CHICAGO — Four years earlier, Rick Barnes had no real explanation for his Tennessee team, a No. 3 seed with serious advancement potential, losing to No. 11 seed Michigan in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Wolverines had finished the game on a 22-8 run to win 76-68, which followed up Tennessee’s loss a year earlier to No. 12 seed Oregon State in the first round, which must have had the term “Regular Season Rick” trending somewhere.

“It hurts, it does,” Barnes said after that loss to Michigan in Indianapolis, one of the toughest of his 39-year, 861-win career. “And if it didn’t, it would be time to quit.”

Good thing he didn’t. Barnes still isn’t coming up with precise answers for noteworthy trends. He has no significant adjustments to report that may be key contributors to four straight Sweet 16 appearances — and, after Friday’s 76-62 smothering of Midwest Region No. 2 seed Iowa State, three straight Elite Eights.

But the month that used to torment him has become his happy time. Befuddling failures have turned to wondrous triumphs. Really, this Tennessee team, with 11 new players, this unspectacular No. 6 seed, beating No. 3 seed Virginia? Then the 29-win Cyclones in a building full of their fans?

It’s almost enough to make you think the Vols (25-11) could find a way Sunday against a very different Michigan team, the No. 1 seed, a 34-3 title favorite, a team so good it represents an opportunity for the greatest win of Barnes’ career. You just have to think real hard, with an active imagination.

Even if Michigan keeps it rolling right on to Indianapolis, as the college basketball world will expect and as The Athletic’s model assigns a 72 percent chance of happening, Barnes has it rolling, too. On a weekend that has seen friends and fellow septuagenarians Tom Izzo, Rick Pitino and Kelvin Sampson all bow out in the Sweet 16, here’s 71-year-old Barnes standing alone as the Elite Eight’s representative of the old school.

“We do have a standard on a lot of things,” Barnes said of his program after its staples, defense and rebounding, overwhelmed the Cyclones. “It’s not just what we do on the basketball court. You know, we’re pretty much a no-nonsense program. We talk about that through the recruiting process. We tell everyone it’s going to be tough. We want them to come and want to help them live their dreams, and along the way we would love to have a chance to play for a national championship. …

“I’m not going to sit here and act like I’ve tried to figure something out (in the NCAA Tournament), because I haven’t. We try to be consistent. I try to — as a staff, we try to be the same every day.”

The result is that Tennessee has taken on the same look every year. Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack, the four-year bulldogs whose careers ended a year ago with an Elite Eight loss to Houston, got and deserved a lot of the credit for helping Barnes and the Vols break through the March blahs.

Tennessee stopped playing as if it feared tournament losses. It started playing like it expected, and demanded, to win.

And that makes this run one of the most impressive things Barnes has done. Yes, he has big-time talent in freshman wing and expected 2026 first-round NBA Draft pick Nate Ament, who had 18 huge points Friday and seems to be getting past his tender ankle and knee. Ja’Kobie Gillespie (16 points) was a crucial transfer portal pickup to replace Zeigler at the point.

The Vols have depth and other promising young players. But the bulldog quotient has been reduced significantly. This team rarely if ever looked like it had the Elite Eight in its future during an inconsistent regular season.

Tennessee acquired something that often accompanies March runs: good fortune. Iowa State is a very different team without its best player, Joshua Jefferson, who couldn’t play on the sprained ankle he sustained in the first round. Barnes pointed that out in his opening statement, by the way.

But there’s nothing to apologize for and much to celebrate. He now has three of the four Elite Eights in Tennessee history. He and Duke’s Jon Scheyer are the only coaches who can boast such an active streak.

And some of the greatest names in coaching don’t have that achievement on their records. Bob Knight, for example. Sampson, for example. Jim Boeheim. Jim Calhoun. Jim Valvano. Many others not named Jim.

Before this, Bill Self did it from 2016 to ’18. Izzo did it once, from 1999 to 2001. Pitino once, from 1995 to ’97. Mike Krzyzewski once, from 1988 to ’92.

You can dice up NCAA Tournament records in different ways to make things look better or worse, and it’s true, Barnes has just one Final Four in his career, in 2003 with Texas. Tennessee is the program with the most NCAA wins (34) without a Final Four appearance. That’s the pursuit, that’s when it’s really time to celebrate, and Sunday’s assignment is tougher than last year against Houston or two years ago against Purdue, both eventual national finalists.

But just as it has been fair to point out Barnes’ past underachievement in the NCAA Tournament, it’s important to recognize this late-career renaissance for what it is. The fact that we’re looking up tournament records to put Barnes successes into context is a whale of a reversal.

And it’s gratifying for the people who know him as one of the sport’s good guys. And for his buddies who got eliminated this weekend but count on him to keep it as old-school as ever. That he certainly does.

“Coming in, he kind of tells you it will be the hardest thing you’ve ever done in you’re life,” Tennessee junior forward Jaylen Carey told The Athletic. “And you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, I’ve done harder things.’ But no. It’s what he says it is. And you’ve got to love him because he always wants you to be your best. It never comes from a place of hatred.

“That’s why he’s one of the GOATs in the coaching game. You’ve got to be coachable if you’re playing for him, and if not, you’re gonna get run into the ground.”

Carey, who transferred from rival Vanderbilt last offseason, has had ups, downs and extended stretches off the floor this season. He came up huge off the bench Friday, helping batter the Cyclones inside with 11 points and 10 rebounds, while chipping in four assists.

“I have been after Jaylen harder than anybody all year, anybody,” Barnes said. “There’s days he looked at me like, ‘Man, this dude is crazy.’ But he never said a word. Kept going.”

Carey sounded like his teammates after Friday’s win, and like former Tennessee players from recent teams, talking about winning for Barnes in the NCAA Tournament. It’s becoming a tradition in Knoxville. It’s as familiar, as the calendar pushes toward April each year, as speculation about when Barnes is finally going to decide it’s time to call it quits.

“Shoot, the way he acts?” Carey said. “I think he’ll coach until he’s 100, until the day he’s done.”

Imagine the NCAA Tournament distinctions — desirable ones — that “Regional Final Rick” could have by then.