Barbee Interview

Evan Woodbery interviewed Barbee. Here is an interesting question:

Q: Rightly or wrongly, the perception among some fans is that the reason Auburn's recruiting suffered in the last several years is that the previous staff was squeaky clean and uninterested in getting involved in the some of the more unsavory aspects of recruiting in major college basketball.

A. I have no reaction to that.

The one thing that's going to happen here is that myself and my staff are going to work harder than any staff anywhere in the country. That's what recruiting comes down to. Are you going to be willing to put the time in to create the relationships, create the bonds, and then even if it doesn't work out, are you going to still continue to develop that relationship so when the next one comes through the pipeline, you'll still be in position? Recruiting comes down to one thing: relationships. And if you have relationships with people who want to help you, they're going to help you. If you don't, then somebody else has created that relationship, that connection. Just like I talked about with the fans, it's the same thing with recruiting. You want to create relationships with parents, with coaches, with advisers, with the kids, so it's easier to tell the other guy no than it is to tell you no.