Big 12 Finals 3/12 Preview: Take Texas Tech (+112) To Beat Kansas
TAMPA, Fla. — Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes embraced associate head coach Mike Schwartz with a warm hug as the final seconds ticked off the clock of the Vols’, 69-62, win over Kentucky Saturday afternoon.
The Vols’ seventh-year coach has taken his team a long way since their humiliating 28-point loss at Rupp Arena on Jan. 15. Tennessee got its revenge in Knoxville last month, but it was Barnes’ second SEC Tournament win over Kentucky that made the usually calm-and-collected coach on the sidelines break out in a moment of warmth and emotion.
“I called him last night at 11:30,” Barnes said. “I went back, and I said what are you doing? He said, Coach, I just ordered a pot of coffee. If you need me, I’ll be up for the next three hours. That’s what we went through my mind.”
The SEC Tournament Semifinal win improved Rick Barnes’ record against Tennessee’s northern border rival to 10-7.
Think about that for a second. 10-7. If Tennessee and Kentucky don’t meet in the SEC Tournament next season, the Wildcats would have to win every meeting between the two teams to have a winning record against Barnes by February of 2024.
“We just treat Kentucky as a regular team and know that they’re going to come and give us their all and treat every single game as a championship game,” Tennessee point guard Kennedy Chandler said. “That’s what Coach always tells us.”
This is the big bad wolf of the SEC. Conference opponents don’t post winning records against Kentucky over extended periods of time, but that’s what Barnes has done in Knoxville. He hasn’t done it against a Billy Gillespie led or down Kentucky program. He’s done it against Hall-of-Fame coach John Calipari who has made four Final Fours in Lexington.
Some more context: the 2015-16 season Rick Barnes’ first season in Knoxville. You have to go back to 1993 to find 10 more Tennessee wins over Kentucky.
Bruce Pearl went 4-9 against Kentucky in his six years at Tennessee and his success against the Wildcats radically waned after Calipari took over. Legendary coach Ray Mears’ (15-15 record) is the only other Tennessee coach that’s had even similar success against Kentucky.
There really aren’t many ways to explain or understand how Barnes and Tennessee has had this much success against the Wildcats. It’s the greatest accomplishment of the Rick Barnes era … at least for now.
Sunday, the Vols look to do what they couldn’t in 2019 after winning the season rubber match against Kentucky— finish the job with an SEC Tournament title. The 2019 Vols ran into a red-hot Auburn team that came out of nowhere to win seven straight games entering the championship.
It’s not Bruce Pearl and Auburn waiting for Tennessee this time, but Buzz Williams’ red-hot Texas A&M team that’s won seven straight games entering tomorrow’s championship.
“The last time we were in this situation, it was against Kentucky as well,” Barnes said. “It was one of those games that we had a quick turnaround to play again. We had to really expend so much energy the night before, but these guys are young. I tell you, they are. And I like to think that our older guys, they talked about the chemistry, the maturity with our leadership. It will be on them to get it. We’ll talk about it, but it’s going to be on them to truly focus and put the phones down. And they have done a good job of that when it’s time to come in and get our game prep ready. They’ve done a good job of that really pretty much all year long, and we’ll have to continue.”
The last time Tennessee cut down the nets at the SEC Tournament, Vol Radio color commentator Bert Bertlekamp made two huge free throws late to seal the 1979 SEC Tournament Championship.
Getting past Texas A&M and cutting the nets down in Tampa would give Barnes a notch on his belt that would compete with his success against Kentucky for the greatest accomplishment of his Tennessee tenure. It would also bolster his resume as one of the greatest basketball coaches in Tennessee history.
And if these Vols keep playing like they have the last six weeks, Barnes may add a few more notches to his belt before the season ends.
