specific plays where they should have done better, citing the work they've done in practice and prep as evidence that they should have been ready to perform better. It boggles my mind how many here still hate Rick Barnes, but if you can't see by now how his demanding style and his policy of accountability play huge roles in his success as a head coach then you just don't want to. It is a huge advantage that he has over Shaka, who chooses instead to just keep being positive while shielding his players from the media, and in the process, any responsibility or accountability. 

 

Edited by Goo Punch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah, this season is now going to be a learning experience, but the silver lining here is Santi Vescovi, a Uruguayan kid who the Vols got a commitment from in November,  but who didn't join the team until a week ago, and who wasn't even expected to play this year. Once Turner went down the door was opened for Santi to get a look, and he's certainly made the most of his chance. 

Today's game was their first since Santi joined the team, and not only did he start, he played 34 minutes and dropped 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists on 6-9 shooting from deep. Helluva debut all things considered, plus he's only a freshman. With a top 10 national class coming in next year, the Vols still look to be in good shape going forward, and hopefully some of the newfound responsibility for guys will return next year will pay dividends down the road. 

Edited by Goo Punch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Goo Punch said:

ok so let's accept every single word you just typed. how does any of that explain or excuse the same people coming back to the thread over and over and over exclusively to complain about what's going on in the thread and/or the thread's existence? 

Because you're easy to troll due to your unhealthly obsession with Rick Barnes. You even had the actual Vols fan hating on you in this thread because how dare they not appreciate the greatness of Rick Barnes. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Hmbre97 said:

Because you're easy to troll due to your unhealthly obsession with Rick Barnes. You even had the actual Vols fan hating on you in this thread because how dare they not appreciate the greatness of Rick Barnes. 

yeah, this is a bunch of uninformed BS. clintonaldo hated Barnes before he was hired, he was pissed when Barnes was hired at Tennessee, and he chose to stay pissed and exclusively bitch and moan about Barnes while he was leading Tennessee to the #1 ranking in the country and two completely unexpected successful seasons, NCAA sanction-free. clintonaldo literally said that himself. don't put his shitty character and childish tantrums on me. 

as for my "unhealthy obsession" with Barnes, A)having a thread about him that occasionally gets bumped does not constitute "an unhealthy obsession", and B) my real life relationship with Rick Barnes has only been explained here by me about 100 times, but then again knowing what you're talking about has never been your strong suit, has it? 

Edited by Goo Punch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

Tennessee just won a game where their two best players combined to shoot 1-24 from the field. how is that even possible? i guess it's no surprise that Frank Martin would be the coach of the opposing team. wow.

I was just coming on here to post that.  They had another guy go 0 - 5. So 3 players took a combined 29 shots and made one....TN still won.  Weird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Tennessee predictably stumbled after losing LaMonte Turner for the year, but they have rebounded in a major way in their last two games, particularly on the defensive end, where they have been outright stifling:

In the Vols 66-45 win vs Vandy- 12-51 FG (23.5%), 0-25 from deep (0%)

In the Vols 73-48 win vs Ole Miss- 19-63 FG (30.2%), 5-25 from deep (20%)

if you're already depleted and then you lose your best player/floor leader, there's no better way to compete than by defending, and holding your opponents to 5-50 from beyond the arc over two games would certainly qualify as excellent defending. In fact, despite losing Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield, Jordan Bone, Kyle Alexander, and Lamonte Turner (so, about 90% of last year's production), the Vols have been excellent defensively all season:


a85009e0f14444da8cfe5ba74ebc7b2e.jpg

This has been one of Barnes' best coaching jobs of his career. It's remarkable what his team is doing having lost so much talent and production.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/22/2020 at 4:49 PM, Goo Punch said:


Tennessee predictably stumbled after losing LaMonte Turner for the year, but they have rebounded in a major way in their last two games, particularly on the defensive end, where they have been outright stifling:

In the Vols 66-45 win vs Vandy- 12-51 FG (23.5%), 0-25 from deep (0%)

In the Vols 73-48 win vs Ole Miss- 19-63 FG (30.2%), 5-25 from deep (20%)

if you're already depleted and then you lose your best player/floor leader, there's no better way to compete than by defending, and holding your opponents to 5-50 from beyond the arc over two games would certainly qualify as excellent defending. In fact, despite losing Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield, Jordan Bone, Kyle Alexander, and Lamonte Turner (so, about 90% of last year's production), the Vols have been excellent defensively all season:


This has been one of Barnes' best coaching jobs of his career. It's remarkable what his team is doing having lost so much talent and production.

 

Vandy and Ole Miss are a combined 0-10 in the SEC right now.  Let's hold off on the felattio a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Vandy and Ole Miss are a combined 0-10 in the SEC right now.  Let's hold off on the felattio a bit.

have you watched Texas since Barnes left? We've gotten our asses kicked at home by far inferior teams than Vandy and Ole Miss, and that was with Texas teams that were insanely more talented than the current Vols. Besides which, the post wasn't just about those two games- look at those defensive numbers on KenPom. Your program literally lost a starting five that could compete in the D League and Barnes has you in a position to still feasibly make the tourney. Only his 2004 Sweet 16 team at Texas comes to mind as potentially equal/better coaching job to this point. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

have you watched Texas since Barnes left? We've gotten our asses kicked at home by far inferior teams than Vandy and Ole Miss, and that was with Texas teams that were insanely more talented than the current Vols. Besides which, the post wasn't just about those two games- look at those defensive numbers on KenPom. Your program literally lost a starting five that could compete in the D League and Barnes has you in a position to still feasibly make the tourney. Only his 2004 Sweet 16 team at Texas comes to mind as potentially equal/better coaching job to this point. 

I state this full well knowing Texas is not a good team BUT....

Texas BEAT the only SEC team it played this year by holding 3-3 aggy to 50 points.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Vols roster has been bombed out and depleted. Today their entire bench attempted one FG, and ended the game with one total point and no other stats of note, and yet  despite all of that, the 14 point underdogs just went toe to toe for 40 minutes with KU at the Phog.

It's amazing how important coaching really is, and Texas fans would do well to start appreciating this man for the job he did at Texas. Barnes is very good college basketball coach, and it's somewhat astounding that, considering how the last 4.5 years have gone for the two respective UT's, that more of our fans (so, any) aren't just saying, "yep, I was wrong about that guy." Shaka has recruited as well as Rick ever did, and look at how bad things are now. Meanwhile Tennessee spent the last two seasons averaging a 29-7 (14-4) mark with a bunch of no-star and two-star talent. But i guess the denizens here would rather look stupid and stay angry than to just admit they were wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

The Vols roster has been bombed out and depleted. Today their entire bench attempted one FG, and ended the game with one total point and no other stats of note, and yet  despite all of that, the 14 point underdogs just went toe to toe for 40 minutes with KU at the Phog.

It's amazing how important coaching really is, and Texas fans would do well to start appreciating this man for the job he did at Texas. Barnes is very good college basketball coach, and it's somewhat astounding that, considering how the last 4.5 years have gone for the two respective UT's, that more of our fans (so, any) aren't just saying, "yep, I was wrong about that guy." Shaka has recruited as well as Rick ever did, and look at how bad things are now. Meanwhile Tennessee spent the last two seasons averaging a 29-7 (14-4) mark with a bunch of no-star and two-star talent. But i guess the denizens here would rather look stupid and stay angry than to just admit they were wrong.

Rick Barnes>>>> Shaka

But Barnes was an underachiever with the talent he had at Texas...

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

The Vols roster has been bombed out and depleted. Today their entire bench attempted one FG, and ended the game with one total point and no other stats of note, and yet  despite all of that, the 14 point underdogs just went toe to toe for 40 minutes with KU at the Phog.

It's amazing how important coaching really is, and Texas fans would do well to start appreciating this man for the job he did at Texas. Barnes is very good college basketball coach, and it's somewhat astounding that, considering how the last 4.5 years have gone for the two respective UT's, that more of our fans (so, any) aren't just saying, "yep, I was wrong about that guy." Shaka has recruited as well as Rick ever did, and look at how bad things are now. Meanwhile Tennessee spent the last two seasons averaging a 29-7 (14-4) mark with a bunch of no-star and two-star talent. But i guess the denizens here would rather look stupid and stay angry than to just admit they were wrong.

Barnes is gone you dipshit. It doesn't matter how we feel about him, but I'll give you a hint: he massively underachieved and never won shit here. It was time for him to fucking go.  Move on with your life, or at least out of your mom's basement.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, LTtxfan said:

Rick Barnes>>>> Shaka

But Barnes was an underachiever with the talent he had at Texas...

yeah that's a load of shit that we've hashed and rehashed more times than we ever should have.  you're really just proving my point, but go ahead and keep believing that even though actual history says otherwise. he had two or three teams in 18 seasons here that were legit  disappointments, that's it. all of his best teams won a ton of games and made appropriate tourney runs, save one majorly glaring example. your take is lazy and uninformed, but if you'd like to attempt to back it using anything substantive then the floor is yours. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, immortal13 said:

Barnes is gone you dipshit. It doesn't matter how we feel about him, but I'll give you a hint: he massively underachieved and never won shit here. It was time for him to fucking go.  Move on with your life, or at least out of your mom's basement.

you telling me to move on with my life is fucking hilarious. i need a fucking shaggy restraining order on you with the way obsessively follow me around day after day after day getting upset at everything i do. christ you must be the most pathetic loser on the planet to obsess over someone like this, particularly someone who you supposedly think so lowly of. i cannot imagine how miserable you must be. 

Edited by Goo Punch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't even bring up 2007 btw if that's your big example of Barnes wasting all of his talent. 2007 Texas beat one ranked team the entire regular season, the 2OT win vs A&M at home. Every other good team players beat us, and we lost to worse teams than Tim Floyd's USC team featuring Nick Young and Taj Gibson. That loss was embarrassing, and Barnes got out coached all day that day, but that team that consisted of 4 freshmen and two sophomores was never very good to begin with, and spent 90% of the year in ranked until the last three weeks of the season. Should never have been a 4 seed to begin with.

oh and of course the next year we lost KD, added I think one player (Gary Johnson?) and went to the Elite 8. That team >>>>>> the 2007. Not even close. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

yeah that's a load of shit that we've hashed and rehashed more times than we ever should have.  you're really just proving my point, but go ahead and keep believing that even though actual history says otherwise. he had two or three teams in 18 seasons here that were legit  disappointments, that's it. all of his best teams won a ton of games and made appropriate tourney runs, save one majorly glaring example. your take is lazy and uninformed, but if you'd like to attempt to back it using anything substantive then the floor is yours. 

Not gonna go back and forth with you a bunch Goo... MY TAKE IS ACCURATE!!

2008–09 Texas 23–12 9–7 T–4th NCAA Division I Round of 32
2009–10 Texas 24–10 9–7 T–6th NCAA Division I Round of 64
2010–11 Texas 28–8 13–3 2nd NCAA Division I Round of 32
2011–12 Texas 20–14 9–9 5th NCAA Division I Round of 64
2012–13 Texas 16–18 7–11 7th CBI First Round
2013–14 Texas 24–11 11–7 T–3rd NCAA Division I Round of 32
2014–15 Texas 20–14 8–10 T–6th NCAA Division I Round of 64

 

Only 3 NCAA tournament wins in his last 7 seasons at Texas is FUCKIN UNDERACHIEVING!!!

 

Edited by LTtxfan
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Barnes had Kevin Fucking Durant and yet he didn't do shit with a once in a generation talent! Barnes was an epic underachiever and we needed  to get rid of that loser. I would rather have him than Shaka, but then again I'd rather have Pee Wee Herman as our head coach than Shaka Smart.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Not gonna go back and forth with you a bunch Goo... MY TAKE IS ACCURATE!!

2008–09 Texas 23–12 9–7 T–4th NCAA Division I Round of 32
2009–10 Texas 24–10 9–7 T–6th NCAA Division I Round of 64
2010–11 Texas 28–8 13–3 2nd NCAA Division I Round of 32
2011–12 Texas 20–14 9–9 5th NCAA Division I Round of 64
2012–13 Texas 16–18 7–11 7th CBI First Round
2013–14 Texas 24–11 11–7 T–3rd NCAA Division I Round of 32
2014–15 Texas 20–14 8–10 T–6th NCAA Division I Round of 64

 

Only 3 NCAA tournament wins in his last 7 seasons at Texas is FUCKIN UNDERACHIEVING!!!

 

lol ok. he had Texas as a top 10 national program for 11 years (a monumental overachievement at Texas, like almost unfathomable), and yet you call him an underachiever during his time here based on him failing to live up to the standards that *he* set by overachieving for more than a decade.

 besides which, as has been pointed out several times, save one notable exception his best teams all did well here. to call his tenure here an underachieving one after that type of unprecedented success is just dumb. the program might never even be that good again, but yeah, he underachieved here. for sure. /jonhamm.gif 

Edited by Goo Punch
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Goo Punch said:

lmao, dope retort. he has Texas as a top 10 national program for 11 years (monumental overachievement at Texas, like almost unfathomable), and yet you call him an underachiever during his time here based on him failing to live up to the standards that *he* set. besides which, as has been pointed out several times, save one notable exception his best teams all did well here. to call his tenure here an underachieving one after that type of unprecedented success is just dumb. the program might never even be that good again,  but yeah, he underachieved here. ok. 

So you think Barnes did a good job the last 7 years at Texas??

That's a "dope retort" and "dumb" to use your insults... 

Barnes had a decent run for awhile at Texas.... then he drastically underachieved at Texas during his last seven years and needed to go!!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Not gonna go back and forth with you a bunch Goo... MY TAKE IS ACCURATE!!

2008–09 Texas 23–12 9–7 T–4th NCAA Division I Round of 32
2009–10 Texas 24–10 9–7 T–6th NCAA Division I Round of 64
2010–11 Texas 28–8 13–3 2nd NCAA Division I Round of 32
2011–12 Texas 20–14 9–9 5th NCAA Division I Round of 64
2012–13 Texas 16–18 7–11 7th CBI First Round
2013–14 Texas 24–11 11–7 T–3rd NCAA Division I Round of 32
2014–15 Texas 20–14 8–10 T–6th NCAA Division I Round of 64

 

Only 3 NCAA tournament wins in his last 7 seasons at Texas is FUCKIN UNDERACHIEVING!!!

 

i mean seriously, you have to have literally zero knowledge of Texas basketball history prior to Barnes to post that screencap and then scream about what an UNDERACHIEVER he was at Texas. Do you realize that in that screen cap you're showing Texas winning 20+ games in 7/8 years and going to the tourney 7/8 years? do you realize that before Barnes was hired we had never even done that before as a program? as in *never*? and yet you use THAT as your big evidence that he underachieved here? That is what you call unacceptable at Texas? why am I even acting surprised, when i know that UT hoops fans are largely clueless about anything that happened before 2003 anyway?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

So you think Barnes did a good job the last 7 years at Texas??

That's a "dope retort" and "dumb" to use your insults... 

Barnes had a decent run for awhile at Texas.... then he drastically underachieved at Texas during his last seven years and needed to go!!

This is the correct take

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...