photo by: Nick Krug

Texas head coach Rick Barnes watches from the bench with his team with little time remaining on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Saturday afternoon news broke that the Texas Longhorns were prepared to move on from men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes after 17 seasons.

Regardless of whether it goes down as a firing, a resignation or a force-out, the mere fact that Barnes is moving on and the UT job is open ushers in a wildly exciting time for the Big 12 Conference.

That job, because of a talented returning roster, UT’s relatively solid history of success and the resources and money available to turn that program into a force, will attract some of the best candidates in college basketball.

We’re not just talking about guys who are looking to make a nice little jump. We’re talking about guys who would be candidates at some of the country’s best basketball schools if those jobs were open.

Kansas. North Carolina. Duke. Michigan State. Shaka Smart. Gregg Marshall. Ben Jacobson. Archie Miller. And more.

But forget about the candidate pool, which guys have a real shot and what direction the Longhorns want to go. That, right now, is anybody’s guess and all those of us observing from afar have to go off of is the recent hiring of Charlie Strong as UT’s football coach. Given that the hoops job is a completely different animal, I’m not sure that helps lead us to any quality predictions.

What we can predict, though, is how much the hire — whoever it ends up being — will impact the Big 12 and Kansas.

Let’s say, for a second, that Marshall is the guy. Just like that, KU coach Bill Self will go from not knowing when he’ll get another crack at Marshall, whose Wichita State team ended Self and KU’s season a week ago in Omaha, to two guaranteed match-ups with the guy year in and year out.

That’s an awesome scenario to envision. And could immediately breathe life back into the KU-Texas battles and make it the marquee rivalry in the conference.

If it’s not Marshall and the Longhorns go with a guy like Smart, you’re looking at a scary situation in which a sleeping giant could be awoken.

Smart is so beloved by his players, would be able to recruit top-tier talent to Austin and, beyond that, would bring a nasty style of play to the conference that could give teams fits.

If it’s me making the hire, I’m going after Smart and not taking no for an answer.

But regardless of who the Texas administration goes after, they’ll have enough high-quality candidates to make it nearly impossible to mess this one up.

All that remains to be seen is how big of a splash the new UT hoops coach will make on the rest of the Big 12.

Reports have said they’d like to make the hire quickly, perhaps by the end of the coming week. Can’t wait to see who it is.