It wasn’t that long ago, just a year and a few months to be exact, that Rick Barnes’ name was high on that notorious list of college basketball coaches on the hot seat. Fans who did enough reading would have been certain that his real first name was “Beleaguered.”
Beleaguered Barnes could be fired.
Beleaguered Barnes can’t survive.
Texas may replace beleaguered Barnes.
Then a funny thing happened. Texas won 24 games, finished tied for third in the tough Big 12 Conference, advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament – and Barnes went from the hot seat to candidate for national coach of the year honors.
It’s all a slightly distant memory as Barnes brings his No. 7 Longhorns (5-0) into Gampel Pavilion in Storrs Sunday (Noon, ESPN2) to take on No. 24 UConn (3-1) in one of the biggest non-conference games in college basketball to this point in the season. Barnes knows where the Longhorns have come from, but he’s more focused on where they might be going.
“We know we have the program back on solid ground and that we’ve got the culture we want,” Barnes said in a conference call with UConn reporters on Friday.
Barnes argues it never was “survival” mode in Austin.
“What was hard was we were in ‘scramble mode’ because we kept losing guys to the NBA that we did not expect to lose,” Barnes said. “Every spring it seemed we were searching to get enough guys to get a team together. With that said, we got away from what was the culture of our program.
“We made a conscious effort that we are going to recruit [in the manner that] has always been good to us. The group of guys we have right now did a tremendous job. In the past, we never got caught up in where people thought we would be or wouldn’t be. That’s what we liked about our group now. They came in and just went to work.
“They’ve got great chemistry. They’re fun to coach. I think as time has gone on, we know as coaches we’re always going to recruit the best players but we’re not going to settle for someone who doesn’t understand exactly what we want here.”
The coach who produced Kevin Durant saw turmoil develop in his locker room. It seemed players couldn’t wait to get out of Austin. Jonathon Holmes, now a senior forward who starts, was the only upperclassman on the roster last season and coming off the first losing season in Barnes’ tenure at Texas, that was not a good mix.
Steve Patterson took over as the new athletic director and football coach Mack Brown was nudged out of his spot. That led to more speculation about Barnes, now in his 17th season at Texas.
“It would be exciting if we got everybody back [next season] and only lost Jon Holmes,” Barnes said. “We can’t think that way. We’re not going to get caught again, where we’re not prepared for that.”
To hear Barnes talk now, it seems the Longhorns are prepared for just about anything. Sophomore point guard Isaiah Taylor, averaging 15 points and 3 assists in the first three games of the season, suffered a left wrist injury in a win over Iowa on Nov. 20. It’s not a season-ending injury but there’s no sure date for Taylor to return.
Asked how he’s had to adjust with Taylor injured, Barnes acted as if it isn’t a major problem. The Longhorns have two juniors, Javan Felix and Demarcus Holland to plug in the backcourt. Holmes, Connor Lammert and talented center Cameron Ridley complete the starting lineup.
“Those guys have been there,” Barnes said of Felix and Holland. “We try to put a system in to help us when we have injuries, where we don’t have things built so much around one person. We haven’t changed that much.”
Taylor has tremendous speed in the backcourt, plays well in transition and can create at the basket. Felix is a better passer. Barnes said Holland just stays within the Texas system and runs the offense.
Holmes, Lammert and Ridley form a 6-8, 6-, 6-9 front wall that rebounds and blocks shot. Texas has held its first five opponents to 52.2 points per game (12th in nation) on 29.8 percent field goal shooting. The Longhorns rank fifth in the nation in blocks (7.4 bpg) and hold a 14.2 rebounding margin through five games.
“We block shots,” Barnes said. “Our length helps us. [Our devense] excites me; we do have a good bunch of guys.”
Barnes backed up his Big 12 Coach of the Year season by landing recruit Myles Turner, a 6-11, 240-pound forward from Bedford, Texas, who was one of the top recruits in the nation. Turner picked the Longhorns over conference rival Kansas –despite the fact that many in Texas told him to leave.
“Myles [visited] a lot of places,” Barnes said. “Just the other day, he said to me, ‘I went to a lot of places where some of the players didn’t want me there because I was going to take playing time from them. [Here] every guy wanted me to be a part of it because they wanted to win and I could bring some things we didn’t have.”
Barnes knows a game like this one at UConn will help his team grow even more. In 27 years of coaching, including his time at Providence when he was mentored by Dave Gavitt, Barnes has learned many valuable lessons.
That’s probably the best reason he made it through two difficult seasons to get back to a better place with his Longhorns.
Beleaguered? Not any more.
“We’re excited about where we are right now,” he said.
Speak Your Mind