Much like many of the wins since his 500th in 2010, Rick Barnes’ 600th win took an interesting path. But like all of the others, it came eventually, this one, a 66-43 victory by Texas over TCU on Wednesday.

It took Barnes almost three months longer to get to No. 600 than it did to No. 500, but reach the milestone he did in a year already riddled with even-numbered coaching glory.

Barnes’ arrival at No. 600 won’t get the same pub of Mike Krzyzewski or Greg Popovich at 1,000, and nor should it. But it’s an impressive number many thought he’d might not reach, at least at Texas, following a few dry years in Austin.

Things are still not rosy for Barnes and the Longhorns (16-8, 5-6 in the Big 12). Texas is fighting for its tournament life while Barnes may be, silently, coaching for his. All of those things aside, however, this is still an impressive achievement only 30 other Division 1 basketball coaches have reached.

With a career record of 600-308, Barnes is only the 13th active NCAA coach to reach the milestone. He’s earned 398 of those wins at Texas while the others came in stints with George Mason, Providence and Clemson.

It’s a tremendous achievement for a man who has helped transform Texas into a national player on the college basketball landscape – a distinction it did not have before.

“I’ve been fortunate and blessed, I got to be a head coach at a very young age," Barnes said. "I worked for a lot of great institutions. I’ve had great support, players and I’ve never had a bad coaching staff.”

1. The wins may have come against two of the Big 12’s worst, but the Longhorns still earned two straight victories they desperately needed.

Texas’ win against TCU being one of the better results of the conference slate tells you all you need to know there. But for a team looking for wins in any way possible, it'll do.

Now with seven games remaining on the conference slate, the Longhorns only need four wins to reach the 20-victory mark. This looked tricky only a week ago, but with Texas Tech and Kansas State left on the schedule, they have a chance. Texas still needs two wins in its five-game stretch against ranked opponents – Oklahoma, Iowa State, West Virginia, Kansas and Baylor – but reaching 20 is more of a possibility than an improbability at this point.

Twenty wins, and perhaps one game in the Big 12 tournament, will get Texas into the Big Dance. From there, as weak as the middle class is in the NCAA this season, anything can happen.

2. Texas may have finally found the guard it recruited two years ago with Kendal Yancy, because he looked great against TCU.

The sophomore started for the second straight game and looked very much up to that role. It all started with an early 3 from Yancy, and from there, the game seemed to open up for him.

A 24 percent 3-point shooter entering the game, Yancy put on display a stroke that had been all but dormant early in the year. Yancy did not shy away from letting it fly against the Horned Frogs, and Texas’ offense really benefited from it.

On one attempt in the first half, Yancy caught a pass from Javan Felix on the right side of the arc and immediately launched into his shot, which connected with nothing except net. For the majority of the year Yancy would have either held the ball, looked to pass or put his head down to drive.

But this time, after much prodding and mental buildup from teammate Javan Felix, he decided to just shoot.

"I was just confident out there," Yancy said.

Wednesday, he diversified his game a little with the outside arsenal, and it added a much-needed element for the Longhorns offensively with his 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting. If he and Felix, who finished the game 4-of-7 from behind the arc after missing Texas' last two games with a concussion, can provide even the threat of outside shooting for Texas, it would do wonders for the team’s spacing.

When both play like they did against TCU, it’s much more difficult for zones to pack the paint, giving Texas’ bigs more space to work and the guards more room to drive.

Yancy showed he’s more than capable of providing this element – he’s also a plus rebounder and good defender. This type of performance should keep him from being regulated to the bench for long stretches in the future.

3. Hitting some shots to stretch out the zone helped, but Texas’ ball movement against TCU was also much improved. The Longhorns worked the ball well from side-to-side against the zone, and more importantly, the guards made the entry passes inside when the lanes opened.

It took a little while, but the Longhorns eventually started to push the ball in the paint. A lot of these passes went to Cameron Ridley, who did an excellent job moving and fighting for position on the block. Texas’ guards were able to reward him often, and it resulted in 15 points on seven shots from the junior center.

TCU’s zone isn’t as long as Texas’ look, but the Horned Frogs do an excellent job moving and then correcting when a team punctures a gap. But the Longhorns did not allow the zone, something that's bother them in the past, to ever find its form thanks to pinpoint passing for long stretches.

One play particularly exemplifies this in the second half. Right around the 17-minute mark, Yancy picked his way into the lane, and when TCU’s defense collapsed, he dropped a pocket pass to Isaiah Taylor on the left side of the paint. Taylor had an open attempt, but he instead make a quick touch pass to the other side of the lane that led to a thunderous Ridley slam.

It’s the type of rhythmic ball movement that Texas has lacked much of the year, and it allowed the offense to hum for extended stretches. It won’t be as easy against the better defensive teams in the Big 12, but it was a step in the right direction for Texas.