When you hear the term “Southern gentleman,” Rod Barnes should come to mind right away. He’s warm, engaging, easy to get along with and easy to like. That’s just one reason it’s unfortunate that he never really got a chance at Georgia State.
Barnes was let go as the team’s head coach less than a week before the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. There are plenty of reasons why this was bad news. There’s the practical side, for one. There’s the part of you that remembers his character, which is relatively immaterial since the first things he is supposed to do are win games and graduate players, but still weighs on anyone evaluating the situation. And there’s the part where the facts of the situation come into play as well.
Anytime a coach is fired during the season, a simple question comes to mind: Why now? What will the school gain by firing the coach now, considering any coach who is likely to be a candidate for the job is still coaching his current squad? That is no less the case here. Perhaps Paul Graham, who has a wealth of coaching experience that includes being a Division I head coach, will have a realistic opportunity to get the job after leading them as interim head coach for all of two games. But will fans like having someone who worked for the fired head coach lead the program long-term? While it’s true that winning the proverbial press conference is something high-major schools tend to be more concerned about, that aspect does come into play at times even at a school like Georgia State.
One of the first things Barnes he had to do was raise the team’s Academic Progress Rate, which was not good when he got the job. Barnes did exactly that. In his first three years, all ten seniors who completed their eligibility under Barnes graduated. Last spring, the team posted an all-time high GPA, and has raised that figure for four straight semesters entering this season. Along the way, they had the first Panther to be named to the CAA All-Academic Team.
Barnes opted for a strategy some coaches go with that seems like an attempt at a quick fix, as he took in a number of transfers early on. They sat out his first couple of seasons before becoming eligible, and they gave them an injection of talent. But there is plenty of risk with that strategy, and it didn’t quite work on the court, at least not on the bottom line. It raised the expectations since most of the transfers came from high-major programs, leading many to think they should be stars playing at a lower level. Those expectations went even higher when his first team was very competitive in the CAA.
In the end, they didn’t pan out, and there are a variety of reasons because there isn’t just one reason players transfer in the first place. Some transfer because they want more playing time and aren’t good enough to get it at the level they are at. Some transfer for a change of scenery or because of a coaching change. A few transfer to a higher level in hopes of improving their professional chances. Some are asked to leave a program because of off-court issues.
Integrating transfers is a challenge. They spend a season sitting out and practicing, but that’s not the same as playing in a real game. Transfers also have something to prove when at a new school, and sometimes that plays a role. Coaches that take a lot of transfers and win with them don’t do so easily.
Sometimes, getting a few transfers works, sometimes it doesn’t. It worked in one sense since they have significantly raised the APR through it. Given the same situation, Barnes said he might do this in a similar fashion but has no regrets.
This season was where things could really begin if we want to evaluate what Barnes did. Just about all of the transfers from the initial wave have graduated, and Georgia State was all set to be more of a freshman-based program. They finally had the full allotment of scholarships to work with, so there was a little more reason for optimism.
“Now we feel like we’ve got the foundation,” Barnes said before the season. “We’ve got the academic improvement with graduation, we’ve got our APR up and the full allotment of scholarships.”
One thing Barnes knew was that he had to keep this team competitive while raising the APR, and he did that. They certainly could have been better on the bottom line, but the Panthers were never an easy out. Even when under-manned, they played a number of one-possession games, too often coming out on the short end of the stick but occasionally breaking through.
The Panthers had their struggles this season, but with just two seniors that play significant minutes, appear to be ready to improve next season, especially considering the conference was senior-laden this season. Barnes won’t get to be the coach, and it’s not a given that every player will stick around as well as there are inevitably players who feel they can find a better situation when a coaching change is made. Pulling the plug at a time like this not only means they didn’t give him a chance and also let him go at a head-scratching time, but could also slow down the progress that he made. If players transfer out of the program, the next coach will basically be starting from square one and in only a slightly better position than Barnes was in when he started. At least the next coach will have all available scholarships from the outset and benefit from what Barnes did.
Barnes also did what he could to teach his players life lessons, and never shied away from stressing that. He would discipline them to teach them those lessons, whether it was about effort or missing practice even for something like a family matter. Sometimes it was as small as not starting a player who normally starts. He placed that above winning at all costs, and there’s something to be said for that. Graham said a lot of the players were very close to Barnes, and that’s one reason why they took this news hard.
“It’s tough to lose somebody that’s close to you and has been part of your life for so long,” said Graham.
Reaction from around the conference came in not long after the news, and it was generally not in sync with the decision. The general feeling was similar to something UNC Wilmington head coach Buzz Peterson said a day later in the CAA teleconference.
“It’s very unfortunate for somebody like Rod Barnes,” said Peterson. “Rod Barnes has had a tremendous career as a coach. Four years is not enough. You’ve got to get a chance to sign your first recruiting class and go through them for the whole time. To turn it around that fast, in four years, is difficult if you’re going to do it the right way, and Rod Barnes does it the right way. Sometimes I’m concerned that we forget about the academics, because I know he’s done a good job there, and everybody just focuses on wins and losses.”
Plenty of coaches do a good job of teaching players life lessons in addition to the game. Still, it’s unfortunate Rod Barnes was let go in the fashion he was and without ever really getting a chance to make something happen at Georgia State. Indeed, it seems he never really had a chance in the first place.
