J. D. Barnett
Most notably, Barnett taught Smith the philosophy of ball-line defense,[2] which is a strategy that requires all defenders to stay between the line of the ball and the baseline.During his stay at Virginia Commonwealth, Barnett led the Rams to 5 NCAA tournament appearances, with 4 of those resulting in 1st round victories.While at West Texas State, Barnett is credited with organizing "The Cager Club", a support group that helped the basketball program.That experiment lasted all of seven weeks before Heathcote called Izzo offering him an assistant coaching position back in East Lansing.Barnett also served as associate athletic director at Northwestern State while head men's basketball coach from 1994 to 1999.