Rick Barnes enters his seventh season as Tennessee’s head coach.
Barnes has compiled a 123–73 (61–46 SEC) record with the Vols.
Tennessee will hold its first exhibition game Saturday against Lenoir-Rhyne at Thompson-Boling-Arena. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m. EDT and will be broadcasted on SEC Network+.
Barnes met with media Tuesday and discussed the upcoming season. Below is a transcript of Barnes’ availability during media day provided by the University of Tennessee.
Opening statement
“First of all, we are really excited to welcome our fans back and last year really was not the same. Our fan base is really one of the most powerful home court arenas in the country, and we are excited about that. I do think our fans will appreciate the hard work that this team plays with. They really work hard together. I think our leadership has been good from within the players. Again, Vol Nation is going to be very proud of this group of guys. They have worked hard since we started back in the summer and are looking forward to it.
“We have a few injury updates we need to talk about. John Fulkerson is going to miss the exhibition game. He broke his thumb a couple of weeks ago and is in a cast. We fully expect him to be ready for the opener, but he won’t play Saturday. Jonas Aidoo has been fighting an illness the last couple of weeks. Kennedy Chandler has also missed a little bit. He had some problems with his teeth being knocked back a little bit, but he will be back in practice today for the first time.
“Overall, we really have had a lot of fun coaching this group of guys. They work hard, they step into the challenges we put in front of them, and they know we have to get better in some areas, a lot of areas actually. The fact is this has been a good group, and as a coaching staff, we are excited to have a chance to coach them.”
NEXT: Rick Barnes’ media day continued