Premature Gravestone?

I have constantly harped that people have been too quick to write off Rick Barnes's career at Texas. Yes, DePaul will get pasted quite often like Texas is putting it on them tonight. More impressive to me though are their wins over strong mid-majors Mercer (regular season winner of FGCU's conference, the A-Sun, last year), South Alabama, and Stephen F. Austin (down a bit this year, but they won 27 games last year and have won 20+ five of last six years). Their lone loss so far is a close loss to a really solid BYU team on a neutral floor. The Big 12 is a bit down, and I think they could finish 3rd or 4th in the league (and for crap Barnes gets about underachieving, Scott Drew has done less with more quite often in Waco). I really liked their potential before Papapetrou went pro, as McClellan and Lewis leaving were additions by subtraction (and Myck Kabongo turned out to be more problem then super talent). We have been following the Barnes situation closely as Marquette because of the freaking Buzz to Texas rumors, and all along I had a hunch that Barnes would have a last stand. That hunch is getting stronger and I think a lot of national media people will be offering mea culpas about Barnes. Not all one and done/five-star types buy in as well as Kevin Durant, and people forget that Barnes won a lot of games at places like Clemson and Providence before he landed so many national recruits.

Fair or unfair, at Texas, I think what happens in the tourney this year is every bit as important as what happens in the regular season. It's been awhile since they've had a taste of the post-season success you would expect at a program like that. With all of this said, I don't believe for a second Buzz is going elsewhere, regardless.

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Originally Posted by AbovetheRim

Fair or unfair, at Texas, I think what happens in the tourney this year is every bit as important as what happens in the regular season. It's been awhile since they've had a taste of the post-season success you would expect at a program like that. With all of this said, I don't believe for a second Buzz is going elsewhere, regardless.

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I do not either, but I also think Rick Barnes has gotten an unfairly bad rap (largely based on Bill Simmons's ill informed criticism of him because the Durant team lost in the second round). Now, I think just making the tourney with a young team likely gets him another year, and I think that Barnes has returned to building a program the right away again. You can recruit the occasional one and done guy, but not build an entire program around them.

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Originally Posted by warriorfan4life

I do not either, but I also think Rick Barnes has gotten an unfairly bad rap (largely based on Bill Simmons's ill informed criticism of him because the Durant team lost in the second round). Now, I think just making the tourney with a young team likely gets him another year, and I think that Barnes has returned to building a program the right away again. You can recruit the occasional one and done guy, but not build an entire program around them.

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Tell that to Cal :)

I get your point though, good stuff.

Actually, Cal helps the argument against 1 and done guys a bit. In a 3 year stretch, he made it to the elite 8 and was upset, missed the tourney completely and then won the Championship.

Now granted, I would take that 3 year stretch in a heartbeat, but 3 of the top ranked recruiting classes only gets you 1 FF.