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Last week, UCLA hired Mick Cronin after whiffing on Tennessee's Rick Barnes.
But what if UCLA had promised to pay Barnes' $ 5 million buyout?
"I think I would have been the coach at UCLA," Barnes told reporters in Knoxville on Tuesday. "I've said that to people before, I really felt that that's what would happen."
Barnes admitted to a decision to stay in Knoxville, largely due to financial matters.
Tennessee forward Grant Williams says he is entering the NBA draft to "test the waters," but the consensus All-America selection has not ruled out the possibility of returning for his senior season.
Rick Barnes said his interest in UCLA had nothing to do with Tennessee and was all about the plot of the Bruins back to the glory John wooden.
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As part of his return, Barnes has agreed to a new deal with Tennessee that will pay him $ 4 million a year to increase the $ 6 million annual sum of the contract, sources told ESPN Chris Low last week.
Barnes signed a deal last year that was set to pay him $ 3.25 million per year with annual $ 100,000 increases. His new deal will also provide more cash for his assistants, including Colorado assistant assistant Kim English, who replaces Rob Lanier on Tennessee's staff.
Lanier, UT's Georgia State's head coach.
"I'm supposed to be at Tennessee," Barnes said. "I'm in love with this community I'm in love with this state I just think we got a lot of great things going on in this town."
But the multimillion-dollar buyout in his contract was stopped by Barnes from taking his talents to Los Angeles.
"A lot of praying went into it, I can tell you that," Barnes said. "There was a lot going on." "When you get down to a situation like that, it's got to make sense of a financial standpoint.
Barnes led Tennessee, which secured a No. 1 ranking during the 2018-19 season, to the Sweet 16, where the Flights lost to Purdue in overtime in one of the greatest games in NCAA tournament history.
On Tuesday, the 64-year-old head coach said with UCLA moved swiftly last week. But he told the school he would not leave Knoxville without talking to athletic director Phillip Fulmer and others in the community.
"I told them blank point, 'I'm not going to meet my team,'" Barnes said. "'I'm not going to walk out of here and not meet with people here who really have been to me.' … I said, 'You're going to make it happen right now.' "
Barnes said lost weight as he pondered his options. He also said that he believed in the breakdown of the buyout talks was a sign from God.
"There was one time in my mind I truly felt that's what would happen," said Barnes said about taking UCLA. "It got to that point where I felt like my prayers had been answered."
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