Tennessee's Last Seasons

Cuonzo Martin and Donnie Tyndall

On March 27, 2011, The University of Tennessee announced the hiring of Cuonzo Martin as the Volunteers' 18th head coach. Martin had spent the prior three seasons at Missouri State, where he compiled a record of 61-41. Martin was able to lead the Missouri State team from an 11–20 record and a last-place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference to a 26–9 record and a first-place conference finish.

Martin took over a depleted roster with low expectations. After the departure of Tobias Harris following his freshman season, the Volunteers were picked to finish near the bottom of the SEC in 2012. 

With the emergence of Jordan McRae and Jeronne Maymon, and the mid-season addition of Jarnell Stokes, Martin took a team that had lost their top three — and seven of their top ten—contributors from the previous season to a second-place finish in the SEC, largely because of their tough defense and lack of turnovers. With an outside chance at the NCAA Tournament, the Volunteers lost their first SEC tournament game to Ole Miss, ending their NCAA chances. They played in the NIT before losing in the second round.

In 2013, the Volunteers started off slowly, posting a 11–10 record before finishing the regular season 8–1. UT was eliminated in the second round of the SEC Tournament and was left out of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, finishing as one of the last teams out.

Expectations were high heading into 2014 with a roster many felt could compete for a Sweet Sixteen appearance.

However, the fans quickly grew vocally upset after another slow start of 16–11. A petition with thousands of signatures surfaced online for the firing of Cuonzo Martin and the re-hiring of Bruce Pearl, whose show-cause order was ending the next year.

Whether the petition motivated the team or not, the Volunteers finished the season 5–1 and earned a place in the "First Four" round of the NCAA Tournament. They defeated Iowa in the play-in game in Dayton, OH to move on to face the UMass Minutemen. Martin’s Volunteers, who were the lower seed, were favored by many and easily defeated UMass. In one of the biggest upsets in tournament history, Mercer upset Duke, and the Volunteers went on to defeat Mercer to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Tennessee then played Michigan in Indianapolis. In front of one of the largest crowds to witness a Sweet Sixteen game, the Volunteers' comeback fell short and UT lost to Michigan by a score of 73–71.

Martin abruptly resigned from Tennessee and accepted the coaching job at California on April 15, 2014.[16] After a very brief coaching search, Tennessee athletics director Dave Hart announced on April 21, 2014 that former Morehead State and Southern Mississippi head coach Donnie Tyndall would become the next head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers.

Tyndall inherited a roster that returned one contributing player from the previous year. Also, due to Jarnell Stokes’s decision to enter the NBA draft and two other players transferring, Tyndall had to recruit and sign nearly one-third of the 2015 team’s roster in less than a month. Tyndall led the 2015 team, which was picked to finish second to last in the SEC, to a 16–16 record. Many felt this was an overachievement.

However, shortly after being hired, Tyndall was informed of an NCAA investigation into violations that occurred while he was the head coach at Southern Mississippi.

After the season was over, Tennessee announced it was firing Tyndall with cause because of information indicating his guilt in these violations.

Rick Barnes era

While searching for its third basketball coach in three years, Tennessee sought to make a hire that would bring much-needed stability to the program.

During the search process, news broke that Texas had fired their head coach of 17 years, Rick Barnes. Barnes, who had a prior connection to Tennessee athletics director Dave Hart, quickly surfaced as the frontrunner for the job.

On March 31, 2015, Barnes was named the new Tennessee men's basketball coach. Barnes boasts the best record of any coach in school history, with an overall record of 604–314 from his previous tenures at Texas, Clemson, and Providence. Barnes is originally from nearby Hickory, North Carolina, and his wife, Candy, graduated from Tennessee in 1975.

The Rick Barnes era began on a winning note as Tennessee defeated UNC-Ashville, 82-78 in Barnes' debut game at UT.