Tennessee men’s basketball head coach Rick Barnes isn’t worried about how many shots his newcomers think they deserve. Speaking at SEC Tipoff ‘27 in Birmingham on Tuesday, Barnes said the Vols paid for production over retention this offseason and landed what his transfers could call the best group of talent they’ve ever played with. Barnes also spoke on Jalen Washington’s eligibility.
Below is everything Barnes said:
How do you balance shots with so much new firepower, and how will that be an asset?
“I’m not concerned about guys, how many shots they think they should get. We’re going to do what we need to do as a team to be the best basketball team that we can be.
“I do think that if you talk to each one of these guys that we brought in, they would tell you, man for man, that this is the best group of talent that they’ve ever played with. Certainly guys have had some great production in college basketball. They’re coming in from different leagues.
“Our league is different. The SEC is different than any other league in the country, and they’ll have to make those adjustments.
“But when we set out to put together this class, we decided we were going to pay for production as opposed to retention. Everybody thinks that in the past we haven’t tried to recruit offensive players. We’ve always tried to recruit good offensive players.
“But with that said, when you are part of a single-elimination tournament, there’s nights where the best of the best will have an off night, and we always try to hang our hats on being a defensive team, a rebounding team, a fundamentally sound team. We can bring the perfect storm together where we shoot it that night, we think that we’ll give ourselves a chance to beat anybody that we play against.”
What do you expect from DeWayne Brown in his second year in the league?
“A lot. We expect a lot because last year he was the biggest surprise on our basketball team. We talk about it with our players once we get everybody together. We always tell them that somebody is going to surprise us and somebody is going to disappoint us.
“Last year DeWayne was the biggest surprise. We certainly, more than anything, appreciated his loyalty. He was the one guy, along with Troy Henderson, that’s back.
“But we knew that we wanted DeWayne Brown back because he stands for everything that any coach would want. Just a great character person, a guy that works hard every day. He’s the ultimate team player. We’re going to ask him to do a lot more.
“But we went back, and as we bring recruits in and start showing them highlight tapes and show them plays and situations where they might be in, it dawns on us every time that DeWayne Brown was part of those clips even a year ago. We expect him to do more. He’s got himself in even better shape.
“I don’t think we would be as far along with this group right now if it weren’t for DeWayne. I wish Troy would have had all summer, but he didn’t, recovering from his shoulder surgery. But once he came back, those two guys know what we’d like to see every day in practice, have really done a lot with their leadership from just the way they go about every day in practice.”
Have you seen a trend in roster composition in the SEC?
“I think our league is back where it was two years ago. I do. I think, again, 12 years ago when Commissioner Sankey took over, we were the one sport in the SEC that was lagging behind. We were as a league very inconsistent up to that point.
“He made the call that he would do everything he could to improve anything that had to come from the SEC office, which he did. But then some universities didn’t buy in as quickly, and I think today there’s a buy-in from every university in this conference from a basketball standpoint too.
“Because of that, I do think that, when you look around, the league was always known as an athletic league. Now we’re a highly skilled league, athletic. Terrific coaches. Best officiating staff in the country.
“But the competition this year will be even on your best night, you better be ready every night, but even if you are ready, you know you’re going to be in for a battle because I think every team, as you look around the league, has improved themselves on paper certainly. That’s why we’ll play the games.
“I think it’s just going to be a really great, hard, demanding year in this league this year.”
Is practice backing up the idea that this could be your most talented offensive team ever?
“To be quite frank with you, early we looked like an incredible offensive team because we couldn’t guard anybody. It felt like we were dummying our offense every day.
“The last month that’s all got changed around a little bit. We’re not doing it quite like we did. We have some guys that are shotmakers. We have some guys at the end of the clock that need be that can improvise. They can do that.
“We’ve got a good group of guys. We’ve had different guys in scrimmages. We’ve probably had five different guys that have scored over 25 points in a scrimmage when we put it together.
“But it’s going to get back. I got a call yesterday from Alex Schwartz, asked me who we were going to put down as our probable starters. I said I have no idea until after tomorrow’s practice. Because I’m going to watch film today, which I watched a little bit of it flying over here, we’ll practice some more, and I’m going to determine tomorrow.
“That’s how close these guys are in terms of ten guys. There hasn’t been a lot of separation, which from a coaching standpoint you wish there were some, but there hasn’t been.
“We could have a lineup that could change every game this season, because we’re going to get to a certain point if we need to use the bench to create that, the guys mentally, that motivation, that’s what we’ll do.
“We do have the liberty to do that this year. I tell everybody, the team that we were able to take to the Final Four at Texas, we had nine guys that played over 10 minutes a game. Another two that played right at 10 minutes a game. That team could really guard. They could do a lot of things, but they could really guard you.
“This group offensively, yeah, we can score the ball. Again, we’re shooting the ball well. It could be great for us. Yet, our post guys are different than a year ago. We were bigger, bulkier. This year we’re quicker, faster, but in some ways we’re more physical because of the length on the perimeter.
“So we’re still trying to put it together. I think, like everybody else, but at some point in time over these next three exhibition games we have, we hope we can figure out what we need to do night in and night out.”
What does Jalen Washington mean to this team, and what happens if he isn’t cleared?
“That’s a great question. He changes our team. He changed our team once he came on campus, because he and DeWayne Brown, for whatever reason, and it’s not something that we did as coaches, but when we break down individually, post, perimeter, those two guys went at each other, and they go at each other every day. I keep asking the other guys, why won’t you guys do what these guys are doing? They are going at it.
“Jalen gives us a physical presence. He’s improved so many other things with our team. So he is a difference-maker. If he’s not, when we started, we didn’t think we would have a fifth-year guy. We had one scholarship left. We were not going to give it to a high school player. We’re already into the summer.
“So when the rule broke what it is today, which I don’t like it, I don’t, but it is what it is. I don’t think the NCAA should have did what they did by announcing it when they did. If they would have waited, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
“But now I think in my honest opinion, if one guy is eligible, they should all be eligible. It won’t play out like that. Probably not. The fact is without him, we’re going to have to have more from Miles Rubin, Braedan Lue, those guys, and even a high school player, Chris Washington. We’re going to have to get something there, but with the versatility, we can swing Jalen Haralson there and play small ball.
“We actually the other day was playing with five guards. There’s a lot of different ways we can go with it, but we really would like to have Jalen.
“Again, I just hate what’s going on with all this is going to hover over the basketball season. It’s going to be a great year in college basketball, and we shouldn’t have any of that hovering over it right now, but it looks like it’s going to do it all year long.”
How has Washington handled the uncertainty with the season getting closer?
“He’s been an absolute pro with it. He wants to play. He has been great in terms of every day he comes to work every single day. He’s obviously preparing, and we are preparing if he does get to play, he plays. We’re preparing if he doesn’t get to play. The fact is he’s handled it in a great way.
“His presence already has made our team better. He’s made DeWayne Brown better, Miles Rubin better, Christian Fermin better. He’s made them all better because of his attitude and his approach to everyday practice.”
How would you describe Justin Gainey as a coach and a person ahead of the December matchup with NC State?
“I’m really thankful and blessed that I was able to spend the time I spent with Justin. I coached against him when he was at NC State as a player from the time he walked on that campus. Just the utmost respect for him as a person. There’s not a finer human being you’ll ever meet.
“Basketball-wise, it was really neat. He’s worked for some terrific coaches through the years. He’s always had a great basketball mind, great evaluator.
“He came in and left our program better. The fact is, NC State made a great hire in Justin. He’s the kind of guy that I would want my son to play for. He’s the kind of guy that he’s going to demand the most from the players. He’s going to do what he does. He’s very mature for his age in terms of already having a vision, in terms of how he wants his teams to play. He’s going to do great.
“You always hate going up against guys. He knows what we’re going to try to do. I’m sure there’s going to be some similarities there, but the fact is I’m just ecstatic for him because his dream job was to be the head coach at North Carolina State University.
“For him to get that opportunity, he’s a Wolfpacker. Always has been. I’m just excited for him. He definitely earned the job. He deserves to have a shot at it.”
