Rick Barnes is elite?

[Matt Cotcher]

Heading into tomorrow's game with TCU, Rick Barnes has 599 career wins. A win tomorrow night would make him only the 13th active coach in the NCAA's to reach 600 wins.

Believe me....UT is all over this one. They've been pumping out info for 2 days to media. If Texas wins, you'll see lots of references to the milestone.

At first, I was jaded by 15-8/4-6, but I have to admit that the more I read about 600, I can't help but be impressed. When only 12 people in your profession have done it, that's significant.

 

[Matt Cotcher]

<ducks quickly>

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Heading into tomorrow's game with TCU, Rick Barnes has 599 career wins. A win tomorrow night would make him only the 13th active coach in the NCAA's to reach 600 wins.

Believe me....UT is all over this one. They've been pumping out info for 2 days to media. If Texas wins, you'll see lots of references to the milestone.

At first, I was jaded by 15-8/4-6, but I have to admit that the more I read about 600, I can't help but be impressed. When only 12 people in your profession have done it, that's significant.

But you said 13th "active" coach. How many who are retired have done it?

Barnes has a chance to salvage the season . . . . I think. We'll see how the cookie crumbles.

 

[streettopeschel]

rick has had a good, often very good and even great run for a while at Texas. the stretch from 02-08 with a final four, 2 elite eights and 2 more sweet sixteens was as good as any coach in the country. 


but, the last few years have been disapointing. on some level, he's the victim of his own success and not making it past the first round of the tourny the last 6 years seems an eternity in this era and he's catching grief. with justification in my opinion.
 

funny thing about college hoops. regardless of how this regular season ends, if he wins two games in march, he's back in most folks good graces.  

 

[Juan]

I am sure he is elite at something

 

[Worster1]

Barnes has had some great success at UT: has won the Big XII Championship several times, has gone deep into the tournament and has turned out some exceptional players - Durant & Ford come to mind first. His tenure helped elevate UT BB to a more elite level.  For that we should all be pleased and grateful.

However, it seems like Barnes' career is winding down somewhat like a recent UT football HC. 

Perhaps I am wrong and he will prove it.

 

[Juan]

Rmbr these guys?

 

[dillohorn]

UT BB is going nowhere fast these days. I had really high hopes this season that went up in a puff of smoke.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

I agree with Worster1

Rick Barnes tenure at UT mirrors Mack's success on the gridiron. 3 Big12 titles, great run 02-08, downtrend 09-15. Yeah, he can salvage the season with a strong showing in the Big12 Tourney and an upset or two in the NCAAs.

But, IMO, he should be gone if we don't qualify for the Tourney. I'd love to see us hire an up and comer like Shaka Smart. What about a guy like Danny Manning? UT is definitely an upgrade from Wake Forest.

 

[Chris Flanagan]

600 wins is a great achievement in the sense that he took good jobs and had mild success at them.

He finished under .500 in conference play when at Providence and Clemson.

Now to be fair, he has nearly a .700 win percentage in the Big 12 in conference. However, the perception of Rick Barnes is that when the pressure is on, he overthinks the game and micromanages the team.

In 1999, Texas began 3-8. No one expected them to do much but Rick Barnes got the most out of his players and won the Big 12. Impressive. Even more impressive was that he had 5 straight 10+ win in the Big 12 conference season which is impressive. However, they were playing the Big 12 South 2 times a year and the basketball power heavy Big 12 north once. So you had a bad Baylor, Texas A&M and Texas Tech team to get 6 wins. So it was an easier path. But when expectations were high, he falters. You can't win championships if you don't play well when you're favored.

He is a coach who will get a scrappy team to play together and win 20 games and get you to the tournament. He won't win you championships.

 

[Juan]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011