J. D. Barnett

J. D. Barnett

Sport(s)	Basketball
Biographical details
Born	(1944-01-10) January 10, 1944 Meadville, Missouri
Playing career
1964–1966	Winona State
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1970–1971	Lenoir–Rhyne
1971–1972	High Point
1973–1977	West Texas State (asst.)
1977–1979	Louisiana Tech
1979–1985	VCU
1985–1991	Tulsa
1994–1999	Northwestern State
2004–2005	Hawaii Pacific
Administrative career (AD unless noted)
1991–1994	Tulsa Union HS
1994–1999	Northwestern State (assoc.)
2000–2004	Tulane (assoc.)
2004–2005	Hawaii Pacific
Head coaching record
Overall	356–272
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
MVC Regular Season Championship (1987) MVC Tournament Championship (1986)
Awards
MVC Coach of the Year (1987)

Joseph Donald Barnett (born January 10, 1944) is an American retired college basketball coach. He was a former head basketball coach at several Division I institutions, the most high-profile being Virginia Commonwealth University, where his most notable win consisted of a buzzer-beater NCAA Tournament win over Jim Calhoun's Northeastern Huskies. He is also well known for being a mentor of Tubby Smith, the current head coach at Texas Tech University. 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. He was most recently the head coach and athletic director at Division II Hawaii Pacific.

Barnett graduated from Winona State University in 1966 with two varsity letters each in baseball and basketball. He was inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame in 2002.

Coaching career

Barnett has a career record of 317–229 (.580) in Division I basketball, including 7 NCAA Tournament appearances. During his stay at Virginia Commonwealth, Barnett led the Rams to 5 NCAA tournament appearances, with 4 of those resulting in 1st round victories. 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. That was the last time J.D. Barnett made the NCAAs.

Also, Maurice Cheeks, former head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, was recruited by and played under Barnett while he was an assistant coach at West Texas State. While at West Texas State, Barnett is credited with organizing "The Cager Club", a support group which helped the basketball program.

In addition, Tom Izzo was hired by Barnett to be his recruiting coordinator at Tulsa. Izzo left a low paying student assistant position with Jud Heathcote to take the position with Tulsa. That experiment lasted all of seven weeks before Jud called Izzo offering him an assistant coaching position back in East Lansing.

Administrative career

From 1991 to 1994, Barnett was athletic director at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Barnett also served as associate athletic director at Northwestern State while head men's basketball coach from 1994 to 1999. From 2000 to 2004, Barnett was senior associate athletic director for revenue development at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Coaching tree

These former players and assistant coaches to Barnett later became head coaches.

• Duggar Baucom: Tusculum (2003–2005); VMI (2005–2015); The Citadel (2015–present)
• Gary Collier: Arlington Heights High School (2007–2011); Lewisville High School (2011–present)
• Kevin Eastman: UNC Wilmington (1990–1994); Washington State (1994–1999)
• Jeff Harada: Hawaii Pacific (women's, 2007–2011); Central Washington (women's, 2014–present)
• David Hobbs: Alabama (1992–1998)
• Ron Jirsa: Georgia (1997–1999); Marshall (2003–2007)
• Phil Johnson: San Jose State (1998–1999; 2002–2005)
• Charles McCoull: Dinwiddie High School (2014–present)
• Kevin O'Neill: Marquette (1989–1994); Tennessee (1994–1997); Northwestern (1997–2000); Toronto Raptors (2003–2004); Arizona (interim, 2007–2008); USC (2009–2013)
• Jim Rosborough: Northern Illinois (1986–1989); Arizona (interim, 2001)
• Flip Saunders: Rapid City Thrillers (1988–1989); La Crosse Bobcats (1989–1994); Sioux Falls Skyforce (1994–1995); Minnesota Timberwolves (1995–2005; 2014–present); Detroit Pistons (2005–2008); Washington Wizards (2009–2012)
• Jim "Snuffy" Smith: Bryn Mawr School (girls' varsity, 1997–2007)
• Tubby Smith: Tulsa (1991–1995); Georgia (1995–1997); Kentucky (1997–2007); Minnesota (2007–2013); Texas Tech (2013–present)
• Mike Sutton: Meadowbrook High School (1981–1994); Tennessee Tech (2002–2011)
• Kelly Wells: Hawaii Pacific (2005–2006); Pikeville (2006–present)
• George Whittaker: Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets (1989–1990)
• Don Zierden: Pittsburgh Piranhas (1994–1995); La Crosse Bobcats (1996–1998)

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Lenoir–Rhyne Bears (NCAA College Division independent) (1970–1971)
1970–71	Lenoir–Rhyne	17–9
Lenoir–Rhyne:		17–9
High Point (NCAA College Division independent) (1971–1972)
1971–72	High Point	13–16
High Point:		13–16
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (Southland Conference) (1977–1979)
1977–78	Louisiana Tech	6–21	2–8	T–5th
1978–79	Louisiana Tech	17–8	6–4	T–2nd
Louisiana Tech:		23–29	8–12
VCU Rams (Sun Belt Conference) (1979–1985)
1979–80	VCU	18–12	8–6	5th	NCAA First Round
1980–81	VCU	24–5	9–3	T–1st	NCAA Second Round
1981–82	VCU	17–11	7–3	2nd
1982–83	VCU	24–7	12–2	T–1st	NCAA Second Round
1983–84	VCU	23–7	11–3	1st	NCAA Second Round
1984–85	VCU	26–6	12–2	1st	NCAA Second Round
VCU:		132–48	59–19
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (Missouri Valley Conference) (1985–1991)
1985–86	Tulsa	23–9	10–6	T–2nd	NCAA First Round
1986–87	Tulsa	22–8	11–3	1st	NCAA First Round
1987–88	Tulsa	8–20	4–10	7th
1988–89	Tulsa	18–13	10–4	T–2nd
1989–90	Tulsa	17–13	9–5	T–2nd	NIT First Round
1990–91	Tulsa	18–12	10–6	3rd	NIT First Round
Tulsa:		106–75	54–34
Northwestern State Demons (Southland Conference) (1994–1999)
1994–95	Northwestern State	13–14	8–10	6th
1995–96	Northwestern State	5–21	3–15	10th
1996–97	Northwestern State	13–15	8–8	T–4th
1997–98	Northwestern State	13–14	10–6	T–2nd
1998–99	Northwestern State	11–15	8–10	T–7th
Northwestern State:		55–79	37–49
Hawaii Pacific Sea Warriors (Pacific West Conference) (2004–2005)
2004–05	Hawaii Pacific	10–16	4–11	5th
Hawaii Pacific:		10–16	4–11
Total:		356–272
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

External links

• Hawaii Pacific bio (2004)
• Tulane bio (2004)
• Tubby Smith credits Barnett for ball-line defense