THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601140229
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 170 lines
Seventeen years earlier almost to the day, as he sat in the Greensboro Coliseum watching the ACC tournament, Rick Barnes decided he would be a college coach.
Someday, Barnes thought, he would be down there on the sidelines, matching wits with Dean Smith and the other coaches in the ACC.
Now, here he was back in the Greensboro Coliseum for the 1995 ACC tournament, coaching the Clemson Tigers.
And not only was Barnes matching wits with Smith, one of the greatest coaches in the game, he was trading heated insults with him in front of a national television audience.
Later, ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan would cal the fiery, toe-to-toe exchange a ``total embarrassment.''
But it had a significance, too. If anyone had not gotten the message, it was final proof that Richard Dale Barnes had made it to the ACC, and things would never the be same. Not for Clemson, not for the league, and not for Smith, who had come up against a young coach he could not intimidate.
``I thought that was the best thing that happened all last year,'' Clemson guard Bill Harder says of the incident that began with Smith jawing at a Clemson player. ``Here was a man (Barnes) that stood up for Clemson, and said, `We are not taking this anymore. We are as good as anybody.' I felt it was tremendous.''
Today, the two teams meet in Chapel Hill - where Clemson has never won - for the first time since that incident.
A native of Hickory, N.C., Barnes expects to hear boos from Tar Heels fans when he is introduced, but, he says, ``That pretty much will be the end of it.
``The situation that happened in Greensboro is over and done with, and nothing more needs to be talked about,'' he says.
Barnes, 41, has given Tiger fans a lot to talk about since arriving at the school with the worst ACC record and the only one never to win the league tournament. Last season, he inherited a team that was being called the worst in ACC history - and took it to 15 victories and postseason play.
This season, the freshman-dominated Tigers again were picked to finish last in the ACC, but they go into today's game as the league's only unbeaten team (11-0) and ranked 16th nationally.
``It was like a slap in the face, being picked to finish last after what we did last year,'' says guard Merl Code, who will miss today's game due to an injury. ``But, as coach Barnes tells us, we just have to prove people wrong again.''
Barnes wasn't as upset as his players about the Tigers being picked to finish last. He leaves no stone, or uncomplimentary remark, unturned in creating an ``us-against-them'' atmosphere to motivate his players.
It is that ability to motivate and to sell himself and his program that have made him one of the most successful coaches in the country in the last nine years - six at Providence, where he reached three NCAA tournaments.
Barnes was only one year out of Lenoir-Rhyne College, which he attended on a basketball scholarship, when he decided to be a college coach. It was after attending the 1978 ACC tournament, and being impressed with its pageantry and excitement, that he told with his wife, Candy, of his ambition.
Barnes and his wife, whom he had married while at Lenior Rhyne, mailed applications to schools all over the country. At the time, Barnes was working the midnight shift at a UPS station in Hickory and was willing to take anything, even a job without pay, to squeeze a foot in the door.
Eventually, a friend got him an interview with newly-named Davidson coach Eddie Biedenbach, now an assistant at N.C. State. The meeting was set for 9 a.m., but Biedenbach forgot about it and didn't arrive at his office until about 5 p.m.
Barnes was still there, waiting for him.
Biedenbach offered Barnes a volunteer position on his staff and arranged for a part-time job at a lumber company that paid $3,000 a year. Barnes recalls working at the mill from 8 to 12:30 in the morning, going home to wash the sawdust out of his hair, and going to practice.
Biedenbach quickly recognized that Barnes would be successful.
``He was a hard worker and really had a good understanding of basketball,'' Biedenbach says. ``He knew what he wanted, and he had the desire to make it happen.''
Barnes moved on to paid-assistant positions at George Mason, Alabama and Ohio State before returning to George Mason as head coach in 1987. He stayed only one year, posting a 20-10 record before leaving for Providence, where he was 108-78.
Barnes had the opportunity to coach in the ACC in 1990, when he was offered the job at Virginia. He accepted, but under pressure from Providence and Big East Conference officials he backed out of the deal the next day.
``The timing just wasn't right,'' Barnes says.
Colorado coach Joe Harrington, a former Barnes assistant, says Barnes wanted to return to the South and coach in the ACC, but was made to feel it would be disloyal for him to leave Providence after only two years.
Providence again tried to keep Barnes when Clemson asked him to replace Cliff Ellis two years ago. This time, Candy told her husband: ``You can stay if you want, but I am going to Clemson.''
Clemson is only a three-hour drive from Hickory, where Candy's family owned a hosiery mill and where Barnes grew up on the edge of poverty.
His parents divorced when he was 4, and his mother, Mary, held down morning and night jobs at a factory to provide for her five children. She now lives in a house that Barnes bought for her a few years ago.
Everyone in Barnes' old neighborhood seems to have a story to tell about him.
They recall cold, snowy afternoons when he would be in the yard shooting hoops, and one summer afternoon when he won a bet by riding a bicycle naked through the neighborhood.
On another occasion, Barnes put a quarter in the jukebox at a crowded neighborhood restaurant and began singing ``Your Cheating Heart'' so loudly that he drowned out Hank Williams.
``There wasn't nothing he wouldn't do,'' says brother Toby, who was hardly surprised when Barnes took on Smith at the ACC tournament.
Barnes remains a serious prankster; anyone dining with him is advised to never leave his food unguarded.
``I always make sure the top of the pepper shaker is tightened when I am eating with him,'' Harrington says.
His players often are targets, too.
Code recalls when he was just about to put in a shot to beat Barnes in a game of horse when suddenly he saw Barnes aiming a tennis ball at him.
``I flinched and missed the shot,'' Code says. ``I didn't know if he was going to throw it or not, but I wasn't taking any chances.''
``He really is crazy, and the funniest guy you'd ever want to hang around with,'' Harder says. ``But he has a split personality, too. He will joke around off the court with you, but he is very intense and very demanding on the court.''
So much that the players' nickname for him is ``Strict Rick.''
``I think the best way to describe him, though, is to say he's a player's coach,'' Harder says. ``He is the type of person who if he's on a recruiting trip in Oklahoma might call you at 1 o'clock in the morning and ask how you are doing, or what you are going to do today to make yourself better.''
Virginia coach Jeff Jones says Barnes' team plays as hard as any he has seen and leaves nothing on the court.
Smith, even before the tournament incident, claimed the Tigers played too hard and too physical. Barnes contends he does not know what other coaches mean when they say his players are ``too physical.''
``If going into stands after loose balls, blocking out, diving on the the floor, if those things are being physical, I guess we are physical,'' he says. ``And we are going to continue doing those things.''
Harder says playing hard was the only way to survive last year. The Tigers were the smallest and least-talented team in the league, but still finished tied for sixth with Florida State, ahead of N.C. State and Duke.
``Someone said we were going to be the worst team in ACC history and we looked up to see which ACC team ever had won the fewest games,'' Harder says.
``Georgia Tech won only four games overall in 1981. We counted off our victories until we got to five, and we knew we weren't going to be `the worst.' ''
In fact, the Tigers started 10-0 last year and moved into the national rankings for the first time in five seasons.
``We weren't as talented as anybody last year, but no one intimidated us,'' Harder says. ``We were going to do what we had to do, and we weren't going to be the doormat of the ACC anymore.''
The Tigers have more talent this season, and five of the top eight players are freshmen - evidence of Barnes' recruiting skills.
Bob Gibbons, an authority on recruiting for 20 years, calls Barnes' effort last season ``a miracle.''
``Everything seemed to be stacked against him, but he just outworked some people,'' Gibbons says.
Barnes signed four recruits during the early period, although the school was limited to awarding only two official campus visits because of infractions committed before his arrival. One of the recruits, Andrius Jurkunas from Frederick, Md., paid his own expenses to visit Clemson.
Barnes' recruiting pitch was to convince prospects they were becoming part of a revival by choosing Clemson. He says it may take three more years, when the current freshmen are seniors, before anyone knows how good they really are.
As for the current winning streak and national ranking, Barnes says his players aren't celebrating because they realize even better days are ahead.
``We have to continue to work, to stay focused, and to understand that our No. 1 opponent always will be ourselves,'' Barnes says. ``But we know where we want to go, and so far we've only scratched the surface.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Rick Barnes
by CNB