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Tennessee basketball: NCAA FBI scandal shouldn’t affect Rick Barnes or Vols

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 17: Head coach Rick Barnes of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts in the second half of a game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 17, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. North Carolina won 78-73. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 17: Head coach Rick Barnes of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts in the second half of a game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 17, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. North Carolina won 78-73. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee basketball Rick Barnes has a relation to the NCAA FBI probe from his time with the Texas Longhorns. However, it shouldn’t affect the Volunteers.

See the way the fate favors Tennessee basketball? The Vols are once again dealing with a head coach who is connected to an NCAA investigation for something he did while he was not at the University of Tennessee.

Two players connected to the Texas Longhorns, Eric Davis Jr. and Prince Ibeh, were mentioned in the Yahoo Sports report about the FBI probe into the NCAA. Both were alleged to have connections to ASM Sports agency.

Davis never played for Barnes but committed to the school while he was head coach. Ibeh, however, was a four-year player who never averaged over 20 minutes a game.

According to the reports, Davis allegedly received $1,500, while Ibeh is listed as somebody who had meetings with ASM. As you can see in this 247Sports report, Barnes denies any involvement. He also says the money was paid after he left.

However, how does this all affect Rocky Top? That’s the real story. And the real story is that Tennessee basketball is safe for now. If you look at the history of the NCAA handling such incidents, Barnes will likely not be punished. The worst thing that could happen is Texas vacates those wins, hurting Barnes’s overal career record as a college coach.

Sure, fans will point to Bruce Pearl and Donnie Tyndall both receiving show-cause penalties for their time with the Vols. The difference, however, is that both coaches were implicated in direct cover-ups, even if Pearl’s was just a barbecue.

In Barnes’s case, he was coaching players who were technically ineligible because of their involvement with sports agents. That’s at least based on what we’ve seen so far.

Coaching technically ineligible players, at least based on past punishments, means you just vacate your wins. Look at John Calipari with Derrick Rose and the Memphis Tigers.

Unless something comes out of Barnes being involved in a cover-up, he should be safe. Nothing came out of any Tennessee basketball player under him or anybody he recruited. And as a guy who has brought in almost exclusively three-stars, it’s hard to believe something would.

Coming off the firings of Tyndall and Pearl, Vols fans went for Barnes looking for some stability. It looks like this incident threw a wrench in that. However, unless the NCAA shows a blatant double-standard never employed before, there’s no way the Vols should have to cut bait with Barnes. So for now, the program in Knoxville is safe.

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