KNOXVILLE – As Tennessee prepares to begin the postseason tonight in the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament, the 13th-ranked Volunteers are just three wins away from another championship.
The question is how long do the Vols really want to stay in St. Louis?
“I don’t know of any team that doesn’t want to win its conference tournament,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said early this week. “I don’t know of any team that doesn’t want to go out and win every game.”
However, as a veteran of 24 NCAA tournaments as an assistant or head coach, Barnes knows the potential downside to the expenditure of energy and time that comes with playing consecutive days in pursuit of winning a conference tournament that ends on Selection Sunday for the national playoffs.
“You find out where you’re seeded, then you’ve got to get back on the plane, get home that night, late Sunday night, and then you’ve got to turn around and maybe travel on Tuesday and have to play on Thursday,” Barnes said. “I think that’s tough.”