KNOXVILLE - Tennessee won't tip off its first season under new basketball coach Rick Barnes for another six days.
The Volunteers showed a glimpse of their new look in Friday night's 96-83 exhibition win against Division II member Alabama-Huntsville at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Armani Moore led Tennessee with 29 points and 10 rebounds, and Kevin Punter added 25 points despite shooting 6-of-17 from the field. The Vols led by 27 in the second half before the visitors trimmed the lead to 11 in the waning minutes.
"There were some good things that we did, and obviously we've got to figure out some other things," Barnes said. "We know that we're going to play a lot through Kevin and Armani. Defensively we weren't very good, but they had a lot to do with that."
The Vols will have to score plenty of points to win games this season, because the defense may be less than stellar.
UAH consistently got to the rim on drives and scored too many easy baskets for Barnes' liking, and the Chargers scored 38 points in the paint and hit nine 3s to boot.
"I think we did a terrible job, kind of relying on our offense and letting down on our defense," Moore said. "Against a great team, you're not going to be able to do that. We've just got to really focus and lock on the defensive end."
Said Barnes: "We've got to guard better, simply. We knew that would be a challenge with this group, because we don't really have a rim protector. We've got to be a great defensive position team. We're going to have to hope we can talk teams into shooting a lot of 3s."
Though it's not always been Barnes' preferred style, Tennessee wants to push the pace and play in transition, because it's what the coach believes will best suit this perimeter-oriented roster.
The Vols generated 82 possessions - they averaged 63 last season - and averaged 15 seconds per possession.
"That's what we want to do," Robert Hubbs said after chipping in 15 points. "We want to keep the other team on edge. We don't have a lot of size, so we've just got to attack."
The team's frontcourt situation remains in flux. The rotation of Derek Reese, redshirt freshman Jabari McGhee and newcomers Admiral Schofield, Kyle Alexander and Ray Kasongo combined for eight points, 21 rebounds (Reese had eight and Schofield six) and 10 fouls.
It's become clear the Vols will rely on 3-point shooting quite a bit this season. They took 30 3s in last weekend's scrimmage with Davidson, and 22 of their 38 attempts in the first half on Friday night came behind the 3-point line.
Tennessee made 10 in the first half and finished 13-of-36 on 3s. "There will be nights we take that many," Barnes said, adding that he expects to average 26 to 30 attempts with the goal of making nine per game.
Tennessee could be a tough out when those shots are falling, but the Vols will shoot themselves out of some games as well.
Moore, who hit four 3s (he made six all of last season), and Punter combined for 24 of the team's first 33 points, and those two and Hubbs (11 points) scored 49 of Tennessee's 62 points in the first half.
"We're both seniors, so there shouldn't be no reason why we try to bring excuses to the table," Moore said. "I feel like K.P., he's a talented player, as well as me and the rest of our team. I feel like we should be able to make it work this year."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.