PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rick Barnes had a choice to make in 1990.

He could remain at Providence after taking the program to consecutive NCAA Tournaments in his first two seasons or potentially make the jump to the Atlantic Coast Conference at Virginia.

Barnes met with the Cavaliers’ athletic director, toured the Grounds in Charlottesville and strongly considered it. Virginia administrators were convinced Barnes would accept their offer to replace Terry Holland, yet it was not to be — Barnes decided to stay at Providence and coached the Friars for three more seasons.

Barnes later coached at Clemson and Texas before he took over at Tennessee in 2015 and turned the Vols into consistent winners in the Southeastern Conference.

He’s led the Vols to two Elite Eight appearances and a Sweet 16 over the last three seasons and is one win away from playing on the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend yet again.

All he has to do is get enough out Ja’Kobi Gillespie, J.P Estrella, Nate Ament and the rest of the sixth-seeded Vols (24-11) on Sunday when they play — yes, Virginia.

Barnes will spend more time watching video of the third-seeded Cavaliers (30-5) than he has thought over the last 36 years about his decision to spurn the program.

“I spent so much time recruiting that state and had the chance to go and did accept a job, and then decided it wasn’t the right time, the right thing to do,” Barnes said. “I don’t think I thought about it since.”

So many years have passed, so many big wins have been racked up at other jobs that it’s hard to imagine how the situation could have played out for Barnes or Virginia.

“Believe me, I made a lot of mistakes,” he said. “The Virginia thing wasn’t part of the plan.”

Virginia coach Ryan Odom took his first coaching job in 2015 at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne and formed a bond there with Barnes. Barnes played there in the 1970s and was there when needed to help Odom navigate the challenges that come with working as a head coach.

“Coach Barnes has meant so much to the game of basketball, and he and my father are close and good friends,” Odom said. “Our families are close, and it’s just really neat to see the sustained success that he’s had and, he’s done it the right way at every spot. He’s won at every spot.”

He’s standing in Odom’s way as the Cavaliers try to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since they won the 2019 national championship.

Jacari White made six 3-pointers and scored 26 points in Virginia’s first-round win over Wright State.

“Yes, we won, we got the victory, but expectation for us is to keep winning, and we want to make a run in the tournament,” White said.

Iowa State’s Jefferson is sidelined

Second-seeded Iowa State is unlikely to have Joshua Jefferson for its game against seventh-seeded Kentucky on Sunday in St. Louis after the All-America forward sprained his ankle in the opening minutes of a first-round win over Queens.

Cyclones coach T.J. Otzelberger said “you never want to rule out anything,” but he also acknowledged the chances of Jefferson playing this weekend are slim. He was still in a boot and using crutches when he arrived for practice on Saturday.

“We’ve got a deep team. Everybody can play basketball,” forward Dominykas Pleta said. “Even with a guy out, we can compete at a high level. So yeah, we’re not scared.”

Kentucky tries to move past its first-round thriller

Kentucky’s season looked like it was over when Santa Clara’s Allen Graves hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds left in the teams’ first-round matchup. But then Otega Oweh answered with a buzzer-beater from just inside the mid-court line to force overtime, and the Wildcats pulled away for an 89-84 victory to set up a date with the Boilermakers.

The Wildcats acknowledged watching Oweh’s banked-in heave multiple times on social media. But they also understand that one of the defining moments of this year’s March Madness is meaningless if they can’t move past it.

“We’ve had some wide swings this year and I think our guys are pretty adept at it, actually,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “We talked about the highlight moments and enjoyed the emotion together, and then it was time to put that to bed, because we don’t want this to be the end of our journey.”

Alabama looks to make another Sweet 16

There’s a key reason Texas Tech is a betting underdog to fourth-seeded Alabama in a second-round matchup in Tampa, Florida.

Texas Tech just isn’t as strong without JT Toppin.

The All-America guard tore the ACL in his right knee last month, and injury could derail any hopes the Red Raiders had of playing deep into March.

Texas Tech’s 19-6 start turned into a 23-10 record — that includes a win over Akron in the first round — and the team has essentially been turned over to point guard Christian Anderson.

“It’s been difficult, obviously, without JT rebounding and him on defense in general,” forward LeJuan Watts said.

The Crimson Tide are trying to make a fourth straight trip to the Sweet 16. Alabama rallied from an early double-digit deficit to beat 13th-seeded Hofstra 90-70 in the first round.

“We were good enough in the second half to beat Hofstra,” coach Nate Oats said. “If we play the way we did against Hofstra tomorrow night, we won’t win the game.”

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AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta in St. Louis contributed to this report.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

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