Rick BarnesWhether intentional or not, the irony couldn’t be ignored. Placed side by side near the top of this newspaper’s website Wednesday afternoon were the following stories:
A) Report: Academic misconduct occurred at Texas under Rick Barnes.
B) Cook: 13 solutions to the problem that is public schools.
First things first. Before the Big Orange Nation gets all apoplectic over the possibility that the NCAA could put the kibosh on new Tennessee basketball coach Barnes for academic wrongs allegedly committed at his other UT gig, let’s remember that an accusation is not a finding of guilt.
And even if it’s proven that NCAA violations did take place during his time in Texas, if North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams can seemingly avoid direct tarring despite 18 years of academic chicanery in Baby Bluesville, it’s almost unfathomable that anything Barnes did short of writing his players’ papers, taking their tests, then holding the professor at gunpoint until his Longhorns were given a B+ could earn him any NCAA penalty worse than writing “I will do better” 100 times on a greaseboard.