INDIANAPOLIS — Rick Barnes is in his 10th season leading the Tennessee men’s basketball program. He doesn’t plan on the 2024-25 season being his last.
“I love coaching basketball,” Barnes said on Thursday. “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.”
Barnes is 70-years old and is in his 29th season as a Division I head coach. The veteran head coach has made multiple comments this season about his affection for his point guard Zakai Zeigler and the challenge he’ll have continuing to coach after Zeigler graduates.
Those comments combined with Barnes’ age and the seven seniors currently on Tennessee’s roster led to speculation that he would hang up his hat following this season.
Barnes made it clear that his intentions are to continue coaching at Tennessee in a long answer where he also discussed the role that his Christian faith plays in his decision.
“I made the comment that, the athletic director (at Texas) at the time, Steve Patterson, fired me,” Barnes said. “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.
And everything that I do I want to live on that platform. 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.”
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Tennessee faces off against rival Kentucky in the Sweet 16 on Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. It’s the Vols’ third straight trip to the Sweet 16 as they look to make it back to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season.
It’s the first time in program history that Tennessee has made the Sweet 16 in three consecutive seasons, and last year’s team was just the second to make the Elite Eight in program history. But this will be a major offseason of change for a Tennessee program that loses four starters and six of eight players in its rotation.
“I think when my time’s up, 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,” Barnes said. “I think when that happened when that rumor started, 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.”
Whenever Barnes’ time coaching is over, he’ll go down as the best coach in Tennessee men’s basketball history. Through the first 10 years of his coaching career, Barnes has led the Vols to the NCAA Tournament 10 times and the Sweet 16 four times.
Tennessee has twice won the SEC Regular-Season Championship and in 2022 won its first SEC Tournament Championship since 1979.
The Vols are still looking to knock down one more door under Barnes’ leadership— the first Final Four in program history. They have another crack at it this weekend in Indianapolis. They’ll face three-seed Kentucky in the Sweet 16 on Friday. night. With a win, Tennessee advances to the Midwest Region Final where they’ll face either one-seed Houston or four-seed Purdue.
