In today’s day and age of college athletics, coaches have to considering all possibilities, at all times.
And so when Rick Barnes watched his ways players throw some head-scratching passes late Saturday night, it caused him to ponder if outside influences are causing the many miscues.
Following Tennessee‘s wire-to-wire 77-69 win over Auburn, Barnes spoke with the media about his team’s level of focus, which prompted him to bring up the topic of his players’ errant passes.
“At the end of the game…with some of the passes that we throw…I don’t know what to say other than that sometimes I wonder if my guys are betting on games,” Barnes said with a smile. “I shouldn’t say that–erase that–but I’m just wondering what’s happening because we’re too good of players to do that.”
The Volunteers’ head coach went on to apologize and ask the team’s Sports Information Director if the statement went too far, visibly feeling bad about having cracked the joke.
While he certainly isn’t implying anything fishy, Barnes does have a point when it comes to his team’s turnovers. Tennessee outplayed Auburn in nearly every statistical category except for when it came to giving the ball away, as they handed it to the Tigers on 15 occasions to the visitors’ 10.
Three turnovers apiece from ball-handling guards Bishop Boswell and Ja’Kobi Gillespie are perhaps the biggest points of concern for Barnes.
Of course, the legendary head coach makes this joke after multiple college basketball players were listed as involved in a wide-ranging sports gambling operation last month that caused them to purposely throw games.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
