When Tennessee basketball hired Rick Barnes four years ago, there was another veteran coach that they could have looked at who is only a year older. That veteran coach just retired with over 800 wins.
We’re talking, of course, about Rick Byrd, who turned the Belmont Bruins into a mid-level Division I program and was a model of consistency for 30-plus years. The 65-year-old just retired after decades in Nashville, saying it’s time. Up until last week, nobody questioned the idea of hiring Barnes over Byrd.
But now, if Barnes leaves the Vols for the UCLA Bruins, Tennessee basketball should do what it twice decided not to do, wrongly I might add, in the past.