One week after Colorado State put head basketball coach Larry Eustachy on administrative leave in the wake of an investigation, interim head coach Steve Barnes has been placed on administrative leave as the investigation delves deeper.
Just in: #CSURams interim coach Steve Barnes has been placed paid on administrative leave through the school's investigation into the hoops program. Jase Herl will coach the Rams vs SJSU today.
What a mess.
— Kyle Fredrickson (@kylefredrickson) February 10, 2018
Athletic director Joe Parker opened up last week after his program was exposed by a report, indicating that the school had in fact opened the investigation.
“WE HAVE STARTED A CLIMATE ASSESSMENT, WHICH INVOLVES CONVERSATIONS WITH THE STUDENTS AND STAFF MEMBERS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MEN’S BASKETBALL PROGRAM,” PARKER SAID IN A STATEMENT, PER COLORADOAN.COM. “AS ALWAYS, WE WILL NOT MAKE ANY PUBLIC COMMENTS UNTIL OUR PROCESS IS COMPLETE AND HAVE NO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO SHARE AT THIS TIME.”
Justin Michael of Rocky Mountain Collegian filed the initial report, noting that Eustachy’s players were very much against him, noting the “vast majority of the players spoke out against Eustachy in their interviews.”
Barnes has been an associate head coach at CSU since 2013. He’s been coaching at the collegiate level since the mid-1980s, mostly as an assistant or associate head coach, though he did land a head coaching gig at San Jose State for a few years near the start of the century.
He’s been coaching under Eustachy for more than two decades, and a former staffer had some very enlightening things to say about him recently. Needless to say, the school must not like what it’s discovering about the culture Eustachy and Barnes have established at Colorado State.