Skip to main content
Join Now
Team Avatar
Tennessee

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes to return for 2026-27 season

Grant Grubbs Profile Pictureby: Grant Grubbs03/29/26grant_grubbs_

After Tennessee fell to Michigan in a 96-62 blowout in the Elite Eight on Sunday, Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes confirmed he will return for the 2026-27 season. The Volunteers made their third-consecutive Elite Eight appearance this season.

Barnes has been Tennessee’s head coach since 2015. While at the helm of the program, he’s amassed a 257-121 overall record and a 122-73 mark in conference play. Barnes has led Tennessee to two SEC regular-season titles and one SEC Tournament championship.

Tennessee has appeared in every NCAA Tournament since failing to reach the Big Dance in Barnes’ first two seasons. Barnes is responsible for three of Tennessee’s four Elite Eight appearances in program history. Alas, thus far, he’s been unable to lead the Volunteers to their first Final Four.

Tennessee’s lopsided loss on Sunday was far from encouraging. In the loss, the Volunteers shot 32% from the field and 19% from beyond the arc. In contrast, Michigan knocked down 52% of its field-goal attempts. After the game, Barnes discussed what the program needs to reach its first Final Four.

“There’s luck in everything you do,” Barnes said. “But, you look at their guys today, they had a lot of guys that played really good basketball, had good days. It’s hard to have a day where maybe one or two guys are off and get there. At this time of year, your players have to play and step up.

“There’s a lot of different ways to get there. But if you want to break through, you’ve got to get here first. You’ve got to put yourself in position to do that. We’ve been able to get here three years in a row, and it’ll be hard to get back to winning games just in the tournament. That first game of the tournament in the hardest one. But our goal would be to keep getting back and kicking and hopefully we can knock the door down.”

Rick Barnes is 71 years old. He was the second-oldest head coach in the Sweet Sixteen this season, only trailing St. John’s 73-year-old Rick Pitino. Barnes has been coaching at the collegiate level since 1978, when he was an assistant on Davidson‘s staff.