2019-2020 Season

Just wait until we barely hit .500 this season.

 

It’s unimaginable that this should occur any more frequently than once every 15 years or so, when you’ve got the third highest paid coach in the country.

There are 1,000 coaches who we could pay half of Bruin Barnes’ salary, and who could make 2 out of 5 tournaments.

Those second round and Sweet 16 games aren’t just going to lose themselves.

 

Also, and to be fair, I think you’re failing to fully realize the dominant force that Yves Pons and John Fulkerson will undoubtedly rise to be next year.

If each are really, REALLY coached up and spend hundreds of off-season hours in the gym this off-season, I think we can expect each to double their production next season, meaning, they’ll make it to the second dribble before bouncing it off their own feet, and out of bounds. Of course, this assumes that they’ll actually catch the ball, once passed to them.

A man can dream, can’t he?

This is exactly why you make Bruin Barnes the third highest paid coach - for the continuous stockpiling of elite talent, such as this.

 

Pons is an athlete and came in fairly highly rated. it is a an n of 1, but I would think a top 5 coach can get him into some sort of all conference performance level.

 

The 10th highest paid coach should be able to start my fat, old ass at point, and win .500 games.

The 3rd highest paid coach shouldn’t get caught in any situation where he’ll need to rely on me, or anything less than elite talent, short of any scenario that doesn’t also involve a meteor hitting the earth.

 

We'd sweep the Mole men and meet the California Wasteland Tech Mutants in the conference title game for sure, in post-meteor NCAA basketball.

Of course, after several years of continuous winter from the dust, even those squads will be gone and the NCAA will be forced to grant eligibility to the cockroaches, while waiting for higher life to once again evolve. Bama will hang a lot of banners in that time.

 

Someone on TOOS was saying something about us bringing in a transfer PG once Bone confirms he's staying in. I think the line of thought was that he'd have to sit a year, and I didn't see mention of a waiver request.

 

Believe I may skip hoops forum next year. Goodness.

 

Surely Bruin Barnes, being the third highest paid coach, understands that he needs help next season, and has been preparing for exactly this easily foreseeable eventuality.

 

The Plavsic kid is going the hardship waiver route. He’s the more immediate need for next year. The PG would be available the following year after we lose Turner and Bowden, which is when we will need him.

Honestly, the fact that Barnes has replaced each departure with someone new almost immediately after the departure became known shows that he’s been prepared. But that’s assuming he does get the PG transfer and that his replacements pan out.

 

All this wailing and [itch bay]ing, this will be the Final Four team

 

How would you compare last year’s starting five, versus next year’s?

And then, what about the same for bench players?

Finally, do you think that either Pons or Fulkerson are SEC-caliber players, and if not, when do you hope they might be?

 

Fan heat, not administration heat.

 

Personally I prefer to actually experience failure before [itch bay]ing. Preemptive [itch bay]ing just makes me feel bad for no good reason. Try a little living in the moment people.

 

I don't see how it is [itch bay]ing to celebrate the peace of mind that stems from having a top 5 coach.

 

Its comical. Coming off most wins in program history, possibly 3 nba draft picks, none of which were expected to ever be drafted when signed. A 5* coming in. Trying to fill spots and snag a 7'1 kid with D1 experience, and a good coach here for awhile.
Anybody with any basketball sense already knew next year was going to be tough losing what we are losing, and still early into building a consistent program to boot. Hopefully the staff can develop as they did with their first group of players and they play some good ball. Add in a couple 5* talent coming in and who knows.
Basketball is about pieces, parts and role players. If the team has shooters at 1-4 (Pember and Kent are stretch 4s and 5s, which we havent had and they are open at the key in Barnes offense), a couple of big guys, and the 5* plays with an edge, they can compete.
Barnes gets paid enough to make it happen. Defense will be the deciding factor and should improve.

 

Year 5 is early into building a consistent program? How many years do you figure is reasonable? How many years do you think Barnes will continue working?

 

3 years removed from picked next to last in preseason SEC. We havent enough experience and depth yet to handle the surprise success of losing Bone and Grant early. I dont have a timeframe. Need to see how development goes this year and judge Barnes on how they play and look, while considering how they would had Grant and Bone still been here as planned a year ago. Replacing successful underclassmen is foreign to our program and Barnes has to get transfers and recruit immediate impact players to help.
I dont know how long he will coach. I imagine he is here until he quits or is fired. If he has a bad year next year and decides thats it for some reason, so be it. I dont care. Hes a gym rat though.

 

"3 years removed from picked next to last in the preseason SEC". I haven't the faintest idea why you keep referencing this useless and irrelevant factoid, which is now at some odd "3 years removed" stage. Barnes is, beyond any reason, getting paid as a top 5 coach, despite having his team even in the top 16 only once in the last decade. As a result, there are certain expectations.

Now, I'm willing to cut him some slack next year if his 2020 recruiting class pans out the way it appears to be (Although, I'm not sure why he's using scholarships on ok transfers instead of preserving them for the stud recruits on the radar, but that's his deal.). As you noted, there are fluctuations. But, his recruiting of lower level talent he can coach up hasn't worked out as well in recent classes and he should be expected to make the tournament, as a minimal goal, each season. I'm not going to complain preemptively, but I have my expectations set at what the admin should for this upcoming season, in my opinion.

 

It was in response to IPs question about it being yr 5, so yes we were a bottom of the sec program 3 years ago. It's perspective. Some have it and some don't.