Tennessee men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes would need to spend another decade in Knoxville to match his longevity with the Texas Longhorns.
Which helps explain why Saturday night will be an experience like no other for the 67-year-old.
When the pairings were announced last summer for Saturday’s Big 12/SEC Challenge, the Kansas-Kentucky matchup was for all the traditionalists, but Tennessee’s trip to Texas instantly snagged the top human interest angle. Barnes guided Texas to a 402-180 record from 1998 to 2015, taking the Longhorns to 16 NCAA tournaments out of those 17 seasons, which included a 2003 journey to the Final Four.
Barnes also led the Longhorns to three Big 12 regular-season titles, two additional trips to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight and the program’s lone No. 1 ranking during the 2009-10 season.
“I’ve got incredible respect for the University of Texas,” Barnes said Wednesday night after Tennessee rallied past Florida 78-71 inside Thompson-Boling Arena. “I spent 17 years there, and there is not a person on that campus that I don’t have great respect for. I’ve got two former assistants who left to become head coaches who have gone back on Chris Beard’s staff. I know a lot of my former players will be there, and they understand me probably more than anybody.
“They know I’m not going to let anything get in the way of our preparation to win this game. Will it be different? I don’t know. I’m seven years removed. I’m a Tennessee Volunteer.”
Beard is in his first season with the Longhorns after moving over from Texas Tech, a program he led to the Final Four in 2019. When this showdown was revealed, Beard was quick to praise Barnes, who went 31-35 in his first two seasons with the Vols but is 106-43 since and is on track for a fourth straight staged NCAA tournament – the 2020 event was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Wednesday’s win gave Barnes a 27-11 record against Florida, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, which annually serve as Tennessee’s twice-a-year opponents within the Southeastern Conference.
“In my eyes, he’s a first-ballot Hall of Fame coach,” Beard told the Austin American-Statesman last summer. “What he’s done here in Austin and what he built, we all benefit from here today.”
The ESPN-televised contest with an 8 p.m. Eastern tip might be the most evenly matched of all 10 contests in this year’s Challenge. Tennessee has a 14-5 overall mark that includes a 5-3 record in SEC play, while Texas is 15-5 overall and 5-3 in the Big 12.
In the NET rankings, the Vols are 11th and the Longhorns 16th, with each compiling 6-5 records so far against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opposition and avoiding any defeats to Quad 3 and Quad 4 foes.
“We know it’s going to be a big game,” Tennessee junior guard Santiago Vescovi said after his 23-point performance against the Gators. “They’re probably going to do a video at the beginning, and there are probably going to be a lot of people since it’s Coach Barnes’ first time to come back. I think it’s going to get us fired up, and we’ve got to take it the right way.
“We’ve got to funnel all the energy into winning the basketball game and just stay focused on the game, because that’s what we’re here for.”
AP photo by Gene J. Puskar / Rick Barnes talks with Javan Felix during the Texas Longhorns’ NCAA tournament game against Butler on March 19, 2015, in Pittsburgh. Barnes, who coached the Longhorns from 1998 to 2015 before being hired at Tennessee, is returning to Texas to guide the Vols in a Big 12/SEC Challenge showdown Saturday night in Austin.Kevin Durant, T.J. Ford, LaMarcus Aldridge and P.J. Tucker were among the biggest names Barnes coached with the Longhorns, but his run in Austin ended on March 27, 2015. Texas had begun the 2014-15 season ranked 10th nationally but struggled to a 20-14 record that included an 8-10 conference mark and an NCAA tournament first-round loss to Butler as an 11 seed.
Four days after getting fired, Barnes was hired at Tennessee.
Barnes, who took Providence and Clemson to three NCAA tournaments apiece before his lengthy run at Texas, was replaced in Austin by Shaka Smart. In six seasons with the Longhorns, Smart went 109-86 with just three invitations to the 68-team NCAA field.
The 2008 Big 12 title won by Barnes and the Longhorns remains the most recent in program annals.
“Texas is a big part of me and always will be, but I’ve been gone seven years,” Barnes said. “I have a lot of fond memories, and, think about it – we’ll be up on everybody in our league that hasn’t been there, because they’re going to be in our league within the next year or two or whenever it might happen.
“It’s about to be a trip every year or every other year, but it’s a basketball game we’ve got to get prepared to play.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.