A favorite past time for sports fans and it seems especially Vol "fans" is to know more than the coaches when there is a loss. Like the line in Casablanca , here on VQ it is "round up the usual suspects." Some are just rabid fans and are disappointed in the moment. . I get that. But others like that DD character are little assholes who hide behind a keyboard.
Any coach is open to criticism and every coach makes mistakes. Every coach. I remember when the knock on Dean Smith was he never won a national championship. He later corrected that. Maybe Barnes will too, who knows.
But Coach Rick Barnes has brought this program back to national prominence after a series of embarrassing coaching misfires. I hate losing as much as anyone, but yesterday was a case of a very talented team who had not overall played well during the regular season.But pre-season were highly ranked (well above us) and had an inside game with their two bigs which was a nightmare matchup for us. For UT it was a Murphy's law type game. If we had hit just one of those wide open 3's the outcome would have probably been different. That is usually the case in hard fought games, what if?
It is easy to be emotional and easy to place blame. But we lost our big man and for the most part overcame that. But we could not overcome to the point that we could pull it out yesterday. They hit their shots, we did not. That is basketball.
We won the SEC tourney for the first time in 43 years. Barnes and this team gave us some great basketball after a low point in Kentucky. If you want to blame Barnes for yesterday, you have to give him credit for all we accomplished too. And he did it in a way to make this fine old university proud. No cheating, no hitting other coaches, no violations. And we are in great shape as program moving forward. And we lost to a good team, not to the Peacocks. No, Barnes is not perfect but are you? Would any other coach in the SEC have done more with this team?
Before the fire Barnes crowd dominates the board with their constant whimpers, remember that every coach in the land will end with a loss this season save one. It just happened to us yesterday, after a spectacular season with some thrilling victories. That would not have happened without Barnes.
GBO
Any coach is open to criticism and every coach makes mistakes. Every coach. I remember when the knock on Dean Smith was he never won a national championship. He later corrected that. Maybe Barnes will too, who knows.
But Coach Rick Barnes has brought this program back to national prominence after a series of embarrassing coaching misfires. I hate losing as much as anyone, but yesterday was a case of a very talented team who had not overall played well during the regular season.But pre-season were highly ranked (well above us) and had an inside game with their two bigs which was a nightmare matchup for us. For UT it was a Murphy's law type game. If we had hit just one of those wide open 3's the outcome would have probably been different. That is usually the case in hard fought games, what if?
It is easy to be emotional and easy to place blame. But we lost our big man and for the most part overcame that. But we could not overcome to the point that we could pull it out yesterday. They hit their shots, we did not. That is basketball.
We won the SEC tourney for the first time in 43 years. Barnes and this team gave us some great basketball after a low point in Kentucky. If you want to blame Barnes for yesterday, you have to give him credit for all we accomplished too. And he did it in a way to make this fine old university proud. No cheating, no hitting other coaches, no violations. And we are in great shape as program moving forward. And we lost to a good team, not to the Peacocks. No, Barnes is not perfect but are you? Would any other coach in the SEC have done more with this team?
Before the fire Barnes crowd dominates the board with their constant whimpers, remember that every coach in the land will end with a loss this season save one. It just happened to us yesterday, after a spectacular season with some thrilling victories. That would not have happened without Barnes.
GBO
