Rick Barnes credits God with Texas firing, move to Tennessee: 'Brought me to Knoxville for a reason'

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes is about to coach in his 10th Sweet 16, doing so for the fourth time with the Volunteers. He’s had a highly successful 10-year stint in Knoxville.

Barnes had an interesting explanation for how he got there on Thursday while speaking ahead of the next NCAA Tournament game. He attributes his current position to God. Barnes explained that his messy departure from Texas was preordained. It was supposed to happen.

“I made the comment that, the athletic director at the time, Steve Patterson, fired me,” Barnes explained. “He didn’t really fire me; he just carried out what God wanted him to do because I truly believe that God brought me to Knoxville for a reason.”

In answering a question about potential retirement after this season, Barnes continued. He’s not ready to call it quits just yet, in part because of the platform he’s been given in Knoxville.

“And everything that I do I want to live on that platform,” he said. “It’s the most important thing to me. It’s more important than winning that game tomorrow. And I think God will make it perfectly clear when he wants me to step down and my time will be up. But it’s not now.”

Whatever the case, Tennessee is certainly happy to have him. As noted, the Volunteers have now reached the Sweet 16 four times in Barnes’ 10-year tenure. They’ve even reached the Elite Eight once, doing so last year.

This year’s team will have a stiff test if it hopes to play past the Sweet 16. Kentucky looms. The Wildcats won both regular season meetings. Neither meeting was decided by a single possession, either, with Kentucky winning 78-73 in Knoxville and 75-64 in Lexington.

Rick Barnes thanks God for Sweet 16 run

The Tennessee Volunteers are back in the Sweet 16 this March. It’s a third season in a row getting this deep under head coach Rick Barnes in the NCAA Tournament and actually the first time in program history that the Volunteers made the Sweet 16 in three consecutive seasons.

After beating UCLA to get to this round again, Barnes took time to reflect on the accomplishment. In doing so, he insisted that it’s the Tennessee players first and foremost who deserve credit for this deep run.

“Again, I just thank God for Him bringing us all together, for one,” Rick Barnes said. “Because we have half a new team, sorta, kinda this year, but it goes back to Zakai [Zeigler] and Jahmai [Mashack], and certainly Jordan [Gainey] has become a part of that core group, and they do come in. I’m glad a year ago that Cade [Phillips] got some time to play. It goes back to leadership with our players.

“They deserve all the credit. They want to be coached, they know what we as a coaching staff expect from them every day and they know we’re going to try to be as consistent as we can doing our jobs and we want them to do that. It’s just a great testament to these guys that they really do like each other. They care, and they love our fan base.”

On3’s Dan Morrison also contributed to this report.