Tennessee coach Rick Barnes addresses retirement rumors

INDIANAPOLIS — Rick Barnes knows where the retirement rumors likely started. It was back in January, when the Tennessee Basketball coach was speaking to the Big Orange Tip-Off Club.

Barnes was discussing the impact Zakai Zeigler has had on the Vols over the last four years and how hard it was to think about coaching without his senior point guard on the floor.

“To have him every day do what he does is an incredible blessing that God gave me,” Barnes said at the time. “Because I don’t know if I’d still be doing it, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t. Because of him, he makes me enjoy practice every day.” 

Now, with Zeigler out of eligibility at season’s end, many are trying to figure out how much longer the 70-year-old Barnes, in his 10th season as Tennessee’s head coach and 38th as a Division I head coach, will keep doing it. 

No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 3 Kentucky, Friday, 7:39 p.m. ET, TBS/TruTV

Barnes was asked about the rumors and his future during his press conference Thursday in Indianapolis, ahead of No. 2 Tennessee (29-7) facing No. 3 Kentucky (24-11) in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 Friday night (7:39 Eastern Time, TBS/TruTV) at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“I think when that happened, when that rumor started,” Barnes said, “I made a comment about Zakai, I said it would be hard coaching without a guy like that. I meant that. But I could have said that about my first point guard at George Mason 30-some years ago, Amp Davis. I loved coaching him.

“And I think after that, people thought, because I’m a young guy now, that it might be my last year. But the fact is, I’ve put it all in God’s hands. I’ll know because he’ll make it clear to me.”

It hasn’t been made clear yet.

“No,” Barnes said. “I haven’t thought about it.”

He’s been too busy rewriting Tennessee Basketball’s record books.

He has the Vols in the Sweet 16 for a third straight year, setting a new program record. They’re in the second weekend of the tournament for a fourth time during the current run of seven straight NCAA Tournaments, another program record. 

He has led Tennessee to two SEC regular-season championships and in 2022 took the Vols to their first SEC Tournament title since 1979.

Barnes is responsible for six of Tennessee’s nine seasons with 25 or more wins, including four straight.

He has the Vols as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third time under his watch and the fifth time in program history. Last season he took Tennessee to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history. 

After going 31-35 in his first two seasons with the Vols, Barnes turned the program around with a 26-win season in 2017-18, sharing the SEC regular-season championship with Auburn, then a 31-win season in 2018-19, tying a program record for single-season wins, spending a month ranked No. 1 and winning a program-record 19 straight games during the season. 

The Vols were ranked No. 1 for five straight weeks earlier this season, setting the new program mark, and have now been ranked for 79 straight weeks, more than doubling the previous record of 37. 

That’s why the retirement thought hasn’t entered the mind of Barnes.

“I think when my time’s up,” Barnes said, “I truly believe God will make it clear to me where he wants me to go next and do next. But I haven’t thought about that in the least bit.”

‘We’re already planning to have a team next year. I fully plan to be a part of it.’

Barnes knew it wasn’t time to quit in 2015, when he parted ways with Texas after winning 402 games over 17 seasons leading the Longhorns. While people on the outside were trying to guess his next move, he had already secured it. 

“My last press conference at Texas, when I was fired,” Barnes said, “the last question someone asked me was, do you think you’ll coach again. And I had already accepted the University of Tennessee job.

“I made the comment, ‘Yeah, probably sooner than you think.’ And I literally walked out of that press conference, got on a plane and went to Knoxville. At the time, when something like that happens, the movement parts, in/out, you’re somewhat numb.

“But I made the comment that, the (Texas) athletic director at the time, Steve Patterson, fired me. 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.”

Barnes is using the same guidelines to know when it’s time for him to be done in Knoxville. 

“Everything that I do, I want to live on that platform,” Barnes 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. If it is, I don’t feel that.”

Not when he’s still having this much fun. 

“I love coaching basketball,” Barnes said. “I love being around it. I know right now how hard we’re working right now. We’ve already had a young man on campus after we got back Saturday, Sunday, we had a young man on campus that committed to us. 

“We’re already planning to have a team next year. I fully plan to be a part of it.”