VTTW Board Index

I wouldn't bet on it.

https://247sports.com/college/basketball/recruiting/Article/Rick-Barnes-UCLA-basketball-Tennessee-130984681/?fbclid=IwAR39Ri-flBoAO9CuR0JSnX2izfst6b9w3inahEKYuw6pSzDtI7bN06zkvKU

Don't see it....He's close to home and family and not far from retirement. But you never know when it comes to $$$$

I think that Barnes likes coaching at UT, but any serious financial increase in salary would be difficult to turn down.

I hope he stays.

Nah. He's from Hickory, NC and seems to prefer small towns. Plus UCLA would have to pay a ton to even out the cost of living difference.

I love Barnes, but don't break the bank to keep him.

Now, I'm concerned...



https://twitter.com/goodmanhoops/status/1115064117461749760?s=12

 (https://twitter.com/goodmanhoops/status/1115064117461749760?s=12)

*IF* Barnes goes to UCLA, and *IF* reports are true that he is shopping because he's unhappy with Fulmer's support for basketball...yikes.

Haven't heard that about Phil not supporting bball...

I don't think that's a issue at all. Fulmer and Barnes have a good working relationship. IMO this is all about Barnes and his goals before he retires. If he wants another Final Four or a chance at a NC he might think he has a better chance at UCLA than he would at UT and to be honest I think he would be right if that's the case....He's got a rebuild to do here starting now and if Grant leaves it will make the rebuild even longer. It's just a matter if he wants to rebuild here or at UCLA. He came here and got us back on the map after some bad mojo in our program for several years.....Maybe he'd like to go and put rebuild on his resume at a program with the history that UCLA has?

If Barnes doesn't squash these rumors by mid week if not before then there's something to it.

https://www.youtube.com/v/NAEppFUWLfc

Not gonna happen.  Maybe Barnes gets a bigger pay bump though.

Everything I've read seems to indicate its not about Barnes' pay, but perhaps TN' "commitment" to bball in terms of assistants.  If true, one could look at the money TN is chucking at football assistants and sort of understand.

Then again, I don't know if that's Fulmer's fault.  We all know he was hired to fix football at all costs.

Basketball is revenue positive, but football produces, what, 4x the income? If so, hoops coaches are vastly overcompensated.

Don't think it has anything to do with Barnes pay....it's more about the salary pool for his asst coaches. I read his entire asst pay pool is $975,000 with the coach that just left getting almost half of that and then the rest split. He's having to replace some asst coaches and Barnes knows he'll have to have the money to bring in some quality ones.

It's a decent possibility - no one but Barnes knows how he feels here

Remember that Barnes was essentially paying money out of his own pocket to supplement his assistants' pay prior to the start of this season. I don't think it's a stretch to think that he's unhappy with the support for basketball...which ultimately does fall on Fulmer. I understand Fulmer's desire (and, perhaps, his directive) to fix football, but you need stability until football is fixed. Right now, men's basketball is the closest thing to stability to be found among the major sports programs at UT. If Fulmer lets Barnes walk without doing everything in his power to keep Barnes here, that's majorly disconcerting.

Everyone including Barnes knows football is the cash cow but if it's true what's been reported that Barnes salary pool for asst pay is $975,000 and there's 3 on the football staff making more than that alone and the football S&C coach is darn near making what Barnes asst pool is then I can understand Barnes concerns if that's the issue. I've read that he's interested in bring in Alford to replace Lanier and I'm sure to do that he needs the dollars to do so.

Pay, along with multi-year contracts, for his assistants could very well be the problem.

I respect Barnes for standing up on this issue, if this is indeed the case. 

Yeah...his asst coaches have been on 1 year contracts and I'm sure that's a issue.

If they let him out the door over assistants, we don't deserve to be good in basketball.

And if Fulmer gets it done, we'll give him some credit right?   :dance:

Absolutely, I will.  I'm really hoping that this turns out in UT's favor.

Hearing reports now that at the end of the day, CRB maybe will be making more for coaching basketball at UT than Coach Pruitt does for coaching football.  Hmmmmm

How much is Pruitt even making?

I mean I love CRB and am proud he's our coach... but how much is he really worth?  I don't think it's worth us ponying up and paying him Cal or Coach K money by any means...

I think you have to weigh it against what kind of revenue the basketball program has generated over the past couple of years. I don't have those numbers, but I do know that Barnes inherited a dumpster fire and built a national championship contender. Maybe he just captured magic with that rag-tag team that he built. Maybe he can't replicate that success without Schofield and Williams. But taking this team to No. 1 in the nation was a masterful coaching job that very few coaches could've pulled off and I think he deserves to be compensated accordingly -- if, in fact, that's what this is about (I don't really think it is).

Clay Travis tweeting that UCLA may have gotten two SEC basketball coaches lifetime contracts. 

Barnes wasn't far off from making what Pruitt is making already IIRC. Barnes is the 2nd highest paid BB coach in the SEC

I don't either, when you factor in cost of living out in Cali... What they are supposedly offering him isn't really much of a raise.

This whole thing is just so odd.

It's all relative though.  The cost of living might be double in the LA area  (108% more, close to a double per this website:  https://www.bestplaces.net/cost-of-living/knoxville-tn/los-angeles-ca/3000000), but against a multi-million dollar contract that's noise if the coach has reasonable tastes in housing.  If Barnes is currently living in a 500K house in the Knoxville area (just a WAG) he doesn't have to get as big a house in LA.  His cost may double, even for a smaller house, but I don't think it's one to one.  Cost of living has a fixed upper limit.  I mean, food and gas and utilities, no matter how much they increase, will be a small proportion of a multi-million dollar contract.  The only gotcha is the house, but Barnes and wife could always settle for a smaller house.

Nah.  It's not a bad attempt at humor, but I can't see us going there.

Not much of a stretch, but hardly proven.  I doubt Barnes is complaining about his own salary, which is more than adequate even given his success IMO. 

But if he can leverage UCLA to get more for his assistants, I am all for it.

Coaches know when their team will be down and some get out when the getting is good.....It's harder to have to rebuild when you are in your 5th year like Barnes is because it's his team...it's his players and he shouldn't have to rebuild much if he's done a good job of recruiting.....He can go to UCLA and have a honeymoon period....his honeymoon was over at UT 2 years ago. Losing a lot of the team and he didn't get much at all out of his bench this season who will be the bulk of his team next season. If Barnes leaves no one can convince me that's not one big part of it.