Rick Barnes wasn’t the only men’s basketball coach at Tennessee to get a raise this offseason.
According to a report from Grant Ramey of 247Sports, two of Barnes’ assistant coaches also received pay raises after Barnes had to shuffle around his staff this offseason.
After Rob Lanier left Barnes’ staff to take the head coaching position at Georgia State, Barnes promoted assistant coach Mike Schwartz to associate head coach to fill the vacancy left behind by Lanier. With that promotion came a raise of $65,000, raising his annual salary to $340,000. Assistant coach Desmond Oliver also received a raise of $50,000, bringing his annual salary to $325,000.
In order to fill his third assistant spot on his staff, Barnes hired away Kim English from Colorado. English was given a $310,000 annual salary upon his hiring at Tennessee.
The salary pool for Barnes’ assistants is $975,000 for the 2019-20 season. That’s the same amount it was for the 2018-19 season after Barnes asked for and received an increase in pay for his assistants. The salary pool for Barnes’ assistants prior to that was just under $850,000.
Before taking the head coaching position at Georgia State, Lanier was making $425,000 annually with Tennessee.
After debating whether or not to accept the head coaching position at UCLA, Barnes was given a contract extension and a significant raise earlier this offseason. His new deal with the Vols raised his salary for the 2019-20 season to $4.7 million with base raises of $250,000 over the next five years, eventually bringing his annual base salary to $5.7 million for the 2023-24 season.
Overall, Barnes’ new contract is worth $26 million over five years.
Oliver has been on Tennessee’s staff since Barnes was hired as head coach in 2015. Schwartz was hired after Barnes’ first year when Chris Ogden left Barnes’ staff to take an assistant coaching position at Texas Tech. Ogden is now the head coach at UT-Arlington. Schwartz had previously worked with Barnes at Texas when he served as the Longhorns’ video coordinator from 2002 to 2004.
All of these pay raises for Tennessee’s coaching staff in men’s basketball follow one of the most successful seasons in school history.
The Vols tied a program record with 31 wins by going 31-6 overall in the 2018-19 season. Tennessee reached their first Sweet Sixteen since 2014 and were minutes away from getting to only the second Elite Eight appearance in school history. Tennessee also reached the SEC Tournament Final for the second-straight season.
Following the season, Tennessee had three players taken in the 2019 NBA Draft, marking only the third time in school history that three Vols had been selected in a single NBA Draft. Grant Williams was taken in the first round by the Boston Celtics, and Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone were selected in the second round by the Washington Wizards and Detroit Pistons, respectively.
