After his first season as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball program, Rick Barnes is proving that this isn’t a retirement tour.
Coach Rick Barnes is proving that his tenure, however long it may be, is not just a retirement tour.
On Tuesday, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that the Tennessee men’s basketball team will face North Carolina next season in Chapel Hill, N.C. in the Dean Dome. It will be a home-and-home series with the storied program, as the Tar Heels will come to Knoxville in the 2017-18 season.
Coming into his first season at Knoxville, many believed it was a successful hire for Athletic Director Dave Hart. He had 604 total wins 22 NCAA tournament appearances, six Sweet Sixteens, three Elite Eights, and one Final Four. Everywhere he has went, he has won, and at Texas he proved he could sustain it with a program from 1998 to 2015. The problem with Barnes was not winning, it was early round exits in the big tournament. With all of that into account, Barnes has been at it for a long time.
His first season at Tennessee ended just a few days ago, and it was not an ideal one. Tennessee finished 15-18, giving him only his second losing season as a head coach, and his first since 1991 with Providence.
Barnes brings a style that is not the type of a Bruce Pearl or a Donnie Tyndall, as in he does not get out and yell, or visit around campus as much as they did, but he has never done that type of thing. With this style, many take it as Barnes just going through the motions here at Tennessee, he is just collecting a check on a retirement tour.
Barnes is 61. That’s not young, but it’s very likely he could coach for 10 more years, after all the legendary Coach K is 69. If Barnes were truly on a retirement tour, what would be the purpose of scheduling programs that bring more attention to the Tennessee program?
In his inaugural season, Barnes and company scheduled Georgia Tech for a four-year home-and-home series in a recruiting hot bed of Georgia. They traveled to Seattle to play a Gonzaga team that never misses the tournament, and a team that will be traveling to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville to face the Vols. And now, it’s a home-and-home series with North Carolina.
There’s no need to go through the history of North Carolina, they are clearly one of the biggest basketball programs of all-time, and remain so, as they are currently a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. This series will undeniably bring more attention to a Tennessee program trying to build and recruit on a national level. If UNC is playing a game, it’s likely going to be on a big network like ESPN.
In addition to this home-and-home series with North Carolina, Tennessee will be traveling to the Maui Invitational that includes teams like North Carolina, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Connecticut.
Ultimately, Rick Barnes is proving he is not on some kind of retirement tour because he and his staff are making an effort to go up against the best of the best; which is how you build a program. Who knows what the next few seasons will be like for the Rick Barnes era, but it is clear there is effort for it to continue for several years.