KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — More than an hour after a recent practice had ended, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes continued to spin yarns in a nearly empty Thompson-Boling Arena.
The 64-year-old coach has amassed a wealth of tales from more than 40 years in the business, 32 as a head coach. He’s adding more this season, again taking the men’s basketball team at a university better known for football to new heights. Tennessee is ranked No. 1 for the second time in program history and on its longest winning streak in more than 100 years.
Yet many of Barnes’s stories on this day trace back to the nation’s capital: How he managed to lure Kevin Durant all the way to Texas, recollections from the old Big East and how he became the Virginia coach for less than a day.
Barnes delighted the most in recounting the significance of getting hired at George Mason in 1980 as the young program’s first full-time assistant. It was his second job in college coaching, after two years at Davidson. He had to refer to a college guidebook to learn about his new place of employment.
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“I will tell you, those five years were the most important five of my life in terms of the profession,” Barnes said of his time spent learning from Joe Harrington, the Patriots' coach at the time. “Joe allowed me to be a huge part of every part of the program. That’s what he told me when I went there. He said, ‘You’re going to be able to see how a program is built from the ground level up.’”
Those lessons eventually helped Barnes land his first head-coaching position at George Mason — well, that and some bookkeeping he did for the university’s athletic director.
“I wanted to be a young head coach, so every time a job would come open anywhere, I would apply for it, and obviously nobody’s interested,” Barnes said. “I had been in the business three years, really. One day I said to Jack [Kvancz, who was Mason’s AD], ‘I can’t even get anybody to give me an interview.’ He said, ‘Why should they?’
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“I said to him, ‘Well, would you hire me?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what. I need somebody to take over the men’s basketball program’s travel,’ and he said, ‘If you do this, and you do a good job, I’ll hire you one day.’ ”
Kvancz did so in 1987, setting Barnes on the path that, entering the Volunteers' game Saturday at Texas A&M, has led to 680 victories.
DMV ties
After a 20-10 season at Mason, Barnes learned of an opening on the grander stage of the Big East. Rick Pitino told Barnes that Providence, which Pitino had led to the 1987 Final Four before leaving to coach the New York Knicks, was looking for a new coach after falling back to earth in one season under Gordie Chiesa.
Barnes was interested but torn because of his strong attachment to George Mason, so he agreed to meet with Providence’s athletic director, John Marinatto, only if his name wouldn’t be linked publicly to the opening. Barnes boarded the last flight to Boston from the District, took a tour of the campus in the wee hours and was back in Fairfax by early morning.
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“I called John and said to him, ‘I don’t want my name involved because I love this place. I don’t want people to think I’ve got one foot in and one foot out,'" Barnes said. “Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia is still one of my favorite places. I love it.”
The next day, Barnes cried when informing George Mason players of his decision to leave.
“It was really hard because I had to go back for a second interview [with Providence], and I flew back in that day,” he said. “That night we had our banquet. I’m at the banquet trying to be as authentic as I can knowing I’ve already accepted the job at Providence.”
Barnes made an immediate impact, directing the Friars to consecutive NCAA tournament appearances in his first two seasons. After the second of those NCAA berths, Barnes nearly came back to the commonwealth, accepting an offer to become coach at Virginia only to reconsider and withdraw several hours later, revealing this past weekend his reasons.
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“Terry Holland wanted me to keep his staff,” Barnes said of the outgoing coach who was moving on to become athletic director at Davidson, his alma mater, “and I just didn’t feel like I could do that. I knew Terry would eventually come back [to Virginia] and become the AD, and I just didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot.”
Over his next four seasons at Providence, which included the Big East tournament title in 1994, and subsequently in jobs at Clemson and Texas, Barnes kept ties in the fertile recruiting ground of the D.C. area.
“He was a relentless recruiter,” said former Maryland coach Gary Williams, a longtime friend for whom Barnes served as an assistant for a season at Ohio State. “I always thought that was a big strength Rick had. He just had the work ethic that you have to have.”
That dedication plus strong connections helped Barnes to be able to entice Durant, a Suitland, Md., native and one of the most coveted high school players in country, to attend Texas in 2006. Barnes was competing against the two previous national champions, Connecticut and North Carolina.
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Barnes recalled saying to a Longhorns assistant at the time, Washington-area native Russell Springmann, “How’s this guy going to leave D.C., and fly over the ACC, leave the footprint of the Big East and come to Texas?”
Barnes recalled telling Durant he was going to be “brutally honest” with him if he chose Texas but that the trust between coach and player would be unconditional.
The message resonated with Durant’s family, so much so that before Durant visited Texas, his father, Wayne Pratt, told Barnes that if he and his son got along, the Longhorns would be the choice.
Barnes replied: “Well, Wayne, I can guarantee you we’re going to hit it off.”
Durant became the first freshman to win the Naismith College Player of the Year award before becoming the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 draft.
Three seasons later, Texas achieved its first No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press poll on the heels of a 17-0 start, but Barnes and the school parted ways in 2015. He had led Texas to the NCAA tournament in 16 of 17 seasons, winning at least 20 games 15 times. He was named Big 12 Coach of the Year four times.
'He built it from scratch’
Tennessee, the only other top-ranked team Barnes has coached, recently completed its first full week in that spot, and on Tuesday tied a program record set in 1917 with its 15th consecutive win, 92-70 at South Carolina.
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“He’s done a great job,” West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins said of Barnes after the Volunteers thumped the visiting Mountaineers, 83-66, last week. “I think they’re as good as anybody in the country.”
So engaged is the fan base that tickets for the remaining six home games are sold out, with the Volunteers (19-1, 7-0 SEC) chasing their second straight SEC regular season championship, which would be a first in program history, as well as a second consecutive NCAA tournament bid.
Tennessee, ranked No. 1 for the second time in program history, had missed the NCAA tournament in three of the four previous seasons before hiring Barnes.
Barnes also has the components this season, according to peers and analysts, to make another run at a Final Four. His only other trip in 23 NCAA tournament appearances was with the Longhorns in 2003.
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The Volunteers boast one of the most effective offenses in the nation, averaging 122.9 points per 100 possessions per KenPom.com, the second-best rate Division I. They ranked second nationally in field goal percentage (51.0) entering Saturday’s game at Texas A&M.
The roster is led by junior Grant Williams, a candidate for this season’s Naismith award. The 6-foot-7 forward is the only player in the conference to average at least 20 points per game, at 20.4. He entered Thursday’s games ranked second in the league field goal percentage (57.3) and seventh in rebounding (7.4). Admiral Schofield, a 6-6 senior guard, ranked fourth in the SEC in scoring (17.0).
“That place was in dire straits when he took the job, and he built it from scratch, and Rick’s done that before,” said Jay Bilas, ESPN’s lead college basketball analyst. “I mean, Rick won a Big East championship at Providence, and then he won the ACC at Clemson. Nobody’s done as well at Texas as he has.
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“So it’s not a surprise. He’s truly one of the great coaches of the game.”
“I’m living my dream to be a college coach,” Barnes said. “I want these guys to live their dream too. If I ever got to be where I didn’t want to be out here with these guys, coach them and help them work as hard to try to get to their dream, because we don’t have magic dust now, that’s when I would quit.”
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