Friday, March 24, 2017

Coach Rod Barnes

I have always liked Coach Barnes. His teams play hard-nosed defense. He took Ole Miss to the Sweet 16 in 2001, but then his teams fell on hard times, and he landed at Georgia State, where he never got rolling. At that time they were in the Colonial Athletic Conference, where the competition was at that time considerably tougher than in the SBC, where GSU later moved.

Finally, Barnes landed at Cal State Bakersfield, which was just about the bottom of the heap. At that time they were an independent, but after two years they found a home in the WAC. (Bakersfield has only been Division 1 since 2007.) In his fifth year, they made the NCAA tournament. In his sixth year there, he has taken his team to the Final Four of the NIT, and maybe more to come.

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