Rick Barnes is brutally honest about UCLA and staying at Tennessee

The UCLA Bruins’ search for a new head coach was an interesting one to say the least, as they missed out on coach after coach before eventually hiring Mick Cronin away from Cincinnati.

During that search, UCLA tried to hire Rick Barnes, who is the current coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, and for a day, it looked like he was going to be on his way to Westwood.

But in the end, UCLA wouldn’t cover the buyout of his contract with Tennessee, so he ended up staying with the Vols.

Today, Barnes was asked if UCLA paid his buyout would he have left Tennessee to take the job.

“I think I would have been the coach at UCLA”

Also, Barnes said that he prayed about this decision and when UCLA told him they wouldn’t pay the buyout he said, “I knew I wasn’t supposed to be at UCLA”.

Barnes’ honesty is an interesting strategy however and I think it will be interesting to see how Tennessee fans react to what he had to say.