I haven’t talked to anybody, ever, about leaving Texas, I can tell you that," Barnes said. "I like where we are. I think we’ve still got some work to do here to finish it."

Barnes has been linked with the Virginia job, but his name has also surfaced with anticipated vacancies at Indiana and North Carolina State.

"There’s always going to be people looking for a scoop, snooping around, asking this and asking that," Barnes said. "First of all, I’ve got too much respect for this profession and its coaches who might be considered gone for me to be confirming or denying rumors about jobs that aren’t even open."

Just because Barnes hasn’t been contacted yet by other universities doesn’t mean it won’t happen. In fact, it should. Despite the fact that his current depleted roster has produced an on-the-bubble 19-9 record, Barnes is considered a hot commodity in Division-I circles after guiding a so-called Football School to three straight ‘Sweet Sixteen’ appearances.

"I’ve always said I’m going to be as honest as I can about everything, but I’m not going to lie. I plan on being at Texas for a long time. That’s what I plan on doing. Do I know what’s going to happen in the future? I absolutely don’t."

Barnes concedes, however, that he has kept previous job moves as clandestine as possible to mollify the rumor mill. Case-in-point: Barnes agreed to leave his "dream job" at George Mason University to interview at Providence "under one circumstance -- we do it at midnight, we do it in Boston." He also told Providence officials that "if you want to show me the campus, we’ll ride down there at two in the morning."

That, in fact, was what Barnes did. He followed the popular Rick Pitino and coached at Providence form 1988-94. Then, when Barnes left Providence for Clemson, "I had the job for six weeks and nobody knew it. I accepted the job at the end of January."

The same thing happened when Texas Men’s AD DeLoss Dodds contacted Barnes in 1998.

"They called and I said, ‘When you really want to get serious and talk about it, I don’t want anybody to know about it. I’m not coming to Austin; I’ll meet you in Dallas.’ And that’s what we did."

Barnes actually interviewed (again, secretly) for the Virginia job while he was still at Providence.

"I went down and met them in Washington, accepted the job and drove down to Charlottesville, met the president and was planning to meet the incoming president. In between, I decided that I wasn’t going to leave."
Barnes would not elaborate on the factors that prompted his change of decision, although he added that the (then) president of Providence College would have reluctantly released him from his contract.

"I understand rumors and some of them get annoying," Barnes said. "Some of them are hilarious. You get to where you think you’re going to have to talk about every one of them. The fact of the matter is, I don’t know the future. I hope I’m around for a long time, but I don’t know."

via packpride

[Edited on April 5, 2006 at 1:02 AM. Reason : d]

4/5/2006 1:01:44 AM

http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=398275&page=19

4/5/2006 1:02:43 AM

ahhh, i dont check these threads much

but if u dont read that one, then u would miss it

so...my thread has a somewhat valid point

4/5/2006 1:04:10 AM

Its not valid because theres a billion page thread dedicated to the topic.

learn2internet.

4/5/2006 2:18:42 AM

it's better that he see our campus at 2 am, just hope a rat doesnt bite him though

4/5/2006 11:50:21 AM

do we still have monthly armed robberies at 2am on campus like we did a few years back?

lock your doors, Rick

4/5/2006 11:59:27 AM

after reading that

Rick Barnes is the man

[Edited on April 5, 2006 at 12:49 PM. Reason : not that he should coach here...but he's awesome]

4/5/2006 12:48:25 PM