The end of Tennessee Vols head coach Rick Barnes’ coaching career is coming sooner rather than later.
It might be this year, or it might be five years from now — I don’t think Barnes even knows at this point when he will retire — but there’s no doubt that we’re in the final act of Barnes’ illustrious coaching career.
There’s long been speculation that Barnes will take the Dean Smith path to retirement when that decision is ultimately made.
Smith decided to retire on October 3, 1997 — just one week before North Carolina was set to begin practices before the 1997-98 season.
The seemingly odd timing of Smith’s decision was because the legendary head coach, near the end of his career, always waited until later in the summer/early in the fall to make any final decisions on his coaching career. Smith knew that immediately after the end of the season, while still exhausted from the previous year, wasn’t the right time to make such a big decision. Essentially, Smith wanted to make sure he didn’t still feel the itch to coach when it was go-time for the upcoming season.
30 years ago this week: Rick Barnes and Dean Smith get into a heated argument during an ACC Tournament quarterfinals matchup in Greensboro pic.twitter.com/qS8ksXivaa
— zach ragan (@zachTNT) March 11, 2025
In today’s world of college basketball, retiring just a week before practices start would be tough for a program to deal with. It’s not an ideal time to hire a coach, and who knows how the players on the roster would react. Would players leave the program if their coach retires just before the start of the season?
But despite the challenges that the timing of such a decision would create for Tennessee, I think fans, and the leadership at UT, have to let Barnes make this decision on his timing.
If Barnes makes it to late September or early October and decides it’s time to call it a career, then I think everyone will have to accept that and give the Hall of Fame coach some grace. Barnes has been part of college basketball for over 50 years. He deserves to walk away from the game on his terms, regardless of what kind of impact the timing of his decision will have on Tennessee’s basketball program.
That means fans might have to be ok with a “transition year” for UT basketball. If Barnes retires in the late summer/early fall, it obviously wouldn’t be easy for athletic director Danny White to make the right hire. White is a savant when it comes to hiring coaches, but the right person probably isn’t going to be available that time of year. At that point, an interim coach — perhaps someone already on staff — would be the best bet for Tennessee. Then White could spend the entire next season sifting through candidates.
Maybe Barnes doesn’t take the Dean Smith approach when he retires. Maybe he makes the decision right after the season, or maybe he waits until late in the summer. Regardless of how or when he makes his decision, Barnes deserves to make the decision without worrying about how the fan base or the administration at Tennessee will react.
Rick Barnes has given a lot to college basketball over the last five decades. The least the sport can do is let him go out on his own terms.
