KNOXVILLE - It's been more than 20 years since Tennessee missed both the NCAA men's basketball tournament and the National Invitation Tournament in three consecutive seasons.
For Rick Barnes, this is only the eighth time in his 30-year coaching career his team has missed the NCAA tournament.
Tennessee may have outperformed modest expectations in the eyes of many people, but Barnes isn't one of them.
"The bottom line is, to me, it's about being in the (NCAA) tournament, to be honest with you," he said Monday. "I can look back, and we were picked 13th (in the Southeastern Conference). We obviously we did much better than that, and like I said we put ourselves in position in February because we were willing to play a really tough, demanding nonleague schedule.
"February we were right where you would want to be. You'd obviously love to win some more games earlier, but with this group, our nonleague schedule proved to these guys that they were good enough to play. I don't think we were tough enough, because I think February is a tough month. I think it's a grind. I think people that finish strong are mentally tough."
The young Vols lacked the toughness needed down the stretch and lost seven of their final 10 games after entering February with a 13-9 overall record following five wins in six games, including three wins against NCAA tournament teams: Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Kansas State.
The closing stretch included losses by 25 and 27 points, a thorough thumping by league cellar-dweller LSU and narrow defeats in games Tennessee led by 19 and 14 points.
The collapse meant Tennessee fell from the NCAA tournament bubble to no postseason at all.
Tennessee's 16-16 record - including a win against Division II Chaminade most selection committees ignore - meant there was no hope for the NIT, and Barnes had no desire of being in the 16-team College Basketball Invitational despite playing in it just four years ago while at Texas.
"I didn't want to do it," he explained. "I think now there's (100) teams that get a chance to play in (NCAA or NIT) postseason play, and if you're not one of those, I just don't think you ought to be spending the money to go do it. You've got to earn it. The year we played it, I didn't think it was particularly a great experience for us.
"From where we are right now, and the fact that we're trying to teach our guys to get into this, I want them to know it's something they're going to have to earn."
Now Tennessee's players and coaching staff can turn the page to the future. From this year's team everybody but Robert Hubbs III is slated to return, and the Vols will have a healthy John Fulkerson and Jalen Johnson coming off a redshirt year. The offseason development of Grant Williams, Jordan Bowden and Jordan Bone will be key for the future.
This summer the Vols will take an international trip and spend 10 extra practice days in Spain and France, the home country of current commitment Yves Pons, an explosive 6-foot-6 wing player who averaged 10.1 points in seven games for the French team in the FIBA U-17 World Championships last summer.
Barnes believes fostering more mental toughness is more important than any on-court improvements the Vols individually or collectively make this offseason.
As this season proved it could be the difference between practicing and talking the day after Selection Sunday in 2018.
"One thing I've learned through the years," Barnes said, "is that you've got be careful with younger guys, because they've already doing more than they've ever done in their life, but they can do a whole lot more than think they can, so you've got to break through that threshold of whether it's physical or mental fatigue that you've got to get them through.
"We still have to do that with some of these guys, and I think you can do that in the offseason. I kept talking to those guys about the level, you've got to keep going to another level because your opponents are. I think our league's going to be better. I don't think there's any question our league's going to be much better next year than it is right now.
"We have to get better. As individuals you have to get better. Outside of all the physical things that I know that we need to work on, it's going to be the mental side of it."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.