Richard Dale Barnes was announced as UT’s head basketball coach on April 1, 2015, just 48 hours after he was fired at the University of Texas. His 17-year career had produced 16 NCAA tournament appearances, three Big 12 regular-season championships, 402 victories, and a .691 winning percent. In 2014 he became the 13th active coach to reach 600 career wins. His Texas teams posted a perfect one thousand score in each of the last five multiyear Academic Progress Reports. Texas paid his $1.75 million buyout and fired him in hopes of hiring a coach who could move deeper into the NCAA tournament—Barnes had not been to the Sweet Sixteen since 2008. Before becoming head coach at Texas, Barnes served as head coach at George Mason, Providence College, and Clemson. A native of Hickory, North Carolina, he is a 1977 graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne College, where he played on the men’s basketball team. Barnes’ contract was for six seasons, from April 1, 2015, to April 15, 2021, with a base salary of $2.25 million. He replaced Donnie Tyndall, who had been fired.
Barnes’s wife, Candy, is a UT graduate, and billboards sprouted throughout Knoxville saying “Welcome Home, Candy Barnes,” and in smaller type, “You too, Rick.”