KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee men’s basketball will finally see a different color jersey Thursday night, as it hosts Xavier in an exhibition. Even though it doesn’t count, head coach Rick Barnes’ team treats this as it would a regular-season game.
Wednesday, we heard from assistant coach Gregg Polinsky and guard Jalen Haralson. Both are ready to see what the Vols look like on the court against an actual opponent. A big focus is always defending, but Polinsky pointed to this team’s scoring depth. He said that may be something fans aren’t particularly used to.
Tennessee has always had scorers, but it has constructed this team with great production. If all goes well through the season, this could be one of the deepest teams Barnes has put on the floor.
“So, I think the fact that we have a lot of depth that can score the basketball,” Polinsky said. “Now we’ll see it against live defense coming up here tomorrow night, from an opponent, but we have more depth offensively. I don’t think that’s something that fans here have seen in a while.
“We’ve hung our hat that on having good offensive players, but really one or two guys that were our go-to guys, and everybody else played off of them, understood their role, and we had some high-level defensive players. It’s worked out for them where it’s allowed them an NBA career as well.”
Haralson is one of those guys. The sophomore transfer from Notre Dame averaged 16.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 26.6 minutes per game, while shooting 51.5% from the field last year as a freshman in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Since coming to Tennessee, he’s embraced Barnes’ request to be more versatile. The 6-foot-7 guard has worked at just about every spot on the floor.
“I’ve been playing a lot of four as of recently,” Haralson said. “I’ve been playing a lot of three as of recently too. Two, the one, so, and that’s been Coach Barnes’ thing with me. Even at the portal he told me he wanted me to be that Swiss Army knife guy, play at every position. So, we’ve been working towards that.”
I asked Haralson how confident he is in his outside shot. It is well documented that he only took 25 threes last season, making five. He’s confident, but knows his game will require him to score from all levels.
“I put in a lot of work, and that was one of the things coming in here that I wanted to showcase and just being a player that can hit open shot,” Haralson said. “But also, (I) wanted to get to my midrange game a lot more.”
Polinsky spoke on Haralson’s gifted ability on the offensive end and mentioned it’s still a work in progress on the different spots he’s asked to be on the floor. For Haralson, it comes back to defense and rebounding. Games are won and lost on defense and the glass. With his frame, he has the potential to be effective in all areas.
“Defensively, we’re trying to get him to where he might could be that guy that could be, because of his size, 6-foot-7, he weighs 228, 30 pounds,” Polinsky said. “He’s strong as an ox. He’s athletic. He’s got quick hands. He’s got good wing span, so his length. We’re trying to get him more locked in to the defensive end of the court.”
Xavier on Thursday will be a great opportunity for the Vols to get that first game-time experience of the season, and it all goes back to finding out how they will defend.
The scorers are there, but the focus is on defense. And Polinsky still sees a work in progress. Thursday night will tell a lot. With 13 newcomers, no one has claimed a spot as the go-to perimeter defender yet.
“I don’t think that anybody has necessarily stuck their head up on a consistent daily basis to say, ‘Wow, that’s gonna be our Jahmai Mashack or a Zakai Zeigler or a Felix Okpara,’” Polinsky said.
“I think that we’re just gonna have to make progress,” he said. “I think that our team last year, we started out where I wouldn’t say we were real strong defensively. We had moments, but to gain a level of consistency and learn how to close opponents out, it took us a while because you’re meshing a new unit.”
This season, 13 newcomers have to mesh. That may be a bit of a roller coaster at first. Thursday night will tell a lot.
