 |
 |
 |
|
He's also very good at being humorous.
| Advertisement |
|||
| |||
As documented in the Texas media and other places, there are a thousand Barnes-isms out there. Like what he said before playing Austin Peay in Arkansas, a state notorious for despising all things Longhorn. Barnes told fans in Little Rock to be nice to Texas or he would pull the Longhorns out of their scheduled game against Arkansas next year in Fayetteville.
"Obviously, and honestly, our guys don't know the rivalry that existed between Texas and Arkansas," Barnes said. "We're scheduled to come play Arkansas next year and if the fans don't treat us well, we're not going to come. You can put that out there. I'm serious. We've got enough money here we can buy our way out of it. So, they'd better be good to us."
It was typical Barnes, a total quip from the cuff. It was humorous even if it led to thousands of Arkansas fans in Little Rock booing Barnes every chance they got.
Once during a question and answer session with former Texas mega-talent Kevin Durant, Barnes joked how awful he felt for players Alando Tucker from Wisconsin, Texas A&M's Acie Law and North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough for having to "follow the Kevin Durant trophy tour" as Durant won each of the six national player of the year awards. Then he added: "I felt like looking at Acie and saying, 'Poooooor Aggie!'"
Recently, Barnes decided to give up cursing. If you've ever heard some college coaches during games they sound like stars of "Def Comedy Jam."
Barnes recently decided to cut back on the four-letter exclamations. The change has been so noticeable that in one recent huddle after Barnes exclaimed "Let's go kick some butt" much of the coaching staff cracked up. They didn't recognize the clean-mouth Barnes.
Perhaps one of the best Barnes stories comes from Haith, now at Miami. Haith recalled a scene from their trip to the Final Four.
"And this is how relaxed he is. This is a unique quality," said Haith. "Not many, many coaches have this quality, because I've been with a lot of different coaches. Biggest game of his career, getting ready to play in the Final Four. I used to stay in the locker room with him to talk with him. Obviously make fun ... your gear has got to be tight with him. Can't have a bad looking tie with a suit. So you got to make sure the gear is right. He likes to joke around. We're sitting there, and I'm talking to him. All of a sudden he is dead asleep, knocked out.
"This is 20 minutes before the tip-off. I'm talking, he's out. He's done. Then our athletic director walks in and all of sudden he wakes up. Team walks in, he turns it on just like that with the guys in terms of getting ready. We played Syracuse that day. Just that right there. The guy can turn it on and off real quick."
"I can confirm that," Barnes explained. "That did happen. I guess I was tired. That was true. The team was out warming up, and I dozed off. They came in, and I just told them I guess I needed a nap. I felt pretty good."
It's OK for Barnes to sleep.
Just don't sleep on Barnes. No matter how much he makes you laugh.
