Sources: Barnes Will Rebuff Patterson, Step Down

We are the Joneses?

More like the Kardashians. Drama, drama, drama.

If the goal in replacing Deloss Dodds was to replace a culture of entitlement with a culture of entertainment, Texas appears to have hit a grand slam with Steve Patterson, whose brief tenure has already produced more than enough material to launch a new reality TV segment on Longhorn Network.

In the latest episode, Patterson has reached back for a staple in his playbook: the Half Measure Interjection. Repeating the decision he made with Herb Sendek when Patterson was AD at Arizona State, the Longhorns' athletics director reportedly demanded Rick Barnes shake up his basketball staff in order to save his job.

I have no idea what the circumstances were with Sendek when he decided to acquiesce to Patterson's demands, but I'm not the least bit surprised to see reports emerging that Texas head basketball coach Rick Barnes has declined to play Patterson's game.

NBCSports.com later confirmed that report, while Chip Brown of Horns Digest says that a decision will happen on Monday.

And good for Barnes, if true. Because this move from Patterson was -- if you'll pardon me for being blunt -- a bush league, bullshit move.

Reasonable minds may differ as to whether Barnes deserved another year at the helm, but one thing is absolutely clear: he didn't deserve a patronizing, meddling middle ground. And that's precisely what this little ploy by Patterson was -- a really silly, myopic move that reflects a gross misunderstanding of priorities, an inflated ego, and outright negligent comprehension of staffing in college basketball.

I suspect Patterson's handling of the Barnes situation, coupled with his unseemly money grab with the new Longhorn Foundation donation program, will generate a whole lot of traffic for his new fan page.

If I didn't care so much about the ultimate outcome of all this, I might grab some popcorn and enjoy the spectacle with John Canzano.  As it is, I find my sentiments closer to those of a big-wig program donor who wrote to me earlier this week to lament that with Patterson at the helm, "there's a bull in our china shop."

We'll have to wait and see how all this shakes out as more information emerges, but right now, the best I can say is that I'm discouraged.

It's 5:00 somewhere, right? Pass the bottle, por favor.