Rick Barnes "overwhelmingly" named the USBWA National Coach of the Year

#26
#26
Congrats to the entire group - they have worked hard and played hard!

Especially to Coach Barnes the leader!
 
#27
#27
Unpopular opinion:

Rick Barnes takes a preseason eighth ranked team and finishes the season ranked eighth. Not sure what he did to earn "Coach of the Year" this year. Deserved it last year, though.
 
#31
#31
TennesseeFan07 said:
Unpopular opinion:

Rick Barnes takes a preseason eighth ranked team and finishes the season ranked eighth. Not sure what he did to earn "Coach of the Year" this year. Deserved it last year, though.
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Your "opinion" is based on a false premise.

Coach of the Year is a qualitative achievement based on a body of work. It is not determined by a simple final poll ranking, although a high ranking is likely to correlate with the award. By the way, Tennessee's final AP ranking was 6th not 8th, even though the ranking does not dictate the award. You did note the extended period the Vols were #1, I assume? Irrelevant?

How you can argue against the legitimacy of this award is beyond me. This isn't only an "unpopular" opinion, it is wrong.
 
#32
#32
Lurker said:
Your "opinion" is based on a false premise.

Coach of the Year is a qualitative achievement based on a body of work. It is not determined by a simple final poll ranking, although a high ranking is likely to correlate with the award. By the way, Tennessee's final AP ranking was 6th not 8th, even though the ranking does not dictate the award. You did note the extended period the Vols were #1, I assume? Irrelevant?

How you can argue against the legitimacy of this award is beyond me. This isn't only an "unpopular" opinion, it is wrong.
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Not sure how Chris Beard, Craig Smith or even Matt Painter would not be ranked ahead of Rick Barnes' accomplishments this season.
 
#33
#33
Taking a bunch of 3* players and leading them to an 31-5 record/ Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament isn’t impressive I’m sure.

No way Barnes deserves Coach of the Year. 🙄
 
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#34
#34
VolFreakJosh said:
Taking a bunch of 3* players and leading them to an 31-5 record/ Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament isn’t impressive I’m sure.

No way Barnes deserves Coach of the Year. 🙄
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Taking a defending SEC Championship team and finishing tied for second is extremely impressive.
 
#35
#35
To celebrate this amazing achievement I am planning to invite Bruce Pearl to a bbq at my home.

What a strange path from that day to having both the coach and player of the year.
 
#36
#36
TennesseeFan07 said:
Taking a defending SEC Championship team and finishing tied for second is extremely impressive.
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3 of the 4, 1 seeds didn’t win their conference......yet they still got a 1 seed........because of their body of work.

Barnes got this team to its best record EVER, got them to the seeet 16 for just the 8th time ever. He got this team to #1 in the country longer than they ever have been. He got this team to beat the preseason #1 sec team twice. With him as coach they beat a #1 ranked team and a #4 ranked team. His team was only beaten by no less than a 5 seed team (only Tennessee & Virginia can say that).
All without a single 5 or even 4 star recruit.
 
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#37
#37
The fact this award is voted on by college basketball sportswriters tells the tale for me. I think Barnes is deserving but I also think he's recognized as a good guy in the business and those writers wanted to reward him for a career resurgence.
 
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#38
#38
Lurker said:
Your "opinion" is based on a false premise.

Coach of the Year is a qualitative achievement based on a body of work. It is not determined by a simple final poll ranking, although a high ranking is likely to correlate with the award. By the way, Tennessee's final AP ranking was 6th not 8th, even though the ranking does not dictate the award. You did note the extended period the Vols were #1, I assume? Irrelevant?

How you can argue against the legitimacy of this award is beyond me. This isn't only an "unpopular" opinion, it is wrong.
Click to expand...

They likely considered the depths from which this program has risen (utter dumpster fire thanks to two cheaters) to the heights never before seen at UT (number of wins, weeks at #1)--all the while developing a bunch of lightly recruited players into all-conference and all-American candidates. And, it isn't like Tennessee has a rich history of basketball success to draw from (only the 8th Sweet Sixteen ever).

Deserving....I would say definitely so.
 
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