Seems like a nice guy and all, which is good. He'd better be. He's a horrible basketball coach. Please observe:
TJ Ford (2003, 1st Rd, 8th Pick)
LaMarcus Aldridge (2006, 1stRd, 2nd Pick)
Kevin Durant (2007, 1stRd, 2nd Pick)
DJ Augustine (2008, 1st Rd, 9th Pick)
Damion James (Proj 2010 13th Pick)*
Avery Bradley (Proj 2010 15th Pick)*
Dexter Pitman (Proj 2010 27th Pick)*
Dogus Balbay (Proj 2010 Pasha of Turkish BB)*
WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED RICK BARNES? WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS FAILING? It's like every year the guy buys a new Ferrari but runs it into a lake before he can get it home from the dealer. Last night's game was pretty tough to watch, mostly because I wanted Kansas to lose. How is Texas this bad? What has he done?
TOURNEY:
2003: 1 seed, lost to 3 seed
2004: 3 seed, lost to 7 seed
2005: 8 seed, lost to 9 seed
2006: 2 seed, lost to 4 seed
2007: 4 seed, lost to 5 seed
2008: 2 seed, lost to 1 seed
2009: 7 seed, lost to 2 seed
Now, there's no shame in losing to Carmelo in '03, or to Big Baby/Tyrus Thomas/Temple etc in '06, or to DRose and CDR in '09. But with all that talent, plus an AJ Abrams, PJ Tucker, Boobie Gibson here and there, you'd have to ask yourself whether or not an elite program would be satisfied with 1 final four over all of that time.
And I love him. Why? Because he's the epitome of what is still great about college ball: it takes more than recruiting to win.
* From nbadraft.net; I have no idea if they know what they're talking about.
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And I'll be the first to admit that with 3 guys slated to be picked in the top 10 of this year's draft (and 2 more projected in the 1st round of next year's draft), anything less than a championship for Kentucky this year would be a complete disappointment.
ReplyDeleteYou're a dead man.
ReplyDeleteThey made it kind of far in a couple of those tourneys, you know. When they lost to Melo in 2003, they were in the final four.
ReplyDeleteAnd they only lost because Hakim Warrick spanked a Royal Ivey (you forgot to mention him on your list of erstwhile pros) jumper into the Atlantic Ocean.
Scary to think that you could have had Augustine, Durant, Tucker, Aldridge, and Abrams on one team.
ReplyDeleteIf the Blazers didn't draft Greg Oden, Durant would be playing with Aldridge in the L.
ReplyDeleteI get you're point but I would say that half of a coaches worth in college sports is the ability to recruit, so I wouldn't really overlook or diminish it.
ReplyDeleteB-B-B-B-BASKETBALL!
ReplyDelete