Texas fires Rick Barnes proving winning is just not enough

In the modern era of college sports being a consistent winner at a high level of competition is no longer good enough. Case in point, Nebraska fired head football coach Bo Pelini in 2014 after seven years of winning at least nine games every season during his tenure, but that was still not good enough for the Cornhusker faithful.

Another example of high level of achieving but not to a perceived standard for an overzealous fan base was the Saturday dismissal of Texas Longhorns men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes.

Barnes was a well seasoned head coach with stops at George Mason (1987-1988), Providence (1988-1994), and Clemson (1994-1998) before taking over at Texas in 1998. Over 17 years in Austin Coach Barnes led the Longhorns to the NCAA Tournament 16 times failing only failing to receive a bid at the end of the 2012-2013 season. Texas bounced back the following year to make a run into the third round of the NCAA Tournament and was ousted in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament after losing to Butler 56-48.

Texas finished the season 20-14, a very respectable record for any Division-I team in a power conference. That record now means Barnes finishes his career with the Longhorns taking the program to five Sweet 16 appearances (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2008), three Elite Eight appearances (2003, 2006, and 2008), and one Final Four (2003).

One can easily argue Barnes best days at a football-first school are behind him but the 70-year-old has won 20 or more games 15 times while at the helm of the Texas program giving fans something to cheer about but just not the flirtation with winning a national championship or challenging the University of Kansas consistently for a Big 12 regular season title.

In the end not escaping past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2008 was his ultimate failure. Another problem was high preseason expectations. The Longhorns were a Top 10 team going into the season but finished 8-10 in Big 12 play.

Now Texas athletic director Steve Patterson must not only find someone who can win year in and year out but be able to not only challenge basketball blueblood Kansas for a Big 12 Conference title every year but extend the team past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament on a regular basis. Recruiting out of the talent rich state of Texas this should not be too big of a problem, but then again for a good coach like Barnes that proved to be a difficult task.

 

Written by Ryan Wright

Photo credit: dallasnews.com; Former Texas head coach Rick Barnes