No salary cap on basketball coaches. Is Barnes worth 5 mil? Probably not, but you get the best coach you can, give him what he needs to stay, and make the boosters pony up. Great sign for our admin moving forward.
They may have thought Mike Hamilton was still running things and expected the buyout to be $100 and lunch for two at Calhoun's on the River. Breaks my heart for them.
"The University of Tennessee and East Tennessee as a whole have developed an enhanced love and appreciation for our men's basketball program and its culture under Rick's leadership, and I'm thrilled that he will remain a part of our Tennessee Athletics family.
I'm grateful to Rick and Candy, and I'm also grateful to our university leadership, which stepped up to show Rick how much he is valued and appreciated. Our commitment to basketball has never been stronger, and we're all excited for the future as we move forward."
Feels good to throw out weight around a little bit - not so sure we don’t look dumb for doing it for this guy in 5 years though.
Rick is a good guy and a good coach. Hopefully it works out, but my worries are still there - that we peaked this year and will only tread water going forward.
Barnes is a great coach but this was about more than that. If you want to cement yourself as a legit program you don’t let other programs come and steal your coach. The fact that Tennessee (which is not basketball school like UCLA) was able to keep him says that Fulmer is serious about winning.
If Barnes can continue to make sweet 16s and maybe some elite 8s the next few years until he retires it makes the job much more desirable for the next hire.
And let’s be real... TN makes half their free throws in he first half vs Purdue, like they did all season, and they win that game and head to E8.
I bet you would be one of the first ones beechin about ADs lack of commitment to win if we let Barnes walk and hired a mid major up and comer on the cheap.