Saturday won’t be the first time Rick Barnes has stepped foot inside the Moody Center in Austin, the new Texas basketball arena and concert venue that opened in April 2022. 

He saw it for the first time last year during a trip to see his daughter in Austin, stopping by to see a friend before a Texas game.

“I saw the Moody Center before the game,” Barnes said before practice Thursday at Pratt Pavilion. “I didn’t stay for the game, but I was just there.”

No. 1 Tennessee at Texas, Saturday, 6 p.m. ET

This time Barnes will be on the sideline, though, as No. 1 Tennessee (14-1, 1-1 SEC) goes back to Austin to take on Texas (11-4, 0-2) on Saturday (6 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN2).

It’s the first time the Vols and Longhorns will meet as SEC opponents — Texas and Oklahoma officially joined the SEC over the summer — but that’s about the only newness left between the two teams. 

It’s the fourth straight season Tennessee has played Texas and will now become an annual occurrence on the conference schedule. The Vols beat the Longhorns 52-58 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in March and split a home-and-home in the Big 12-SEC Challenge the previous two seasons.

Tennessee won 82-71 in Knoxville in January 2023 after. The Vols lost 52-51 at Texas in January 2022, when Barnes made his long-awaited return to Austin in the final season at the Frank Erwin Center.

The Barnes homecoming three years ago included signs and t-shirts around the arena welcoming back the longtime Texas coach. Barnes won 402 games over 17 seasons at Texas, taking the Longhorns to the NCAA Tournament 16 times, including one Final Four, two Elite Eights and two Sweet 16s, before parting ways with the program in 2015.

‘When I think about going back to Texas, I think of the Erwin Center’

“It’ll be different,” Barnes said on Thursday, “in terms of, when I think about going back to Texas, I think of the Erwin Center, where we were for 17 years. But … yeah, I’m sure I’m going see a lot of people that are still there that I know, but that’s part of it.”

Texas is on its third basketball coach since Barnes. Shaka Smart spent six seasons there and Chris Beard was there for one year in 2021-22, when the Vols went to Austin.

Rodney Terry, a longtime former Barnes assistant, is in his third season, with an 0-2 record against his former head coach.

“Great respect for his staff,” Barnes said. “A lot of love there because we spent many, many hours together through the years and (I’m) happy at the success they’re having.”