KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – On Saturday, Oct. 3, at 11:30 a.m., fans will be able to get a look at this season’s Tennessee men’s basketball team at Food City Center.
On Wednesday afternoon, the program announced an open scrimmage that is free for fans to attend. Gates to Food City Center will open at 11 a.m., and fans are encouraged to sit in Sections 103, 104, 105, 106 and 107. No concessions will be available, and because of Saturday’s football game against Auburn, parking will be unavailable on campus.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes and his team are nearing the start of the season. The Vols will play two exhibition games, against Xavier (Oct. 15) and Duke (Oct. 20), before the regular season begins against Wofford on Nov. 3.
Barnes has a roster with 13 new players, including six who led their teams in scoring last season: senior guard Dai Dai Ames (Third Team All-ACC at Cal), sophomore guard Jalen Haralson (All-ACC Honorable Mention at Notre Dame), junior guard Juke Harris (Second Team All-ACC at Wake Forest), junior guard Terrence Hill Jr. (First Team All-A-10 at VCU), sixth-year guard Tyler Lundblade (MVC Player of the Year at Belmont) and senior center Miles Rubin (All-A-10 Academic Team at Loyola Chicago).
Barnes recently met with the media and gave an honest assessment of where he thought his team stood.
“I think there’s a lot of buzz about every roster right now in the country,” Barnes said. “Wherever you are, I think people are excited. Everybody’s excited when the season starts. We like these guys. They work hard. We’re no different than any other coaching staff. We’re trying to break some bad habits, trying to create some good habits.
“But this group, one, they care about each other. They’ve worked hard. They’ve all had their good days and their bad days. They stuck together. Regardless of the buzz or any of that, it’s all about us becoming the basketball team that I think we can become. We’re nowhere near where we need to be, but we need to get there quick, because we’ll be scrimmaging in probably less than a month now. As a coaching staff, we’ve watched them all get better. There’s no doubt they’ve all gotten better. But at the level that we need to be, we’re not there yet.”
Barnes said conditioning is not the issue and said the players were in shape of their lives. The challenge now is mental.
“They’re not tired. First of all, they’re in shape. It’s mental,” Barnes said. “They’ve got to break through that wall, and physically they can go forever. Some of them just don’t know it yet.”
He added that every player on the roster has improved, but the Vols still have plenty of work ahead before the season opener.
“One, I think they’re in probably the best shape of their lives,” Barnes said. “Not many guys have missed a lot of practice. I think they would tell you that they’ve all improved their skill level. I think speed is probably one area, because playing at the pace that we want to play is not easy.
“Everybody talks about wanting to run and play in transition, but very few guys understand how hard that is to do right. Hopefully they’re starting to figure that out. We’re not there yet, but there’s not a player that we have that hasn’t gotten better. But like I said, we still have a ways to go, not only in individual improvement, but as a team as well.”
