How Close Is the End of the Rick Barnes Era at Texas?
The end of the Rick Barnes era at Texas is in sight, and it’s a cruel reality.
Winning is how coaches are judged, and Barnes deserves a kind jury. He made the NCAA tournament in his first 14 seasons at Texas, a streak that ended in 2013. He has won. Consistently.
The perception of Barnes as a coach has not always lined up with the results. I’ve written about that before.
But the defense is about to rest. It might be a lost cause at this point.
Since the Longhorns finished their 16-18 season, they have had three players transfer and another, Myck Kabongo, declare for the NBA draft. That’s the program’s three leading scorers and a rotation big man. Gone.
Then athletic director DeLoss Dodds, always a supporter of Barnes, told the Austin American-Statesman this:
If I said I was not concerned, that would not be accurate. I am concerned. I am troubled by it, and we need to get it fixed.
Win, and win quickly. That’s the message of any AD who has to come out in the local paper in defense of his high-profile coach.
Well, that’s going to be an issue.
In the past, Barnes has been able to reload as quickly as a Texas gunslinger. Since 2006, Texas has had 11 players drafted in the NBA. Only Kentucky, North Carolina and Kansas have had more in that same time span. Nine of those players left school early. A 10th Longhorn, J’Covan Brown, left after his junior year in 2012 and went undrafted.
Talent leaves. Talent comes in. That’s how Barnes kept racking up the NCAA tourney bids.
But last season without Brown as a senior and after the NCAA decided to punish Kabongo with an unnecessary suspension that stretched into mid-February, the task was impossible. Barnes had the youngest team in college basketball—he played all freshmen and sophomores—and the only true NBA prospect was showing up to games in a suit.
Barnes had a laundry list of excuses he could give for only the second losing season in his career. Everyone should get a mulligan.
But next season will count, and it’s not looking promising.
The Barnes detractors can argue that he has lost his touch in recruiting. The Horns had opportunity to sell to the 2013 class, and what they came up with was a class whose top player is ranked 105th by Rivals.com.
The state of Texas produced 11 players in Rivals.com’s top 150. Barnes landed one of the 11.
Barnes has not always depended exclusively on local talent. He has had a national presence on the recruiting scene, but Kabongo is the only high-profile recruit from outside of the state he’s recruited in his last three classes.
Those classes were good enough to tread water until Barnes could land another big-time recruit or two. Had Sheldon McClellan, Julien Lewis, Jaylen Bond and Kabongo stuck around, Barnes would have had a roster that could have competed in the top half of the Big 12.
What’s left is a roster without stars or experience. Jonathan Holmes is the only player left from the 2011 class of six, and he’ll be the only upperclassman in the rotation next year.
Barnes’ PR campaign that has followed the departures—listen to the video below for a sample—is that the bad seeds are gone now. What’s left are guys who really care about the program. That’s nice and all, but what Barnes has won with is great talent.
When he arrived at Texas, Barnes coached a team of seven scholarship players to a Big 12 title in his first season. That kind of better-than-expected season in 2013-14 could buy him more time. Or, Barnes will have to dust off his recruiting game and score big with the 2014 class to give a fanbase that has turned apathetic something to be excited about.
The clock is ticking.
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Kawhi Leonard Dunks over Harrison Barnes on the Break
Golden State Warriors rookie Harrison Barnes has dazzled the Bay Area faithful with a playoff performance that has all but extinguished any long-term projections after his solid (i.e., not spectacular) regular season.
In his first 10 postseason games, he matched his regular-season total of 20-point games (three) and missed that mark by a single point on two other occasions.
But San Antonio Spurs sophomore Kawhi Leonard reminded him that he’s not the only young, athletic wing causing havoc in this Western Conference semifinal.
With San Antonio nursing a 62-58 lead midway through the third quarter of Game 5 on Wednesday night, Danny Green snagged a loose ball on the Warriors’ end and raced down the floor. Carl Landry stepped in front of the charging Green, who quickly gathered himself with a pair of dribbles.
Then Green spotted a streaking Leonard racing down the right side of the floor and hit him in stride with a one-handed lead pass. Leonard grabbed the pass at the right elbow, cleared himself for departure with two steps and soared toward the basket.
Barnes was there to contest the dunk, but a ferocious finish from Leonard meant the rookie’s only reward was a future poster appearance:
And Barnes just got put on a POSTER!
— ESPN First Take (@ESPN_FirstTake) May 15, 2013
Barnes has the narrow lead in the individual scoring battle with Leonard, 19-14, but the Spurs have since opened up a commanding 13-point lead, 89-76, in the early stages of the fourth quarter.
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Manu Ginobili breaks Harrison Barnes’ ankles
The old dog teaching the young pup a new trick. Manu Ginobili, receding hairline and all, give rookie, Harrison Barnes, a slick crossover that makes the young fella hit the hardwood. We call that getting owned!.wmh6{position:absolute;clip:rect(440px,auto,auto,409px);}look at this I was playing NBA2K13 with my step-son yesterday. He was using the Clippers, and I was the Nuggets. At one point during the game, I crossed up Blake Griffin with Ty Lawson. The result was very similar to what you see above, and at that moment I told Alex that being crossed over to the point of falling is perhaps the worst diss you can receive as a basketball player. He’s 10-years old and wasn’t quite sure why that was such a bad thing (he’ll learn), but for Harrison Barnes, it’s probably not the first time he’s been “done” on the court, and it surely won’t be the last. My heart feels for any player who gets put on skates so badly that they eventually take a dive, but it is part of the game, and I’m sure Barnes go
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Video: Harrison Barnes lifts Warriors to OT win over Spurs
The Golden State Warriors fought back on Sunday to tie their Western Conference semifinals series with the San Antonio Spurs 2-2.
The resilient group did it with on the back of a big game from rookie Harrison Barnes who double-doubled with 26 points and 10 rebounds.
Video: Harrison Barnes propels the Warriors to victory over the Spurs
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Harrison Barnes Is NBA Postseason’s Rookie of the Year
There’s an arrogance that must exist in these moments.
On the exaggerated stage of the NBA playoffs, a Sunday matinee no less, it was the audaciousness of a 20-year-old that stole the show.
With the Golden State Warriors’ offense ailing, rookie Harrison Barnes scored 26 points on a career-high 26 shots to lead the Warriors to a 97-87 Game 4 overtime victory against the San Antonio Spurs.
Expect no less from the Warriors lottery pick, the guy veteran teammate Richard Jefferson calls very, very arrogant.
“Harrison is very, very arrogant,” Jefferson said in an interview earlier this postseason. “He’s one of the more arrogant rookies I’ve been around.”
He isn’t joking.
But he also says it with esteem.
“I say that with a lot of respect because arrogance isn‘t a bad thing all the time. … He expects to be here. His demeanor hasn’t changed; his attitude hasn’t changed. He works extremely hard, so this isn‘t new to him.”
Barnes, the youngest player on the youngest team still standing, also grabbed 10 rebounds and was 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.
Since the injury to Golden State’s All-Star power forward David Lee in the first season of the playoffs, Barnes role has increased.
| Regular season | 25.4 minutes | 9.2 points | 4.1 rebounds | 43.9 FG% | |
| Postseason | 39.1 minutes | 15.9 points | 6.6 rebounds | 45.5 FG% |
Barnes laughed off Jefferson’s claim of arrogance, saying, “[T]hat must be from all those one-on-one battles we have in practice.”
Barnes did agree to that confidence though:
“Coming into this league, a lot of veterans like RJ told me that confidence is the biggest thing,” Barnes said in an interview with Bleacher Report earlier this postseason.
“You really have to believe in yourself, you really have to believe in your abilities, because in 82 games you’re going to make some shots, you’re going to miss some, but as long you have confidence in yourself you’re always going to be able to improve.”
Barnes needed plenty of arrogance in carrying the offensive load in the Game 4 win.
The rookie became the go-to offensive threat, as Stephen Curry was barely clinging to the floor with a sprained left ankle, Klay Thompson was smothered by the Spurs’ defense and Warriors bigs Carl Landry and Andrew Bogut were in foul trouble.
The ball often ran to Barnes in isolation. While he shot just 34.6 percent, he never stopped attacking when the Warriors needed somebody, anybody to lead a charge.
Down the stretch, it was Barnes who was the difference.
Barnes led the Warriors in overtime with four points on 1-of-2 shooting and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. He led the Warriors in the fourth quarter on 3-of-6 shooting for seven points.
“He carried us throughout so much of the game,” Jarrett Jack said after the Game 4 win. “He did a tremendous job of leading the way, being aggressive, attacking the basket and we kind of followed his lead.”
The backbone of that certainty comes with being labeled one of the best players of his class since his days at Ames High School in Iowa.
Barnes came to North Carolina with plenty of accolades his senior year of high school in 2010: McDonald’s All-American, No. 1 in his class by Scout.com and ESPNU and Iowa’s Mr. Basketball in 2010.
Dubbed “The Black Falcon,” a nickname he said he doesn’t actually like, Barnes was selected out of North Carolina with the No. 7 pick in the NBA draft for his 6’8″ size matched with athleticism and an outside shot.
The Warriors first-round pick is matching the hype that began in high school and continued into North Carolina.
No other rookie is contributing this postseason even close to what Barnes is doing. The rookies closest to matching his production are his teammates Draymond Green and Festus Ezeli.
“In the postseason he’s been called upon to play a bigger role offensively with D-Lee out. He stepped into that role better than most expected,” Curry said in an interview with Bleacher Report earlier this postseason. “In the locker room we had so much confidence in him and I know he had confidence in himself to do it.”
Without Barnes, the Warriors would not be amidst this unforeseen playoff run, tied 2-2 in the Western Conference Semifinals with the Spurs.
No one expected the Warriors to be here; no one thought Barnes would be a guy helping lead the way.
No one except the confident rookie, of course—he’s certain of what he can do.
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USU’s Barnes new NCAA basketball chair for 14-15 (Yahoo! Sports)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Utah State athletic director Scott Barnes has been chosen as the NCAA Division I basketball committee chairman for 2014-15.
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Zach Randolph stays cool after flagrant foul by Matt Barnes (Video)
Los Angeles Clippers forward Matt Barnes delivered a hard foul (which was called a flagrant) to Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph during the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s NBA Western Conference playoff game at the FedEx Forum.
Randolph was hit from behind and looked like he was going to attack Barnes as he turned around and charged torwards him, but instead he gave Barnes a big hug and a handshake. Kudos to “Z-Bo” for being smart and keeping his cool at a crucial moment in the game.
Randolph led the Grizzlies with 27 points and 11 rebounds in the 94-82 victory to cut the Clippers’ series lead to 2-1.
H/T NIS.
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Warriors bench has great reaction to Harrison Barnes dunk (Video)
The Golden State Warriors were able to beat the Denver Nuggets on the road in a high-scoring affair on Tuesday night, and an outstanding performance from Harrison Barnes helped get them there. The former North Carolina star led the way with 24 points and six rebounds, but it was his reverse jam in the fourth quarter that really put the exclamation point on the evening.
As you can see, the Warriors bench loved it. This GIF that @cjzero passed along encapsulates their reaction to perfection:
Golden State did what it had to do in tying the series 1-1 before heading game for Game 3. The Warriors have lost David Lee for the remainder of the playoffs, but they proved on Tuesday that they are still capable of lighting up the scoreboard. Barnes averaged only 9.2 points per game during the regular season, but the team will need more 24-point performances from him in the absence of Lee if they want to advance to the next round.
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Harrison Barnes’ 24-Point Performance Shows That He’s Warriors’ Biggest X-Factor
A big performance by Harrison Barnes in Game 2 against the Denver Nuggets not only helped lead the team to victory, but also proved that he is the true X-factor for the Golden State Warriors.
The Nuggets entered this game with a 24-game winning streak at home, but the Warriors were able to end that, winning 131-117 to even the series at 1-1. Barnes went off in the game scoring 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting while adding six rebounds as well.
The play of Barnes was definitely a big reason the Warriors were able to win Game 2. In Game 1 of this series, Barnes went 3-for-4 from the field and only scored eight points for the game. The Warriors went on to lose 97-95. In fact, the Warriors have now won eight straight games when Barnes scores at least 10 points, including the win on Tuesday night. The Warriors are also 26-10 when Barnes has scored in double figures.
The hot streak seems to have started in November, when Barnes was averaging 10.4 points per game on 45.9 percent shooting. That was after a rough December where he averaged only 7.8 points per game while shooting only 38.1 percent.
By getting Barnes to find his shot, the team as a whole does better. The hot streak by Barnes left other players open on Tuesday night, as Stephen Curry, Jarrett Jack and Klay Thompson all scored over 20 points in the win as well.
Barnes was also able to make a pretty big impact on the defensive side of the ball. He spent a lot of time guarding Wilson Chandler, who struggled on the night. He finished with 14 points, but on only 4-for-15 shooting. Chandler is usually a much more efficient scorer, shooting 46.2 percent from the field for the year.
The loss of David Lee makes Barnes an even more important player for the Warriors. According to a team report on NBA.com, Lee will miss the remainder of the playoffs with a torn right hip flexor.
In the first game without Lee, it seems like Barnes did a pretty good job.
The Warriors are hoping that Barnes can keep playing like he did Tuesday in order to help the team pull off the big upset against the Nuggets. As the No. 6 seed, it is certainly no easy task taking down the No. 3 seed, especially when they finished with a 57-25 record in the regular season.
It appears that Barnes is showing signs of becoming a true star in this league, even if it is only in flashes. However, those flashes prove why Barnes is the true X-factor on this team.
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Video: Harrison Barnes with the double clutch dunk over the Portland Trailblazers
Harrison Barnes has given the Golden State Warriors another weapon to take them to the next level.
Check out this double clutch dunk off the break that rattled the house in their 99–88 win over the Portland Trailblazers.
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