I have to say:
what a strong example of hypocrisy on the part of the fashionista. She begins her self-destructive analysis by saying she wants to support women in sports.
Really.
So bad-mouthing the coach who has the opportunity to succeed you is supporting women in sports?
Now let's think about this a little bit. When the fashionista received her head coaching offer down in the dirty t she had far less experience than Burke.
So according to the hypocrisy that underlies the fashionista's clear philosophy of supporting women the kitties were wrong to hire an underqualified coach who only had experiences as an assistant at the University of Washington.
This is really amazing and I think when the fashionista crashes and burns in the Big D she will have an opportunity, I think, to go to Hollywood where her kind of philosophy and expectations for reward inform everything. My wife listened to the press conference with me and she said that the fashionista's voice reminded her of the head lawyer from the TV series Suits.... Slick, self assured, very confident.
If I were in the administration at SMU I would really be questioning this hire. Because inevitably Barnes will be gone from the Big D and I would be wondering if she is going to be saying the same thing about the institution that gave her a chance? This is breathtaking hypocrisy.
She certainly demonstrates a lack of gratitude, self-awareness, and common sense when the ponies ride off and leave her. She will probably be listening and singing along to Bruce Springsteen .... Glory Days.
Really telling was her analysis of conferences indicating the level of play in the old pac-12. The excellent play in the Big 12 and she seemed to be saying the ACC with focus on guards and not posts was an easier league. I love the way she characterized saying it fits our style.
And what is that style? Having seen the kitties play in person it appears that her style is to have underdeveloped underprepared players who are very inconsistent in their motivation. I'm wondering if that's the style she's referring to. With the turnover in rosters coming from the portal and nil it still remains to be seen what kind of team the Barnes trademark lack of development and lack of preparation will be. She later goes on to Crow that her connections with the WNBA and previous playing career will provide opportunities for her players. Really since McDonald who has Barnes helped get and stay in the wnba?
Barnes agent deserves to be in the agent Hall of Fame and I think the fashionista should start doing self-help videos on how to creatively represent and elevate past performance.
Now this will be interesting how much money the SMU ponies give the fashionista to hire players. I have a strong suspicion it's going to need to be a very large budget if she's going to have success. She talks about how focused she's going to be going out to pay players to fill her roster. And she actually spoke of specific schools and a desire to have top five players. Hum...... Love to know which billionaire is going to bankroll her. SMU clearly will not have the budget of SEC schools and in fact while it is Texas I'm wondering even with a doubled payroll will Barnes be able to put together consistently a team that will a stay and win.
I will say I love listening to this press conference and her responses and I'm guessing that the administration at SMU probably wishes they'd heard this kind of analysis before they hired her.
I love how she claims that she developed players: they got better and left. She also indicated how hard it is to keep players in this era of the portal. The first is patently false and the second is the only partially accurate.
Hopefully there's some detectives that follow the ponies and maybe the ACC who can determine how big a sucker SMU was. I'm wondering would they have given her a 5-year contracted a million per?
I also love her ability to give a bald face lie with a smile. Near the end of the interview she indicated I wasn't looking for a job when SMU came. It's very interesting in terms of the issue of credibility. Geno has it. Barnes doesn't.
Barnes really set herself up for a termination when she said we have enough resources here to achieve the plan. So we'll all be watching closely will next year be a .500 team? Will the ponies be .500 within the next 4 years? Will the fashionista lead the ponies into the ACC championship game in the next 7 years?
We may never know as I will be surprised if she's given more than 4 years? And she basically said she doesn't need four years because they've given her everything she needs right now.
This is one of the reasons I can't wait for the 2025-2026 season.