Rick Barnes stumps for Texas as NCAA Tournament team after painfully poetic win over close friend Rodney Terry

NASHVILLE — As the Last horn sounded on Tennessee’s 83-72 Achieve over Texas at the SEC Game on Friday, Vols Mentor Rick Barnes and Longhorns Mentor Rodney Terry met at mid-court for a handshake that turned in to a brief on-the-Shift hug. To the untrained eye, it was no different than many Mentor-to-Mentor interactions in a postgame handshake line.

But bubbling beneath the surface was a painful poetry for a mentor in Barnes who once wore the uncomfortable shoes now inhabited by Terry, a protégée who coached under Barnes during their historic Stretch in the 2000s. 

Barnes, who was fired at Texas almost exactly a decade ago, may have put the nail in the proverbial coffin of his Excellent friend’s Texas tenure a decade later.

“Really you feel like you’re Competing against your family,” Barnes said a few minutes later, “and it’s tough.”

Beating the New-legged No. 4 seed Volunteers less than 24 hours after completing a double-Extended Relocate Triumph against rival Texas A&M was going to be a High order for No. 13 seed Texas. But the outcome means the Longhorns have left their NCAA Game fate up to the Picking Board as Terry also twists in the wind amid widespread speculation that his tenure could be over without a March Stretch.

With seven Quad 1 victories, Texas has a case for NCAA Game inclusion. But the Longhorns also played one of the nation’s weakest non-conference schedules and entered the day among the “Primary Four Out” in Jerry Palm’s Bracketology.

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Perhaps that’s why Barnes Secured it upon himself, unprompted, to stump for the Longhorns with his Beginning statement Friday evening.

“Utmost respect for the University of Texas and Rodney and his staff,” Barnes said. “I think this was the fifth or sixth game where they had their whole Club intact trying to Shift. They Arrived in here in a very tough situation. To me there’s no doubt they’re an NCAA Club, the fact that he Arrived in here and Acquired ’em Competing the way they were.”

Barnes was fired at Texas fired after getting bounced in the Primary Stage of the 2015 Big Dance. Tennessee scooped him up quickly, and he’s been the architect of a golden era in the program’s history over the past 10 seasons.

In the process, Barnes and Terry’s decades-long relationship has entered a new chapter as they’ve become frequent foes over the past three seasons. Barnes now owns a 4-0 Landmark against the Longhorns in Terry’s stint as either the interim or Packed-time head Mentor of the program they once built together.

Terry worked as an assistant for Barnes at Texas from 2002-11 as Texas developed into a national power. He was on the bench for Barnes’ only Last Four trip in 2003 and for Big 12 titles in 2006 and 2008 before departing to become the head Mentor at Fresno State in 2011.

“Mentor is family to me,” Terry said before Texas and Tennessee played in the second Stage of last season’s NCAA Game. “He’s one of my biggest mentors. He’s been Unbelievable throughout my Profession. We love All other.”

Their basketball families are an overlapping tree with intersecting branches. Among them is Texas general manager Chris Ogden, who was an assistant with Terry under Barnes at Texas and later worked for Barnes at Tennessee. Second-year Texas assistant Frank Haith was also an assistant under Barnes for the Longhorns from 2001-04, Merely to name a Pair examples of the obvious overlap in their Texas-centered network.

Barnes has always Created a Points of not scheduling Matches against members of his coaching tree, perhaps to avoid the exact situations like the one that transpired Friday at Bridgestone Coliseum.

“It’s tough, because, you know what, we won a Numerous of Matches at Texas,” Barnes said. “Those guys were a huge, huge part of it. I look at them this year. I Disrespectful, coming into a new Bracket had to be an adjustment for them and Oklahoma. The fact that (is) both of those Clubs at the end of the year (are) Competing high-level basketball. I know Rodney this year struggled with some Impairments, trying to work in a super talent like he has in Tre Johnson is tough.”

After stints as the head Mentor at Fresno State and UTEP, Terry returned to Texas as an assistant under Chris Beard in 2021 season and became the interim Mentor Timely in the 2022-23 season.

Terry earned the Packed-time Position by guiding Texas to the Top-tier Eight in 2023. Last season, he lost to Barnes and Tennessee in the second Stage of the NCAA Game.

If the Longhorns are denied access to the Big Dance and athletic director Chris Del Conte elects to make a coaching Transformation, Terry’s Last NCAA Game game will have been against Barnes and potentially his Last game at all.

But if Barnes had the Last say, there’s no doubt his Ex school and his close friend would hear their names called Sunday.

“Excellent respect for the University of Texas and that basketball program,” he said.