KNOXVILLE – Rick Barnes could have scheduled walk-throughs, shootarounds, video sessions and all the other things a Tennessee basketball road trip typically would include during the team’s recent visit to Europe for three exhibition games.
What fun would that have been?
“I think we did it the right way,” Barnes said Tuesday. “We made up our mind that when we got there we were just going to play basketball, play a game and then we would talk a little bit after that game and get on to some of the educational things we wanted to do.”
The Volunteers completed the 10-day trip with a 3-0 record.
Of course, that did not count results of an impromptu four-on-four game between Tennessee players and a group of locals at an outdoor court near the beaches of Valencia, Spain, on one of the many sightseeing excursions.