Tennessee basketball has never been to a Final Four, and I don’t expect to see them get to one in my lifetime. If you start from that baseline expectation, the Barnes era doesn’t look so bad. We are a historically “Meh” program in the grand scheme of things, and Barnes exceeds that threshold as a coach. For heaven’s sake, we haven’t even won a conference tournament in 41 years in a league that isn’t exactly stacked top to bottom. Getting to the tournament is the measuring stick for what constitutes “success” at Tennessee, and Barnes will regularly meet that goal.
Now whether that kind of performance is worth paying him a top 10 salary is another question entirely, but hey, it’s not our money.