Tennessee's Rick Barnes has a strong response to question about Buzz Williams' silly behavior from Saturday
It's not every day you hear one basketball coach call out another coach for their behavior, either on or off the court. However, Tennessee Vols head coach Rick Barnes made no bones about how he felt about his counterpart from last Saturday night. In the second half of Tennessee's 85-69 loss to Texas A&M in […]
It's not every day you hear one basketball coach call out another coach for their behavior, either on or off the court. However, Tennessee Vols head coach Rick Barnes made no bones about how he felt about his counterpart from last Saturday night.
In the second half of Tennessee's 85-69 loss to Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, Aggies head coach Buzz Williams had a bizarre moment where he seemingly lost his mind while trying to call a timeout.
Barnes was posed the question from Tennessee play-by-play announcer Bob Kesling during Vol Calls on Monday night about whether Williams' antics warranted a technical foul, and Barnes did not hesitate with his response.
"Absolutely," he responded. "One hundred percent, absolutely. It should have been a technical foul. I'm going to put a new drill in. Any time you see a coach on the floor, you've got to run him over. You've got to hit him. Don't avoid him. But that was a ridiculous play for them not to – you can't do that. …
"That's a blatant technical foul, and you've got to call it. They just said that they would take care of it, but they'd already been warned for being out of the box. All kinds of things. It's just a missed call."
– Rick Barnes on Vol Calls via the Vol Network
While Barnes may have been joking about the running over part, it's completely understandable at him being miffed over why a technical foul wasn't whistled at that point. Williams was almost at the jump circle of the court calling timeout in a manner as though he was doing jumping jacks. He came close to a number of players running back down the court, including Tennessee's Tobe Awaka.
That couldn't be a more blatant violation of the rules, and if what Barnes is saying is true about them having already been warned about leaving the coaching box, then it's even more inexcusable.
The score at the time was 69-54 in favor of A&M, so a technical foul call there would not have been a game changer. However, it was a silly and downright unprofessional moment for Williams, and he should have been accountable for it.
Vols’ Rick Barnes shows with simple gesture how he had his players’ backs after scuffle with Kentucky
Tennessee’s head coach appreciated what he saw
