Fast Rising Candidate: Tony Barbee of UTEP

AKAGOATMAN said:
Take a chill pill man, You cant put the blame of how these kids behave off the court just on the Coach. Last I checked these kids werent in the military and they are finally free for the first time in their life to party and chase college tail. There is only so much a coach can do
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You can if they recruit the kid as a transfer knowing full well that he's a head case--which is what Barbee did.
 
Thawki said:
While we don't need to be concerned with the color of the coach's skin, the fact that he could be a person of color in a state with, what, 6% minority population, would be a plus from the standpoint of exposing people to something they might not get otherwise.

When you are exposed to something that is different, you find that although you might be different, that doesn't mean you aren't also a lot alike. Then there might be less prejudice in that part of the world in question.
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I think you read me a little wrong. I don't think a black coach would be good to create more tolerance in Iowa. I believe Iowa is plenty tolerant. If Iowa were a racist haven, then I doubt a black man could win both the caucus and the state's electoral votes. While there certainly are enclaves of intolerance in Iowa, I don't think racial intolerance has ever been a problem in the state.

What I was getting at was changing how others outside of Iowa view the state. If a high profile black coach were to come in and have success at Iowa, I think it could make Iowa look better in general. Like it or not, but the highest profile people from the state are not our leaders, but our athletic coaches. Showing minorities coming into Iowa and having success and being embraced by the community would be a great thing for the state, which is generally viewed by others as full of white farmers.
 
Thawki said:
Freddy, I agree with you to a degree.

However, part of that comes with what a program lets you get away with, too. If a program plays it by the book and a coach comes there knowing that, I think our concerns in this area can be mitigated.
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So you're saying that you'd be comfortable with a guy who will cheat if no one is looking over his shoulder?

I have no direct evidence that Barbee has cheated, but I do believe Calipari and his staff are exactly the kind of people you describe: They will and have done anything they can get away with.

Barbee and Milt Wagner are absolutely steeped in Calipari's ethics. How could they avoid being so? He hand picked them. They also landed at a place that is pretty much the Wild West of college basketball. Does UTEP even have an administration?

As I said above, every candidate should be evaluated on his own merits. But if I were doing the due diligence, I'd have some serious questions for and about Barbee and his staff, and I don't know that they could be satisfactorily answered.

The idea of Milt Wagner recruiting for Iowa is frightening.
 
Could Barbee succeed at Iowa? Sure..

Do I want him at Iowa? I'm just not sure it would be a good fit.

Think it is in our best interest to look elsewhere..
 
You can rip me if you want for saying this, but I personally would love a black coach at Iowa. It would do wonders for recruiting, if you know what I mean.
 
Take a pass on Barbee, he would a step back from the last 2 basketball HC hires. He has 0 NCAA Tourney skins. His recruiting is also overrated, his old boss John Calipari basically funneled him a bunch of Memphis kids that weren't good enough to play at Memphis.
 
HawkeyeNTexas said:
You can rip me if you want for saying this, but I personally would love a black coach at Iowa. It would do wonders for recruiting, if you know what I mean.
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I can speak for myself only when I say I won't rip you for it. I know exactly what you mean. A Black coach will most likely be able to recruit black players- which so happens most black basketball players have more athletic ability than white players- of course that doesn't mean one race is better than another, but it is just factually correct.
In my opinion it just seems like we are wanting both, and what Thawki pointed out, which I assume is geographically correct (Iowa has a "6% minority population") we can't have it both ways. Iowa is known for the clean cut kids or the farm boys with great work ethic and can easily be molded into a ball player. We love having the local boys come play for us and do well, but if we want to build a powerhouse team we have got to bring in some heavy hitters with skill and aggressiveness (no matter the color of skin they have) which may mean only 1 or 2 local kids is a part of that rather than a whole mediocre team full of local kids.
 
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Logically:
Butler > UTEP thus Lickliter > Barbee
 
AKAGOATMAN said:
I can speak for myself only when I say I won't rip you for it. I know exactly what you mean. A Black coach will most likely be able to recruit black players- which so happens most black basketball players have more athletic ability than white players- of course that doesn't mean one race is better than another, but it is just factually correct.
In my opinion it just seems like we are wanting both, and what Thawki pointed out, which I assume is geographically correct (Iowa has a "6% minority population") we can't have it both ways. Iowa is known for the clean cut kids or the farm boys with great work ethic and can easily be molded into a ball player. We love having the local boys come play for us and do well, but if we want to build a powerhouse team we have got to bring in some heavy hitters with skill and aggressiveness (no matter the color of skin they have) which may mean only 1 or 2 local kids is a part of that rather than a whole mediocre team full of local kids.
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Black coaches are going to be able to recruit black players better?
Eesh...
 
storminspank said:
Black coaches are going to be able to recruit black players better?
Eesh...
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This is up for debate, and you could debate the topic all day. Too many factors to list other than the coach just being black. Example: Kentucky has a white coach, but mainly black athletes. That has to do with tradition and also the quality of the coach. A school like Iowa traditionally has a high percentage of white athletes. I think if you were to higher a black coach, you would have a better chance of getting a black player to come to a school like Iowa. It's the law of averages.

When is the last time Iowa had a really good NBA type athlete? If you want to play in the NBA, you don't play at Iowa.

Ricky Davis? Reggie Evans?
 
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