Everyone else wants to see Rick Barnes coach against the Texas Longhorns. The third iteration of the matchup, set in Charlotte, N.C., roughly an hour away from where Barnes grew up in Hickory, features some new layers.
As the all-time winningest coach in program history, Barnes presided over the golden era of Longhorns basketball with 402 victories over 17 seasons, three Big 12 regular-season titles, a trip to the Final Four in 2003, and Elite Eight appearances in 2006 and 2008, as well as two journeys to the Sweet 16.
So while the Big 12 and the SEC declined to match up Barnes and Tennessee with Texas in the Big 12-SEC Challenge when Shaka Smart was the head coach in Austin, as soon as Chris Beard took over in 2021, the two teams played the following two seasons, including last year’s matchup between Barnes and his former assistant, Rodney Terry, who became the interim head coach when Beard was suspended and then terminated with cause following an arrest for domestic violence.