All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee basketball: Ranking all four Vols coaches by performance in 2010s decade

By Caleb Calhoun

COLUMBUS, OHIO - MARCH 22: Head coach Rick Barnes of the Tennessee Volunteers looks on during the second half against the Colgate Raiders in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OHIO - MARCH 22: Head coach Rick Barnes of the Tennessee Volunteers looks on during the second half against the Colgate Raiders in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 5
Next

Four head coaches led Tennessee basketball from 2010 through 2019. Here is how they rank by their performances with the Volunteers.

Note: This is part of a series of posts recapping the decade for Tennessee football, Tennessee basketball, Tennessee women’s basketball and other Tennessee Vols-related topics.

One of the notable things about the success Tennessee basketball enjoyed this decade was the fact that it came with a ton of attrition. The Vols fired two head coaches due to NCAA infractions, and they still managed to have lots of success en route to one of the greatest decades in men’s basketball history on Rocky Top.

UT had four different head coaches throughout the decade. During that time, it managed five NCAA Tournaments, including three Sweet Sixteen appearances and an Elite Eight run. It had a season in which it was ranked No. 1 for multiple weeks, and it wone an SEC Championship in another regular season.

Simply put, Tennessee basketball has been successful in lots of ways. And each of the head coaches contributed something. Three of the four coached the Vols to at least one Sweet Sixteen appearance, and all four brought in players who became legends on Rocky Top.

But who did the best job of them? In this post we’re going to break all of that down. Our criteria doesn’t just include which coaches went the furthest in the NCAA Tournament. It also looks at things they accomplished in the regular season and the shape they left the program in when they departed it.

With two coaches being fired for NCAA infractions and one bolting for Cal, it’s safe to say that the none of the three who left the program left it in good shape. Could it have an impact on how we rank them? It might.

Since they all left it in bad shape, though, it’s more effective to analyze what they did while they were on Rocky Top. So let’s go ahead and break that down here. This is how all four Tennessee basketball head coaches of the 2010s stack up against each other in terms of performance on Rocky Top.

Home/Vols Basketball