KNOXVILLE — Rick Barnes knew the roster he was inheriting as Tennessee’s new basketball coach needed some immediate upgrades going into next summer.
It’s what he didn’t inherit that made those efforts much more challenging for the Volunteers’ new regime.
Barnes and his staff inherited only five official visits and 21 evaluation days from previous coach Donnie Tyndall and his staff, which made scouring the market for available prospects, released signees and transferring players and getting started on the 2016 class a tricky chore.
“We’re finished with it now obviously, and I think our staff did a good job getting out,” Barnes said Wednesday afternoon after speaking to the Big Orange Tip-Off Club for nearly an hour.
“The fact that we wanted to really take advantage of this past weekend with the Orange and White Game and we wanted to get as many kids in here as we could, that was a weekend we could have been out recruiting. The guys were able to get out a little bit on Sunday morning. My staff deserves all the credit. They made the most of what we could do.”