He is not worth 5 million a year

Thought Barnes made 4 mill? Also could of sworn he was already second highest paid coach among sec. if wrong I certainly apologize. Still doesn’t change the stance he didn’t deserve a raise in my eyes. Again it’s just my opinion, try not to get upset
He probably didn't deserve a 4.7 to eventual 6 raise, but can you imagine the devastation to the program if he had left for UCLA. Even if we could have landed someone like Cronin or a promising upstart they would have to be a super recruiter or someone that our new recruits accepted and our players would stay for. That usually doesn't happen. We could have been back to square 1 again. Were you willing to take that chance to save some dinero?
 
Except that the only thing that separates Barnes from Butch is the final four. Let’s be clear Barnes has never advanced beyond the S16 at any school but Texas. This site ***** non stop on Calipari but he literally has taken every single school he coached to the final four.
Please just stop with the Butch and Barnes comparisons. They have, literally, zero comparable qualities in two sports that have zero comparable measurements of success. This discussion is useless. Again, I see why using the greatest single failure in Tennessee football helps to emotionally invoke support for your argument, but it doesn’t carry water...at all.

And as for Calipari, he and Barnes both universally seem to have failed to meet their season expectations across the board. No SEC title, no SECT title, and no Final Four. Yet, both received significant raises born out of an offer to coach at UCLA. However, your forced analogy between the two makes it seem as if they are making similar money and that we should expect similar results year in and year out. Truth is, even with Barnes’ raise, Cal is still paid nearly 2.5x what RB is. To use your football crossover comparison, Calipari is making Nick Saban money for Gus Malzahn results.

If you really want to be outraged over a contract, go after Calipari. He just fleeced Kentucky into a lifetime deal that will pay him $11.8 million/year over the next 3 years at the idle threat of him going to UCLA to take a $1.2 million/year pay cut, as if that were ever going to happen. They are paying $11.8 million for a coach who over the past 4 years, despite routinely having the most raw talent every year, hasn’t made a Final Four, has only had his team ranked #1 for 4 weeks, and hasn’t been ranked #1 beyond November (so basically beyond the preseason hype).

That is the kind of contract to be outraged over. At least Tennessee stepped up to keep their coach in response to a credible threat from UCLA, and if the numbers are accurate, got him for $300k LESS than what UCLA offered. Meanwhile, UK paid Calipari $3.8 million/yr over the UCLA price when Cal was already making $1.2 million more than the $8 million the Bruins offered.
 
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Except that the only thing that separates Barnes from Butch is the final four. Let’s be clear Barnes has never advanced beyond the S16 at any school but Texas. This site ***** non stop on Calipari but he literally has taken every single school he coached to the final four.

UMass went 4-1 in the NCAA tournament and all 5 games were vacated from that Final Four season.
Memphis went 38-2 in their Final Four run and 39 of those games were vacated from that Final Four season.

Cal's a great coach though, no denying it. And when you bend the rules to get talent it makes it even easier to win, something Barnes hasn't been caught doing at this point in his 3+ decades of coaching.


But realize Barnes wasn't given a "raise" we had to either lose him and start a new coaching search where we would have either had to pay a known name as much, if not more than we paid Barnes or roll the dice on a lesser coach. Either choice would have been in a rebuild. Or we could pony up now with the known option.

I'm glad we kept him, and I don't care that the university overpaid him to stay. Mainly because if he keeps winning & filling TBA they'll get a return on that investment almost immediately. Average TBA tickets are about $25 a game, and we had 18 home games last year. That's over half a million just in ticket sales for one sold out game. Barnes this past season had 6 sell outs, Pearl had around 10 for his entire tenure at UT.
 
Please just stop with the Butch and Barnes comparisons. They have, literally, zero comparable qualities in two sports that have zero comparable measurements of success. This discussion is useless. Again, I see why using the greatest single failure in Tennessee football helps to emotionally invoke support for your argument, but it doesn’t carry water...at all.

And as for Calipari, he and Barnes both universally seem to have failed to meet their season expectations across the board. No SEC title, no SECT title, and no Final Four. Yet, both received significant raises born out of an offer to coach at UCLA. However, your forced analogy between the two makes it seem as if they are making similar money and that we should expect similar results year in and year out. Truth is, even with Barnes’ raise, Cal is still paid nearly 2.5x what RB is. To use your football crossover comparison, Calipari is making Nick Saban money for Gus Malzahn results.

If you really want to be outraged over a contract, go after Calipari. He just fleeced Kentucky into a lifetime deal that will pay him $11.8 million/year over the next 3 years at the idle threat of him going to UCLA to take a $1.2 million/year pay cut, as if that were ever going to happen. They are paying $11.8 million for a coach who over the past 4 years, despite routinely having the most raw talent every year, hasn’t made a Final Four, has only had his team ranked #1 for 4 weeks, and hasn’t been ranked #1 beyond November (so basically beyond the preseason hype).

That is the kind of contract to be outraged over. At least Tennessee stepped up to keep their coach in response to a credible threat from UCLA, and if the numbers are accurate, got him for $300k LESS than what UCLA offered. Meanwhile, UK paid Calipari $3.2 million/yr over the UCLA price when Cal was already making $1.2 million more than the $8 million the Bruins offered.

Too much common sense... Good job!
 
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Is this a joke? Buzz Williams just got hired. When his contract starts Barnes will be making 5 million.

Contract details: Buzz Williams to be paid well by Texas A&M

Buzz did get his contract before the new Barnes deal.

Still who would you rather pay than Barnes, realistically? Oats had already gone to Bama and the Nevada coach already gone to Arkansas....the buyout for most the big name coaches is more than Barnes will make yearly. And a lot of the bigger names are established where they are and winning so the incentive to move (as UCLA found out) has to be really great.
 
What an embarrassing claim. Calipari has been to five final fours since Barnes last went. Calipari has been to the final four the same number of times that Barnes has been to the S16. Think about that for a second. His average finish is better than the elite eight. That’s the kind of performance you break the bank for.
10 years at KY, one champ, two final fours and making 9.75 mil. Dude has had 25 first round picks. He’s overpaid and underachieving with that level of talent. They should make the final four every other year
 
If Barnes starts making $5M/year, then UT fans should adjust and expect better results in the tournament then. You want to be paid like a top ten coach then you better produce like a top ten program. No more getting bounced by Loyola or having a preseason top 10 team not win a conference title or make a Final Four.

We owe Coach Barnes being retained against the "big money" of UCLA direct to UT Interim President Randy Boyd, a UT graduate. When Fulmer reached his financial limits, Randy Boyd immediately became involved and was able to raise additional money from boosters to assure keeping Coach Barnes at UT. Thank you Randy Boyd.
 
This year Barnes team finished inside the top 10 something Butch never accomplished, this season Barnes had his team in the SEC championship, again something Butch never could accomplish. This year Barnes won coach of the year, something Butch could not do, last year Barnes won the sec, again something Butch could never accomplish, Butch had 4 and 5 star plyers and couldn’t do anything with them. Barnes took 3 star players and improved every year so far.

So the only thing that separates them is certainly not JUST a final four........as I have just proven with facts.

None of that matters. College basketball is about success in the tournament. And Barnes has none. This is like paying a lawyer because you they dress real nice in court. Barnes can’t do what elite coaches need to do consistently make elite eights. 4 years one S16- no wins over a single digit seed in the tournament. And Barnes gets the benefit of feasting on a weak basketball conference whereas Jones had to coach in the crucible of the SEC with in built disadvantage of playing Alabama every year. And guess what I don’t even think we should fire Barnes just don’t pay him like Bill Self because Bill Self has four times his accomplishments.
 
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Please just stop with the Butch and Barnes comparisons. They have, literally, zero comparable qualities in two sports that have zero comparable measurements of success. This discussion is useless. Again, I see why using the greatest single failure in Tennessee football helps to emotionally invoke support for your argument, but it doesn’t carry water...at all.

And as for Calipari, he and Barnes both universally seem to have failed to meet their season expectations across the board. No SEC title, no SECT title, and no Final Four. Yet, both received significant raises born out of an offer to coach at UCLA. However, your forced analogy between the two makes it seem as if they are making similar money and that we should expect similar results year in and year out. Truth is, even with Barnes’ raise, Cal is still paid nearly 2.5x what RB is. To use your football crossover comparison, Calipari is making Nick Saban money for Gus Malzahn results.

If you really want to be outraged over a contract, go after Calipari. He just fleeced Kentucky into a lifetime deal that will pay him $11.8 million/year over the next 3 years at the idle threat of him going to UCLA to take a $1.2 million/year pay cut, as if that were ever going to happen. They are paying $11.8 million for a coach who over the past 4 years, despite routinely having the most raw talent every year, hasn’t made a Final Four, has only had his team ranked #1 for 4 weeks, and hasn’t been ranked #1 beyond November (so basically beyond the preseason hype).

That is the kind of contract to be outraged over. At least Tennessee stepped up to keep their coach in response to a credible threat from UCLA, and if the numbers are accurate, got him for $300k LESS than what UCLA offered. Meanwhile, UK paid Calipari $3.8 million/yr over the UCLA price when Cal was already making $1.2 million more than the $8 million the Bruins offered.

I’m not a Kentucky fan I don’t care what they do. Plus they have an awesome fan base and if Calipari gets fired his buyout won’t hamper their ability to get a great coach. And it’s so funny how insanely slanted this sites standards are. I was raised with that WASP notion that you are hardest on your self- meanwhile this site shills non stop for Barnes and created absurd standards for Calipari. The guy has been to more final fours than Barnes has been to Sweet 16s. He’s been to more NCAA finals than Barnes has been to elite eights. For goodness sake Rick Barnes has been to three elite eights in 19 years. Calipari has been to two in the last three years. Honestly you are right I should be made that a rival school locked up an amazing coach for life. That sucks. We could have done that but apparently we prefered for Auburn to reap the benefit. But don’t worry we’ve still got Georgia MSU and ole miss beneath us in the pecking order.


They aren’t comparable coaches- one is one of the ten best coaches ever. The other is a Larry Coker level low energy good guy coach. I get the feeling that this site has a ton of old people whose concept of time is such that they don’t realize just how long ago Barnes went to a final four. Larry Coker won the damn NC the year before. Dwayne Wade played in that final four. Nick Saban was still at LSU and Casey clausen was still taking snaps for the Vols.

And for the record Kentucky has had the number one class only once in the past four years.
 
Not in basketball, Not when you are a sweet 16 coach. And not when you have 1 conference tourney in 30th years of coaching.

Cal is not worth 9 million, I will add.

Well, it beats the heck out of letting him go to UCLA and us possibly hiring the next Donnie Tyndall. No, Cal probably isn't worth the 9 million, but he is a coach that other schools in need of a coach are going to make offers to. And when they get offers, you have to choose; Is your current coach worth retaining? Do you have confidence in him?

Obviously if you find him worth retaining in this day and age, you are forced to up his contract. And if you don't? Well, you run the risk of getting another Donnie Tyndall, losing players, commits, and recruits. I guess the "In Fulmer we trust" crowd thinks he can bring in a better coach. Well, though I am not running for president of his fan club anytime soon? I'll at least give him credit for keeping Barnes. God knows our revolving door has had plenty of wear and tear.
 
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I’m not a Kentucky fan I don’t care what they do. Plus they have an awesome fan base and if Calipari gets fired his buyout won’t hamper their ability to get a great coach. And it’s so funny how insanely slanted this sites standards are. I was raised with that WASP notion that you are hardest on your self- meanwhile this site shills non stop for Barnes and created absurd standards for Calipari. The guy has been to more final fours than Barnes has been to Sweet 16s. He’s been to more NCAA finals than Barnes has been to elite eights. For goodness sake Rick Barnes has been to three elite eights in 19 years. Calipari has been to two in the last three years. Honestly you are right I should be made that a rival school locked up an amazing coach for life. That sucks. We could have done that but apparently we prefered for Auburn to reap the benefit. But don’t worry we’ve still got Georgia MSU and ole miss beneath us in the pecking order.


They aren’t comparable coaches- one is one of the ten best coaches ever. The other is a Larry Coker level low energy good guy coach. I get the feeling that this site has a ton of old people whose concept of time is such that they don’t realize just how long ago Barnes went to a final four. Larry Coker won the damn NC the year before. Dwayne Wade played in that final four. Nick Saban was still at LSU and Casey clausen was still taking snaps for the Vols.

And for the record Kentucky has had the number one class only once in the past four years.
1. Once again, Calipari has had better results than Barnes, and his salary grossly reflects that, yet you speak as if he and Barnes are in the same neighborhood financially. Why is that?

2. More football coaching analogies. Those are still just as dumb and irrelevant as they were 12 hours ago when you last attempted it. Not really interested in discussing the matter any further if your entire bag of ammunition is filled with Butch Jones and Larry Coker barbs.
 
None of that matters. College basketball is about success in the tournament. And Barnes has none. This is like paying a lawyer because you they dress real nice in court. Barnes can’t do what elite coaches need to do consistently make elite eights. 4 years one S16- no wins over a single digit seed in the tournament. And Barnes gets the benefit of feasting on a weak basketball conference whereas Jones had to coach in the crucible of the SEC with in built disadvantage of playing Alabama every year. And guess what I don’t even think we should fire Barnes just don’t pay him like Bill Self because Bill Self has four times his accomplishments.

Wait.......wait........wait, You were comparing, then YOU said the only difference was a final 4.

You can make up anything you want, but I assure you part............at the very least part of coaching is the things I mentioned. Not to mention you have to have a season to get to the tourney. You were simply wrong with your comparison........period.

You can hate Barnes all day, I don’t really care, you can complain all day as well. Barnes is the coach at Tennessee and he got a raise........your complaining will never change that.........it also won’t make you correct in your comparison either.
 
Wait.......wait........wait, You were comparing, then YOU said the only difference was a final 4.

You can make up anything you want, but I assure you part............at the very least part of coaching is the things I mentioned. Not to mention you have to have a season to get to the tourney. You were simply wrong with your comparison........period.

You can hate Barnes all day, I don’t really care, you can complain all day as well. Barnes is the coach at Tennessee and he got a raise........your complaining will never change that.........it also won’t make you correct in your comparison either.

No but it’s going to be delightful renaming all you sunshine pump boys how little you know about basketball when we have to hire some Donnie Tyndall like coach because Barnes buyout has crippled the program.
 
1. Once again, Calipari has had better results than Barnes, and his salary grossly reflects that, yet you speak as if he and Barnes are in the same neighborhood financially. Why is that?

2. More football coaching analogies. Those are still just as dumb and irrelevant as they were 12 hours ago when you last attempted it. Not really interested in discussing the matter any further if your entire bag of ammunition is filled with Butch Jones and Larry Coker barbs.

Is this a joke. Your entire comment was a cringey emo screech about calipari. And if you want to compare Barnes to someone making similar (potentially less money) how about Bill Self. Look I get you are a sunshine pump boy- I love the fact people like you are in the world- you make excellent marks as Barnes and his agent just learned. But Barnes is now being paid like Bill Self and that’s embarassing for the Vols to be taken like that. And butch and Barnes are perfectly comparable in that both over the last 15 years have produced middling to good results. Frankly Jones performance at Cincy runs laps around anything Barnes has done in the past fifteen years. Four conference titles in 6 years. Barnes has three in 19. What even funnier is I’m sure you were sunshine pumping for Jones too. And didn’t learn a thing from it but like I said please don’t learn from your mistakes worlds a lot better with marks in it. And you are a big one.
 
No but it’s going to be delightful renaming all you sunshine pump boys how little you know about basketball when we have to hire some Donnie Tyndall like coach because Barnes buyout has crippled the program.

Lol “sunshine pump boys”

Look, why not say all of this stuff, when things are going badly........at least you could probably convert some of us. When things aren’t going bad, why not try and enjoy any little successes you can find in your program. Seriously, one could be a much happier fan and even person. It is not like Tennessee has ever had a ton of continuous success. Therefore why not enjoy when something remotely good does happen. Usually in life major successes and major things to get excited about don’t happen all the time. However life has small successes every day.....if you could just learn to enjoy those and leave the complaining for when something bad does happen, you might find things a whole lot different.
 
Is this a joke. Your entire comment was a cringey emo screech about calipari. And if you want to compare Barnes to someone making similar (potentially less money) how about Bill Self. Look I get you are a sunshine pump boy- I love the fact people like you are in the world- you make excellent marks as Barnes and his agent just learned. But Barnes is now being paid like Bill Self and that’s embarassing for the Vols to be taken like that. And butch and Barnes are perfectly comparable in that both over the last 15 years have produced middling to good results. Frankly Jones performance at Cincy runs laps around anything Barnes has done in the past fifteen years. Four conference titles in 6 years. Barnes has three in 19. What even funnier is I’m sure you were sunshine pumping for Jones too. And didn’t learn a thing from it but like I said please don’t learn from your mistakes worlds a lot better with marks in it. And you are a big one.
Well, that settles it. You simply don't have the ability to make a compelling argument without using a football analogy. For someone with such an obvious, self-proclaimed high basketball acumen, you sure spend an inordinately small amount of time actually discussing it. Maybe if you were any less self-absorbed, it would help your cause. Your maverick, contrarian approach isn't doing you any favors, nor gaining much support. Of course, neither is being wrong about literally every point you've tried to make. But, far be it for me to question someone with 4 years of varsity experience. 🙄
 
UMass went 4-1 in the NCAA tournament and all 5 games were vacated from that Final Four season.
Memphis went 38-2 in their Final Four run and 39 of those games were vacated from that Final Four season.

Cal's a great coach though, no denying it. And when you bend the rules to get talent it makes it even easier to win, something Barnes hasn't been caught doing at this point in his 3+ decades of coaching.


But realize Barnes wasn't given a "raise" we had to either lose him and start a new coaching search where we would have either had to pay a known name as much, if not more than we paid Barnes or roll the dice on a lesser coach. Either choice would have been in a rebuild. Or we could pony up now with the known option.

I'm glad we kept him, and I don't care that the university overpaid him to stay. Mainly because if he keeps winning & filling TBA they'll get a return on that investment almost immediately. Average TBA tickets are about $25 a game, and we had 18 home games last year. That's over half a million just in ticket sales for one sold out game. Barnes this past season had 6 sell outs, Pearl had around 10 for his entire tenure at UT.

On nearly a weekly basis in my business, I have to make "known v unknown" or "bird in hand v 2 in the bush" decisions. Sometimes you have to "roll the dice" and go for something a little dangerous in life. But wisdom says you should usually take the "known vs the unknown". That concept has served me well many many times.

I'm stoked that the UTAD ponied up the money on the "known vs the unknown" in this case.
 
Is this a joke. Your entire comment was a cringey emo screech about calipari. And if you want to compare Barnes to someone making similar (potentially less money) how about Bill Self. Look I get you are a sunshine pump boy- I love the fact people like you are in the world- you make excellent marks as Barnes and his agent just learned. But Barnes is now being paid like Bill Self and that’s embarassing for the Vols to be taken like that. And butch and Barnes are perfectly comparable in that both over the last 15 years have produced middling to good results. Frankly Jones performance at Cincy runs laps around anything Barnes has done in the past fifteen years. Four conference titles in 6 years. Barnes has three in 19. What even funnier is I’m sure you were sunshine pumping for Jones too. And didn’t learn a thing from it but like I said please don’t learn from your mistakes worlds a lot better with marks in it. And you are a big one.

You did it. Im fully converted and now hate Barnes and his stupid millions. I hate Fulmer for giving it to him. I mean seriously....why didnt Phil, or UT, or the boosters, or even UCLA consult with you before making this decision?!? I mean c'mon!! Now we are eternally doomed with the Butch Jones of basketball. If only.....

Thank your opening my eyes.

PS: if you check his posts, @cncchris33 is one of the more balanced posters in the basketball forum. Pick your battles better. You are getting roasted...although I am enjoying watching it.
 
You did it. Im fully converted and now hate Barnes and his stupid millions. I hate Fulmer for giving it to him. I mean seriously....why didnt Phil, or UT, or the boosters, or even UCLA consult with you before making this decision?!? I mean c'mon!! Now we are eternally doomed with the Butch Jones of basketball. If only.....

Thank your opening my eyes.

PS: if you check his posts, @cncchris33 is one of the more balanced posters in the basketball forum. Pick your battles better. You are getting roasted...although I am enjoying watching it.

Lol this is pathetic. I basically reduced five adults to blubbering messes because I actually follow basketball and I’m not willing to be intimidated by a braying mob. and I’m not trying to convert you- you are a sunshine pumper. When Barnes buyout causes us to hire some unknown D3 coach you’ll see the light and be cursing Barnes just like you curse Butch. Every single time you guys fall into the same pattern because you aren’t willing to see the world with any kind of objectivity. So instead you yo-yo from unquestioning suckoffery to incadscent rage when the mediocre coach you shilled for coaches mediocrely.

It’s a simple yes or no questions does Rick Barnes resume match Bill Self’s yes or no?

Has Steve Alford or Rick Barnes been to more S16s this decade?

Bruce Pear had to sit out three years and has been to more S16s this decade than Rick Barnes.

Do you have the maturity to look at these facts and understand why paying Barnes elite money is silly.
 
Why are we comparing Bill Self & Rick Barnes? Self is 680-211 in 26 years with a 76.3% win percentage, he's gone to 3 Final Fours and has 1 NCAA championship. The bulk of his success has been at Kansas a well established "blue blood" of college basketball.

He took over for Roy Williams, who was 418-101 at Kansas with a 80.5% win percentage and had gone to 4 Final Fours with them. Before Williams it was Larry Brown who in his brief time with Kansas was 135-44 with a 75.4% win percentage, went to 2 Final Fours and won a championship while there (just 5 years total).

Barnes isn't as successful as Bill Self, but he's also never coached at a blue blood school either. Texas has only been ranked 16 times in the preseason polls (11 under Barnes) and only finished in the AP top 25 in polls 11 times (8 under Barnes).

Barnes is more successful than Steve Alford, who despite being at a blue blood has never made an Elite Eight appearance. Barnes has however taken 3 different schools to a Sweet Sixteen and has a total of 3 Elite Eight or better appearances.


There are quite a few college basketball coaches that are more successful than Rick Barnes, but my thing is who of them has done it at the same level without the benefit of being at a blue blood school? And of those that have how many realistically could you hire to UT? I don't think Barnes has really earned the 4.5+ million he just got, but I also don't think we could maintain the same level of success with the program without paying someone that much, and none of the "better" coaches were going to come here to replace Barnes.

Pearl would be a potential, but he'd also immediately bring down NCAA attention again because of the pending FBI investigation into HIS program at Auburn.
 
Lol this is pathetic. I basically reduced five adults to blubbering messes because I actually follow basketball and I’m not willing to be intimidated by a braying mob. and I’m not trying to convert you- you are a sunshine pumper. When Barnes buyout causes us to hire some unknown D3 coach you’ll see the light and be cursing Barnes just like you curse Butch. Every single time you guys fall into the same pattern because you aren’t willing to see the world with any kind of objectivity. So instead you yo-yo from unquestioning suckoffery to incadscent rage when the mediocre coach you shilled for coaches mediocrely.

It’s a simple yes or no questions does Rick Barnes resume match Bill Self’s yes or no?

Has Steve Alford or Rick Barnes been to more S16s this decade?

Bruce Pear had to sit out three years and has been to more S16s this decade than Rick Barnes.

Do you have the maturity to look at these facts and understand why paying Barnes elite money is silly.
You can't be this obtuse. Though many would agree that Barnes isn't worth 6 M, very few would agree that our basketball program isn't. We've been waiting years for our admin to get serious about building a basketball culture. They've now proven that they are taking the program seriously. when Barnes is ready to retire it won't be D3 coaches that are in line for the job. If Pruitt succeeds(and he's seems to be on the path) and Barnes keeps his teams in the post season arena there will be plenty of money in the coffers for a great hire down the road.
 
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