NASHVILLE – Tennessee’s basketball seniors certainly did not want to conclude their collegiate careers with the program’s first losing season in more than a decade.
Coach Rick Barnes is appreciative, though, of what those four players did beyond Tennessee’s win-loss record in his first season with the Volunteers.
As the program’s third coach in as many years, Barnes wanted his first season to be about setting a foundation for his future seasons in Knoxville, and he’s confident his departing seniors helped him do that.
“They’re going to look back one day, these seniors, and even though they look at this record as not something that we wanted, they’ll look back and know they were part of really trying build a program going forward,” Barnes said after Tennessee’s season-ending loss to LSU in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals Friday.
“Three coaches in three years, that’s not easy for anybody.”
Yet that’s what Armani Moore and Derek Reese experienced to end their careers, and junior college transfers Kevin Punter Jr. and Devon Baulkman signed to play for one Tennessee coach and finished their second season with another.
Since Tennessee’s last losing season in 2005, the Vols made seven NCAA tournament appearances, reached two Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight and won one regular-season SEC title.
Barnes wants to provide some needed stability and get the Vols back to that level of success, and he believes his first team was able to gain ground on that path.
And that’s important to the outgoing seniors.
“Going through three different coaches, you want to be part of something,” Reese said. “You want to start something. You don’t want to be around when there’s the rebuilding stages or something bad and you kind of feel like, ‘OK, I wasn’t a good factor for the team.’
“Coach saying that is really huge, and it meant something to me, because I’ve been through so much being here and being with so many coaches. I wanted to do as much as I can to help the team, and I’m definitely glad we ended the way like this.”
Moore and Punter were valuable players for Tennessee this season, and they’ve earned the respect and appreciation of their teammates and the fans with the work they put in and how hard they played all season. Effort and hard work are attributes upon which Barnes wants to build his program, and the seniors provided examples to which he could point.
“The culture that’s built (and) toughness, competitiveness and always fighting until the end – that’s one of the things I’ve learned from these seniors and I think we’ve all taken away from these seniors,” freshman Admiral Schofield said.
Moore is eager to see where his younger teammates take the program in the future.
“This is my last game, but I know I’ll always be able to call every last one of these guys my brother,” he said. “I’m looking forward to coming back and watching some of their games, because I know they’re going to continue to compete. That’s the type of coaches that we have. I’ve enjoyed my stay here, and I’m glad to say I’m a Vol for life.”
Throughout his career Moore has been defined by his versatility, his competitive and his toughness.
“He’s been a leader from day one,” Robert Hubbs III said. “He’s stepped up, played multiple positions and carried this team a long way. I’m just really proud of him. He’s a tough guy, probably one of the toughest competitors I’ve ever been around in my life.”
Entering the SEC tournament, Moore ranked 25th in the conference in scoring, seventh in rebounding and blocked shots and eighth in minutes played.
“I’ve never met somebody that can cover your back, his back, coach’s back – everybody’s back – on the floor,” Schofield said. “He does everything. He’s an all-around (great) guy, and I love him, man. He’s my brother, and he’s taught me a lot since I’ve been here.”
Punter led Tennessee to some important regular-season wins against Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina, and the other three seniors were vital to the Vols lasting longer than expected in the SEC tournament this week.
“We were just trying to keep our guys and challenging them with, ‘Hey, we’ve just got to stay in it, and who knows what might happen,'” Barnes said of the final two weeks of the regular season after Punter’s injury.
“For them to come here with the attitude (they showed), I think it speaks a lot about their character.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com