The return of Rick Barnes to the Erwin Center!! IRVING, Texas — The Big 12 and Southeastern Conferences announced the pairings for the 2022 Big 12/SEC Challenge on Wednesday. Texas will host Tennessee in the Frank Erwin Center on Saturday, Jan. 29. Television designations and game times will be announced when available. The ninth annual event will consist of 10 games, as every Big 12 member will participate against 10 squads from the SEC. This marks the seventh consecutive year that all games in the Challenge will be played on one day. ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will combine to televise all 10 contests. The Texas-Tennessee contest will mark the return of former Longhorns head coach Rick Barnes to the Erwin Center. The all-time winningest coach in program history, Barnes served as head coach at Texas for 17 years (1998-99 through 2014-15) and compiled an overall record of 402-180 (.691). During his 17 seasons in Austin, Barnes led the Longhorns to 16 NCAA Tournament appearances, including five trips to the NCAA Sweet 16, three to the Elite Eight and one to the Final Four (2003). A four-time Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year (1999, 2003, 2008 and 2014), Barnes guided Texas to three Big 12 titles (1999, 2006 and 2008). Texas and Tennessee have split the previous six meetings between the two schools. In the first matchup (Dec. 18, 1952), the Volunteers registered a 66-59 win in Knoxville. The Longhorns posted a 77-73 victory in Little Rock, Ark. on Dec. 21, 1960 and added a 95-70 win in the third-place game at the EA Sports Maui Invitational (Maui, Hawaii) on Nov. 24, 2004. Tennessee recorded a 95-78 victory in the only previous game played in Austin (Dec. 17, 2005), and the Volunteers also registered a 111-105 overtime win in Knoxville on Dec. 23, 2006. In the most recent meeting between the two schools (Nov. 24, 2007), Texas claimed a 97-78 victory in the championship game of the StubHub! Legends Classic in Newark, N.J. Big 12 teams are 44-35 (.557) in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The Big 12 has a yearly Challenge record of 4-2-2 with wins in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019. One game was canceled in 2021 due to COVID. Ties occurred in 2017 and 2020. In case of a tie, the trophy stays with the conference that won it the previous season. Texas has registered a 3-4 mark in its previous seven Challenge appearances. UT posted a 70-64 victory against Vanderbilt in Austin on Dec. 2, 2013, then fell at No. 1/1 Kentucky 63-51 on Dec. 5, 2014. Texas recorded a 72-58 home win against Vanderbilt on Jan. 30, 2016, then lost at Georgia 59-57 on Jan. 28, 2017. The Longhorns registered an 85-72 home victory against Ole Miss, before falling at Georgia 98-88 on Jan. 26, 2019. Texas dropped a 69-67 decision to LSU in Austin on Jan. 25, 2020. The Longhorns were scheduled to play at Kentucky last year, but the game was canceled due to COVID-19 issues within the Kentucky program.
They were happy, the program seemed to be stagnating after a lot of success with Barnes. He wasn't hated by the fan base and while he did have a losing season in 2012/13, he won a lot of games at Texas. But it was mainly after having run of a Final Four, some sweet 16's and couple of elite 8's ...we suddenly were one and done or out in the 1st round. I don't think anybody begrudges him his success at Tenn. He's sort of basketball Mack Brown, cast aside only to resurface and be successful.
In a lot of ways Barnes was like Mike Brey, somebody who as an individual was well thought of and had success, but Brey like Barnes is watching the program slip and fans are anxious that he can't recover and eager to move on to another younger more energetic coach. Who will work hard to raise the program back up, UT of course thought they got that in Shaka Smart.
Smart move on his part. I would like to see him play more physical presence this season. He seems too content not to mix it up in the paint, just taking his shot from out front or over the top if permitted.
The deadline for opting out of the NBA draft is in the next couple of days. ESPNU guys were talking about several players who were on the cusp. They mentioned that if a player (I can't remember his name) decides to stay and they think he will and since he's in the Portal as well, that he'll end up at Texas and if he does it will make Texas one of the Preseason Top 4 along with Gonzaga, Kansas and another team I can't remmber. It wasn't that long ago that Chris Beard didn't have any players, they all left or got in the Portal. Now he's on the cusp of having a pre-season contender for the Nat'l Championship. That's a fast turn around.
With the NIL stuff, I could see some of these kids who pulled out and are going to go back to college making enough money to make it worth their time. I could see a coach contacting a booster and saying you need to sign a NIL with this kid for enough money so playing in the G-League or overseas is no longer attractive. Esp since of lot of them aren't going to be drafted anyway.