Keeping coaches too long after they start losing year after year is not a good thing and I blame Bob Stull for that. I don't think Mr Senter will be so tolerant. At least I hope not.
Tony Barbee
- Thread starter MinerManiac
- Start date
I wondered when Barbee did the radio interview for EP sports talk recently if he was kind of floating the idea of him coming back to UTEP. He said he wanted to be a head coach again and his time with the Miners was a success so it would not surprise me if he is campaigning for the job.
I'd welcome him back if he's actually lobbying for the job because, if that's the case, that means that he wants to be here now. I think he was humbled at Auburn and has a better perspective on El Paso's and UTEP's basketball tradition.
As for you guys asking what happened at Auburn, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Here's the quote from Wikipedia:
"The Barbee era at Auburn was fraught with off the court issues. Following the 2011–12 season, Auburn point guard Varez Ward was arrested on charges of point shaving. Of the 21 players that Barbee signed while at Auburn, only 9 remained on his roster in his 4th season due to player dismissals and transfers." <- Click
The transfer epidemic is real with this snowflake generation. Nobody is safe.
As for you guys asking what happened at Auburn, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Here's the quote from Wikipedia:
"The Barbee era at Auburn was fraught with off the court issues. Following the 2011–12 season, Auburn point guard Varez Ward was arrested on charges of point shaving. Of the 21 players that Barbee signed while at Auburn, only 9 remained on his roster in his 4th season due to player dismissals and transfers." <- Click
The transfer epidemic is real with this snowflake generation. Nobody is safe.
Look, bashing the younger generation is a deeply rich human tradition; it's in our DNA and it's tribal. However, this younger generation is fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and every where else.
The NCAA can tighten up the transfer rules if they so wish, but they won't. So don't blame the players. The LOI has no strong legal binding to a college player unlike a Deed of Trust or any other promissory note at this point in history. If you fail on keeping agreement, you get foreclosed on or remediation through repossession occurs. For the LOI, it's sit out a year. Do we all want the college players' guardian or parent to tell them "Keep to your commitment"? Sure we do; however, it's not realistic.
My point in saying this is the new coach has a hot bed of a city hungry for a conference title and NCAA dance. Floyd thought his ticket for success was recruiting high risk-high reward players and it blew up in his face like a dye pack at a bank robbery. Well, it's over. If it's Barbee, I'm cool with it, but he had his chance. Barbee's players stayed at UTEP and showed progress. Like football, there a thousands of alienated UTEP bball fans and the coach will have to do a PR job like no other former UTEP coach before him (or her). Floyd did that much damage.
My brotha...winning will be all the PR our next bb coach needs. At the very least, it’ll get the ball rolling, making whatever PR is necessary, very easy.
Not saying it’ll change overnight but winning cures an awful lot.
NMSU, Nevada, St Mary's and other similar schools don't seem to have issues with the transfer epidemic or snowflakes.
Guess its only a valid excuse when you underperform?
Nevada had alot of problems with turnover until recently. St Mary's developed and Australian pipeline about 15 years ago and play in a great league. NMSU develops players very well. Player development is a huge part of transfers. Floyd was always looking for the quick fix to get out of here. The successful teams at this level have juniors and seniors who have improved each year with development.
Nevada improved recently because they got a competent coach.
St Marys plays with Gonzaga and BYU plus a bunch of nobodies. San Diego was the last team other than those 3 to make the NCAAs from the conference and that was in 2008!
If NMSU can do it, there's no reason UTEP can't.
Its the coaches, not the players.
I actually see a couple of similarities between Dimel and Barbee.
Both had success at their first HC job. Both failed at their second gig. Both returned to their mentor to improve their coaching skills. Only difference is Dimal waited 15 years to return as a HC. It seems Barbee is ready to get back into it after four years away as a HC.
Both had success at their first HC job. Both failed at their second gig. Both returned to their mentor to improve their coaching skills. Only difference is Dimal waited 15 years to return as a HC. It seems Barbee is ready to get back into it after four years away as a HC.
That's a silly rumor. A team who made it that far is not to give up in the Big Dance.
I've seen people say that they talked to one of the players and it definitely happened, and I've seen people say that they talked to one of the players and it absolutely didn't happen. So no one knows, except for the team and coaching staff.
Even if true, I find it hard to believe that the players would suddenly lose all interest in an NCAA Tournament game. They were in the Big Dance, the big stage; I would think they'd be pumped to give it their best shot.
You know, Butler made the NCAA finals; maybe they were just a really good team that got hot in the second half?
No ominous conspiracy theory we just got our ass kicked.
Not only did they make the finals, they were a missed shot that hit the back of the iron away from winning it all.
Barbee is HC material. He relished the job. Players were working out way before the sun came up. I remember one Barbee player saying (while Barbee was still at UTEP) they love game day because it was a break from his hard ass practices or something to that affect.
I really liked Barbee when he arrived on campus. I grew tired of his aloofness and his no it all attitude. Going to Auburn that was a Football school with some basketball history was always going to require hard work and a dose of humble pie. He seems to be happy at KY as the "handler" and I wish him well.
I like Barbee. People talk about his lack of people skills but I've never seen another coach walk over to Cincinatti district to give a pep talk to the fans. He walked the whole place before a game and happened to walk into Crawdaddies while I was there having a beer.
He also did that while fans were in line to buy tickets for the CBI and he went to bat for the fans saying ticket prices were keeping fans away. And he did everything clean aside from his connections with WW Wes. And I loved the Memphis connection.
I don't necessarily believe he could do it again but If we gave him the chance, I wouldn't be bent out of shape about it.
He also did that while fans were in line to buy tickets for the CBI and he went to bat for the fans saying ticket prices were keeping fans away. And he did everything clean aside from his connections with WW Wes. And I loved the Memphis connection.
I don't necessarily believe he could do it again but If we gave him the chance, I wouldn't be bent out of shape about it.
I always heard that the players basically felt betrayed and said to hell with him and just stopped listening to him. One of the rumors was Christian Polk actually got confrontational and said FU, you’re not my coach. May be just a rumor but I remember at the time it had a lot of traction.
I’ve heard that as well. And that is why the team took a dump in the 2nd half vs Butler. But that was “from a friend of a friend of a friend” who knew someone.
That was a special Butler team. They were canning it from all over because Caracter ruled the paint. Their perimeter defense was solid and played very disciplined and controlled the tempo immediately because they did not want to get into a fast paced game that UTEP was more comfortable with.
That Butler team was impressive. And they made their run with a 6’8” goofy big, Matt Howard, who had zero flash but was Mr. Fundamental.
Barbee is not the answer. I seriously doubt he will have the same success
he did when he first got here. The main reason is that he failed in Auburn.
Recruits are going to look at him different than when he came out of Memphis.
Back than Memphis had a name.
Go Miners...
he did when he first got here. The main reason is that he failed in Auburn.
Recruits are going to look at him different than when he came out of Memphis.
Back than Memphis had a name.
Go Miners...
That Butler team was loaded talent-wise. Howard (agree he was goofy) was the POY in his conference, and was probably the third best player on that team, behind Shelvin Mack and Gordon Hayward. That UTEP team was talented as well, but Butler was just better. It is unfortunate we had to run into them in the first round. That UTEP was "built for a long NCAA tourney run", as Barbee was found of saying, but they just ran into a buzzsaw.
And Moultrie would have likely stayed. Anybody have a time machine and a million dollars?
and we were hosting the Conference tournament. We were pretty much a lock for the NCAA.
We’ll never for sure what would have happened that next year if Barbee would have returned. But that team was primed to do some major damage. The fact that Floyd changed everything and they were still within a minute or two of winning the conference tournament tells you how great those guys were minus Character and Moultrie.
