College Basketball Preseason Is Here: Rick Barnes Readies A Talented Tennessee Roster

“There’s a lot of buzz about every roster right now in the country,” Barnes said. “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 and create some good ones. This group cares about each other. They’ve worked hard. They’ve had their good days and their bad days, and they’ve stuck together. But regardless of the buzz, it’s all about us becoming the basketball team I think we can become. We know we’re not where we need to be yet, and we need to get there quick, because we’ll be scrambling here in less than a month.”

“I think they’re in probably the best shape of their lives,” Barnes said. “Not many guys have missed practice. I think the speed is probably one area, because playing at the pace we want isn’t easy. Everybody talks about wanting to run and play in transition. Very few guys understand how hard it is to do it right. Hopefully they’re starting to figure that out. There’s not a player we have who hasn’t gotten better, but we still have ways to go not just individually, but as a team.”

“We believe in cardio toughness,” he said. “It’s easy to talk about, but it’s really hard when you get put in the blender and realize you’ve got to play on both ends of the floor. We’re not asking for a good effort, we’re asking for a max effort every single time. Some of it has just been getting guys to understand they’ve got to break through the wall when they get tired. They’re not tired, they’re in shape. It’s mental. Physically, they can go forever. They just don’t know it yet.”

“He’s worked really hard on his jump shot,” Barnes said. “We think he should be one of the elite defenders in the country with his length, his athleticism, his strength. He’s still learning how to use his length, how to use angles to do his job. But everything they want is on the other side of hard. As a coaching staff, we’re going to keep pushing, because I know they all want to get there. It’s just probably harder than anything else in this offseason to do.”

“I think Miles Rubin’s there,” Barnes said. “I could go down the list, but I think they can all be better than they are. That’s what it’s about  every day, get up, have some joy in what you’re doing, but you’ve got to get better. It’s not just the players. I go home every night and watch film two or three times and realize I’ve got to do a better job, too. What we keep talking about is that you can’t just take activity for achievement. Everything we do has got to be with a purpose. They’ve gotten better at that, they’re not wasting nearly as much time getting from here to there. We like this group. We just have a lot of work ahead of us.”

“His leadership has been incredible,” Barnes said of one returner’s presence in the program. “I wish Troy could have been there all summer. I think he would have helped a lot of these guys. He and DeWayne already know what’s going on. It’s helped us really coach guys, talk them through it, and get them to understand it a little better.”

“Troy is really doing great,” Barnes said. “He’s doing a lot of things for us in terms of understanding what we’re trying to get done out there, and hopefully some of these other guys pick it up in the next couple of weeks, because they’ve had the summer to work on it and haven’t gotten there yet.”

“Our players have respected him from day one for how hard he’s worked,” Barnes said. “The one day he practiced, they got a glimpse of it. Older guys can come back quicker mentally,  he understands the game. He and I talk a lot about different parts of what’s going on out there. Even though he missed all summer, I think he’ll come back ahead of some guys who’ve been here working, the way Troy did a year ago. It’s so much harder for a freshman to go through all of that than it is for a veteran shooter like Tyler stepping out on a stretched floor is good enough for anybody.”

“We’re not going to put him in a box,” Barnes said. “We think his versatility can be special if he embraces it and decides he wants to become a star in that role. He should be a guy who can guard anybody in the country, from the point guard to the five. He’s strong, he’s quick, he’s athletic, he’s competitive. We’re going to ask him to do things he’s probably never thought about. We need him to embrace it.”

“I wish we had five exhibition games,” Barnes said. “I wish we could play in August, the last two weeks of summer school. I don’t care who it’s against. I think about the way the NBA does it: a week or so of practice, and they’re out playing exhibitions. You learn so much more once you start getting outside competition.” Barnes noted Tennessee is bringing in officials for scrimmages for the first time this preseason. “They need the work as much as we do.”

“What do we have, 12 or 13 new players? There’s no doubt we need more outside competition before the season starts. I’ve said it before, not just for us, but for the referees, too.”

“I’m pulling for the Tennessee Volunteers, I can tell you that,” Barnes said.