Tennessee basketball: Rick Barnes bringing meals to Vols staff during coronavirus quarantine

While COVID-19 still has everybody quarantined, men’s Tennessee basketball head coach Rick Barnes is delivering meals to his Volunteers assistants.

If any sports figure was going to make headlines for going out of his way to do something nice during the coronavirus outbreak, Tennessee basketball head coach Rick Barnes would have been a good bet. He has now proven that he would have delivered for the bettor as well…literally.

Apparently, Barnes has been finding ways around the quarantine to spend time with his coworkers and other people close to them. Part of that has involved visiting and delivering meals to his staff members.

Kim English, assistant coach for Tennessee basketball, tweeted out that Barnes has delivering been showing up unannounced at the house with dinner for his family about once a week. He posted a picture of Barnes in a mask and sunglasses.

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Anybody who knows Barnes is likely to not be surprised by this. Barnes has a pretty solid history of valuing deep connections and relationships with everybody he has ever worked with, whether that be assistants under him, people he has worked under and all of his former players.

Remember, this is the guy who showed up to see TJ Ford graduate from Texas back in 2017 despite being fired by the Longhorns just two years prior. He’s that classy, always valuing relationships over legacy or program-building.

Obviously, Barnes was going to remain in constant communication with his players and coaches no matter what. But this takes it to another level and is a testament to the type of person Barnes is and always has been.

English is one of the new assistants on Tennessee basketball’s staff. At age 31, he was hired just this past year, having spent two seasons with the Colorado Buffaloes and Tulsa Golden Hurricanes each beforehand. He played college for the Missouri Tigers from 2008 to 2012, so he would face Barnes every year during that time since Barnes was in Texas and both were still in the Big 12.