Candid Coaches talk Shaka Smart, Rick Barnes

CBS Sports' Gary Parrish, Matt Norlander and Sam Vecenie spend the July evaluation period at NCAA-sanctioned events talking with college hoops coaches from all levels. They then report back on things they learned without attributing the sources specifically in a series of articles. Today's was Candid Coaches: The best coaching hire of the 2015 offseason Shaka led all vote getters with 41% of the vote and Rick was in third with 12%.

Some quotes:

On Shaka Smart to Texas: "He's got such a terrific culture that he'll bring with him from VCU, just in terms of his ability to relate to his players. Now that he's got the frame and context of Big State U behind him, he'll be hard to stop. It'll be hard to win a recruiting battle with Texas, especially with a Texas kid."

Daddy like.

On Rick Barnes to Tennessee: "I think it's a perfect marriage because both needed it. Rick needed a new place, where he wasn't being compared to the (Kevin) Durant and T.J. Ford teams; and Tennessee needs a guy to come in and do things above board. This is very much about image, and Tennessee needed a guy to enhance its image. They both needed it so badly."

Cool. Wish Rick nothing but success. As always, thank you. Now back to your regularly scheduled football coverage.