Tennessee’s Rick Barnes is undeniably one of the most accomplished coaches in college basketball. He has 754 career wins in a head coaching career that dates back to 1987, and he’s made four power-conference stops in that span.
But Barnes’ teams tend to have one fatal flaw: inconsistency during the most important month of the season. His struggles in March continued on Saturday, as his three-seeded Volunteers were upset in the second round of the NCAA Tournament by the Michigan Wolverines.
It’s the latest chapter in a history of postseason disappointment from Barnes. In his first power conference stop with Providence, he made the tournament three times in six years but never advanced beyond the first round. In three tournament appearances in his next stop at Clemson, he made the Sweet 16 once while losing the opener in the other two appearances.
That level of success started to change when he took his first big-time job at Texas. In his first decade in Austin, he made two Sweet 16s, two Elite Eights and a Final Four. However, he never advanced beyond the first weekend in the seven years that followed, and in seven seasons in Knoxville, he’s made just one Sweet 16 appearance.
After his latest disappointing tournament finish, college basketball fans on Twitter let him have it, many chiming in with some variation of this joke.
Death, taxes, Rick Barnes making an early exit in March
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) March 19, 2022
Here were the best reactions.