Bartow was the men's head basketball coach at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) from 2003 to 2015.

The team finished 27–6 (15–1 conference) and ended their season in an 80–77 NCAA tournament opening round loss to Cincinnati.

Bartow led the Buccaneers to the regular season Atlantic Sun Conference title in 2006–07 with a 24–10 overall record, despite the graduation of three starters.

[5][6] On December 31, 2018, Bartow was named the interim head coach after Alford was fired in the middle of the 2018–19 season.

[8][9] Under Bartow, UCLA opened conference play 2–0 at home against San Francisco Bay Area schools Stanford and California.

[10] Emphasizing the team's speed and athleticism,[10] he had the Bruins play more aggressive, trapping and applying pressure on defense and attacking on offense by running on both missed and made baskets.

Afterwards, Bartow stated that he was not interested in having his interim tag removed, and expressed optimism that UCLA would "hire a very good coach".