Tennessee men's basketball coach Rick Barnes has been mostly mediocre in March, with this past season's trip to the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 matching the 2018-19 team in terms of the deepest run during his eight seasons with the Volunteers.
Yet the roster construction put forth by the 68-year-old throughout the calendar year amid the sport's continually changing landscape has placed this program among the most stable and stout across the country. Tennessee is the only Southeastern Conference program to compete in each of the staged NCAA tournaments since the 2017-18 season, and the prospects already are promising for 2023-24 after Santiago Vescovi elected to use a second senior season in Knoxville and join fellow guards Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack and forward Jonas Aidoo, who each will be in his third year with the Vols.
It's a strong nucleus from which to build — ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi this week released a projected 2024 NCAA tourney bracket that has Tennessee as a lofty No. 2 seed — but a strong nucleus is what Barnes annually seems to possess.
"We always believe that the real improvement comes from within our team and the culture that we've tried to create," Barnes said Monday afternoon before his appearance at the Big Orange Caravan inside the Chattanooga Convention Center. "We also believe that at the end of every year you've got to reset that culture by almost having the attitude that this is your first day on the job with the new team you're getting ready to start with, even though you've got guys who are familiar with you.
"We've always started there, and we've tried to build around those guys to get the best roster that we can."
Barnes was Tennessee's third coach in three years when he inherited a 16-16 team in 2015, and his first two seasons yielded a 31-35 record. The foundation was being set, however, as three signees in his first recruiting class — guard Lamonte Turner and forwards Kyle Alexander and Admiral Schofield — wound up playing four seasons for the Vols.
His second signing class contained guards Jordan Bone and Jordan Bowden and forwards John Fulkerson and Grant Williams. Bone and Williams stayed three seasons before getting selected in the 2019 NBA draft, while Bowden played four seasons and Fulkerson a whopping six.
Yves Pons signed with Tennessee in 2017 and stayed four seasons, and then another four-year wave arrived in 2019 with Vescovi, fellow guard Josiah-Jordan James, and forwards Olivier Nkamhoua and Uros Plavsic. While Vescovi decided to return and Nkamhoua recently entered the NCAA transfer portal, James, Plavsic and forward Julian Phillips, who was a freshman this past season, are going through the NBA draft process while maintaining their college eligibility.
"Those guys are all pursuing their dream of being a professional basketball player," Barnes said. "All I can say is that I believe it will all work out when it's all said and done. How that is I don't know, because they've got until the end of the month to decide on what they want to do.
"I think all three have really good representation, and I think that's who they're going to listen to. It's a process you can't rush. You really can't."
Should James, Plavsic and Phillips return, the Vols would be among the most experienced teams in the country. Tennessee recently added Harvard 6-foot-6 forward Chris Ledlum (18.8 points per game this past season), Northern Colorado 6-6 guard Dalton Knecht (20.2) and USC Upstate 6-4 guard Jordan Gainey (15.2) via the transfer portal, and the Vols also bring back 6-3 point guard B.J. Edwards, 6-8 forward Tobe Awaka, and a pair of 6-5 guards who sat out last season — Freddie Dilione and D.J. Jefferson.
Dilione was a top-50 national prospect who reclassified and elected to enroll at Tennessee in January to get a head start on the college environment.
"Within three weeks on campus, he had already put on 15 pounds," Barnes said. "You're starting to see his body change. He has taken advantage of everything he could."
College basketball coaches are heavily judged on their records in March, and a lot of them took hits several weeks ago in an NCAA tournament that had Florida Atlantic, Miami and San Diego State in its Final Four. Barnes can be framed as a 27-27 coach in NCAA tournament play, which includes his 6-5 record with the Vols, but he can also be framed as a 144-57 coach the past six seasons and a coach who has taken teams to 21 of the past 22 NCAA tournaments excluding his first two rebuilding years with Tennessee.
The Vols won 25 games this past season, taking down the likes of Alabama, Duke, Kansas and Texas, so it's quite obvious Barnes is handling ongoing challenges such as the transfer portal and name, image and likeness compensation for athletes way better than a majority of his younger counterparts.
"You start hearing about players potentially going into the portal before Christmas," Barnes said. "You hear that a guy isn't happy because he's not playing, but then he could start playing. It is never ending.
"It's a part of where we are in the game, so we have to be aware of every aspect to college basketball."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.