Details, details.
Tennessee men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes provided plenty of details in Monday’s news conference that was sandwiched between Saturday’s canceled game against Memphis at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and Wednesday night’s challenge against No. 6 Arizona inside Thompson-Boling Arena. Saturday’s in-state rivalry contest was called more than an hour before the tip due to COVID-related issues within the Memphis program.
“We burned approximately $30,000 from our budget,” Barnes said, “and as bad as I felt for the players, I feel worse for our fans.”
Memphis executive associate athletic director Adam Walker told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that two Tigers players tested positive for COVID, and that due to contact tracing, the rest of the roster was ruled out. The Commercial Appeal reported that Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said before the season that “probably 90%” of his players were vaccinated.
On a Zoom call Sunday afternoon, Hardaway said he “probably misspoke” about that vaccination number.