CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It was the summer of 1989 and John Calipari had just endured a miserable first season coaching the University of Massachusetts Minutemen, his team having given up 100 points on six occasions.
"I called Rick Barnes," Cal remembered Wednesday at media day for SEC men's basketball at The Ballantyne resort. "We'd first gotten to know each other on the summer camp circuit when I was 15, 16 years old. He's a little older than me, if you didn't know that. He had long hair, drove a VW bug and kept a 'Toss Back' in his back seat. We hit it off right away."
But by the summer of '89, Barnes had just concluded his first season at Providence, having reached the NCAA tournament a year after beginning his coaching career at George Mason.
"I told Rick how bad we were and wanted to know what I was doing wrong," Cal continued. "I tried to impress him with all these things I was doing. We had like 15 things we practiced every day. I was 29 and wanted everybody to know I could coach."
So what did Barnes tell his old friend?
"I told him to simplify," said Barnes, who went on to Texas and is now preparing for his first season leading the Tennessee Volunteers. "I said, 'Pick three or four things you believe in, things you think you do well, and stick with those. Throw out the rest of it.'"
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes speaks with reporters during media day for Southeastern Conference men's basketball Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C. Barnes is preparing for his first season with the Volunteers after guiding Texas to the NCAA tournament in 16 of his 17 seasons coaching the Longhorns.Cal listened. He simplified his defense. UMass began to win. The same thing happened at Memphis. Then Kentucky, in ridiculous numbers. This past spring, Calipari was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
"And what Rick told me then, I'm still doing today," Cal said. "Every place Rick Barnes has been, he's left it a lot better than he found it, and he's going to do the same thing at Tennessee."
In fact, when Texas lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Butler last March and the wolves were at Barnes' door at the close of his 17th season with the Longhorns, Barnes said that Calipari called him and said, "You deserve better than what you're dealing with at Texas. You need to consider Tennessee."
This is what Tennessee is getting with Barnes. It has hired a gem of a guy who's highly respected by the best in the business. It has hired someone so confident in his own people skills he has never hired an agent to represent him or negotiate his contracts. It has hired a guy who indeed once owned a 1959 VW bug so worn out the brakes no longer worked.
"I had to use the emergency brake every time I needed to stop," Barnes said with a laugh Wednesday.
What he may have done best when he was first hired in the spring was to put the brakes on any talk of seniors Armani Moore or Kevin Punter leaving the team when UT athletic director Dave Hart hired Barnes to replace the disgraced Donnie Tyndall after but one Big Orange season.
"I was having a tough time," Moore recalled. "This was my third coach in three seasons. I was thinking, 'Oh, here we go again.' But we met, and he gave off a Christian aspect. I thought, 'He's a Christian, just like me.' I love Tennessee. I never wanted to leave Tennessee. I just wanted to know I was going to be able to enjoy my senior year."
Added Punter, "Coming out of junior college, you just pray the coach will stay for two years, because you've only got two years. But it was cool. It all went smoothly, just the way I needed it to go."
On the court, both Punter and Moore say the 61-year-old Barnes is anything but cool, that he's a fiery stickler for hustle and details.
"Most coaches seem to get away from fundamentals," Moore said. "Coach Barnes is always coaching passing, shooting and dribbling. Three hours. All fundamentals. Even in the NBA, they don't always know how to pass, how to shoot."
Said Punter: "But there's a lot of freedom, too. If you're open, he'll get mad if you don't shoot the ball. You might say, 'I wasn't open,' and he'll say, 'You WERE open.' He might even make you run."
People. The lives of other people are what seem to make Barnes run best. He didn't retire from coaching after his time was up at Texas at least partly because quitting would have meant his longtime assistants would be without jobs. There was also his 86-year-old mother to consider in Hickory, N.C., not more than three hours from Knoxville. And his wife is a UT grad.
But something else intrigued him, something that could one day joyously impact every citizen of Big Orange Nation.
"I'm convinced," Barnes said, "that Tennessee is a place you can win a national championship."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com