In a media release yesterday, the University of Texas announced that Rick Barnes will be the 2009 John R. Wooden Award “Legends of Coaching” Recipient.
It’s no secret that basketball has been an after thought at Texas for many, many years and it’s ridiculous to ever think that will change.
Texas is a football school first and foremost…and that’s what makes what Rick Barnes has done at Texas even more remarkable.
Recruiting TJ Ford and convincing him to come to Texas was the moment the tide turned. In the years before that, the athletes coming out of Houston and Dallas were all heading North to Kansas or Kentucky or East to one of the many ACC schools who were smart enough to come recruit those hotbeds of talent. Today that’s no longer the case. Not only are those kids looking at Texas, but RB has kids from North Carolina, Maryland, DC, and other such places normally dominated by the ACC actually interested in heading out West (see Kevin Durant).
In his first 10 years at the helm of the Longhorns, the 54-year-old Barnes has guided Texas to a school-record 10 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and a school-best nine straight 20-win seasons entering the 2008-09 campaign. Barnes became the all-time winningest coach in Texas history during the 2006-07 season. The Horns have registered a 247-93 (.726) mark in Barnes’ 10 seasons, an average of nearly 25 victories per year. UT is one of just eight programs to have advanced to each of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments, joining Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State and Wisconsin.
In the last seven seasons, Barnes has moved the Texas program into one of the nation’s elite. UT is one of only three programs to have advanced to at least the “Sweet 16″ of the NCAA Tournament in five of the last seven seasons, joining Duke and Kansas. Included in this seven-year stretch was a trip to the 2003 Final Four, marking the third time in school history and first since 1947 (a span of 56 years) that UT had advanced to the Final Four. Texas advanced to the “Elite Eight” in 2006 and 2008 and the “Sweet 16″ in 2002 and 2004.
Texas has produced 10 NBA picks under Barnes, including 2008 Wooden Award All-American D.J. Augustin, 2007 Wooden Award winner Kevin Durant and 2003 Wooden Award winner T.J. Ford. Texas is the only school in the nation with two Wooden Award winners in the last six years.
The best news for Texas fans is that it appears RB could be a lifer. He passed up a chance to return home to North Carolina when NC State came calling a few years ago and, depending on who you believe, he also passed up the chance to take over at Kentucky a few years ago. We all know he hates Carolina, so with those three out of the way, there doesn’t seem to be many more schools that could lure him away.
Previous Wooden Award “Legends of Coaching” Honorees:
Year____________ Coach, School
2009____________ Rick Barnes, Texas
2008____________ Pat Summitt, Tennessee
2007____________ Gene Keady, Purdue
2006____________ Jim Boeheim, Syracuse
2005____________ Jim Calhoun, Connecticut
2004____________ Mike Montgomery, Stanford
2003____________ Roy Williams, Kansas
2002____________ Denny Crum, Louisville
2001____________ Lute Olson, Arizona
2000____________ Mike Krzyzewski, Duke
1999____________ Dean Smith, North Carolina
/Gene Keady? Really?
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There are certainly more desirable jobs out there, but he turned down the chance to be a golden god in Raleigh, so I’m betting he’s not going anywhere.