KNOXVILLE – Thinking about the Southeastern Conference tournament and his team’s potential to land a double bye in it is not of particular interest to Tennessee men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes – and it won’t be as the Volunteers play their final five regular-season games, beginning tonight at Georgia.
“I don’t have any thought about it,” Barnes said. “The way I look at the tournament, it’s like extra credit. I had to do a lot of that in high school to pass, and college.”
Barnes is not looking ahead, but he is looking around the country, and he sees teams comparable to Tennessee getting beat. Purdue, a team the Vols beat early that had been ranked in the top three for several weeks, has lost three straight games.
Ohio State, which surged to No. 8 this week, lost by 23 points Thursday night to unranked Penn State. Last week there were 18 losses by Top 25 teams. Meanwhile, the SEC continues to be a cannibalistic slugfest, and Barnes knows his team is not immune.
“This group here, they’re in some uncharted waters right now,” Barnes said. “Again, they haven’t ever been in a position this late in the year. Last year we were talked about being on the bubble and all that, and when Robert Hubbs went down we didn’t handle it very well. These next four or five games are important.”