Rick Barnes' best wins and moments at Tennessee

2022 SEC Tournament

Tennessee won its first SEC Tournament Championship since 1979 with their 65-50 victory over Texas A&M in the conference tournament championship. This season, Tennessee was led by Josiah-Jordan James, Kennedy Chandler, and Santiago Vescovi and it took all three to defeat the Aggies and win the SEC Tournament Championship. 

The Vols' tournament started similar to this year's tournament, with a quarterfinals matchup against Mississippi State. They handled business against the Bulldogs and set up a rubber match against Kentucky, after splitting the season series with one win each.

This semifinal matchup was a battle between Uroš Plavšić and Oscar Tshiebwe in the paint. We now know Barnes puts major focus in being the more physical team down low, and this game was Barnes’ opportunity to enforce that with a chance to win a tournament championship. 

Tennessee won this matchup and finished their seven-game win streak with a win over Texas A&M in the SEC Championship game. This is one of the best end-of-season runs we've seen since Barnes came to Knoxville and it ended with Barnes and the Vols cutting down the net.