They are #16 (with a bullet) in the country, and they are outdrawing the UT women for the first time since that building opened. (The night Jody and Clarissa jacked them up. About 6 years ago, Clarissa still held the single game record for points in a game. Don't know if she still does but I imagine she does). He is a semi-finalist for COY. I wish nothing but the best for Barnes and his family.
Tennessee was picked 13th in the preseason poll and tied Auburn for a share of the SEC regular season championship today.
Rick's a great coach and from everything I've seen a really good person. It's great to see him having more success.
I'm not sure working for Phil Fulmer really qualifies as a decent gig. Makes the Bellmont implosion look like a grass fire.
It was the right move for him to move on from Texas and I was absolutely thrilled when he was hired at Tennessee. That organization was in bad shape and I knew he would bring discipline and consistency to the program. I didnt think the turnaround would happen this fast.
The Rocky Tops advance to SEC semis, with 24-7 record. Play the winner of the arkies and the alligators. Auburn, the top seed, lost today. A UK-UT title game seems likely.
If I had to bet today, I think I would bet on Calipari and Kentucky unfortunately. Tennessee has already beaten them twice, and I just dont think anyone beats a Calipari led Kentucky team three times in a row. I hope I am wrong!
Vol, I only got to watch pieces of the game, but what I saw looked like Kentucky was coached by Howard Schnellenberger or Dennis Erickson. Were they that dirty all game?
I went to the shoot around Wednesday at the AAC and the Day Session yesterday. There were of course alot of scattered Hornfans playing hookey from work. There were probably about 15 of us in real orange sitting a few rows apart. When he was introduced, of course the Rocky Top folks went ape s**t and he got a great ovation from our group in real orange. He smiled, waved and flashed a Hook Em. Sort of the way we treat coaches: We were glad we hired you, we were glad we fired you, and now we are glad you are doing well elsewhere and that for the most part, you left the program in WAY better shape than you found it.
Well, he did take over a worse Tennessee program and win an NCAA tournament game there before Shaka won one here and he still has our last tournament win....
To tell you what shape Tennessee was in, some publications had them picked dead last in the SEC this year. To win the SEC, make the SEC tourney championship game, make the NCAA as a 3 seed and get out of the first day alive is a huge win for that program. Yeah they lost to Loyola and looked like crap most of the game, but he has that team headed in the right direction. The big question for me is where will that program be in 5-6 years? I suspect it will eerily resemble the Texas program a couple years ago and the fans will be frustrated.
The problem with Barnes is he hated offense. Enough so that he'd refuse to allow scoring without defense....my favorite was J'Covan Brown, a beast of a scoring machine. As a true freshman (IIRC), he hung 28 on Kansas.....the next game he chunked up a three and missed it, spent a half on the bench.....Sometimes coaches hurt themselves by not realizing their own inefficiencies....could say the same about Nick Saban when he gets bullheaded and doesn't adapt to win a bowl game....
Ha, I watched that game with a couple Loyola fans. I told them Texas fans would have this very reaction to Barnes's team losing. HF did not disappoint.
I wonder if he still wears the same orange ties, or if he had to change the tint? If he put them through the wash cycle enough times until they faded, I bet he could get away with it.
Still not a bad job of taking a team picked to finish 13th out 14 teams as far as he did. Just had the bad luck of running into a little “Divine Intervention” in the second round.