Per Jimmy Hyams: Barnes is our new HC

:travoltagif:

I don't think we could have asked for a better person to come in and stabilize the program given the certain circumstances.

Not bad, Bama Dave. Not bad.

Might just be Dave Hart's best hire

Congrats on the hire guys. Tell me one school that wouldn't take getting to the tourney 16 out of 17 years or something like that. And believe it or not, Texas really wasn't very good at basketball until Barnes. Final Fours to boot. Great hire and great timing for Barnes and the program if you ask me.

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Let's wait and see what Butch does this season before saying that.

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Agreed but as far as most exciting hire this tops the list for Hart.

Good hire, especially given the circumstances. Can't wait to make some games next year.

This is equivalent someone hiring Fulmer in 2008. Except Fulmer had actually won something at some point in his career. At least it stays consistent with our hiring motto of, "If we can beat you then we'll hire you."

I'd say it's an acceptable hire considering the shite show that is our administration, but it's hardly exciting.

Given the limited pool of proven coaches and the outside perception of what a shite show this program has been since BBQ gate, I think it's a slam dunk hire.

We weren't getting Shaka, Marshall, or Archie. We're not a basketball school or have dump trucks of football money to entice you with and make you forget that you'll be living in Tuscaloosa. If you're Dave Hart what do you do? You just fricked up trying to shop in the discount aisle on your last hire and you paid the price. Your arse and the future of the program is on the line for this hire. Drop the ball on an Anthony Grant type mid major hire and you set the program even farther back another 5 years and most assuredly will be ostracized/asked to leave town. As you should be. I don't think he's the long term answer, but I think he brings stability and credibility back to the program immediately. He will leave us in a much better position to make a better hire once his tenure with us is complete.

Any coach whose been to the tournament 22 times, 5-6 Sweet Sixteens, 3 elite 8's, a final 4, won Big 12 COY 3x, and built every program that he's been to is good enough for me at this juncture.

Who would you rather we have hired given the circumstances?

Everything you said was true, but it doesn't dig down into the details as far as you have to go to understand the full scope of the situations he inherited. I stole this from pdglm on 247's site. He's been the round ball guru on there for the past 2 seasons.

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Barnes got his first head coaching gig at George Mason. He took over at team that went 15-13 (7-7) the year before and went 20-10 and finished second in conference, making it to the conference tourney final.

That was good enough to get him the gig at Providence, where the Friars were two years removed from the final four but coming off a disappointing 11-17 campaign. Barnes made the NCAA in his first season at Providence and logged two more trips to the tourney in his six years in the ultra competitive Big East of the late 80s and early 90s. His teams did not win a game in the tourney. His best conference finish was 4th and he won the Big East tourney in 94.

At Providence, Barnes recruited four players who were drafted in the NBA draft. Dickey Simpkins and Eric Williams were both drafted in the first round and Michael Smith and Troy Brown were both 2nd round selections. He also coached, but did not recruit, first round pick Eric Murdock. he had the 4th rated recruiting class in the nation coming into the 90-91 season.

Barnes success at Providence allowed him to move to the ACC and Clemson. The Tigers hadn't been to the tourney since 1989 and had a total of 4 tourney appearances in program history. He took them to the tourney in 3 of his 4 years including a Sweet 16 run. His first team at Clemson didn't have a player over 6-7 and was described by the Greenville (SC) News as 'the worst team in ACC history'. They went 15-13 and made the NIT, including a win at #9 Duke. After the Sweet 16 run in 96-97 the Tigers finished ranked #8 in the country.

Barnes pulled in a top ten recruiting class while at Clemson and signed a couple of kids who were drafted in the second round.

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I think I read some where that he has more NBA Draft picks on his resume than we have in school history. 16 just while at Texas and I think 5-7 more at the stops prior to.

Here are some more stats to consider

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Here's the summary: Barnes has better numbers than any coach we've employed in the Pomeroy era, both offensively and defensively. Pearl is second in both categories, and Pearl is very close if we only include his Tennessee years. But Barnes has him beat.

Offensively, Barnes averaged an adjusted offensive efficiency of 112.8. That would be top-20 nationally this year. Pearl is 2nd among recent coaches, with 111.6. That would not be top-20 this year, but it would be top 30. Next is Cuonzo, with 109.2 (that's like a 50th-best national offensive efficiency), and then Buzz and Tyndall tie at 107.3 (that's like a 70th-place score nationally). Note that for all coaches I'm using Tennessee-only numbers, because their numbers look bad if I include their stints at mid-majors. Which probably isn't a fair comparison.

Defensively, Barnes averaged an adjusted defensive efficiency of 95.5. Pearl is 95.6, and Cuonzo is 95.7. All of those numbers are like a 45th-best defensive team nationally, give or take. Buzz was up at 98.9, and Tyndall was over 100.

More details? OK. Pearl's best defensive year was the Elite 8 year. He was 15th nationally with an adjusted D-Eff. of 91.3. Barnes's best was 2011, 7th nationally at 90.7. Cuonzo's best was 93.7 in his first year at TN. Buzz's best year was worse than those dudes' average, so let's just not go there.

Pearl's best offensive year was his first at TN, 7th nationally with 116 pts/possession. Barnes has beaten that three times in the pomeroy era: 3rd nationally in 2008 (120 ppp), 6th nationally in 2007 (118 ppp), and 1st nationally in 2003 (120 ppp). By the numbers Barnes is a far better offensive coach than defensive, I think.

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Since 2002, Barnes Texas teams have been ranked in the top 100 for offensive efficiency (on a schedule adjusted basis) every year but one at Texas and they have been top 30 11 times. On the defensive side, again, every team but one has been in the top 100 and 5 have been top 30.

On an overall efficiency basis his Texas teams have been ranked outside the top 40 only once in the past 14 years. 4 times they have been in the top 10. Those are stellar numbers fellas.

Besides just being good, his teams have been great on the offensive glass. Never worse than 80th in the country in OR% and only outside of the top 50 twice, in 9 of the past 14 years they have been top 20. I think we should expect his first Vol team to pick up right where they left off on the offensive glass as we finished 19th in the country last season. After looking at this info, one thing I can say for certain is that Barnes teams will offensive rebound.

The other thing that is apparent is that we are going back to fundamental man to man defense that focuses on eFG% defense through excellent 2pt defense and which eschews turnovers. Somewhere Cuonzo Martin must have cracked a smile. This past year Barnes Texas squad was #1 in 2pt defense. They have been top 30 in the country in that stat 9 of the last 10 years. Of course, elite 2pt defense leads to elite eFG% defense where they have been top 50 10 of the last 14 and top 10 3 of the last 6

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There's a lot to be happy about with all that. Hopefully the change of scenery and fresh start reignite the fire and get him rolling again.

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I'm expecting to win some games and get some good talent in, but I'm not expecting to win anything of value.

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I agree with that 100%, but hope he proves us wrong. Hopefully he's able to make a few semi deep runs in the tournament before handing the keys back in.