MrSEC grades SEC coaches after conference exits tourney.

[IronMan70 3,277]

He has some interesting comments on some of the coaches. His take on Barbee ?

Tony Barbee, Auburn — D

Record: 9-23 (3-15 in SEC)

RPI Rank: 250

" Quite simply, Auburn was one of the worst teams in the nation this year. Somehow the Tigers even managed to finish below South Carolina and Mississippi State in conference play. Unlike Ray and Martin, Barbee gets no pass for a weak roster because — in his third-year — he had a big hand in his roster. He also had a veteran team featuring nine juniors or seniors. According to a few of the players, some on the team failed to buy in to Barbee’s system and style. The only reason Barbee gets a D rather than an F is that everyone saw a crash coming. It’s just that no one saw how bad a crash it would be. Barbee is most definitely on the hot seat moving forward."

link: http://www.mrsec.com/2013/04/with-the-sec-out-the-coaching-grades-are-in/#more-268291

[AU64 10,122]

IMO a good analysis.  The big problem is that, as noted, some players did not buy into TB's system....and unfortunately some of those were the seniors that should have been providing leadership.   TB did everything possible to bring some of them around, .....suspended some, sat some at the start of games, yanked them for dumb or selfish plays during games and for some, they lost about all their playing time.   Still....nothing seemed to work and the team never improved during the season....other than by the addition of Denson though he seemed to have problems with TB and his playing time varied quite a bit from one game to the next.   As someone noted early in the season when Chubb had some negative comments about TB, there is not much you can do to a senior....and I think some others felt that way too...and did not feel the need to conform to the TB system.   Basically those guys are gone and TB will have his own recruits this coming year.    The seat will be hot from game #1.

[NoALtiger 3,873]

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50??

[AU64 10,122]

Rest easy NoAL.... AU's lousy RPI and the win over Bama kept them out of the NCAA tourney. Every storm cloud has a silver lining somewhere.

[NoALtiger 3,873]

Ha, I hear ya 64. Im basically looking at our bball situation in a pretty humorous way these days, it beats the alternative.

[danno 2]

Basketball and Baseball are a joke. If the players did not buy in to his system he should have sat the ones that did not on the bench and let the others play, regardless of how much playing time they had. I do not think it would have caused us to lose any more games. I had high hopes for Baseball after reading different articles before the season started. My feeling is that both coaches need to go. Both coaches have been there long enough to make an improvement.

[WarEagle10 77]

9-23 and 3-15 is a D? MrSEC is generous IMO.

[Scottie 124]

Barbee's overall record since arriving here is 35-59 with a 12-38 in conference record (fyi). A D is being generous.

[keesler 5,928]

9-23 and 3-15 is a D? MrSEC is generous IMO.

That's a flat out F in my book.

Coaches have ways of forcing players to "buy-in" to their philosophy - unfortunately, basketball has such a limited roster that when just a few don't buy in, it affects the production of the whole squad. Hopefully Tony can get his point across in the off-season and get better results next year.

[aucanucktiger 1,798]

I haven't noticed Barbee change his system lately so "players not buying into" it is a bit odd. That's kind of a catch phrase anyway these days.

[Tiger 8,830]

Not buying into the system can stem from a few things IMO...if the players feel they aren't being treated well (ex: calling Chubb out in the media by name), aren't being listened to, feel disrespected, etc that can all lead to that. Its not uncommon among bad/floundering teams. The players start to become disinterested because they feel a certain way, and then once repetitive losing kicks in then the players REALLY check out because if the coach is going to be that way, it had better yield some wins.

Not saying this is good or bad, but in a basketball locker room when everybody is so close this is not uncommon. Throw in the fact that there was a player point shaving last year (W T F) and its pretty clear that Barbee just doesn't have control of his players, and they don't respect him. He hasn't proven he can win at Auburn. The players know this, they have been a part of it. And judging on some of his post-game pressers I can see why the players would feel a certain way about him.

Its unfortunate, and ultimately I do think Barbee can be successful with better players who actually follow the system. I wonder what his teams looked like at his previous school in terms of style of play and whatnot, I'd like to compare it to Auburn's team.

[AU64 10,122]

Not "buying in" can be attributed to several things but IMO a key factor was that TB had two teams... guys left over from the Lebo days..... and those he had recruited. I had to wonder about the unity of those two groups. As for "buying in", or not buying in, IMO it was evidenced by such things as lackadaisical defense, selfish play, one pass and a shot, failure to establish a true team offense, lack of aggressive rebounding, etc. Everyone watching the team was aware of this type stuff which seemed to get worse in the second half of the season. TB tried to address these problems publicly and most likely, also in private. He took some punitive actions (sat players, suspended a couple, called some out in hopes their pride would cause them to respond, pulled them for selfish play or careless turnovers ) and nothing seemed to change the behavior of the malefactors. I don't have to name names 'cause anyone watching our games who knows a bit about basketball, knows who I'm talking about. <br />

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Any issues about how the young players feel about TB will be known soon.....if any decide to move on at the end of the year....although none have yet indicated those kind of plans. Likewise, the new recruits seem excited about playing for him so they must see something that many of us don't see. Next year will be TB's team and not excuses about the business of "buying in"....and it better show up in the team's play.

[AUslug 1]

How Barbee kept his job after his second 20 loss season in 3 years is beyond me. Jay Jacobs is a buffoon and the plummeting state of the entire athletic department is a testament to his ineptitude.

[rtftiger 40]

...and why don't we believe that it's actually TB's job to get players to buy in? That seems like a baseline leadership quality. Further, when did players like Sullivan and Chubb show signs of not buying in? Was it before or after Frankie played 34 minutes a game or Chubb inexplicably became the first option in the final 2 minutes of close games early this year?

Not "buying in" can be attributed to several things but IMO a key factor was that TB had two teams... guys left over from the Lebo days..... and those he had recruited. I had to wonder about the unity of those two groups. As for "buying in", or not buying in, IMO it was evidenced by such things as lackadaisical defense, selfish play, one pass and a shot, failure to establish a true team offense, lack of aggressive rebounding, etc. Everyone watching the team was aware of this type stuff which seemed to get worse in the second half of the season. TB tried to address these problems publicly and most likely, also in private. He took some punitive actions (sat players, suspended a couple, called some out in hopes their pride would cause them to respond, pulled them for selfish play or careless turnovers ) and nothing seemed to change the behavior of the malefactors. I don't have to name names 'cause anyone watching our games who knows a bit about basketball, knows who I'm talking about.

Any issues about how the young players feel about TB will be known soon.....if any decide to move on at the end of the year....although none have yet indicated those kind of plans. Likewise, the new recruits seem excited about playing for him so they must see something that many of us don't see. Next year will be TB's team and not excuses about the business of "buying in"....and it better show up in the team's play.

[AU64 10,122]

...and why don't we believe that it's actually TB's job to get players to buy in? That seems like a baseline leadership quality. Further, when did players like Sullivan and Chubb show signs of not buying in? Was it before or after Frankie played 34 minutes a game or Chubb inexplicably became the first option in the final 2 minutes of close games early this year?

Not "buying in" can be attributed to several things but IMO a key factor was that TB had two teams... guys left over from the Lebo days..... and those he had recruited. I had to wonder about the unity of those two groups. As for "buying in", or not buying in, IMO it was evidenced by such things as lackadaisical defense, selfish play, one pass and a shot, failure to establish a true team offense, lack of aggressive rebounding, etc. Everyone watching the team was aware of this type stuff which seemed to get worse in the second half of the season. TB tried to address these problems publicly and most likely, also in private. He took some punitive actions (sat players, suspended a couple, called some out in hopes their pride would cause them to respond, pulled them for selfish play or careless turnovers ) and nothing seemed to change the behavior of the malefactors. I don't have to name names 'cause anyone watching our games who knows a bit about basketball, knows who I'm talking about.

Any issues about how the young players feel about TB will be known soon.....if any decide to move on at the end of the year....although none have yet indicated those kind of plans. Likewise, the new recruits seem excited about playing for him so they must see something that many of us don't see. Next year will be TB's team and not excuses about the business of "buying in"....and it better show up in the team's play.

I sure don't know what happened to the AU team....or precisely when it happened. But no doubt, something happened during the season. After Denson was back, the team showed some potential for several games but at some point (maybe during or after the Artky OT loss) this was not the same team. Only one win from there on out and that was against a Bama team that couldn't toss the ball into the ocean that night....or maybe because Cam was there to rally the troops. I'm generally of the view that the players are supposed to adapt to the methods of the coach and not the other way around....and I expect there is more going on than we know.. Still, I'm not into just blaming the coach for the dysfunctional group of players and acting as if the players are the innocents.

[DANSBY 0]

I know I'm in the minority, I'm still a fan of Barbee. Can't explain why...but I still support the guy.

[AUGoo 2,664]

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50??

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

[WarEagle10 77]

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50??

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

There are 345 Div. I basketball programs.

[NoALtiger 3,873]

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. :)/> 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50?? :)/>

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

There are 345 Div. I basketball programs.

Well, seems like there's 95 teams that need to be on our upcoming schedules right there. Ha!

[AUGoo 2,664]

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. :)/> 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50?? :)/>

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

There are 345 Div. I basketball programs.

95 teams worse than ours?

Hard to imagine.

[WarEagle10 77]

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. :)/> 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50?? :)/>

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

There are 345 Div. I basketball programs.

95 teams worse than ours?

Hard to imagine.

Obviously it's not an exact science.

[augolf1716 21,305]

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. :)/> 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50?? :)/>

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

There are 345 Div. I basketball programs.

95 teams worse than ours?

Hard to imagine.

Obviously it's not an exact science.

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. :)/> 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50?? :)/>

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

There are 345 Div. I basketball programs.

95 teams worse than ours?

Hard to imagine.

Obviously it's not an exact science.

you should know

[WarEagle10 77]

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. :)/> 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50?? :)/>

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

There are 345 Div. I basketball programs.

95 teams worse than ours?

Hard to imagine.

Obviously it's not an exact science.

We had an RPI of 250? Holy crap, I didn't realize they even bothered counting it that high up. :)/> 250, seriously? Really? 250? 2 frickin 50?? :)/>

How did it get that high?

Who was worse than us?

250 out of how many teams?

There are 345 Div. I basketball programs.

95 teams worse than ours?

Hard to imagine.

Obviously it's not an exact science.

you should know

Huh? I will give you a D for effort. (It's hard to get an F around here)