Tennessee basketball: Rick Barnes on Vols playing the Texas Longhorns

Tennessee basketball head coach Rick Barnes commented on the UT Volunteers possibly playing the Texas Longhorns, his previous school.

Rick Barnes was the head coach of the Texas Longhorns for 17 years before he took the job with Tennessee basketball. And he has very specific thoughts on what should happen if the Vols and Longhorns face each other.

Barnes said on The First Quarter on WNML that the past two years, ESPN wanted to have the Vols and Longhorns face each other. However, he added that if that is going to happen, it needs to happen in Knoxville.

His reasoning?

He does not want his return to Austin to be a distraction.

This makes sense. Texas forced Barnes out after 17 years as head coach, but he did see lots of success there. As a result, it makes sense that he doesn’t want to be a distraction.

On top of that, the Vols had a couple of famous wins against the Longhorns.

One of them involved a 17-point comeback that they won in overtime. The highlight of that win as Chris Lofton dropping off Kevin Durant from over 30 feet out to give them the lead late.

However, the year before, they beat Texas in a game that put Bruce Pearl on the map. The Vols dominated the Longhorns on the road that year, and it was the thing that got Pearl’s first team going.

So there is a bit of history between Tennessee and Texas.

Anyway, if you know anything about Barnes, you’ll know that he schedules hard enough that the Vols don’t have to focus on one particular school like Texas.

Remember, this year they have to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, North Carolina Tar Heels, Wake Forest Demon Deacons and Iowa State Cyclones in addition to their participation in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament and their SEC schedule.

So they’re fine without playing the Longhorns. This schedule will still be elite no matter what.