Last year, the Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball team was not only expected to contend for an SEC title, but win it as well. But as most know, the Vols fell short of those expectations, although they did make the NCAA Tournament last season.

One of the issues the Vols seem to have is being consistent. Vols head coach Rick Barnes explained why this year’s team should be more consistent.

Barnes said this, via 247Sports:

“If you go back and analyze what happened last year in college basketball, I think younger teams struggled. A lot of that had to do with COVID. Where I think our consistency will be better is from having a full year with these guys in terms of our normal routine that we do, starting in the spring and then into the summer,” he said.

Barnes continued:

“We didn’t have any of that really. No spring and only a partial summer. We had some guys that traveled with international basketball and played for their countries, so they were away. We deal with that every year normally. I give a lot of credit to our older guys because I do think they really tried to do a good job of addressing the way we ended our year with leadership coming from within. Our older guys have done a good job with that.”

The Vols finished last season with an 18-9 record and finished fourth in the SEC with a 10-7 record.