Tennessee basketball: Remembering Vols hire of Rick Barnes five years later
March 31 marks the five-year anniversary of Dave Hart hiring Rick Barnes as Tennessee basketball’s head coach. It became a home run move for the Volunteers.
Five years ago today, Dave Hart’s legacy on Rocky Top appeared to be heading towards the opposite result of what it is now. At the time, he was maligned for his Tennessee basketball coaching hire, and he was praised as a genius for his hire of Butch Jones to lead the Tennessee football program.
Jones was 12-13 in two years, but he was coming off a 7-6 season, UT’s first winning season in five years, their first bowl appearance in four years and their first bowl win in seven years. Also, he had just secured a second straight top five recruiting class. So the program appeared to be dramatically on the rise.
Meanwhile, Hart was four days removed from firing Donnie Tyndall after one year due to major NCAA violations dating back to his time with the Golden Eagles and calling a humiliating press conference admitting his mistake. Tyndall was hired after Cuonzo Martin bolted for the California Golden Bears and went 16-16 in one year.
At this point, Tennessee basketball was known for the Bruce Pearl fiasco, its perceived unfair treatment of Martin that resulted in him bolting and now its hire of Tyndall, which became a fiasco. But on March 31, 2015, Hart would make the decision that changed his legacy.
Related Story. Five past incidents that canceled Vols events. light
Barnes was fired by the Texas Longhorns just one day after UT fired Tyndall. He had been there for 17 years, won three Big 12 titles, made a Final Four appearance and gone to 16 NCAA Tournaments, but Texas was looking to inject some new blood. They hired Shaka Smart from the VCU Rams.
More from Vols Basketball
- Tennessee Volunteers News: Midweek Recap, Food City Center, Students Back & More
- Tennessee Basketball: Which teams have the Volunteers never beaten?
- Former Tennessee Vols’ Star Grant Williams Dominated Game 4 of ECF
- 10 best Tennessee basketball NBA careers ever
- Tennessee Basketball: Phillips in Transfer Portal, New Transfers Join Vols
Hart, desperately looking to bring some level of stability to Tennessee basketball, made the wise move and went away from the splash hire of a young up and comer. He jumped at the chance to hire a proven winner who would be consistent, and that’s what brought Barnes to Knoxville.
The perception was that one UT program was settling while the other was shooting for the stars. In this instance, Hart appeared to be looking to make Tennessee basketball a solid program while turning Tennessee football into a championship program.
Well, less than two years later, Hart was gone, replaced by John Currie. And all within a month, everything changed about the program. After Hart, the facade of Butch Jones wore off, and he was fired thanks to a disastrous 2017 season.
Currie was then forced out, replaced by Phillip Fulmer, after the disastrous coaching search. But in between the firing of Jones and the crazy coaching search, Barnes had the Vols turning into a national power.
We all know the story. He won a share of the SEC regular season title that season. Then he led the Vols to their second ever No. 1 ranking and second ever 30-plus win season in 2018-2019. Now he’s got a top five recruiting class headed to Knoxville. Meanwhile, Smart has never gotten Texas out of the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 or won more than 20 regular season games.
dark. Next. Five biggest ways COVID-19 affects Vol football
The simple truth is that the opposite of everything we thought we knew five years ago when Hart hired Barnes is true. Jones did not have the football program on the rise. Smart did not take Texas to new heights. And Tennessee basketball was not settling with Barnes. Now, Hart’s best move is the Barnes hire, and the Jones hire is clearly his worst move. Nobody saw that coming in 2015.