O'Gara: Rick Barnes is absolutely elite, and it's a shame it took so long for that to be undeniable

It was fair to have 2 thoughts running through your mind at the same time on Friday night.

The first thought was probably more macro. It was that Rick Barnes was unquestionably an excellent coach. A man with over 800 career wins and 29 NCAA Tournament victories surely was one of the best in his profession. Tennessee could be in far worse hands than Barnes’ who had been guiding teams in the NCAA Tournament more than a decade before his current players were born.

The second thought was more micro. And on Friday night in the Sweet 16, it was far less comforting. As Creighton nearly fought all the way back from an 18-0 Tennessee run to get it within 3 with 6 minutes to play, Tennessee was in jeopardy of once again failing to clear that ever-daunting Sweet 16 hurdle. Coming up short of that elusive Elite Eight berth, with this team, would’ve hit differently. It would’ve been another “yeah, but” on Barnes’ legacy. As in, “yeah, he’s an excellent coach, but you know he’s always going to find a way to blow an NCAA Tournament lead and watch his season come to an end.”

It was fair to have those concurrent thoughts at different points of Tennessee’s Sweet 16 matchup against Creighton.

But by night’s end, Barnes left no doubt.

This team? It’s elite. Or rather, it’s Elite Eight-bound for the second time in program history. It never let Creighton get closer than that 3-point margin. How fitting it was that a pair of Dalton Knecht threes in the following 90 seconds ended the Blue Jays threat. The guy that Barnes plucked from Northern Colorado that’s been the missing piece all year was that key difference-maker when it counted.

This coach? He’s also elite. Or rather, he’s Elite Eight-bound for the first time since he led Texas there in 2008. Never mind the fact that his previous 11 NCAA Tournament appearances all ended without an Elite Eight berth. You couldn’t tell the way he coached on Friday night.

The knock on Barnes was that he couldn’t find the right adjustments in win-or-go-home games. On Friday night, he had to roll with the late pregame news that ageless guard Santiago Vescovi was out with the flu. Tennessee had the same starting lineup for 28 consecutive games and it was only forced to have 3 different starting lineups all year (H/T Ben McKee).

You wouldn’t have known it by night’s end. Everyone picked up the slack.

Josiah Jordan-James had his best scoring night (17 points on 4-for-6 shooting) since Feb. 3 at Kentucky. Zakai Zeigler did a better job setting the table than he did early against Texas in the Round of 32 — Barnes said he was speeding himself up too much that night — and he hounded Creighton point guard Steven Ashworth, who didn’t even attempt a shot until 15 minutes into the game. Jahmai Mashak, who started in Vescovi’s place, was a big reason why Creighton guard Trey Alexander was 3-for-12 from the floor in what turned out to be his worst scoring performance since Feb. 10.

Tennessee was tougher. That’s Barnes’ DNA.

Related: Tennessee fans, want to bet on the Vols’ Elite Eight matchup against Purdue? Bet365 has the Vols as a slight underdog to the Boilermakers on Sunday.

When Creighton came out in a Triangle-and-2 defense to try and isolate its defenders on Zeigler and Knecht — Baylor Scheierman tried to face-guard the All-American — the Vols eventually settled into their half-court offense and scored 20 points in the final 5:39.

This wasn’t the 2023 Sweet 16 game, wherein Barnes couldn’t find the answers to stop an 18-2 FAU run that lasted 6:40 in game time and roughly 6 years in real time. This wasn’t the 2022 Round of 32 game, wherein Barnes watched a 6-point lead at the under-8 timeout turn into a 22-8 Michigan run to end the game and ultimately end Tennessee’s season.

Nope. This was the 2024 Sweet 16 game, wherein Barnes reminded us that this wasn’t his first rodeo. It’s worth noting that from 2009-22, Barnes didn’t beat a single-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament. In the last 2 seasons, he took down 3 (5-seed Duke last season, 7-seed Texas and 3-seed Creighton this season). Sure, he did that with mostly the same crew. He didn’t get to the Elite Eight after losing 7 of his 9 rotation guys like Nate Oats at Alabama, nor did he have to win 9 consecutive win-or-go-home games like NC State coach Kevin Keatts.

It’s a credit to Barnes that this team earned a more straight-line path to the Elite Eight. Elite teams usually do that.

We can now play the results and say the 2-game losing streak to enter the NCAA Tournament was indeed a wake-up call. The only other time the Vols lost consecutive games came back in November. The team that started that losing streak was Purdue. As in, the same Purdue team that Barnes and Co. will face on Sunday afternoon in the Elite Eight. Matt Painter is trying to lead Purdue to its first Final Four berth since the Jimmy Carter administration while Barnes is trying to lead Tennessee to its first Final Four berth since James Naismith hung a peach basket and called it “basketball.”

Barnes vowed that his team would learn from that down-to-the-wire loss to the Boilermakers in Maui. We’ll see.

“They’re better, we’re better. We’ll get back and go to work,” Barnes said in the postgame interview.

In a few months, Barnes will turn 70. Think of how many times he’s said just that — “we’ll get back and go to work” — after a season-ending loss. It’s probably more times than he cares to count. But on Friday, he said that having solidified his place as one of the sport’s best coaches. Forty minutes of basketball shouldn’t have changed that. But rather, it should’ve quieted any lingering thought that he’s not elite.

Barnes is 1 more elite day from history. He won’t be motivated by getting the Vols off the dubious list of “teams with the most NCAA Tournament appearances without a Final Four berth” (BYU, Xavier and Mizzou are the only programs that Tennessee is behind). He’ll be motivated by continuing to coach what could end up being the best team that he’s ever had. Sunday will be a unique test.

Now’s a good time to be elite.