Did Tennessee's win mean more to Rick Barnes because it came against Texas? 'Not really'
CHARLOTTE — Rick Barnes got texts from his former Texas players Saturday afternoon. T.J. Ford, his former point guard, was at the Spectrum Center Saturday night. On the other bench was Chris Ogden, one of the first players he recruited at Texas, now an assistant coach with the Longhorns.
Texas head coach Rodney Terry spent a decade with Barnes in Austin. Frank Haith, another Texas assistant, was another longtime Barnes assistant.
But did No. 2 Tennessee’s 62-58 win in the second round of the NCAA Tournament mean more to Barnes because it came against No. 7 Texas, where he spent 17 seasons as head coach and won 402 games?
“Honestly, not really,” Barnes said Saturday night.
‘I’ve been away nine years, and that’s a really long time in this sport’
Not really, he explained, because Tennessee went to Texas two years ago, when the Longhorns celebrated Barnes and his long-awaited return in the final season at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. And because Texas made the return trip last year, losing to the Vols in Knoxville in the final year of the Big 12-SEC Challenge.
And because Texas is entering the SEC next season and will become a much more normal part of Tennessee’s future schedules.
“It’s become a really good rivalry in the league,” Barnes said, “because they’re coming into the league. Honestly, and I don’t want somebody to think I’m being disrespectful, but I’ve been away nine years, and that’s a long time really in this sport.”
Barnes took Texas to the NCAA Tournament 16 times, including one Final Four, two Elite Eights and two Sweet Sixteens. He parted ways with the Longhorns in March 2015 and was hired at Tennessee only days later, the third coach of the Vols in as many years following the departure of Cuonzo Martin and the firing of Donnie Tyndall.
Shaka Smart replaced Barnes at Texas but lasted only six years. Chris Beard replaced Smart but was fired in January 2023, with Terry named the interim, then named head coach last March.
“I’m happy for Texas and the staff they have because, one, I know how much those guys love that university,” Barnes said.
Up Next: No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 3 Creighton, Friday
Now Barnes has won 201 games at Tennessee and is taking the Vols back to the Sweet Sixteen for the second straight year and the third time since 2019 after sending the Longhorns home.
“He’s done an unbelievable job,” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, a longtime friend of Barnes, said on Friday. “I thought how ironic they’re playing Texas, and he was there. Come to think of it, I thought he did a hell of job there and maybe was unappreciated a little bit, in my opinion.”
That’s when he pointed out Ogden in his press conference, his former player and assistant coach who followed him from Texas to Tennessee and was on his staff for the 2015-16 season, before leaving to join Beard at Texas Tech. Ogden spent three years as head coach at UT Arlington before returning to join the Texas staff in 2021.
“I’m part of that family,” Barnes said of Texas, “and I always will be. But I’m just thankful that God has blessed me with the opportunity to be at a lot of great universities, 17 years there, now nine here at Tennessee. Honestly, I couldn’t be in a better place than I am right now.
“Again, it is what it is,” Barnes concluded. “I’m just excited we’re moving on.”
