Give out any derogatory phrase you want. Second Round Rick is not going to change the fact that Rick Barnes put his coaching prowess on display, and quite successfully, as Tennessee Basketball beat the UCLA Bruins 67-58 in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16.
After an ugly 77-62 win over the Wofford Terriers to begin March Madness, the Vols had to deal with a UCLA team hat won its first-round game by beating the Utah State Aggies 72-47 because Mick Cronin completely deviated from what got him to the Big Dance. Cronin decided to play two bigs.
While Tyler Bilodeau has been the star for UCLA in the post, Cronin found an advantage by playing two bigs and bringing in 7’3′ Aday Mara, who scored double figures and had five blocks in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64. Against a Tennessee team that isn’t that great on the interior and relatively thin, he thought that would give him an advantage.
Well, despite Cronin’s quick cards, Barnes saw otherwise. When Cronin tried to run out both bigs to overwhelm Tennessee matchup wise, it became clear Barnes was prepared to adjust, and he did just that. In fact, he took his adjustments to another level.
Barnes took a team that is outside of the to 300 when it comes to KenPom tempo rankings and possessions per game, and he decided to turn up the tempo. He pressed, trapped at midcourt and decided to deny teams buckets before they could ever dump it off.
The plan worked. As the Vols were trailing 25-24 late in the first half, they then went on an 8-0 run to go into the locker room up 32-24. They extended it to an 11-0 run in the second half to build a 35-24 lead, and they took the lead as high as 19 points before calling off the dogs and letting UCLA make the game look close.
This is a huge testament to Barnes. For a guy who has been coaching since the late 1980s and has just one Final Four appearance, the book on him is pretty accurate: He sticks to principles, doesn’t change with the times and focuses more on player development than X’s and O’s.
We can dismantle all those arguments pretty quickly, but the truth of the matter is that Barnes made incredible adjustments before halftime from an X’s and O’s standpoint, and that is more than enough proof that they should keep him. Barnes can coach, recruit and develop. His March Madness failures now just look like bad luck.
