It didn’t take long for Rick Barnes to find a new job. Two days after being fired by Texas after 17 years at the helm, Barnes has taken Tennessee’s head coaching job, according to the university.
Barnes replaces Donnie Tyndall, who was fired after one year due to questionable conduct when Tyndall was the coach at Southern Miss. After making the NCAA Tournament every year from 2006-11, the Volunteers have missed the Tournament three of the last four years. Amazingly, Barnes missed the Big Dance once during his tenure in Austin.
From ESPN:
Tennessee has hired former Texas coach Rick Barnes to be the Volunteers’ new basketball coach, the school announced Tuesday.
Tennessee has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon, where Barnes will be introduced. He will be the Vols’ fourth men’s basketball coach in six seasons.
“Rick Barnes is an elite basketball coach in every respect,” Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart said in a statement. “Rick brings an extremely impressive track record of excellence, as well as much-needed stability, to our men’s basketball program. This is an exciting day for our Tennessee family.”
Barnes was fired by Texas athletic director Steve Patterson over the weekend despite going to 16 NCAA tournaments in 17 seasons.
The 60-year-old Barnes won 402 games at Texas, the most in school history, and three Big 12 regular-season titles. This season, he became just the 13th active coach to reach 600 career wins. Texas made the Final Four in 2003 for the first time in more than 50 years.
The Longhorns did not live up to expectations this season, barely sneaking into the NCAA tournament before being eliminated by Butler in their opening game.
Barnes is 604-314 in 28 seasons overall, with stops at George Mason, Providence and Clemson.
He replaces Donnie Tyndall, who was fired after one season for cause because of unethical conduct at his former post, Southern Mississippi. Tyndall went 16-16 in his lone season at Tennessee.
