There they were again, the Texas Longhorns, heads hanging after another stomach punch defeat. Those kind of loses have come to define Texas basketball over the past few years in the tournament. Whether it’s the last second meltdowns (Arizona this year, Wake Forest last year) or watching teams with talents like Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge fail to live up to their potential, March heartbreak has come to define Texas basketball.
Worse than the empty feeling of another March exit is the reality that stares Texas fans in the face: As long as Rick Barnes is the head coach at Texas things won’t likely change and Rick Barnes isn’t going anywhere.
Barnes would be foolish to leave Texas. It’s a pretty nice gig to make $2 million a year and have no expectation to do anything but make the NCAA Tournament. Barnes has achieved a lot at Texas. He’s been to a Final Four and two Elite Eights. His failures are more numerous and well documented.
Since Texas’ Final Four loss to Syracuse in 2003, the Longhorns have only lost to two higher seeds in the tournament. In 2009, Texas was a seven seed and beat Minnesota in the first round before losing to two seed Duke. The year before, Texas was a two seed, and despite having home court advantage in Houston, lost to an outstanding Memphis team that lost the national title game to Kansas.
In that time, Texas has had a bevy of top recruits come through Austin. LaMarcus Aldridge, Daniel Gibson, Mike Williams, Dion Dowell, Kevin Durant, D.J. Augustin, Justin Mason, Harrison Smith, Damion James, Clint Chapman, Gary Johnson, Alexis Wangmene, Avery Bradley, Jordan Hamilton and Shawn Williams, Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson were all four or five star recruits. Certainly some of that talent was overrated by recruiting services, but most coaches in America would kill for that type of talent to roll through their program.
If two of the three remaining members of that list (Hamilton, Thompson, Joseph) go pro this year, it’s very likely none of these players will have made a final four. Barnes has another stellar recruiting class coming in, led by Myck Kabongo an elite point guard talent, but what will that matter? With an elite point guard talent (Augustin) and one of the top five players currently in the NBA (Durant) Barnes failed to get out of the first weekend in 2007.
With all that said the reality for Texas may be harsh for some fans. Texas would be foolish to get rid of Rick Barnes.
It’s really simple. Texas basketball had almost no basketball history until Rick Barnes took over. Prior to Rick Barnes taking over, Texas had two Final Four appearances (1943, 1947) and four Elite Eight appearances (1939, 1943, 1947 and 1990). Rick Barnes has accomplished almost as much in 13 seasons as the program did in its first 90.
Barnes is 322-123 in his 13 seasons at Texas. His 72.4 winning percentage is the highest for any Texas coach since Theo Bellmont in the 1920s. Rick Barnes IS Texas basketball. He took it from a program with no expectations to a program with a large number of fans who want to run off the most successful coach the program has ever had.
That’s the biggest problem for Texas, its fans. While Texas football draws large crowds and tremendous support from the Austin community, Texas basketball has had a much tougher time keeping the interest of Longhorn fans. Aside from T.J. Ford’s sophomore year and the second half of Kevin Durant’s season at UT, support for Texas basketball has been lacking.
How would it look to a potential coach if a fan base doesn’t care enough to show up to games regularly, but wants to run you off when things go bad? Texas can throw a lot of money and resources at a coach, but how much is financial security worth to a coach that’s walking into an unfair situation like that?
Taking that into consideration, who can Texas definitively hire that would take the job and do a better job than Barnes has done? You can’t guarantee the brightest coaches from mid-major conferences like Shaka Smart at VCU, Brad Stephens at Butler or Josh Pastner at Memphis would do better than Barnes has. You also can’t guarantee that up-and-coming coaches at major conferences like Buzz Williams at Marquette, Brad Brownell at Clemson or Johnny Dawkins at Stanford would do any better either.
You’d have to dip into the known quantities, names like Izzo, Pitino and Donovan (hypothetically speaking) and would any elite coach take the job given the downside to it? Texas head football coach is perhaps the elite job in that field. Texas head basketball coach is a much less coveted position. There are a lot of coaches who would still want it, but none that you can guarantee would do better than Rick Barnes.
His system is full of flaws and his seasons always end in heartbreak, but Texas is stuck with Rick Barnes. If that’s a reality you can’t bear to watch, I suggest you change the channel.
The Connoisseur of Couch Potato-ism 