Barnett hopes to continue as coach

He might be the only non-scholarship senior on the roster, but for IU fans, the roar when Kory Barnett enters the game is that of a victorious cheer.

Those cheers were a rare occurrence during Barnett’s first three years in Bloomington, as the Hoosiers were in the midst of 20-loss season after 20-loss season.

Before 2008, IU had never had a season with more than 17 losses, but that quickly changed when sanctions hit the program like it had never been hit before.

Barnett was right in the middle of it, having turned down mid-major offers to become a preferred walk-on for then-IU Coach Kelvin Sampson.

He was to head to Bloomington in summer 2008 and play on a team that was expected to get IU back among the talks of the nation’s best.

As he prepares for his final game at Assembly Hall, Barnett has finally experienced historical wins and a season rivaling that of any past Hoosier team.

“Honestly, with the past, I didn’t know that we would ever get to see it,” Barnett said. “I always wanted to, and we worked so hard that I hoped we would.”

Growing up in Oregon, Barnett wasn’t the typical passionate Indiana kid who dreamed of putting on the candy stripes.

His father, Mike, worked for Nike, so Barnett had the chance to meet and know numerous college coaches.

Current New Mexico Coach Steve Alford was Barnett’s favorite. Barnett wanted to become a college basketball coach.

After moving to northern Indiana, Barnett attended Rochester High School, where the program had 23 straight losing seasons.

Barnett then graduated as the winningest player in school history.

The next step was to take those winning ways to IU.

Despite the turmoil beginning to spread across Bloomington in 2008, Barnett said he never wavered about his commitment.

Once IU Coach Tom Crean accepted the job in April 2008, everything began to fall into place.

Crean hired former Iowa Assistant Coach Tim Buckley, whom the Barnetts were familiar from Buckley’s time on Alford’s staff.

“The moment (Crean and Buckley) got the job, they called and said they wanted to keep him here as a promised walk-on spot,” Mike Barnett said. “They would give him a great opportunity to be a (graduate assistant) if he did a good job.”

The wins were scarce during Barnett’s first couple of seasons in Bloomington, with victories against Big Ten cellar-dwellers becoming the highlights of the seasons.

“Back then, people were like, ‘What’s the big deal to get one more win in a season of six,’ but it was a big deal to us because it taught us something about winning that’s kind of overflowed into this season,” Barnett said.

As his career has turned into a 20-plus-win senior season, Barnett has adopted a nickname given to him by his followers on Twitter.

The “Human Victory Cigar” has played in 14 games this season, and 13 of those have been wins, giving the feeling that when Barnett heads to the scorer’s table, good things are happening for the Hoosiers.

Fellow senior Verdell Jones III said he and Barnett weren’t close friends as freshmen coming from rival AAU teams but have become the “best of friends.”

Jones said he will be in Barnett’s wedding in August and wants IU fans to know that even though Barnett doesn’t log major minutes, his role is invaluable.

“He’s a guy behind the scenes that does a lot,” Jones said. “He’s like a coach, really, on the team. That’s what he wants to get into, and he’s been really working on that. He will come up to me and (junior guard) Jordan (Hulls) and tells us things he sees, which are right on point.”

Since Barnett is the oldest player on the IU roster, the younger players look to him during practice and timeout for little nuances and tidbits that he is more than happy to pass along to his “family.”

“I never had a brother, but being a part of this program with these guys, I know what it’s really like to have brothers,” Barnett said. “I’m getting married in August, and I want every single one of them at my wedding because it’s been something special that this team will never forget.”

For now, Barnett sits at the end of the bench, but it is only a matter of time before he slides down a few seats into a coaching role.

Barnett said that, after the season, he will sit down with Crean and talk about the possibility of beginning his coaching career right where he played his college ball.

“There is no other program like Indiana, so to be able to stay here and grow here has been amazing,” Barnett said. “I hope my coaching career can take off fast and end up in a way such like Coach Crean or Coach Alford’s.”

He has known what he wanted to do after college since a young age, and now,  he said, he is more prepared than ever for life in a suit and deal with the ability to build — or re-build — a program.

“I talked to Coach Buckley about that a little bit, and he said as far as me being a coach in the future, my experiences through here, I’ve been through the toughest boot camp there is,” Barnett said. “There’s nothing that I’ll see after this that I haven’t gone through here.”