Tennessee men’s basketball coach says benched leading scorer because he didn’t do what he was ‘paid’ to do

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Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes didn’t mince words when revealing why he sat the team’s leading scorer, Chaz Lanier, in Saturday’s win over the Texas Longhorns.

Lanier scored 10 points in 34 minutes as No. 1 Tennessee won 74-70. long-horned. He averages 19 points per game. Barnes said he removed Lanier after he didn’t shoot the ball on a play that was designed for him.

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Tennessee head basketball coach Rick Barnes talks with Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier during the Arkansas game at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center in Knoxville on January 4, 2025. (Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

“I took him out on the first play of the second half because he wasn’t shooting the ball,” he said, via CBS Sports. “That play was designed for that occasion. I told him, ‘If you’re not going to do what you’re paid to do, then you’re going to sit here.’ Because he’s paid to do it.”

Barnes’s “paid to do” remark raised eyebrows in an era of names, images and likenesses. No head coach was as outspoken as Barnes after the win.

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Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier drives Florida forward Alex Condon on Jan. 7, 2025, in Gainesville. (AP Photo/Alan Youngblood)

Lanier is valued at NIL $1.7 million On3 Sport.

“I’ve been telling Chaz all along that he doesn’t have to score the ball for us to win,” Barnes added. “He’s going to have to help those guys by learning how to watch screens, he’s going to have to learn to cut sharper, learn to do his job early after he comes off screens because he gallops a little bit.”