KNOXVILLE — Tennessee made its commitment to its men’s basketball program very clear when it hired Rick Barnes and made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the Southeastern Conference.
The Volunteers further demonstrated that commitment with the three assistant coaches Barnes tabbed to join him in trying to get Tennessee back into the NCAA tournament.
Barnes finalized his full-time coaching staff Tuesday, with assistants Rob Lanier and Chris Ogden following him from his previous job at Texas and former Georgia assistant Desmond Oliver rounding out the trio.
Their salaries, according to a Tennessee spokesman, are $375,000 for Lanier, $225,000 for Ogden and $175,000 for Oliver, who most recently coached at UNC Charlotte.
Combined, Barnes’ three assistants will make $775,000. The three assistant coaches on previous coach Donnie Tyndall’s staff — Al Pinkins, Chris Shumate and, originally, Adam Howard — made just $502,000, with Pinkins the high earner at $200,000. The $273,000 difference complements the $2.25 million salary Tennessee is paying Barnes.