UT officials to release Rick Barnes as men's basketball coach

[Scoop27]

From Austin American Statesman
Texas officials have decided to release men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes, the winningest coach in school history, a source told the American-Statesman on Saturday.

The high-level source, who is familiar with the situation, said school officials reached their final decision Saturday and plan on making an announcement either Sunday or Monday.

It’s unknown what has been communicated to Barnes, who has not returned messages left by the Statesman.

Texas hopes to hire Barnes’ successor “within a week,” the source said. It’s not clear whether Texas Men’s Athletic Director Steve Patterson would handle the search by himself or utilize a search firm, like the school did before hiring Patterson as the AD and football coach Charlie Strong.

It’s believed that officials did not want to make an announcement on men’s basketball to take away from the men’s swimming and diving team possibly winning the NCAA national championship in Iowa on Saturday night.

Patterson did not return a message left by the Statesman on Saturday afternoon.

Patterson has met with Barnes at least twice face to face and asked the 60-year-old coach to make changes, the American-Statesman reported Thursday. This season, the Horns finished tied for sixth in the Big 12 standings and posted a 20-14 overall record.

It’s believed Patterson asked Barnes to at least change some of his assistant coaches or risk being fired. After the team was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament against Butler, Barnes said he believed the assistant coaches were not the problem.

“I don’t want you guys to create stories here, OK?,” Barnes said after the Butler game. “We analyze our program every year, and I think I’ve got a great staff.”

Barnes earned $2.55 million this season and another $125,000 bonus just for making the NCAA tournament. According to USA Today, Barnes was the 11th-highest paid coach in Division I this season.

According to the terms of his contract, Barnes would receive a $1.75 million severance package if he’s terminated by the end of the month. That number drops to $1.5 million on Wednesday.

Barnes has a career record of 604-314 in 28 seasons. He won 402 games in 17 seasons at Texas.

[Phil C]

[YTBulldogs]

About time IMO. Can't finish.

[1st and goal]

Can't get too far when all your recruits are so good, they opt for the draft.

He's not poor, I don't feel sorry for him. He had a good long run. Just the crappy nature of the biz.

[Saggy Aggie]

I wish A&M would can Kennedy

[Lion70]

I wish A&M would can Kennedy

+1 if he doesn't do anything with great recruiting class next year he is gone.

[YTBulldogs]

Per YahooSports:

The list could and likely will start with Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall. He’s been choosy and driven some hard bargains that ultimately have led to him staying at Wichita for eight seasons, and it’s worked out splendidly for him – his record over the last three years is 95-15, with one Final Four and one undefeated regular season.

But this is the kind of job the Wichita State coach doesn’t turn down. There is no reason why the right coach shouldn’t turn Texas into a perennial top 10 program – and get rich(er) in the process.

Sources told Yahoo Sports that Marshall already had signaled Alabama not to waste its energy putting together a whopper offer for his services, because he had his eyes on Texas. So this conceivably could be a short courtship – if anything can get done simply in Austin.

(At Alabama, the search to replace Anthony Grant could be getting dicey. Marshall is off the table and VCU coach Shaka Smart is extremely unlikely to replace his buddy Grant. Archie Miller can afford to stay at Dayton and wait for the right time and place – and Alabama seems like neither. Latest name in the mix in Tuscaloosa is Minnesota coach Richard Pitino, who may be parlaying his father’s connection to former Alabama coach C.M. Newton, who certainly has the ear of decision makers at ‘Bama.)

If Marshall isn’t the guy at Texas, Smart might be. Smart has been choosy, too, staying six seasons at the school he improbably took to the 2011 Final Four. He’s won at least 26 games every season and it’s very easy to conceive of Smart eventually cutting down Final Four nets in the right circumstance.

Should the Texas search fail to land either Marshall or Smart, Xavier’s Chris Mack merits consideration. Smart and Marshall have a combined three Sweet 16 appearances – same as Mack has all by himself. The only thing missing from his résumé is a Final Four.

Regardless, Texas is going to get a great coach. A better coach than the one it had – certainly better than the one it had the last seven seasons.

[coach]

Can't get too far when all your recruits are so good, they opt for the draft.

He's not poor, I don't feel sorry for him. He had a good long run. Just the crappy nature of the biz.

I hate this lame ass excuse. He isn't the only on that has this problem. Look at Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse, hell even ATM might have this problem next year. Dude has been bad for a while. This needed to happen about 5 years ago.


Some of the names I have heard so far are:


Gregg Marshall - Whitchita State
Shaka Smart - VCU
Brad Stevens - Boston Celtics
Avery Johnson - ESPN (why? who know? Would be dumb imo)
Fred Hoiberg (sp) - Iowa St.
Brad Underwood - SFA

[Saggy Aggie]

Looks like Shaka is the likely choice.

'Smart and strong'....

[YTBulldogs]

Looks like Shaka is the likely choice.

'Smart and strong'....

I hope. Really like him.

[Lion70]

Looks like Shaka is the likely choice.

'Smart and strong'....

Good combination name unfortunately.

[Tejastrue]

For the Barnes haters...didn't take long...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-...143527826.html

[New Taiton]

One thing we can all agree upon is that, much like football, Texas will hire whichever coach they'd like.

[hookandladder]

That's a good one, LMAO.

[Macarthur]

One thing we can all agree upon is that, much like football, Texas will hire whichever coach they'd like.

Huh? Why not Coach K? What about Tom Izzo? Bill Self?

This is why many dislike UT.