re: No flame… Was Rick Barnes fired from texas?

quote:

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I loved the guy, still do, one of my favorite coaches of all time at Texas (for any sport). For whatever reason, he became complacent, which often happens with long-term coaches, and I think needed a reboot. I root for him now at Tennessee, am happy when he wins. Sometimes a coach just needs a fresh start (like Mack Brown too, come to think of it).

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This basically sums up how just about every Texas basketball fan thinks of him. Unless Beard has a career at Texas for 15+ more years, Barnes will forever be Texas's GOAT basketball coach.

He probably had been a little complacent, and the program had gotten a bit stale, but his replacement, Shaka Smart, was not near the upgrade we thought he could've been. And it was a good lesson that we should've been thankful for what we had, because basketball has always been third on campus, and he still made Texas elite.

Honestly, it was the way he was fired that most Texas fans really disapproved of. Steve Patterson (the A.D. that last only 2 years because he was a terrible fit and everybody hated him and his penny-pinching ways) fired him over the phone the day after he lost in the first round to Butler in 2015 and he was on a plane for Knoxville either the same day or the next.