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'The game would have been over' - The NCAA Tournament loss that still bothers legendary basketball coach Rick Barnes

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Zach Ragan | Last updated Jul 17, 2025 12:56 PM ET

Tennessee Vols head coach Rick Barnes is one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, but he's still in search of his first national championship.

Barnes took the Texas Longhorns to a Final Four in 2003, and he took the Volunteers to the Elite Eight in each of the last two seasons, but he's never been able to end a season without heartbreak.

In some years, Barnes' teams just didn't play well in the NCAA Tournament. In other years, poor officiating cost Barnes.

One loss that still stings for Barnes happened in 2011 when he was the head coach at Texas.

The Longhorns were eliminated that season by Sean Miller and the Arizona Wildcats in the second round of the tourney.

It looked like Texas was on the verge of winning a close game against Arizona, but a very questionable five-second call late in the second half gave the Wildcats a chance to win the game (which they took advantage of).

"Sometimes you limp into that thing (the NCAA Tournament) and you're just hoping that maybe you catch some magic in a bottle," said Barnes on The Sideline with Andy Katz. "Sometimes you go in riding high and you get a tough matchup, or you get a break, or you get a bad break here or there. Sean Miller was kidding me about it, we got beat in the NCAA Tournament one year when the game would have been over if the referee hadn't made a five-second count -- and he was a Pac-10 official.

"Sean's at Arizona [at the time]. And [the ref] goes three chops and calls five seconds. And if you go back and look, the entire timeout, Sean was in his ear the entire time. The entire time. And so those are the things, to be honest with you, that when you look back on it, that really bother you."

That was definitely a bad break for Barnes and the Longhorns. If you go back and watch the end of that game, Texas (which had a two point lead with 14 seconds left in the game) was called for a five-second violation after four chops (not three like Barnes said, but still less than five) from the referee. To make it worse, the Texas player was trying to call timeout after the fourth chop. It was undoubtedly the wrong call from the official.

Barnes turned 71 on Thursday (July 17), so he's in the final act of his career. But he's still got plenty left in the tank. And he's as motivated as ever to win the national championship that's eluded him throughout his career.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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