SEC Tournament: Rick Barnes, Tennessee Vols made school history with win vs. Mississippi State

It’s no secret Tennessee basketball is cursed in the SEC Tournament. The Vols haven’t won it since 1979 despite capturing a share of the regular season title four times since then. However, the curse goes beyond that. For years, they had trouble even reaching the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference event.

Well, with the Vols’ win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs Friday, Rick Barnes has accomplished something no UT coach has accomplished since World War II. He has taken Rocky Top to four straight SEC Tournament semifinals, the first time they have done that since the tournament resumed in 1979. Although he still hasn’t won it yet, that’s a big deal.

Of course, there’s a bit of an asterisk by this, as the tournament wasn’t held in 2020 due to COVID. However, the only other time they made this many semifinals appearances also had an interruption. It was from 1939 to 1945, but there wasn’t a tournament in 1944 due to the war. UT won two tournament titles during that time, 1941 and 1943.

To understand the magnitude of what Barnes did, though, consider that 2008, the only year the Vols have won the SEC Regular Season Championship with the outright best record since Ray Mears’ days, was the first year they reached the semifinals in 19 years at the time. They lost that semifinal game.

Bruce Pearl started a streak then, as UT made it to three straight semifinals, but he couldn’t make it four. Considering the fact that the Vols had a top four seed four of Pearl’s six years at UT, him only making it three years is still an underachievement.

Jerry Green’s teams had a top four seed all four years he was there, and the Vols never reached the SEC Tournament semifinals. Simply put, getting to Saturday was the biggest hurdle for the Vols for years, although winning it is now their hurdle.

The tournament didn’t seem like a curse in the early years under Don DeVoe. After all, they won it the first year it resumed, and they then made it to the semifinals in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1989, and even Wade Houston got them there in 1991.

However, once the conference expanded in 1992, reaching Saturday seemed to elude them. Pearl broke that drought in 2008, and they have reached it eight times since then. With the No. 1 seed Auburn Tigers eliminated this year, though, can they finally win it?

They’ll have to pull off the brutal task of beating Kentucky first in this year’s semifinals. Then they’ll have to face either the Texas A&M Aggies or Arkansas Razorbacks, and the Hogs did beat them once this year. Taking that into account, winning it won’t be easy.

Reaching the SEC Tournament semifinals four straight times, though, is already a huge accomplishment for Barnes and his program. Given how this event once went for Tennessee basketball, you have to give him credit for such success.