Rick Barnes will begin his sixth season at Tennessee and his 34th as a college basketball head coach Tuesday evening when the Volunteers face Colorado inside Thompson-Boling Arena.
His first 33 didn't include a lengthy stint in isolation.
"There is only so much 'Gunsmoke' and 'Law & Order: SVU' you can watch," Barnes said Monday afternoon on a Zoom call.
A whopping 276 days have passed since Tennessee's appearance in the 2020 Southeastern Conference tournament was scratched roughly an hour before the eighth-seeded Volunteers were scheduled to face ninth-seeded Alabama. The culprit was a national outbreak of the coronavirus, and the continuing effects of the pandemic were felt Nov. 23, when Tennessee announced that Barnes was among multiple members of the men's basketball program to test positive for COVID-19.
Tennessee paused team activities and canceled its two opening games against Charlotte and VCU. An extension of that pause was announced the following day, which resulted in last week's cancellations of showdowns against top-ranked Gonzaga and Notre Dame.
The Vols scheduled a game for this Wednesday night against UT-Martin, but that also got axed when a COVID outbreak occurred within the Skyhawks program.
When the UT-Martin contest was scratched, Tennessee revealed that it was still seeking an opponent before this Saturday's game against visiting Cincinnati. Tonight's 6 o'clock tip with Colorado only came to fruition this past Saturday.
"This is the longest in my life since I've been around a team where we haven't played a game," Barnes said, "but I've never ever been a part of a program where you decide on your first game three days before you play it, and we still have a game we want to make up."
The No. 12 Vols are the only team in this week's Associated Press Top 25 with an 0-0 record.
Colorado actually paused team activities last Tuesday but resumed on Thursday following two successful days of testing and tracing. The Buffaloes are 2-0 this season, having defeated South Dakota 84-61 on Nov. 25 and Kansas State 76-58 on Nov. 27.
Both of Colorado's wins were on Kansas State's home floor.
Barnes said 11 Vols players will be available for the opener, including senior forwards John Fulkerson and Yves Pons and freshman guards Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer, but that sophomore forward Drew Pember and freshman forward Corey Walker will not play. There were three stops and starts during Tennessee's chaotic preseason, according to Barnes, who said that one unspecified player missed 52 days due to contact tracing but never tested positive.
When asked about his personal experience, Barnes said he never felt lousy enough to where he would have missed practice but that it was about 12 days before he felt good again.
Colorado is coached by Tad Boyle, who was Tennessee's director of operations under Jerry Green during the 1997-98 season. The Buffaloes are led by senior guard McKinley Wright IV, who is averaging 22 points per game and shooting 64.3% from the floor.
"We don't know how it's going to play out," Barnes said. "We don't know foul situations, so our older guys will handle it better than you would expect, but the younger guys are going to have to learn on the fly.
"They're going to be nervous."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.