Not sure why it is relevant to so many what Barnes’ salary is. He did what any valuable employee does in any market. UT didn’t have to pay him and could have let him walk. And we would have been much worse off than we are now, in my opinion.
Barnes is a very good coach who had some misses in recent recruitment cycles, it is true. We also had some unusual circumstances in the past 9 months, including Bone leaving sooner than expected, Turner‘s injury, Burns departure, etc.... But glass half full, the recruiting class coming in is excellent and we have seen amazing progress with any number of players. Finding Vescovi was creative and has been a net positive. Historically speaking, it is a good period for UT basketball and Barnes should get all the credit, regardless how much he makes. Let the persons responsible for making decisions on what his compensation is do their job and just evaluate the record he has had since he inherited this program. We are not a traditional power. This year we were hoping for more, as I’m sure he was as well, but we started the season betting on two senior guards leading the way, and find ourselves now being led by an overachieving post player from Kingsport, a kid from France who could barely dribble 2 years ago, and a 18 year old from South America who didn’t even get a pre-season. For all of this...I give Barnes a pass this year.
