Rick Barnes has more 25-win seasons and more NCAA tournament victories than any other coach in University of Tennessee men’s basketball history.
That wouldn’t be the case if the 10th-year mentor of the Volunteers was the sixth-year coach at UCLA.
The Midwest Region’s second-seeded Vols (28-7) and seventh-seeded Bruins (23-10) will be seeking a spot in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 late Saturday night (9:40 on TBS and truTV) when they vie inside Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. Barnes had just guided Tennessee to a 31-6 mark in the 2018-19 season when he interviewed for the Bruins opening due to the “lure of UCLA basketball,” and he admitted he likely would have taken the job had UCLA bought out his contract at Tennessee.
“When I got the call, obviously for a lot of reasons I listened, and we met,” Barnes said Friday afternoon during a news conference. “I just did a radio interview, and they asked what I remember most. I remember a lot of prayer, because I felt really blessed to have had the opportunity to be at Tennessee, and I will forever be thankful to (UT System president) Randy Boyd and the commitment he made when we were in that part of the negotiation.
“I look at it now, and I thank God that he gave me the guidance to be where I am. Certainly UCLA hired a great, great basketball coach in Mick Cronin, and it’s worked out well for him. I’m glad it has worked out for UCLA, too, because the people I met with were wonderful people. I don’t think there is any question they made the right hire.”
The two programs earned their second-round date without much trouble, with Tennessee dismissing 15th-seeded Wofford 77-62, and with UCLA hammering 10th-seeded Utah State 72-47. Cronin guided the Bruins on a Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2021 as an 11 seed in the East Region but missed out on last year’s 68-team field, while Barnes is seeking to become the first Tennessee coach to make three consecutive Sweet 16 appearances, with last season’s team having advanced to the Elite Eight.
Only once before have Tennessee and UCLA met, with the Bruins topping the Vols 103-89 during the 1976-77 season in Atlanta.
“I would like to do a home-and-home with UCLA because of the respect that I have for that program and Mick,” Barnes said. “I know that would be hard, but I think our fans would be excited about them certainly coming to Knoxville, and hopefully they would be excited about us coming to Pauley (Pavilion).”
The second encounter between the two will pit two of the top five defenses this season among power conference members, with Tennessee allowing an average of 63.0 points per game and UCLA 65.2.
“Obviously we’ve already talked to our guys, did the first scouting report and explained to them that everything will be hard,” Cronin said. “Catching the ball will be hard, and passing the ball will be hard. You have to do everything with strength and conviction, or you’ll be running your offense at half-court.”
Tennessee will be facing its tallest player this season in UCLA sophomore center Aday Mara. The 7-foot-3, 240-pounder from Spain, who averages 6.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest, has four inches on Vols junior Felix Okpara, who is 6-11 and 235 pounds.
The two actually faced off last season, when Okpara played at Ohio State and scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting in a 67-60 win by the Buckeyes in Atlanta. Mara had only two points and was 1-of-6 from the floor.
“He and (former Purdue center) Zach Edey are the tallest I’ve faced,” Okpara said. “It’s definitely going to be a battle inside. I’ve got to do my job and just try to block out and try to get early positions for an offensive rebound. They’ve got good length, and for me it’s about trying to get more offensive rebounds than they do.”
Defensive finalists
The four Naismith defensive player of the year finalists were announced Friday, and two of them are Vols: senior guards Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler.
“It is nice they’re being recognized for it, because they do it every day,” Barnes said. “What you see in a game, they do every day in practice, and because of that, it has an effect on their team. With both of those guys we have never, ever coached effort. They’ve always given effort. That’s a talent, because not all players play with that type of effort and passion. Defense is in their DNA.”
Said UCLA junior guard Dylan Andrews: “We know for a fact coming into this game that we can’t play with the ball too much. We’ve got to be in control almost the entire time. We can’t get sped up.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.