Kentucky and Tennessee are heated basketball rivals, but Rick Barnes is a hard man to hate
Start with Ray Mears, the ultimate showman, who featured acrobats spinning orange-and-white basketballs while riding unicycles. Then there was Don DeVoe, he of a sour disposition. Kevin O’Neill loved to get under rivals’ skin. And don’t forget Bruce Pearl, the modern-day Mears.
Over the years, Tennessee basketball coaches have been easy for Kentucky basketball fans to hate.
Surely, Rick Barnes is the exception to the rule. The Vols’ current head coach is often a thorn in the BBN’s pride, but the native of Hickory, North Carolina, is too good a guy to dislike.
Barnes is not a Danny Hurley on the sidelines. True, he spiked a water bottle near the end of the Vols’ 53-51 loss at No. 1 Auburn. He had good reason, however. The officials missed the Tigers’ Johni Broome’s shoulder grab of UT’s Felix Okpara that caused the Vols center to be called for walking.
When the hard-fought battle was over, Barnes didn’t shake the hand of Bruce Pearl, he gave the Auburn coach a bear hug.
“Rick Barnes teams play the right way,” Pearl said afterward. “They play the right way.”
At age 70, Barnes is the elder statesmen to his coaching colleagues in the conference. Former James Madison coach Mark Byington relayed that when he was hired by Vanderbilt, one of the first calls he received was from Barnes.
“I think I’m supposed to hate Coach Barnes, but I can tell you my second day on the job, he called me and we had a long talk,” Byington said. “He could not have been more genuine. Welcomed me to the league and asked if I needed help.”
We already knew Barnes has a long-standing friendship with former UK coach John Calipari, dating back to their days as counselors at Howard Garfinkel’s famous Five-Star Basketball Camp in Pittsburgh.
“He and I go way back and we’ve been brothers for a long time,” Calipari said last year when Barnes was a first-time nominee for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. “I love him. Well deserved. You know, he’s good at what he does, cares about kids, faith-based what he does and how he handles himself. So I’m happy for him.”
It is true Barnes has coached only one team (Texas in 2003) to the Final Four. Despite successful stops at George Mason, Providence, Clemson, Texas and Tennessee, that lack of postseason success has provided ammo for his critics.
Still, the man practically saved Tennessee basketball. After Pearl was fired in 2011 for lying to the NCAA, Cuonzo Martin’s slower style of play didn’t sit well with Volunteers fans. Former Morehead State coach Donnie Tyndall was let go after one season. UT turned to Barnes, who had parted ways with Texas after a 17-season run.
Now Tennessee has been to six straight NCAA tournaments for the first time in program history. It reached the 2024 Elite Eight before losing to Purdue. Barnes is 11-10 against Kentucky as the UT coach. That’s five more wins than any other team during that span (2015-25). The border rivals have split their last six meetings.
Those who know Barnes best talk about what he does off the court, however. Especially with his faith. Barnes has been a strong supporter of the V Foundation and Dick Vitale’s pediatric cancer research. When Vitale first underwent cancer treatments, Barnes texted the ESPN analyst a prayer verse every day for a year.
Six years ago, when Tennessee sports information director Tom Satkowiak was suffering from a liver disease, Barnes provided emotional support before and after Satkowiak received a transplant. Satkowiak was baptized on a Sunday when Tennessee had an early basketball game. Before the ceremony, he looked up to find Barnes there as a witness.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Barnes told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “I take my job very seriously. But I take other things equally seriously. That is very, very serious. The fact he made that commitment, really and truly is as important as anything I could have done that day.”
Yes, it’s hard to dislike Rick Barnes.
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 4:50 AM.
