Rodney Terry calls Rick Barnes a Hall of Fame coach

Texas and Tennessee dueled on Saturday afternoon as Vols Rick Barns met his longtime assistant and current interim Longhorns coach Rodney Terry. Barnes, of course, coached at Texas for 17 years prior to coming to Tennessee and had Terry as his right hand man for a number of those seasons. Now, despite some undesirable circumstances, Terry is the head coach at Texas for the time being while Barnes as the other UT humming along as one of the most consistent programs in the country.

So Saturday was an emotional meeting for Barnes and Terry, making their relationship full circle, from friends, mentor and mentee, to now foes on the court.

Barnes’ club prevailed in front of their home crowd in the first meeting between the two coaches. After the game, Terry had nothing but wonderful things to say about his old pal. When asked what the reunion meant to him, Terry reflected on how great a coach and important a person Barnes is to him.

“Coach is family, you know. He’s a mentor to myself. You know, we talk regularly throughout every season. He’s someone I grew up with in my early adulthood. And, you know, we had an incredible run together, won a lot of games with a lot of really good players. I just think the world of him, have tremendous respect for him and I think he’s a Hall of Fame coach.”

Rodney Terry even went on to compare this current Tennessee team to some of the better teams he and Barnes had at Texas together.

“They’ve got a lot of experience. They’re older,” said Terry. “He’s got guys that kind of play inside. A number of different guys who can play physical. We also had guys that could shoot the ball. We also had a really good point guard in T.J. Ford, national player of the year, so that was really good as well. They have all the ingredients of being a Final Four team. I think I said that earlier in the year that they had a chance to be a Final Four team.”

Barnes is chasing that elusive Final Four with the Volunteers. Tennessee has had several great teams already under Barnes, but they just keep coming up short in March and don’t have a deep run yet to show for it. With the national title race seemingly wide open, perhaps this is the Tennessee team that makes a splash in a couple of months.