Wiedmer: Vols lucky to land Barnes as new coach

KNOXVILLE -- Incredible.

If new University of Tennessee men's basketball coach Rick Barnes said that word once at his introductory news conference Tuesday afternoon, he said it 25 times.

As in, the energy around the UT campus is "incredible." The facilities are "incredible." The fan base is "incredible." The two days he spent getting to know his new employers in trading one UT orange (Texas's burnt shade) for a second UT orange was "incredible."

As was the swiftness of this courtship -- no more than four days at the most -- which also was an incredible bit of good fortune for the Vols. After all, when your first 19 basketball coaches never reached the Final Four, it's pretty incredible to have your 20th not only already have a Final Four on his resume but also two more Elite Eights, given that the Vols have reached only one of those in program history.

But to listen further to Barnes was to realize this may also have been a shotgun wedding 41 years in the making, which makes this union all the more, well, incredible.

"Back in 1974, you had a coed here that I was very much in love with," said Barnes, as he pointed to Candy, the woman who would become his wife. "I'd come in on weekends from Hickory (N.C.) sometimes to see her. I remember stopping at a sandwich shop (Sam and Andy's) each time on the way home and getting a roast beef and cheese sub for the road."

Candy was a senior that 1974-75 school year, majoring in biology. She went to UT for her final year of college, having spent her first three years at Appalachian State.

"But I fell in love with UT football," she said. "I've always loved Peyton (Manning). But I like (brother) Eli, too. Is that OK?"

It was apparently all much more than OK with her future husband, who was still playing basketball back home in Hickory at Lenoir-Rhyne College.

"I'd never been to a big-time college football game before," Coach Barnes recalled. "I had a chance to meet Condredge Holloway today and I saw him beat Tulsa 17-10 in Neyland Stadium in 1974. I learned then what a great fan base the University of Tennessee has. I learned what Rocky Top is all about."

Incredible, huh? You just can't make this stuff up. These two lovebirds from Hickory return 41 years later to save UT basketball from itself. If Sam and Andy's doesn't have a sandwich named for a UT coach -- and as of Tuesday night it didn't, the "Vol Burger" its only official nod to the Big Orange -- it might consider naming its roast beef and cheese for Barnes.

Or as UT athletic director Dave Hart said of 60-year-old Barnes and his 604 career wins: "All you have to do is talk to any of his peers who share that rare air, and they will tell you Tennessee has an elite coach in its basketball program."

Conspiracy theorists might rightly wonder if a news leak last Thursday in Texas made all this possible. It seems that after 16 NCAA appearances in his 17 Longhorns seasons, Barnes was being asked to fire his staff to retain his job. Already concerned he might have to part company with Donnie Tyndall over NCAA violations he's alleged to have committed at Southern Miss, Hart may have hastened Tyndall's exit after his lone season in Knoxville.

After all, Hart said he had no official letter concerning Tyndall's Southern Miss troubles, but rather a phone conversation with the NCAA. Given that the Barnes story surfaced Thursday and Tyndall was gone by Friday morning, it's at the very least a curious coincidence, the whole chain of events moving a little too much like clockwork ... orange.

And there may be a few doubters. Much as many believe former Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer grew stale over the back half of his 16 seasons running the Vols, the numbers on Barnes certainly declined during his final five or six seasons at Texas. Yet he was also the 2014 Big 12 coach of the year and had this year's Longhorns in the Associated Press top 10 through most of December.

Yet Hart and Barnes also didn't just meet this week.

"In 1987 I went to East Carolina for an interview," Barnes recalled. "Dave, who was the associate athletic director, picked me up at the airport. I ended up playing golf with his wife Pam. For some reason he didn't hire me then. I'm glad this time he did."

This also wasn't the first time Barnes had been considered for the Vols job. In 1989, only one season into his six years at Providence, Barnes received a phone call from former UT athletic director Doug Dickey during the 1989 Final Four in Seattle. Because he declined to be interviewed, the Vols hired Wade Houston.

But given a second chance, Barnes bit, no doubt happy to be close again to his 84-year-old mother and his wife's family.

If nothing else, he'll get to stick with the same basic color palate. After spending 17 years wearing the burnt orange of Texas, and the four years before that in Clemson's bright orange, Barnes no doubt will quickly adjust to UT's pale orange.

Not that Candy expects to have much trouble deciding which shade to wear.

"I've got to keep my closet clean," she said of her decision not to hold onto the past. "My mother wouldn't like it if I didn't."

And just in case anyone wonders if the new coach, who'll be 61 before his first UT season begins, still has the energy necessary to guide a fourth program to the NCAA tournament, Barnes said, "I've always wanted to win a national championship."

If something as incredible as that happens, don't be surprised if Sam and Andy's is moved to name its roast beef and cheese sub in his honor.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.