He’s shown he can land elite recruits, and can win a lot of games. He’s been a really good coach, but in how many seasons would you consider Barnes an elite coach? He left Texas because he was good, and rarely great. The NCAA is a crapshoot which Barnes hasn’t quite figured out. Overall, Barnes’ NCAA record is just 24-25. It’s what one might call a storied career.ġ1 of those NCAA appearances were a 5 seed or higher, and just one ended up with a Final Four appearance. That’s 34 years as a head coach with four conference championships and 25 NCAA tournament appearances. So it’s been a while.īarnes spent one season at George Mason, then six at Providence, four at Clemson, 17 at Texas, and now the last six seasons at Tennessee. Rick Barnes first coached on the sidelines as the head coach in November of 1987, the same week The Running Man was the number one movie at the box office and “ I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffani was the number one single in the land. It’s nearly impossible to disparage the level of success Rick Barnes has had over his elongated career. 13 Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports HEAD COACH: Rick Barnes | Seventh Season, 123-73 28 KenPom My Prediction: 21-10 (12-6, 4th in conference) The Masses Prediction: 12.7 - 5.3 (4th in conference) SEC Media Prediction: 4th in conference KenPom Projection: 21 - 9 (12-6 in conference) No. #4 Tennessee Volunteers Last Season: 18-9 (10-7 in conference) No. And now we’re looking at much of the same recipe going into this year. Starting 10-1 is great, finishing 8-8 isn’t. They still finished with a respectable 18-9 record, but were bounced in the first round of the NCAA tournament as a 5 seed. They vaulted into the top 10 early in the season, mostly on the back of their defense, but the offense bogged down, and multiple players just had disappointing seasons.
Surely that is a recipe for greatness, right?īut Tennessee was a disappointment last year. But they returned almost everyone, and were adding two 5-star freshmen to the roster. The Vols were coming off a so-so season in 2019-20, where they finished 68th in KenPom and 9-9 in league play. Last year, preseason hype engulfed the Tennessee Volunteers. Sometimes living up to the hype is a difficult thing to do.
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