UT hooks former Texas coach to lead Vols basketball

Former University of Texas head basketball coach Rick Barnes, left, shakes hands with athletic director Dave Hart after being named the new head coach at the University of Tennessee on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, in Knoxville.
Former University of Texas head basketball coach Rick Barnes, left, shakes hands with athletic director Dave Hart after being named the new head coach at the University of Tennessee on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, in Knoxville.

KNOXVILLE - Rick Barnes was at a news conference on Sunday roughly 24 hours after his 17-year tenure as the head basketball coach at Texas officially came to an end when he hinted he'd quickly land another job.

It turns out he left that meeting with the media and hopped on a plane carrying Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart that took him and his wife, Candy, from Austin to Knoxville.

A little more than 36 hours later, Barnes was being introduced on Tuesday afternoon as the new coach of the Volunteers, the program's third one within one calendar year.

"There was never a hesitancy on my part once I had made contact with Tennessee and we started talking," Barnes said. "There was no doubt, from my point of view, that I wanted to be here and be part of it."

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photo Former University of Texas head basketball coach Rick Barnes, left, waits with his wife, Candy, before being named the new head coach at the University of Tennessee on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, in Knoxville.

Barnes, who turns 61 in July, is the winningest men's basketball coach in the Longhorns' history.

"I love coaching. I love working with young people," Barnes said following Tennessee's announcement. "Players have taught me. I could go down the line from the very first teams I coached at George Mason [in 1987], and the relationships you really develop with those players ... never fade away.

"That's something I'm not ready to give up. I am driven. I've had one goal in my life, and that's the chance to play for the national championship. This is a university that provides you with everything you need to do that, and I realize how hard that is to do, but it's something; the standard's been set."

There had to be some relief on the part of Hart, too, after he concluded a four-day coaching search to replace Donnie Tyndall, the coach ousted Friday after just one season because Tennessee believed an NCAA investigation into his former program at Southern Mississippi likely would lead to major NCAA penalties for him.

"If you had your druthers, you'd want that every time," Hart said. "But there are too many variables. Timing can take different turns, but this one, this [top-] target search, we never went any deeper.

"I'm excited that we have somebody the caliber of Rick Barnes."

Barnes took the Longhorns to 16 NCAA tournaments in 17 seasons, a run that included one Final Four, two Elite Eights and two Sweet 16s. Before that he took Clemson to three NCAA tournaments in four seasons and made the Big Dance with Providence three times in six seasons. His 604 wins are ninth-most among active Division I coaches.

Texas was just 80-57 with one NCAA tournament win over the last four seasons, but Barnes earned his fourth Big 12 Conference coach of the year honor last season when Texas finished third in the league after being picked to finish eighth.

"Today as I really came on campus for the first time and started walking through here and seeing everything," Barnes said Tuesday, "it was so easy for me to get energized and to step back and realize just how fortunate and how blessed I am to have this opportunity."

Tennessee's initial deal with Barnes runs for six years through the 2020-21 season and will pay him $2.25 million per season before incentives. That's currently the fourth-highest salary in the SEC behind only Kentucky's John Calipari, Florida's Billy Donovan and Auburn's Bruce Pearl. It's a step up, too, from the $1.6 million Tennessee was paying Tyndall.

"You have to be committed and you have to invest," Hart said. "That's what we've done. I think there will be a great return on this investment."

Contact staff writer Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

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