Ranking all 14 Tennessee Vols coaches by performance from 2018-2019

The Tennessee Vols men’s basketball program was the second best performing program on the list behind women’s soccer. But Rick Barnes belonged ahead of Brian Pensky because he did it in his fourth season, not his seventh.

Barnes, to be fair, did benefit from everybody coming back and a ton of experience on the roster. But none of his main rotation guys had better than a three-star recruiting rating. And with that group, he took the program to new heights.

UT had its longest ever time at No. 1 in the nation, they beat the No. 1 team in the Gonzaga Bulldogs and topped the Kentucky Wildcats twice, and they made the Sweet 16 while finishing second in the SEC regular season and SEC Tournament. A horrible late foul call kept them out of the Elite 8 as well.

Being in his fourth year kept Barnes from being higher on this list, but he was clearly one of the best coaches on Rocky Top this season. Nobody can deny just how great of a job he did, and his success, without a national title on his resume, allowed him to negotiate a top 5 contract in the offseason. Simply put, there’s no way he could be any lower on this list.