KNOXVILLE - After a hot-shooting Tennessee men's basketball team dismantled Ole Miss 94-61 on Feb. 3, coach Rick Barnes acknowledged the game's final 20 minutes was likely the best half his Volunteers had played all season.
"I know we go back down there, and it will be a whole different ballgame," Barnes said afterward.
Three weeks later, the No. 19 Vols (20-7, 10-5 Southeastern Conference) are about to face Ole Miss with the Rebels coming off arguably their best win of the season and with interim coach Tony Madlock now in charge.
The Rebels (12-16, 5-10) won 90-87 in overtime Tuesday at Missouri, their first game since veteran coach Andy Kennedy's resignation last Sunday. The second game of the Madlock era is at 1 p.m. Eastern today in Oxford, Miss.
"I just know this time of year, that mindset is as important as anything," Barnes said. "After watching what they did against Missouri, they have a pretty good mindset right now."
Tennessee struggled to score in the first half of the first meeting against a trapping zone defense by Ole Miss. The Vols eventually figured it out and ran away with the game by shooting 71.4 percent in the second half.
Barnes did not see anything dramatically different about the Rebels' style of play against Missouri with Madlock calling the shots instead of Kennedy. The Rebels forced 21 turnovers while ending their losing streak at seven games.
"They've had a couple of days here where they could add some things, as teams do this time of year," Barnes said. "Some teams do keep tweaking it. We've got to be ready for what they've done pretty much all year long, changing defenses, what they do offensively and also be ready for some adjustments."
Barnes on scandal
Documents that are part of a federal probe into the underbelly of college basketball were published by Yahoo! Sports on Friday, implicating at least 20 Division 1 programs in potential NCAA rules violations related to a sports agency allegedly paying players.
Players at SEC programs Alabama and Kentucky, as well as Big 12 member Texas - the program Barnes coached from 1998 to 2015 before taking over at Tennessee - were implicated in the documents as having received payments, according to the report.
"I've been doing this a long time, so I'm not surprised by any of it," Barnes said. "I don't know what all is in the report. We could sit here and talk for days on end about all the things that have gone on in college basketball. Again, I'm not surprised by it."
On the short list
Barnes was named one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Men's College Coach of the Year award Friday. Four finalists will be announced March 15, and the winner will be announced April 1 as part of Final Four festivities in San Antonio.
"No, no, no. I don't. No," Barnes said when asked if he'd thought any about being in contention for the award. "I haven't thought anything about it, don't know anything about it and really don't care anything about it."
Barnes has taken a program picked by media in the preseason to finish 13th in the 14-team SEC to 20 wins with three games still remaining in the regular season.
Other semifinalists for the award: Texas Tech's Chris Beard, Virginia's Tony Bennett, Clemson's Brad Brownell, Cincinnati's Mick Cronin, Ohio State's Chris Holtmann, Xavier's Chris Mack, Purdue's Matt Painter, Auburn's Bruce Pearl and Villanova's Jay Wright.
Injury update
Freshman forward Derrick Walker, who did not play against Florida on Wednesday because of an ankle injury, worked through agility drills on the side with a strength coach at the beginning of Thursday's practice before joining the team as a limited participant in five-on-five drills.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.