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Entering his 11th season as a Division I head coach, including stops at both Wyoming and Lamar, Jim Barnes, who was named Baylor's eighth head coach on Dec. 30, 2003, has posted an impressive 190-134 (.586) record, winning 20 or more matches five times, while leading his teams to seven winning campaigns and twice earning conference Coach of the Year honors. In 2005, the Bears once again improved upon their record from the previous year in their second season under Barnes. Baylor went 15-17 overall, a three-win improvement, and 6-14 in Big 12 Conference play, two more league wins than 2004. Baylor continued to improve defensively, averaging more blocks and digs per game than the previous season for the second time under Barnes. The 2005 Bears were a dominant force at the net, ranking 19th nationally and third in the Big 12 with 3.05 blocks per game. The Bears also ranked fifth in the league with 14.53 digs per game, thier highest ranking in that category since 2001 when they made the NCAA Tournament. Baylor's highlight victory was a four-game decision over NCAA Touranment-bound Texas A&M in College Station, the Bears' first victory at G. Rollie White Coliseum since 1992. In his first season at Baylor, Barnes led the Bears to a 12-19 record, 4-16 in Big 12 Conference play. The Bears won five straight matches to claim the Sam Houston State Tournament title and recorded an upset victory over No. 24 Kansas at home. Desiree Guilliard-Young continued to emerge as a dominant force and earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors and was also named the Sam Houston State Tournament's most valuable player. The 2004 Bears ranked 17th nationally with 3.05 blocks per game and outblocked nearly every opponent they faced - 25 of 31 matches to be exact, including their home match against the nation's top blocking team, Nebraska. Introduced as the 10th head coach in Wyoming volleyball history on Dec. 19, 2001, Barnes took over a program that posted a 9-15 record in the season prior to his arrival and promptly produced the school's first 20-win season since 1989 with a 20-11 mark. Only the third Wyoming coach, and the first since 1983, to win 20 matches in his debut season at the Laramie, Wyo., school, Barnes' 2002 team fashioned an 11-match win string and won in-season tournament titles at host schools Auburn, Central Michigan, Cornell and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Barnes' second Wyoming team raced to a 13-6 start, highlighted by a pair of victories over Baylor and a championship at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic. However, his team lost three key players to injuries down the stretch and finished 15-16 overall, giving him a two-year UW mark of 35-27 (.565). Of the program's 10 coaches, only two won more games in their first two seasons at the Cowgirl helm than Barnes. The Wyoming program had one student-athlete earn first-team All-Mountain West Conference honors each season Barnes was on the bench and his 2002 squad had five players earn Academic All-Conference recognition. All totaled, 18 players earned academic all-conference honors in Barnes' last three seasons. Before moving to Wyoming, Barnes spent six seasons as head coach at Lamar University, where his teams posted an overall record of 128-71 (.643). He earned 2001 Southland Conference Coach of the Year honors after leading his final Lady Cardinal squad, which featured four all-conference performers, to a 26-5 record and the Southland Conference regular-season title with an 18-2 record. Barnes guided LU to 24 victories in 2000, the program's most since 1993, and picked up his 100th career coaching win along the way. He also led the Lady Cardinals to the finals of the Southland Conference Tournament, just one victory away from a berth in the NCAA Tournament. In the tournament semifinals that year, Lamar knocked off undefeated regular-season champion Southwest Texas and ended the nation's longest winning streak at 23 matches. In four seasons (1998-2000) of play in the Southland Conference, his Lamar teams posted 86 victories and he was inducted into the Tachikara Victory Club. Prior to that, Lamar was a member of the Sun Belt Conference. Picked to finish sixth in the 1997 Sun Belt Conference preseason coaches poll, Barnes directed the Lady Cards to a share of the conference title with an 8-1 record and was rewarded with Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year honors. His squad, which ended Arkansas State's nation-leading 54-match regular-season win streak, advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament finals before falling to preseason title favorite Arkansas-Little Rock and ending the year with a 22-15 record. In his first season at Lamar, he inherited a team that finished 13-22 the previous year and lost two All-Sun Belt Conference performers. With a team that started no seniors and two freshmen, the Lady Cardinals won the Nicholls State Tournament and the Stephen F. Austin Invitational en route to a 20-13 final mark. The Sulphur, La., native took over the Lamar program after spending six seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater, McNeese State. At the Lake Charles, La., school, he was involved in all facets of the program including scheduling, recruiting, game preparation, travel and day-to-day operations. In 1993, McNeese posted what was then its best finish in school history at 25-7 and finished as the Southland Conference runner-up. The 1994 squad posted a 22-7 mark and earned McNeese State's first-ever regional ranking. Barnes earned his bachelor's degree in health and human performance from McNeese State in 1994 and completed his master's degree from the school in 1996. He is married to the former Tracy Pittman, and they have two daughters, Brooke Aidan (8) and Jenna Grace (5).
Jim Barnes' Year-By-Year Head Coaching RecordSeason School Overall Conf./Finish 1996 Lamar 20-13 3-6/6th 1997 Lamar 22-15 8-1/1st 1998 Lamar 19-12 11-9/6th 1999 Lamar 17-15 11-9/6th 2000 Lamar 24-11 12-8/5th 2001 Lamar 26-5 18-2/1st 2002 Wyoming 20-11 5-9/6th 2003 Wyoming 15-16 4-10/T-5th 2004 Baylor 12-19 4-16/T-9th 2005 Baylor 15-17 6-14/9th 10-Year Totals 190-134 82-84 |
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