Rick Barnes lands $200k bonus for advancing to Sweet 16 of NCAA Tournament
Rick Barnes has guided the Tennessee Volunteers to a very successful season thus far. And he’s been handsomely rewarded for it along the way. He added some more cash to his bank account on Saturday night, after the No. 2 seed Tennessee Volunteers ousted the No. 7 seed Texas Longhorns in their Round of 32 matchup. The game came down to the final few seconds, but the Vols managed to prevail 62-58 and punch their tickets to the Sweet Sixteen of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
According to Steve Berkowitz, Barnes landed a $200,000 bonus after the win, pushing his bonus total to a cool $1,000,000 this year. He got paid $400,000 for the Volunteers winning the SEC regular season title, $200,000 for an NCAA Tournament bid, and $200,000 for each win so far (they’ve won two games).
Tennessee has now advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the seventh time in the last nine trips. It marks back-to-back trips to the Sweet Sixteen for the Volunteers for the first time since 2007-2008.
It’s just the second time in school history they’ve made back-to-back trips.
Barnes was proud of his team for battling through adversity
Heading into the game, Barnes knew the final two minutes would be where the game was decided. He prepped his team for the moment and they came through. Barnes explained how proud he is of Tennessee when speaking with CBS’ Allie LaForce.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Barnes said. “I’ve got so much respect for that stuff, obviously, and that University. Just really proud of our guys. Both teams played their hearts out. It was the exact kind of game we told our guys it would be. We said it would come down to the last two minutes. And it did.”
In the final minute, Tennessee went to the free-throw line seven times and made every single one of them. And at times, the game seemed to be on ice. Texas found a way to respond though and continued to put pressure on the free throws.
Part of why Barnes was prepared for a rock fight was due to who was on the other side. Barnes has an extensive history with Rodney Terry and there is a great respect between them. The two even shared a hug in the handshake line once the final buzzer sounded.
On3’s Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this article.