Saturday afternoon was his time to say thank you.

Thank him for being his friend.

Thank him for being his mentor.

Thank him for all kindness through the years, the ones that no one ever saw.

For Rick Barnes came back to New England last Saturday, came back to Storrs, Conn., where he brought his number one-ranked Texas Longhorns into play UConn. Came back to New England 16 years after he left Providence College to go off and find his coaching future. And maybe most of all, he came back to see Dave Gavitt.

So about an hour before the game he walked into Gampel Pavilion and there was Gavitt, who was with his wife, Julie, and his son, Danny. These are not the easiest of times for Gavitt, of course, his health problems have been well-documented. But there was no way he wasn’t going to go to Storrs last weekend and see Barnes.

“Seeing him overwhelmed me,” Barnes said Monday morning. “I love him. He’s been like a father to me. I know he’s fighting through some stuff. It’s hard.”

The first time Barnes met Gavitt was in 1988. He was the new PC coach and Gavitt was the commissioner of the Big East, as respected a person in basketball as anyone.

“I was in my 30s,” Barnes said, “scared to death. I had a family, two kids, and I was a young coach with no idea what I was getting myself into.”

“Do you realize who’s been here before you?” Gavitt said to him.

Barnes really had no idea, had never really thought about it. He had grown up dirt poor in Hickory, N.C., had been a head coach for only a year, and now he was at a Big East school where the history was everywhere he looked, not to mention being a long way from home.

“Dave was always calling me to talk,” Barnes said. “We’d go out to lunch, or meet for breakfast. He loved a little place on the East Side, an out-of-the-way place. In the beginning I was obsessed with the referees, because all the established coaches were always all over them and I thought I had to be, too. He was always telling me to just coach my team.”

Then there was the time the Friars had blown a 20-point lead at Villanova, Barnes had chased one of the refs, then had punched a Villanova fan who had been heckling him throughout the game on his way out of the gym.

Gavitt called him the next day.

They met at the Big East office, went off to lunch, Barnes driving, Gavitt talking about everything except the incident the night before.

Barnes went on a rant about how his team was always getting screwed by the refs, on and on.

Gavitt just kept looking at him.

Barnes kept on his rant, now going around in circles.

Gavitt finally asked if his opinion meant anything to Barnes.

Barnes said of course it did.

“I thought that last year you should have been the national coach of the year for the job you did,” said Gavitt, before adding that Barnes had lost his focus as a coach, had become out of control.

“He went at me good,” Barnes said, “but he had never mentioned the fact I had punched the guy in the face.”

Then Gavitt looked at his watch, grabbed the check and went up to the register to pay. On the way back, he put his hand on the back of Barnes’ neck and said softly, “Hickory, we can’t be punching people in the face. You do understand that.”

They went back to the car and Barnes drove back downtown to the Big East office.

“By the way,” Gavitt said, as he opened the car door. “There are seven other teams in the Big East I’d rather be coaching than yours.”

Then in 1990, just two years after he’d arrived here, Barnes had verbally accepted the Virginia job. That night he went to see Gavitt, whom he was supposed to talk to before he made any decision.

“I trust you didn’t take the Virginia job,” said Gavitt.

“Well…., ” Barnes began.

Gavitt told him that he wasn’t going to take the Virginia job, that Providence College had had too much coaching turmoil in the past few years, needed some stability, and that Barnes owed PC that. Barnes called Virginia and backed out. Four years later, he won the Big East Tournament, the only time the Friars have ever done so. He then left for Clemson, having taken the Friars to three NCAA Tournaments in six years.

Saturday, after his Longhorns had been upset by UConn, he had started to talk about Gavitt in the postgame press conference, but he had become too emotional.

Monday, he expanded on that, saying how he really had wanted to talk about Gavitt, how he wanted to say that when you look around all the arenas in the Big East and see the Big East logo what you are really seeing is Dave Gavitt.

“I couldn’t talk in the press conference,” said Rick Barnes. “I couldn’t say another word. I tried to talk, and I bit my lip, but I couldn’t do it. But the game? The game was insignificant. It was well worth the trip to come here and see him.”

This man who has meant so much to him.

This mentor.

This adviser.

This friend.

breynold@projo.com