Rick Barnes jokingly wonders if Tennessee players are ‘betting on games’ after NCAA gambling scandals

Rick Barnes regretted the comment the moment it came out of his mouth. 

Frustrated after Tennessee had committed 15 turnovers in a 77-69 win over Auburn on Saturday, Barnes made a joke in his postgame media availability that he wished he hadn’t said. 

“I mean at the end of the game, some of the passes that we throw, I don’t know what to say other than sometimes I wonder if my guys are betting on games,” Barnes told reporters, who laughed at the remark. 

However, just as quickly as the quip came out, Barnes wanted it back, as he had his hand on his face. 

“I shouldn’t say that. Erase that,” Barnes continued. “I just wonder what’s happening. I mean, I know that we’re too good of players to do that. Was that bad? Should I not have said that? I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that. But the fact is, we’ve got to get smarter. We do. We got to get smarter. We have to. They know it.

“We’ve got a good group of guys, and I know they don’t want to do it, but sometimes we play so hard on defense, and we’re playing at a really hard frantic pace and we’re not able to gear it down like we need to on offense because it’s got to be played a different pace, and we’re still a little too frantic on the offensive end.”

It was clear the comment was made in jest, but considering the current climate around college athletes and betting, Barnes seemingly didn’t want to take the risk that someone might mistake the comment in any other fashion.

Recently, 20 men were charged in a college basketball point-shaving scandal that involved more than 30 players involved in the scheme — where they tried to earn money by fixing the outcomes of games. 

All five of Tennessee’s starters committed at least one turnover in the game, and Barnes was likely not thrilled with the turnovers with under 2:30 to play in the game that led to Auburn cutting into the Volunteers’ lead. 

Tennessee did hold on for the win and moved to 15-6 on the season.