With a returning nucleus of Victor Bailey Jr., John Fulkerson, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi, the addition of former Auburn guard Justin Powell through the NCAA transfer portal, and a seven-member freshman class ranked fourth nationally by 247Sports.com, Tennessee seventh-year basketball coach Rick Barnes could be hard-pressed to keep everybody happy this season.
“Everybody wants to play 40 minutes a game, but that’s not physically possible,” Powell said Tuesday afternoon by phone. “Everybody also wants to win, and that’s one thing we have in common, so we’re all buying into the same thing of wanting to win. It doesn’t really matter how many minutes you play. What matters is what role you bring to the team and how well everybody can do it together.
“If that becomes the case for us, we could be really good.”
After providing that diplomatic and mature response, Powell was asked if he was happy he didn’t have to divvy the minutes and that it was the responsibility of Barnes.
“That’s for sure,” Powell said with a laugh. “That’s all on him right now. We’ve got the easy part of just playing.”
Bailey, Fulkerson, James and Vescovi each averaged a minimum of roughly 25 minutes last season for the Vols, as did Powell while playing for Bruce Pearl’s Tigers. As for the seven newcomers, four were top-100 signees – point guard Kennedy Chandler (No. 8), power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (No. 25), center Jonas Aidoo (No. 34) and small forward Jahmai Mashack (No. 61).
Barnes already has begun the playing-time process, which will be enhanced Saturday afternoon when the Vols take the floor for the first time in an exhibition against Lenoir-Rhyne.
“The first thing you’ve got to make them understand is that there are only 200 minutes in a game,” Barnes said in his preseason news conference. “We sit down with each player, and if you wrote down how many minutes each player thought he should get, we would need about 16 overtimes to get everybody their minutes. They truly don’t understand the value of minutes, and that’s nothing to feel bad about, because most of these guys played all the minutes they’ve ever wanted to play their entire careers.
“You have to let them know how valuable those 200 minutes are in a regulation game, and I think the players understand who should be playing more than anybody. I think they know that, and they see it because of the film studies we do and the things that we go through. At the pace and the level we want to play, for the young guys, learning to do that for two minutes is difficult. We are constantly talking about what they have to do to get the minutes they want to play, and as the season goes on, it plays itself out.”
The Vols are coming off an 18-9 season that ended abruptly with a 70-56 loss to Oregon State in the NCAA tournament’s first round. Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer were one-and-done talents who are now in the NBA, but optimism for this season begins with Fulkerson, a preseason all-SEC selection, opting for a sixth year, the emergence of James as the team leader and Chandler providing a true point guard.
There is also the fact that Tennessee, like every other program nationally, has benefited from a normal spring and summer a year after the limitations that accompanied the COVID outbreak.
“This year has been a lot of fun, and it has made us appreciate what we had before to be quite frank,” Barnes said. “With this group of guys, every day when we’ve finished and we’re down in the locker room area or the lounge together, you don’t want to leave, because you enjoy that camaraderie. Maybe some of that has to do with how much we did miss it a year ago.
“It’s just a totally different feel from what we had last year at this time.”
Awaiting the fans
Thompson-Boling Arena never had a crowd larger than 4,191 last season due to the pandemic, and the Vols are pumped that full houses are expected this winter.
“Our fan base really does provide one of the most powerful home-court arenas in the country, and we’re excited about that,” Barnes said. “I do think our fans will appreciate the hard work that this team plays with. They have really worked hard together, and I think our leadership has been really good from within.”
Said Powell: “That’s probably the main thing I’m excited for, to be honest. Last year, you had a few fans in the arena, but nothing beats a sold-out crowd against a rival. That will be fun, because I’ve never seen TBA like that, so it will be a new experience for me.”
Odds and ends
Fulkerson broke his thumb earlier this month and will miss Saturday’s exhibition game, but Barnes expects him back for the Nov. 9 opener against UT-Martin…. James: “This is the closest team I’ve been on…” Aidoo has been battling an illness the last couple of weeks, and Barnes hopes to have him back after Saturday’s scrimmage … Barnes described Vescovi as “arguably the most improved player on our team.” … Powell on transferring: “I wanted to go somewhere closer to home, and Tennessee was the perfect fit for me. It had everything that I wanted to get out of my college experience, and it’s been good for me.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.