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.