Tennessee’s Rick Barnes retirement timeline dims with latest SI prediction amid lifetime contract

Tennessee’s Rick Barnes retirement timeline dims with latest SI prediction amid lifetime contract originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Tennessee Volunteers basketball team is ranked inside the top 25 but has struggled to find a groove over the past couple of months. This was expected, as the Vols lost key players like Zakai Zeigler, Jahmai Mashack, Jordan Gainey, and several others. However, in the offseason, Tennessee rewarded head coach Rick Barnes with a lifetime contract.

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“Tennessee wants to make sure Rick Barnes stays with the Volunteers as long as he wants to coach the men's basketball team. Athletic director Danny White announced Thursday that Barnes has signed essentially a lifetime contract with Tennessee,” ESPN wrote.

This comes just a few months after Barnes faced questions about retirement and his future plans. Barnes has always coached at a high level, but eventually, everyone’s time runs out. He didn’t think it was his time last March, and he made that abundantly clear.

“Rick Barnes said he really hasn't thought about whether he'll retire after this season or many years from now. He said right now he doesn't think God wants him to retire, and he won't retire until that point,” Wes Rucker posted.

With that response, many backed off the possibility of Barnes retiring—until Sunday, when SI’s Luke Brush reported that he believes this could be the final season for the Tennessee head coach.

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“I believe this will be the last season of Rick Barnes. Pack out the TBA and show a legend some love. God bless Rick Barnes,” Brush wrote.

This would be a surprising turn of events, especially after the lifetime contract he just signed and with all the young talent on the roster. There is no confirmation behind this claim; it is simply a prediction that has been gaining traction.

While retiring in the near future isn’t off the table, it seems likely that Barnes may want to go out with his current freshman class—one he believes could deliver the same way Zeigler and Mashack did. This is an early signal that this could indeed be it for Rick Barnes.