Tennessee basketball head coach Rick Barnes is one step closer to a major career coaching milestone after the Vols’ 74-56 win over Georgia Southern on Tuesday night.
The win on Tuesday over the non-conference foe is the 786th win in Rick Barnes’ coaching career, tying Lefty Driesell for the 14th most wins all-time. Driesell was the first coach ever to win more than 100 games with four different Division I programs: Davidson (1960-1969), Maryland (1969-1986), James Madison (1988-1997), and Georgia State (1997-2003).
Driesell retired as the fourth-winningest coach in Division I basketball in 2003 but has since dropped back to 14 after a slew of notable coaches started to move up the list. The former Duke basketball player will drop to No. 15 after Rick Barnes finds his next win with the Volunteers.
“Just so you know, I talked to coach Driesell last week,” Barnes said during his press conference after the win on Tuesday. “Doing great. He lives in the Tidewater area and he sounded great when we talked.”
Barnes said he didn’t know that he was on Driesell’s heels when they spoke last week but smiled as he said he was going to give him another call on Wednesday.
No. 12 Tennessee’s next game is against NC State (7-2) this Saturday night in San Antonio, Texas, as part of the Hall of Fame series – a fitting event for Barnes to potentially lock down sole possession of No. 14 in the all-time coaching wins list.
Here’s a look at 10-15 on the all-time list:
10. John Calipari (839)
11. Cliff Ellis (833)
12. Eddie Sutton (806)
13. Bill Self (796)
14. Rick Barnes, Lefty Driesell (786)
More from RTI – Rick Barnes: Tennessee’s Veterans ‘Extremely Disappointing’ Against Georgia Southern
182 of Rick Barnes’ 786 career wins have come at the University of Tennessee.
Barnes has 402 wins at Texas (1998-2015), 108 wins at Providence (1988-1994), 74 wins at Clemson (1994-1998), and 20 wins at George Mason (1987-1988).
Rick Barnes has hit 31 in-season wins twice in his career, once at Texas during the 2007-2008 season and once at Tennessee during the 2018-2019 season.
Barnes’ teams have reached the NCAA tournament on 27 different occasions and won six conference championships, four times in the regular season and twice during the conference tournament.
Overall, in 37 years of coaching at major programs around the country, Rick Barnes has an overall record of 786-409 for a 65.8 winning percentage.
Here’s a look at No. 12 Tennessee’s upcoming schedule as Vols head coach Rick Barnes looks to lock down his spot as the sole owner of No. 14 on the all-time wins list.
- 12/16 vs NC State (Neutral site)
- 12/21 vs Tarleton State
- 1/2 vs Norfolk State
- 1/6 vs Ole Miss
- 1/10 at Mississippi State
One Response
Love ole Rick Barnes. Glad Texas aint got him. He’ll win 33 games this year. Got great players who will finally get used to each other and win a bunch of games this year