J.D. Barnett

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J.D. Barnett is a former head basketball coach at several Division I institutions. He is also well known for being a mentor of Tubby Smith, the current head coach at the University of Minnesota. Most notably, Barnett taught Smith the philosophy of ball-line defense, which is a strategy that requires all defenders to stay between the line of the ball and the baseline.

[edit] Coaching Career

Barnett has a career record of 317-229 (.580) in Division I basketball, including 7 NCAA Tournament appearances. Below are his coaching records at each of the 4 schools he coached:

Team	Years Coached	W-L Record
Louisiana Tech	1977-1979	23-29 (.442)
Virginia Commonwealth	1979-1985	132-48 (.733)
University of Tulsa	1985-1991	107-73 (.594)
Northwestern State	1995-1999	55-79 (.410)

During his stay at Virginia Commonwealth, Barnett led the Rams to 5 NCAA tournament appearances, with 4 of those resulting in 1st round victories[1]. In his first two years at Tulsa, he led the Golden Hurricane to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. Both of those, however, resulted in 1st round exits[2]. That was the last time J.D. Barnett made the NCAAs.

[edit] Coaching Protégés

Over the years, Barnett mentored several of his assistant coaches who later went on to head coaching positions. Below is a list of coaches who have been under his tutelage:

Name	Schools Coached	Years Coached	Career Record (through the end of the 2005-06 season)
Tubby Smith	Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky	1991-current	365-133 (.733)
Ron Jirsa	Georgia, Marshall	1997-1999, 2003-current	65-85 (.433)
David Hobbs	Alabama	1993-1998	110-76 (.594)
Shawn Finney	Tulane	2000-2005	60-86 (.410)

Another interesting note is that Maurice Cheeks, current head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, played under Barnett while he was an assistant coach at West Texas State.

Preceded by Nolan Richardson

University of Tulsa Head Basketball Coach 1985–1990

Succeeded by Tubby Smith

[edit] References