Tennessee improved to 3-0 on Friday thanks to their uninspired 83-78 win over Tennessee State.

Vols head coach Rick Barnes, however, didn’t have many positive things to say after the close win over a not-quite-as-talented team.

Barnes, in fact, basically called his team out after the win. The legendary head coach said his team was out-competed by Tennessee State.

“One thing I would say is that our goal tonight was to play harder than we’ve ever played before, but we weren’t the hardest-playing team tonight,” said Barnes after the loss. “Tennessee State played harder. I thought they were better coached. I thought they executed better. Our guys don’t understand yet that we’re not good enough to not compete first. We have to compete first.”

Barnes added that some guys are more concerned with what the stat sheet says at the end of the night than winning the game.

“When you get guys that think they’re great offensive players, they only look at this stat sheet and look at one thing (points). That’s all they look at. And there’s nights when you’re not going to make shots. This game is about winning.”

So why do the Vols look so out of sync right now?

Well, the answer seems obvious. This is a brand new roster with very few returning players. This team is still finding its way. It’s still finding its leadership, voice, and personality.

That’s the risk that Barnes took when he went the portal route in search of a more talented roster.

“I like these guys,” said Barnes. “Our jobs [are that] we’ve got to keep coaching them. But we’re breaking habits and trying to create new habits. But somewhere along the line, it’s got to come from within. We’ve got to get some leadership. We haven’t gotten that yet, the way we need it on the court in terms of who’s going to take command and do what we need to do. We haven’t gotten that yet.”

The good news is that Barnes has seen glimpses of what this team can be in practice — it just isn’t translating to games right now.

“I’ve seen us do it so often in practice, and you come out in the game and you don’t do it, and it’s disappointing,” explained Barnes.

There’s no reason to hit the panic button — at least not yet. It can take teams a while to gel. That’s especially true when it’s a mostly new roster. Barnes, though, has been doing this a long time. He knows how to get teams to come together and play for each other. But it’s not something that happens just because Barnes snaps his fingers. It takes consistent buy-in from everyone in the program.

Tennessee is undeniably talented. They just aren’t the best version of themselves yet. And that’s alright — it’s November. It’s not about being the best team right now. It’s about being the best team down the stretch in the regular season and getting hot come tournament time.

There’s still plenty of time for the Vols to get to that point, and they’re talented enough that they can be as dangerous as anyone in the nation if they get there.