J. D. Barnett

J.D. Barnett
Sport(s)	Basketball
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	Hawaii Pacific
Biographical details
Born	January 10, 1944
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1971-1972 1973-1977 1977-1979 1979-1985 1985-1991 1994-1999 2004-2007	High Point West Texas State (asst.) Louisiana Tech Virginia Commonwealth Tulsa Northwestern State Hawaii Pacific
Head coaching record
Overall	317-229 (Division I)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships MVC Regular Season Championship (1987) MVC Tournament Championship (1986)
Awards MVC Coach of the Year (1987)

J.D. Barnett (born January 10, 1944) is 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 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. He was most recently the head coach and athletic director at Division II Hawaii Pacific.

Barnett graduated from Winona State University in 1970, playing varsity 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. Below are his coaching records at each of the 4 schools he coached:

Team	Years Coached	W-L Record
High Point	1971–1972	13-16 (.448)
Louisiana Tech	1977–1979	23-29 (.442)
Virginia Commonwealth	1979–1985	132-48 (.733)
University of Tulsa	1985–1991	106-73 (.594)
Northwestern State	1995–1999	55-79 (.410)
Hawaii Pacific University	2004–2005	10-16 (.385)

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.

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
High Point Panthers (Division 2) (1971–1972)
1971-1972	High Point	13-16
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (Southland) (1977–1979)
1977-1978	Louisiana Tech	6-21	2-8	T-5th
1978-1979	Louisiana Tech	17-8	6-4	T-2nd
Louisiana Tech:		23-29	8-12
Virginia Commonwealth (Sun Belt) (1979–1985)
1979-1980	VCU	18-12	8-6	5th	NCAA 1st Round
1980-1981	VCU	24-5	9-3	T-1st	NCAA 2nd Round
1981-1982	VCU	17-11	7-3	2nd
1982-1983	VCU	24-7	12-2	T-1st	NCAA 2nd Round
1983-1984	VCU	23-7	11-3	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
1984-1985	VCU	26-6	12-2	1st	NCAA 2nd Round
VCU:		132-48	59-19
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (Missouri Valley) (1985–1991)
1985-1986	Tulsa	23-9	10-6	T-2nd	NCAA 1st Round
1986-1987	Tulsa	22-8	11-3	1st	NCAA 1st Round
1987-1988	Tulsa	8-20	4-10	7th
1988-1989	Tulsa	18-13	10-4	T-2nd
1989-1990	Tulsa	17-13	9-5	T-2nd	NIT 1st Round
1990-1991	Tulsa	18-12	10-6	3rd	NIT 1st Round
Tulsa:		106-75	54-34
Northwestern State Demons (Southland) (1994–1999)
1994-1995	Northwestern St	13-14	8-10	6th
1995-1996	Northwestern St	5-21	3-15	10th
1996-1997	Northwestern St	13-15	8-8	T-4th
1997-1998	Northwestern St	13-14	10-6	T-2nd
1998-1999	Northwestern St	11-15	8-10	T-7th
Northwesten St:		55-79	37-49
Total:		329-231
National champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference tournament champion       Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference division champion

External links

• Barnett's coaching history
• Graham, Janet (1998-01-13). "UK chooses ball-line defense". The Kentucky Post (E. W. Scripps Company). Archived from the original on 2005-01-10. http://web.archive.org/web/20050110180406/http://www.cincypost.com/sports/1998/ukhoop011398.html.  Tubby Smith credits Barnett for ball-line defense