Report: Rick Barnes would accept UCLA job if offered

Maybe the report about Rick Barnes being a serious candidate for the UCLA job is more than lip service.

247 Sports’ Evan Daniels reported on Sunday that Barnes was a serious candidate for the Bruins job. We dismissed the report, thinking it was just an effort by Barnes to get a raise out of Tennessee. But that might not be the case.

The LA Times’ Ben Bolch says Barnes would “definitely accept” the UCLA job if it were offered to him.

I have been told that Rick Barnes would definitely accept the UCLA job if formally offered it.

— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) April 8, 2019

Barnes leaving Tennessee for UCLA at this point in his career still seems like a stretch. He’s 64 and just went through a the process of building up the Vols, getting them to 31-6 this season while winning Naismith Coach of the Year. Why leave now only to have to repeat the process at UCLA, especially since he’s towards the end of his career? This seems like an effort to get Tennessee to pay up and give him one of those John Calipari deals.