ST. LOUIS – As Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes was wrapping up his media responsibilities late Saturday afternoon after the Volunteers’ 84-66 thumping of Arkansas in their Southeastern Conference tournament semifinal, he was asked about the 12 3-pointers Kentucky had bagged in its semifinal rout of Alabama earlier in the day.
“How does that strike you?” the reporter asked.
Replied Barnes: “Well, we made 11.”
It wasn’t said in anger or as if the writer had disrespected Barnes’ program. And yet it also sent a message, whether intended or not, that these Vols will take a back seat to no one, especially a team they’ve already beaten twice this season.
In fact, if anyone is looking to handicap the first SEC tourney championship game between the Big Orange and Big Blue since 1979, the Wildcats will enter this one with an 0-5 mark this season against the three teams that finished above them in the regular-season standings: Auburn (0-1), Tennessee (0-2) and Florida (0-2).