Tennessee Volunteers Basketball

Days after Texas fired him, Rick Barnes will be moving to the SEC as the next head coach at the University of Tennessee.   

According to ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman, Barnes and Tennessee have finalized the deal with a press conference coming Tuesday. The school also provided confirmation of the hire on Twitter.

Patrick Brown of The Times Free Press reported on Barnes' deal with the school:

Brown also reported that the buyout is $1 million for every year that's left on the deal.

Rumors of Barnes going to Tennessee have been floating around since Texas fired him Saturday, according to Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy. The 60-year-old had a successful tenure with the Longhorns, even though it was always marred by tournament disappointment. 

Barnes led Texas to the NCAA tournament in 16 of his 17 seasons, including a run to the Final Four in 2003, but he failed to advance out of the first weekend the last six times in the Big Dance. 

At his farewell press conference, Barnes made a pointed statement about the difference between hope and reality in sports: "You want the fairy-tale ending. You want it all to end right. Sometimes you don't get what you want in life."

Even though the dream never came true in Texas, Barnes will get another opportunity with a solid Tennessee program. He's a proven recruiter who is able to build talent as well as some of the best coaches in the country. He just has to put all of the pieces together to avoid disappointing finishes like he had with the Longhorns.

A fresh start can lift a weight off someone's shoulders. Barnes didn't fail at Texas, despite not winning a title. If his track record is any indication, he won't fail at Tennessee either.

The Tennessee basketball program fired head coach Donnie Tyndall on March 27 in the midst of an NCAA investigation, and now the school has reportedly agreed to hire former Texas coach Rick Barnes. 

Continue for updates.

Tennessee Reportedly Signs Rick Barnes

Tuesday, March 31

Evan Daniels of Scout.com reported that Barnes has agreed to become Tennessee's head coach. ESPN's Jeff Goodman confirmed that report. 

Jerry Meyer of 247Sports reported Monday that former Texas head coach Rick Barnes is expected to join Tennessee. Meyer's source said, "It's gonna happen sooner than later. I wouldn't be surprised if there is an agreement in principle by the end of [Monday]."

Barnes was fired from Texas on Saturday after a disappointing season in which the Longhorns barely made the NCAA tournament and lost in their opening tourney game.

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports added from a source that Barnes "is the priority at Tennessee. Just a matter of finalizing a deal."   

On March 27, Matt Slovin of The Tennessean wrote, “Tennessee officials had a preliminary conversation with Butler coach Chris Holtmann on Friday regarding the Vols' vacant head-coaching position, sources familiar with the discussions said.”

Slovin also pointed out there is mutual interest between the two parties, per the anonymous sources, though the discussions are in the early stages.

Butler finished the season with a 23-11 record and advanced to the round of 32 in the NCAA tournament before ultimately falling in an overtime heartbreaker to Notre Dame. Holtmann became the permanent head coach in January after an interim stint while Brandon Miller was on medical leave.

Holtmann coached at Gardner-Webb for three years before joining the Butler staff as an assistant in 2013.

After just one season at the helm as the University of Tennessee's head men's basketball coach, Donnie Tyndall is on the outs in Knoxville, the school announced on March 27, 2015.

Jimmy Hyams of WNML The Sports Animal first reported the 45-year-old coach was fired on March 25, 2015.

The NCAA was looking into potential rules violations that may have occurred during Tyndall's two-season run at Southern Mississippi prior to his tenure at Tennessee, per David Climer of the Tennessean.

According to Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com, Tyndall's possible violations were, in fact, the motivating factors behind his firing.

On April 8, 2016, the NCAA announced Tyndall has been hit with a 10-year "show-cause" penalty stemming from the rules violations:

Penalties in the case include three years of probation, a two-year postseason ban for the men’s basketball team, reductions in scholarships and recruiting opportunities, as well as show-cause orders for a number of individuals, including the former head coach. During the show-cause period, if any of the individuals are hired by an NCAA school, that school must follow the terms of each of their respective show-cause orders.

Grant Ramey of GoVolsXtra noted Tyndall had "deleted emails of NCAA interest," which was revealed "in the termination obtained by the News Sentinel."

"Tyndall’s six-year, $1.6 million contract allows UT to fire Tyndall for cause—meaning it avoids a $3 million buyout—if Tyndall committed Level I or Level II NCAA violations at UT or another NCAA institution," reported the Knoxville News Sentinel, via newsok.com.

"It is disappointing that we have to take this action," athletic director Dave Hart said, per Parrish. "It is highly likely that Coach Tyndall will face significant penalties at the conclusion of the NCAA's infractions process. We believe this decision is in the best interests of the University of Tennessee."

Tyndall led the Vols to a 16-16 record in 2014-15, down from 24 wins in coach Cuonzo Martin's last season. They dominated their way through three rounds of the NCAA tournament in 2013-14 before falling to Michigan in the Sweet 16. Under Tyndall, they didn't even make the first cut.

After hiring former Texas head coach Rick Barnes to replace Tyndall, it's safe to say Tennessee has added sensibility when it comes to potential NCAA sanctions, since that is what led to Bruce Pearl's firing in 2011.

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The Tennessee Volunteers got a boost to their 2015 recruiting class, as guard prospect Chris Clarke has committed to the school.

Matthew Hatfield of VirginiaPreps.com has the report:

The 6'5", 170-pound shooting guard is considered a 4-star recruit by 247Sports. The recruiting site has him listed as the No. 1 recruit from the state of Virginia, the No. 17 shooting guard in the nation and the No. 60 recruit overall. 

Jeff Goodman of ESPN offered the following scouting report on Clarke:

Added Jeff Borzello of ESPN:

It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Tennessee landed the guard. In early October, Clarke revealed to KnoxBlogs.com that the Vols were seriously committed to landing him:

'I’m a guy they really need, a great addition to their team. Tennessee loves me.' Clarke said Thursday, recalling UT’s pitch.

UT’s four in-home visits with Clarke outnumbered that of any school.

'It shows a lot,' he said 'It shows they really care, that they genuinely think I will be able to be a part of their team.'

The fit seems natural. Clarke will help to bolster a Vols team that finished 24-13 last season and reached the Sweet 16, where it lost to Michigan. However, the team's two best players, Jarnell Stokes and Jordan McRae, both entered the NBA draft, so a strong recruiting class to supplement those losses was needed. 

Thus, Clarke was certainly an excellent addition to the Vols. A player who has really risen up recruiting boards in the past year, Clarke is going to give Tennessee instant energy, versatility and the ability to score at the rim. He has the chance to grow into something special with the Vols, and his energetic style of play should earn him instant minutes with the team. 

New coach Donnie Tyndall needed to hit the ground running. He signed eight players for the 2014-15 season, and now he has the top recruit from Virginia to add to the roster next year. This season may be a transition year for the Vols, but the future looks bright for the program.

Tony Harris decided to call it a career after playing professional basketball overseas for approximately seven years.

It didn’t take long for the former University of Tennessee standout to return to Knoxville to complete the final 36 hours of his undergraduate studies.

Harris, a native Memphian, earned his degree in Psychology with a minor in Childcare within six months after his professional career ended.

He has former Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl to thank.

Pearl, who recently replaced Tony Barbee as Auburn’s head coach, coached the Vols from 2005-2011 before he was fired in March 2011 for lying to school officials regarding NCAA allegations.

As Harris tells it, Pearl’s contributions to the university far outweigh the NCAA sanctions that ultimately led to his firing. Among the reasons is that during Pearl’s tenure at Tennessee, he established a program in which ex-Vol players could return to campus and finish their degree requirements.

Harris, who starred for the Vols from 1997-2001, deemed it a forgone conclusion to finish school.

“Man, it was very relishing,” Harris, during a recent interview, said of finishing his undergraduate requirements. “I look back at it as a pivotal point in my life. I knew that I couldn’t play basketball the rest of my life. I knew eventually the crowd would stop cheering. I knew getting my degree would open doors for me.”

Harris is grateful to Pearl for helping him exhibit a renewed sense of assertiveness in the classroom.

“Believe it or not, Bruce Pearl played a big part in that,” Harris said. “He created a program where he actually wanted to bring former players back. He reached out to me and I said, ‘I have to do that.’ I definitely sensed a reconnection with him. I really wished I had played for that guy right there because he cared. My hat goes off to him.”

A little more than five years removed—and having a earned his degree—Harris, a former McDonald’s All-American and Tennessee Class AAA Mr. Basketball who starred at point guard for Memphis East High from 1994-97, is now dishing out assists to youngsters who aspire to journey through the basketball ranks much like he did more than a decade ago in this hoops-crazed town.

Harris, 35, is the founder of the Tony Harris Basketball Academy (or THBA), which is currently housed at STAR Academy Charter School in Northeast Memphis where he teaches physical education.

According to Harris, THBA was organized to teach youths various fundamentals and mechanics as they prepare for competitive play. Also, THBA has its own strength and conditioning coach to teach athletes about speed and agility as well as the importance of staying in shape on the court. In addition, the academy offers after-school tutoring and frequent sessions in which athletes are taught how to become media savvy.

“A lot of kids get in front of the news media and don’t know how to talk,” Harris said.

An organization that is comprised of about 120 individuals, Harris also conducts a midweek Bible study in which he shares stories that parallel to his life with athletes. As a result, athletes are encouraged to offer feedback from the messages given.

Earlier this year, Harris was installed as an ordained ministered by his pastor, Stephen Brown, and preached his first sermon just weeks later at Brown’s LOGIC Church in the heart of downtown Memphis.

“About a month before my sermon, I didn’t know what I was going to talk about,” Harris said. “And God told me to talk about where He brought me from. And so when I preached that sermon, I tied those experiences to my own life.”

Besides Pearl, Harris attributes his success on and off the court to fellow Memphian Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway, a former Memphis Treadwell High and Memphis State star.

Drafted with the third overall pick by Golden State in 1993, Hardaway played 14 seasons in the NBA and made four All-Star appearances before retiring in 2007 following a brief stint with the Miami Heat.

“Man, I just looked at his life and his career and how he came back and impacted the whole (city),” Harris said of Hardaway. “He really inspired me. He’s really had the biggest impact on me. And it helps to have a personal relationship with him. I’ve watch him. And what better guy to have as an example than Penny Hardaway?”

Looking ahead, Harris said his primary focus is to upgrade his staff at THBA, considering he has taken on additional athletes in recent months. Plans to build a new facility are in the works while he continues to train athletes at STAR Academy, a project he anticipates will be complete within the next year.

“It was four years ago,” said Harris, explaining his motivation for starting a basketball academy. “I was trying to figure out what direction I wanted to go, and God gave me a vision. He said, ‘I want you to start a basketball academy.’ And then I talked to my pastor about it and then he told me to make the vision plain and clear. One thing I wanted to do was reach out to kids and not be restricted to a school.”

Much like Pearl reached out to him.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes are obtained firsthand by the author. Andre Johnson is a senior writer for MemphiSport and contributor for Bleacher Report. To reach Johnson, email him at andre@memphisport.net. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist. 

Updates from Tuesday, April 22

Tennessee has confirmed Donnie Tyndall is the new Tennessee head coach:

Ben Frederickson of GoVolsXtra.com provides insight surrounding Tyndall's plans for his coaching staff:

New Tennessee men’s basketball coach Donnie Tyndall plans to bring the bulk of his Southern Miss staff with him to Knoxville, a source close to the situation told the News Sentinel early Tuesday morning. 

CBS Sports' Gary Parrish also reported updated financial details of Tyndall's contract with Tennessee:

Original Text

Donnie Tyndall, a sought-after name on the head coaching market, made it clear last month he was happy at Southern Miss, but it would appear Tennessee made him an offer he couldn't refuse. 

CBS Sports' Gary Parrish first reported the Vols have found their replacement for Cuonzo Martin, recently agreeing to terms with Tyndall: 

ESPN's Jeff Goodman and Andy Katz added more details on the financial terms, and how an agreement was made:

The deal was for five years at $8 million overall. But they were still negotiating Monday night because Tyndall wanted six years instead of five, a source with direct knowledge on the negotiations told ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz.

Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart reached out to Tyndall, who has spent the past two seasons at Southern Miss, and the two quickly agreed to a preliminary deal.

This comes as somewhat of a surprise. As Tyndall's name continued to pop up for vacancies around the country, he attempted to put an end to any and all rumors, via the Clarion Ledger's Jason Munz:

I don’t plan to leave here. Now, would I be lying if I didn’t say, ‘At some point, some day if the exact right job came along, would I have to take a look at it? Yeah, you probably would.’

Well, it looks like the "right job came along," and it's a good thing for the Vols. As Parrish argued, this is the perfect fit for a school looking to retain momentum after its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2008:

After an extended stint with Morehead State, Tyndall spent the last two seasons leading Southern Miss to a combined record of 56-17 (.767) and a pair of NIT appearances. 

While that may not jump off the resume, there are an array of circumstances that make this a tantalizing hire. As a former assistant at LSU (four years), he has experience recruiting out of the SEC. As a former Middle Tennessee assistant (four years), he knows the state. As the former Morehead State head coach (six years), he has had success in the area. 

The Eagles, who went 4-23 the year before Tyndall was hired, were 114-85 during his reign, made two NCAA tournament appearances and famously upset fourth-seeded Louisville in the NCAA tournament behind Kenneth Faried. 

Finally, as Parrish notes, Tyndall is a "big personality who has helped increase season-ticket sales at USM."

This isn't going to be an easy job for the up-and-coming head coach. Tennessee returns just one starter and senior (Josh Richardson) in 2014-15, making this a nearly total rebuilding project. 

But as Tyndall has proven in the past, he is capable of turning things in a positive direction very quickly. 

Tamika Catchings’ list of basketball accomplishments would impress just about anyone. The 34-year-old forward—currently playing for the WNBA's Indiana Fever—has won big on every level.

She was dominant at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. She won a national championship at Tennessee playing for the legendary Pat Summit.

Catchings is a three-time Olympic Gold medalist as well. The accolades haven’t stopped since she reached the WNBA. The 12-year veteran is a seven-time WNBA All-Star (2002, 2003, 2005-07, 2009 and 2011), five-time Defensive Player of the Year (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010), former WNBA MVP (2011), Finals MVP (2012) and a world champion (2012).

Few players on any level—or any gender—have accomplished as much as Catchings has in the sport.

To top off all of the on-court accomplishments, Catchings has also made a mark with her charity work.

Catchings has overcome tons of adversity to get to her current place as an athlete and a person. She was born with a hearing disability, and suffered an ACL injury her senior season at Tennessee.

Still, she has reached admirable heights.

I recently got an opportunity to speak with her about her career, her time playing for Summit and her charity work with the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team.

Though the subject was a bit of a sting for the proud Tennessee Volunteers alum, we also discussed the men’s and women’s NCAA Final Four.

Both the men’s and women’s teams from Tennessee were eliminated, but Catchings was still kind enough to give a prediction for the national championship game on the women’s side.

Take a listen to the interview.

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What a difference a month has made for Tennessee Volunteers basketball coach Cuonzo Martin.

On February 23, former Vols coach Bruce Pearl was a featured speaker at SportsFest, an event hosted by Nashville radio station 104.5 The Zone. (Full disclosure: this writer is also an employee of said station.) Zone personality/football blogger/basketball neophyte Clay Travis all but kissed Pearl's feet in begging him to return to Knoxville as Martin's replacement, as reported by the Nashville Tennessean.

Two days later, on his own Outkick the Coverage blog, Travis went so far as to call Tennessee basketball "abysmal," predicting that next season's team, completely full of Martin's recruits, would be "awful, boring, and cost the university millions in unsold seats." The post was a call to fans to flood Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart with pro-Pearl emails and was led by a photo of Pearl and Travis smiling together.

Now, Cuonzo Martin is preparing his Vols for a Sweet 16 matchup with Michigan (Friday, 7:15 ET, CBS), only the seventh such tournament run in school history. Meanwhile, Pearl has taken a job with downtrodden SEC rival Auburn, arriving like a conquering hero at Auburn's tiny regional airport.

Martin's players are celebrating by giving media members like Andy Katz and Reggie Miller Stone Cold Stunners. Even the normally stoic Martin was moved to tweet out a celebratory selfie after UT defeated Mercer to reach the regional semifinals.

Barely five weeks after Martin's job status seemed its most tenuous, he and the Vols sit on top of the world. His players, once derided for questionable body language and a lack of discipline, now sound like a reflection of their all-business leader.

“We tried to stay away from all the criticism that this team has been receiving throughout the year,” forward Jarnell Stokes said after the win over Iowa (h/t ESPN). “It’s that’s our motivation, then we’re in it for the wrong reason."

The criticism had to be hard to ignore. More than 36,000 Volunteer fans signed an online petition to get Pearl rehired as UT's coach. Some were already demanding Martin's head more than a year before Pearl would even become available for consideration.

While never actively campaigning for the job, Pearl was still a visible figure in the Knoxville area, courting fans whether intentionally or not. Those fans would come to forgive the admittedly minor violations that tarred Pearl's tenure and the always-major mistake he made in attempting to cover them up.

Under all of this scrutiny, Martin kept attempting to improve his program to the satisfaction of fans spoiled by a rapid rise to basketball prominence and frustration over the struggles of the school's true bell cow, its storied football program.

Part of the unrest lies in Martin's preferred style of play. The Vols are one of four Sweet 16 teams ranking among both Ken Pomeroy's (subscription required) 20 most-efficient offenses and defenses, but they rank 325th nationally in adjusted tempo. Florida, Baylor, Virginia and Michigan all rank in the 300s as well, but those teams all have more than UT's 24 wins.

A coach can win slow or lose fast, but losing slow will make the natives restless.

Toughness and defensive determination don't always show up in the box score that Joe Casual Fan reads after the game ends, but here's some information that did: An Iowa team that averaged 82 points per game this season scored only 65 against the Volunteers, and that was with five extra minutes. Only one point came from that extra session.

According to KenPom, UT became the first team since New Year's Eve to hold Iowa below one point per possession (PPP).

Success in getting his players to buy into a defense-first philosophy may be Martin's greatest coaching achievement in this SportsCenter-fed era where lots of dunks are equated with good basketball.

"They understand and I guess they realize when you defend at the level we're capable of defending at, these are the results behind it," Martin told CBS Sports before Tennessee defeated UMass in the second round. "They really bought into it and embraced the fact if we can defend the way we defend, you can still score the ball. Scoring is a lot better when you can defend."

Again per Pomeroy, Mercer was the first UT opponent to score more than one PPP since a Feb. 15 loss to Missouri. Since then, the Vols are 9-2, with the defeats coming on a buzzer-beater at Texas A&M and a late technical foul against Florida in the SEC tournament.

Stokes has crushed opponents in that span. Over those 11 games, the junior has averaged 17.5 points and 11.9 rebounds. He's a major mark against critics concerned about Martin's ability to recruit.

Stokes committed to UT as a midseason-eligible player in December of 2011, spurning elite programs like Kentucky, Florida and his hometown school, Memphis. He was the first elite prospect to cross the state from Memphis to Knoxville since Tony Harris in 1997. While Pearl started the ball rolling on Stokes' recruitment, Martin secured his signature mere months after being hired at Tennessee.

Pearl's knack for bringing in top-ranked recruiting classes has also been highly romanticized by the "Bring Back Bruce" Brigade. While Pearl brought in top-10 Rivals recruiting classes in 2006, 2008 and 2010, only two players from those classes—'06 forward Wayne Chism and current Vols scoring leader Jordan McRae—actually went on to play out their eligibility in Knoxville.

That's not because of a surplus of future pros either, as 2010 forward Tobias Harris has been the only Pearl recruit to see NBA minutes after leaving UT for the draft.

So, pending the unfolding of McRae's professional future, Martin may have signed just as many future NBA talents as Pearl did.

What Pearl did well is something that many future coaches will need to do to make basketball relevant at a football-mad SEC school not named Kentucky. Pearl is more P.T. Barnum than John Wooden, selling his program relentlessly while offering up wild antics and zany sound bites for radio pot-stirrers like Travis to chuckle over.

Antics and sound bites are not in Martin's repertoire. They never will be. His reluctance to be part of a sideshow has as much to do with the persistent fan unrest as his pace of play or his wins and losses. The media can sour on a coach quickly if he doesn't help make their job easy, unless he wins at an unassailable pace.

Martin did neither until this past month, when his team caught fire against admittedly underwhelming SEC opposition. To boot, UT's NCAA tournament opponents either backslid into the tournament—Iowa had lost seven of eight, UMass three of five—or, like Mercer, had pulled a Cinderella upset in their first game.

Tennessee didn't exactly run a gauntlet like Indiana did to win the 1976 national title; it simply started playing to its potential. Do that in November and lose the script thereafter, and the coach is cleaning out his desk. The team hits a groove in March, and the coach may get to sign an extension.

If not, at least he may get fans to demand one. A new petition has hit the Internet, this one requesting a raise and extension for Martin. It has only 209 signatures at the moment, a far cry from the pro-Pearl tally.

One more note on the Bring-Back-Bruce crowd: Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings memorably lashed out at Martin's critics in the Tennessean, referring to those who wanted a coach ousted after only three years as "idiots."

It used to be in this business guys got four or five years to show what they could do. The only thing that’s changed is people thinking that they ought to have more of a say in that, and then weak athletic administrations giving into that kind of pressure.

Hopefully, the powers that be over at Tennessee will tune those idiots out and give (Martin) the kind of time he deserves to do the job he needs to do.

For his part, vocal Pearl sympathizer Travis flip-flopped so hard after the Vols' season-ending rush that he bet $1,000 on Tennessee to beat Iowa. It seems that winning builds every coach a support system, even from unexpected sources.

Or perhaps, it's just another bandwagon fan spinning his team's success into some profit. Either way, most of Martin's critics appear to be placated.

For now.

For more from Scott on college basketball, including links to his podcast, check out The Back Iron. This week: talking Kentucky-Louisville with Louisville Courier-Journal writer Jeff Greer.

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