Interesting read... "Why was Rick Barnes fired at Texas? How former Longhorns coach came to Tennessee basketball"
https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/university-of-tennessee/mens-basketball/2024/03/23/rick-barnes-fired-texas-tennessee-basketball-march-madness-vols-record/73069697007/
From article:
Why was Rick Barnes fired from Texas?
In short — and this speaks more true to today's college athletics landscape — Barnes' firing at Texas came down to winning.
Barnes, who came to Texas following four seasons at Clemson, led the Longhorns to the NCAA tournament on 16 different occasions and three Big 12 regular-season titles. He became the program's all-time winningest coach and brought the Longhorns to the school's first Final Four in over 50 years in 2003, his fifth season at the helm.
Despite all that, one thing was missing: consistent postseason success. And when you coach at a program like Texas, where you have the expectations to win not only on the court but also in recruiting with 5-star recruits and have all the resources to win, that becomes the top priority. Barnes had not won the Big 12 tournament title nor led the Longhorns past the Elite Eight after that 2003 season.
It looked like Barnes would return to the Longhorns sidelines after Texas lost to Butler in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Barnes said in his farewell news conference that he was told that by then-Texas athletic director Steve Patterson, but things changed.
There were reports, which Barnes confirmed at that news conference, that he could have held onto his job if he fired his entire coaching staff, but Barnes didn't do that.
"I couldn't do that. That would be me saying this is about me," Barnes said. "I've been carried by a lot of people here. We're in this together."