Brian Barnes, who has now been at Russell Sage College for 16 years, completed his 15th season as the head men's basketball coach in 2023-2024.

Under Barnes, who has guided the program since its return in 2009-2010, the Gators earned postseason bids in 10 of the team’s first 13 seasons, including three-consecutive appearances in the Empire 8 Conference Championship Tournament between 2020-2022, and were honored with a National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Team Academic Award on four occasions. Barnes has now had 22 different players chosen to the NABC Honors Court during his tenure.

Additionally, the Gators were named the recipient of the 2021-2022 Sam Schoenfield Sportsmanship Award by the Collegiate Basketball Officials Association.

RSC competed in the Skyline Conference from 2009-2017, before joining the E8 for the 2017-18 campaign.

The 2014-2015 Gators went 23-5 and won the Skyline Championship and the program's first NCAA Tournament berth. Along the way, Sage went 13-0 at home in Kahl Gym and won the Skyline regular-season championship after a 15-3 performance.

Barnes was rewarded for his success as he was tapped as the Skyline Coach of the Year. The honors continued to pour in for the Gator mentor as he was named the 2015 NABC Atlantic Region Coach of the Year as well as the ECAC Metro Division III Coach of the Year and Atlantic Region Coach of the year by D3Hoops.com.

Sage's players were also recognized for their success as senior tri-captain Kai Deans became the College's first All-American with a selection the 2015 NABC All-America Third Team. Deans, who was named Skyline Player of the Year was also honored with a selection to the ECAC Metro and D3Hoops Atlantic Region squads. Additionally, Travis Gill was tapped as the Skyline Defensive Player of the Year, while Andre Robinson was named to the Skyline First Team and earned the Skyline Tournament Most Outstanding Player Award.

In their final season in the Skyline Conference, the Gators won the 2017 Skyline North Division regular-season crown and the Skyline Tournament runner-up trophy. Barnes also recorded his 100th career win and led the team to a 17-10 record with an impressive 12-4 record in the league. The Gators earned six appearances in the Skyline Conference Championship Tournament under Barnes. 

Numerous Gators have been voted to the All-Conference teams, both Skyline and E8, with four scoring more than 1,000 career points.

Prior to his arrival at Sage, Barnes spent three seasons at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as the top Varsity Assistant and Head Junior Varsity Men’s Basketball Coach. During his tenure at RPI, Coach Barnes assisted in the development of three all league players including the Liberty League player of the year in 2006. Barnes was the lead assistant on staff of the 2006-2007 RPI team that received the Schoenfeld Sportsmanship Award for outstanding sportsmanship. Rensselaer further utilized Barnes’ recruiting skills in adding him as a part-time Admissions Counselor in the spring of 2007. Barnes contributed to an Admissions staff that recorded the highest number of applications in school history the following spring.

Prior to RPI, he worked as the Director of Basketball Operations at SUNY Albany. He helped build the UAlbany Basketball program into an America East power, overseeing day to day operations, supervising team managers, organizing campus visits and managing the recruiting database. He also served as the summer camp director for the UAlbany Boy’s Basketball camp, tripling the camp enrollment in just two summers. He has traveled around the country to coach and lecture at prestigious basketball camps such as Eastern Invitational and Five-Star Basketball Camp.

Barnes played four years of Division I basketball for the University at Albany and was named a tri-captain his senior season. He graduated Cum Laude from UAlbany in 2003 with a BA in Communications and went on to receive an MS in Educational Administration from UAlbany in 2005. 

Away from Sage, Barnes is active in the Albany community and was recently named to the board of directors of the Basketball Coaches Association of New York.