Will The Barnes Rumors Start?

He has the best job in college basketball. His job is SAFE. He can recruit elite talent. Sure our fans aren’t as good as they could be, but everything else is in place. I personally don’t like the location of the Erwin Center. I wish it was even closer to campus. But anyways, maybe Barnes needs a new challenge? Even if he fails at Kentucky (I’m not saying he will), he will still be able to find a job elsewhere because he is a great coach. I’d like for him to stay at Texas.

Although right now, it feels like deja vu. First name on Kentucky’s list is still Billy D. Florida still worried about losing Donovan and are keeping one eye on Anthony Grant. Travis Ford’s name is being tossed around, but most feel he’s still too young. Barnes’ name is on the outskirts. Which naturally means we’ll see Mark ("Ethan") Turgeon as the next UK coach. Yikes.

This was a year ago (and therefore probably irrelevant), but I didn’t know about BON at the time, so I’ll share. I caught the same flight to and from Baltimore with Barnes and his assistant (whom I now know was Ken McDonald) the week after we were ousted from last year’s NCAA tourney. It was funny how they snagged the exit row and covered the middle seat with laptops and coats to keep it open. After exiting the flight, Barnes was checking his connection, so I approached, shook his hand and said something about us being out a few games early. He said we would get them next year. I proceeded to explain how much we appreciate what he’s done for the Texas program and that I hoped he didn’t have to leave for some (other) big time coaching job. His words were: Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. Of course, he could’ve told me anything he wanted, but it’s nice that he was honest despite D.J.‘s upcoming departure and the expectation of a down year in 08-09. Anyway, I think his departure was much more likely a year ago than it is with the current outlook. It’s still a relief to hear that UK will likely hire Donovan.

 … when a football school has a quality coach in any other sport.

RB has raised the profile and expectations for Texas basketball to heights never before experienced in the men’s program. He’s a quality coach who has proven an uncanny ability to recruit both high-end and unheralded talent, and mold the results into a winning team. He changes his scheme to fit his personnel, and he develops players for the NBA.

Best of all, he’s kept UT out of the doghouse. No NCAA problems. Very few player scandals (the only I can think of are Boddicker’s girlfriend, which was off-season to boot, and a player a few years ago who lost academic eligibility, but then came back to succeed on the court and in the classroom (why is his name escaping me right now??)).

We know that Mack Brown will not leave Texas for greener pastures, because there are NOT any greener pastures in all of college football.

Basketball is different. Texas has amassed an amazing record and post-season performance over RB’s 11-year tenure. Plus, it’s in an increasingly competitive conference that put 6 teams in the dance and 3 more in the NIT this year.

But Texas is not a “legacy” basketball school, such as could be said of Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, even UCLA.

So until RB has his national championship(s) at Texas, we will always be afraid. Every offseason. Very afraid.

There are going to be potentially more high-end (or at least high-end conference) jobs open this year than I can ever remember:

Virginia
Alabama
Georgia
Kentucky
Arizona (unless dude wins out, then how can you deny him the job?)
Florida (potentially, although higly unlikely now, apparently)
Oklahoma St. (potentially – Travis Ford will NOT turn down Kentucky)
Oklahoma (potentially)
Connecticut (potentially)

Others?

So with that being the case, I think you are going to see at least one shocking departure somewhere opening up another big job that we haven’t really thought about. It’s going to be a crazy few weeks.