Rick Barnes calls Tennessee’s experience a ‘huge advantage’
By Keith Farner
Published:
Rick Barnes knows Tennessee is unusual in the sense of having multiple players with a lot of experience.
The headliners in that category are Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James.
“Well, it’s awesome to have older guys,” Barnes said. “I go back last year when certainly Josiah and Santi were going through the process and wanting to know what they might end up doing, wondering what they might end up doing. I thought about the young guys, knowing it would be a major turnover with what we had lost.”
Now the Vols are ready to blend the new roster.
“With those guys coming back, it’s really neat in practice watching them along with Josiah, Zakai, Santi and Jahmai Mashack coach those guys,” Barnes said. “You really think about it, these younger guys get a chance every day to practice against a team that pretty much went to the Sweet 16 last year. But it’s neat watching ’em do it. I think it’s a huge advantage when you have older guys. I would tell you I hope we always have older guys. We still believe in what we try to do with our player development.”
Tennessee is the class of the league to start the season, as it’s picked No. 9 in the country in the Preseason AP Top 25, and picked by the media to win the SEC.
“Getting old, staying old, I think is really important,” Barnes said. “You look at our league this year, this is an old league. It’s an athletic league. It’s a skilled league now. I think it’s the best basketball league in the country.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
