when evans departed for arizona state university in 1998, barnes was promoted to head coach of ole miss. barnes coached them for eight seasons, building a 141–109 record. in his first year, barnes tallied ole miss' first-ever ncaa tournament win. the rebels had been one of the few longstanding members of a "power conference" to have never won an ncaa tournament game. he was named 2001 naismith college coach of the year and the 2001 sec coach of the year after leading ole miss to a school-record 27-win season in 2000–01 which included a trip to the sweet sixteen round of the ncaa men's division i basketball championship—the deepest ncaa tournament run in school history.