KNOXVILLE – Rick Barnes was at a news conference on Sunday roughly 24 hours after his 17-year tenure as the head basketball coach at Texas officially came to an end when he hinted he’d quickly land another job.
It turns out he left that meeting with the media and hopped on a plane carrying Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart that took him and his wife, Candy, from Austin to Knoxville.
A little more than 36 hours later, Barnes was being introduced on Tuesday afternoon as the new coach of the Volunteers, the program’s third one within one calendar year.
“There was never a hesitancy on my part once I had made contact with Tennessee and we started talking,” Barnes said. “There was no doubt, from my point of view, that I wanted to be here and be part of it.”
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