SIAP: Rick Barnes staying at Tennessee; UCLA search goes from dumpster fire to tire-fueled inferno
Let's all laugh and point.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/26474512/barnes-stays-tennessee-ucla-pushthey should throw a ton of cash at Chris Beard. Lots of respect for what he did in the tourney and his class in victory and defeat.
Problem is that he's a southern guy through and through. He would be a fish out of water in LA.
fish out water, true, but a very rich fish! and i cannot imagine wanting to live in lubbock, regardless if you are a southern boy, over westwood!
good points, though. maybe ucla should pluck chris holtmann away from ohio state!
I can't imagine living in West Texas either --- not enough trees and more than enough dust storms. But 1+ million people do live there. It works for some folk.
He's worked/lived in either San Angelo, Abilene, Lubbock or San Antonio for 16 years of his professional career. So it's "home" by this point (his daughters from a previous relationship live around there too).
If I'm him, I'm waiting for Shaka to get fired in Austin in the next few years. UT is a great job and also "home."
Just had a co-worker move from Denver to Lubbock voluntarily. Seems very strange to me but he was tired of the cost of living, traffic, all of the usual big city complaints. I get that part, but still wouldn't have gone for Lubbock. Of course, if you're a college basketball coach, you make enough money that you can pay your way out of most of those types of problems.
Having lived in Abilene for 5 years before the AF moved us, I can attest to learning to love West Texas. We grew up in CLE so it was a drastic change in culture when we first moved there. I don't miss the windy, dusty air but the cost of living is filthy cheap and the people who call West Texas home are some of the most genuinely kind people I've ever known. We have Abilene at the top of our retirement locations right now.
My wife and I recently spent about 10 days driving through Texas. I had always wanted to see what the state was about and we were both surprised by how much we enjoyed the people and what the State had to offer. We visited El Paso, San Antonio, Austin and Galveston Island for Mardi Gras and had an absolute blast. Admittedly, these towns had a lot going on but the people we ran into just about everywhere were very welcoming. Lots of desert to be sure but also some very nice places to visit.
Maybe he wants to remain a red fish, not a blue fish.
So he’s not a socialist? Sign him up!
red fish, blue fish, dead fish, new fish.
i do not want them in LA
i will not go there, no matter what the pay,
i will not go to UCLA
it is in lubbock i will stay
That’s pretty good, ever thought of writing a book?
The home schooling is strong in you, well played.
Something must be up. How can you not win at UCLA? Everything is there for you. Should be a top 3 job.
The problem is, it comes with top 3 expectations on a short leash.
Hard to win at UCLA without Sam Gilbert.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jun-08-la-sp-0609-wooden-gilbert-20100609-story.html
The most criminally underrated story in the history of college basketball. "The Pyramid of Success" apparently includes blatantly cheating and then pretending you knew absolutely nothing about it.
Coach K comes to mind...
Somehow, despite being offered six figures to go to Kansas, Zion decided on Duke.
It got his family a house and his mom a "consulting" job. I know Avenatti is a piece of garbage, but that doesn't mean he is lying about how Zion ended up at Duke.
It's not like there are recorded conversations of Kansas assistant coach Kurtis Townsend and Adidas rep Merl Code discussing what it was going to take to get Zion.
“And then Mr. Code says: ‘I know what he’s asking for.’ ... ‘He’s asking for opportunities from an occupational prospective. He’s asking for money in the pocket. And he’s asking for housing for him and the family.’
Even worse is listening to the likes of Bill Walton pontificate on the virtues of being mentored at the feet of the saintly John Wooden while throwing shade at the current state of the college game today.
John Wooden was gone no more than a season before the NCAA had UCLA on probation for rules violations, but nobody has ever wanted to connect one to the other.
You better be able to either develop players over several years or pay players. Of you being in average coaches, you better be paying top dollar for talent like Duke, Kansas and Kentucky. Even if you lose, you will keep fan interest.
Rick Barnes is about to be 65 years old.
UCLA has become a top 20 job. It has tradition and a lot of local talent to recruit.
It also has a so-so fan base and administration and the PAC-12 is in decline. It also has a lot of people thinking it's a top 3 job and expect the results to match that.
The whole atmosphere is much different than at the top programs. College sports are just not that big in Los Angeles. I doubt that appeals to most career college coaches.
Basketball is not like football, where winning your conference is important for getting a shot at a national title. Being in a weak conference just hurts recruiting for national prospects.
Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton say hello.
Are they still alive?
Lew Al lives in Zavier! And Bill Walton is dead to me since he crapped all over the Pistons years ago!
Is it really a top 3 job? I mean, they've been trying to return to glory for about 40 years now and even their best periods like mid-90s with O'Bannons and the 95 team and then the Russ Westbrook years were short-lived in a way that the sustained blue blood success at Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, UNC etc is not.
And you can built a program at a lot of places, we just watched UVa and TTU play for the NC. For most of my lifetime, those have been programs at a level of say an Iowa. People are winning at places like that or Tennessee, Purdue, Houston, VTech, etc. Gonzaga's a small catholic school in Spokane in a 2nd tier conference and has made themselves into a perrenniel power. There's a lot of attractive things about UCLA but it's probably not worth the short leash and unrealistic expectations.
Is it really a top 3 job?
Yeah, I keep seeing that and I don't understand why. So which program is UCLA better than among Duke, UNC, KU, and UK? (Hint: the answer is none!)
So basically, they are the equivalent of Michigan Football? Fanbase thinks its a Top 3 job when it's really Top 20? Check. Most of their success 40+ years ago? Check. Mid 90's championship and succcess? Check.
:(
You suck, and I want to neg you. But I can't...
You forgot: pretty good coach in the 00s that was essentially run out of town after some down years, followed by hasty hiring of slimeball coach that didn't work out, followed by depressing coaching search in which school was turned down by mediocre candidates
So they are going to hire an alumnus from the mid 80’s to lead them to glory.... Reggie Miller
It WAS a top 3 job some 30 or so years ago. It just isn't now.
Since Wooden left in 1975, UCLA has 6 Final Fours and 1 national title in that timeframe. Those aren't bad numbers, but not blueblood numbers either. Duke and Carolina have 5 titles each in that time and Kentucky has 4. In fact, UCLA's numbers are EXACTLY the same as Michigan's since 1975.
UCLA has cycled through 9 coaches since Wooden retired to get, what that fanbase considers anyways, are mediocre results. At some point, and I think UCLA reached that point awhile ago, it's not the coaches who are "failing" the school. It's most likely the school failing the coaches, i.e. it's not the job everyone thinks it is.
I used to live in Chicago and we had a discussion about why DePaul sucked at basketball with the wealth of talent literally within a 30 minute drive of campus. They kept hiring coaches expecting Ray Meyer type success. Maybe they just hired a string of bad basketball coaches, but most likely all of those coaches were NOT bad at coaching college basketball and all the responsibilities that go with it. The job itself just wasn't even remotely as good as we thought it was.
+1 title, more like this
Tony Bennett has not said no yet.
**this is the "Oakland is still in play" of the UCLA coaching search.
I know UCLA is desperate, but really? Rick Barnes? A 65 year old coach who has only made one final four over 15 years ago? Did Greg Mattison turn them down already?
I'm not the biggest Rick Barnes fan, but he's done a remarkable job at Tennessee in a very short time. He would get UCLA to be a top 10-15 program in 3+ years. He would also flame out in the tournament before he should also.
No doubt his turnaround of Rocky Top has been fantastic though I'd also argue that UT is still a football school at heart, so even if Barnes never advances past the Sweet Sixteen he'll still be revered in Knoxville. That kind of success would get him canned at age 70 in Westwood.
All of Barnes recruits on the current roster are 3 stars or below. He developed this roster and he most likely does not want to live in LA. I have met him a few times and he was always very nice and down to earth. Very similar to JB.
They just need to go hire a coach from West Virginia. There is a 50/50 chance that would work out great, based on past experience.
Maybe Kareem will step in.
We were all laughing at Tennessee after the season last year for their inability to get a coach and they ended up turning out alright with Pruitt. Something tells me the same will happen with UCLA. My guess at this point is that they'll try pulling some young, up-and-coming assistant from the NBA who's looking to make his bones and prove he can lead a team in a pressure-cooker environment. That's what UCLA is.
If Penn State could land Bill O'Brien after the biggest scandal in the history of collegiate athletics, UCLA can find a new basketball coach when its program (to our knowledge) is not mired in really any form of scandal.
Maybe they can hire Bill Walton.
Well if nothing else those press conferences would be a hoot. How many Grateful Dead references do you think he’d make in one sitting?
Seeing how much interest the NCAA seems to be not taking in every recent scandal, why not Rick Pitino?
You have to admit, he would be perfect.
Luke Walton will save the day
Actually the Luke Walton thing makes a lot of sense.
Mick Cronin from Cincinnati
If I'm a Bruin fan, can't say I'd be thrilled with the hire. He gets his team to the tourney, but does nothing once he's there. After all the "big" names that were mentioned, this is an underwhelming hire for sure.
I follow the Bearcats pretty closely, root for them.
Hearing that Cronin is leaving is the best news I've heard in several days.