Tennessee held a press conference on Tuesday to introduce new basketball assistant coach Kim English as well as give Rick Barnes the opportunity to meet with the media for the first time since he decided to turn down the UCLA job to remain in Knoxville.

So how close did Barnes come to leaving Tennessee for UCLA? It sounds like the Tennessee coach would have left had UCLA agreed to pay his $5 million buyout on Rocky Top.

“When you get down to a situation like that, it has to make sense from a financial standpoint — it does have to and the bottom line is, we just couldn’t really work it out, with the buyout. In terms of what was going to be that part of it,” Barnes revealed on Tuesday. “In the meantime… I told them I can’t do anything until I talk to Tennessee because I said, ‘I’m not going to walk out of here and not meet with my team and walk out of here and not meet with the people here that have been really good to me.’ That’s the way I felt about it.

“I’m going to make sure this is done the right way because of the respect what I feel for Tennessee and the people here.”

Barnes later admitted that he woke up on Monday with the strong belief that he could be leaving for UCLA.

“There was one time on my mind were I really thought that was what would happen,” Barnes continued. “I remember the last time I prayed about it and asked God for total clarity and I said, ‘This is what’s got to happen’ and they came back and said, ‘We can’t work this out.’ It said clearly you were meant to be at Tennessee and that’s where we will be.

“It got to that point where I felt my pray had been answered and that’s all I can tell you. Once it happened, I called the people I needed to call and said I’m staying at Tennessee and I haven’t looked back.”

Tennessee fans don’t seem to be taking these comments very well, as their coach is being very transparent that money played a role in his decision to stay in Knoxville.

Do Tennessee fans have the right to be upset with these comments?