NCAA Basketball rewind: Most impactful coaching hires after 2015 season

By Joey Loose | Jul 2, 2021

DENVER, CO - MARCH 17: Chris Beard, head coach of Arkansas Little Rock Trojans reacts during the game against the Purdue Boilermakers during the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at the Pepsi Center on March 17, 2016 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) /

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NCAA Basketball Rick Barnes Tennessee Volunteers (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /

5. Rick Barnes (Tennessee)

While Tennessee has never been to a Final Four, the Volunteers basketball program had still been relatively solid throughout recent memory. Bruce Pearl had done fantastic things in Tennessee, but the program had become a bit unstable. Cuonzo Martin had been chased away after a Sweet Sixteen run, and Donnie Tyndall had lasted a single season before violations had caught up with him. Tennessee needed a new head coach to bring stability.

They got the perfect man for the job in Rick Barnes, who already had a long history of coaching success. Barnes had already spent nearly three decades as a head coach, with stints at George Mason, Providence, Clemson, and Texas. He sustained success with the Friars, led the Tigers to a Sweet Sixteen, and built a very talented program with Texas, including a Final Four run in 2003.

Barnes accepted the challenge and has turned the Volunteers into one of the best programs in the SEC in his first six seasons. He already had Tennessee as regular-season champions by 2018 and led the program to the Sweet Sixteen the following season. Tennessee was lucky that a coach with Barnes’s pedigree was available, and his success with the Volunteers is evidence they made a solid choice.

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