Rick Barnes’ Tennessee team was triumphant in claiming an SEC championship by knocking 3 consecutive ranked opponents in the final weeks of the 2023-24 regular season.

UT won 4 straight against unranked opponents before beating Auburn, Alabama and South Carolina back-to-back-to-back to extend its streak to 7. The Volunteers were the SEC’s hottest team and had a strong case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

When Tennessee lost 85-81 to Kentucky to close out the regular season, no one panicked. The Wildcats were a good team. UT was playing its 4th consecutive ranked opponent. Every team starts to feel some wear and tear at the end of the season.

Then came the SEC Tournament.

As the conference champion, Tennessee was the tournament’s top seed in Nashville, a second home for UT and its fans.

After getting a coveted double-bye, the Volunteers faced Mississippi State, the conference tourney’s 9-seed. MSU dominated the first half, 38-19, and didn’t look back for a 73-56 win to send UT packing early.

The jokes and memes were everywhere. Plenty of fans and media members shook their heads, wondering what it was about Barnes in March. The Vols were out of the 1-seed picture for the Big Dance and seemingly in for another year of March Sadness.

Turns out, losing to Mississippi State may have helped Tennessee make its run to the second Elite 8 for a chance at its first-ever Final Four.

“After the SEC Tournament, they’ve done just an incredible job of getting after each other and holding each other to a higher level, higher standard,” Barnes told reporters after the Sweet 16 win over Creighton. “I do my — I think I do my job getting after them, but it’s a whole lot easier when they start getting at each other.”

Barnes saw the difference before Friday.

“It happened the other night in the game. Where Dalton (Knecht) was struggling a little bit, and they snapped at him to snap him out of it a bit, and they talked to him,” Barnes shared. “When you get teams that care that much and can take coaching from each other, that’s a good thing. I can tell you, that’s where the loss in the SEC Tournament helped us.”

At age 69, Barnes has spent most of his life around the game of basketball. He has been a coach since 1977, getting his start at North State Academy.

For over 3 decades, Barnes has been a head coach at George Mason, Providence, Clemson, Texas and Tennessee. Somewhere along the line, Barnes realized that some of the most important coaching doesn’t come from the head man.

The Mississippi State loss could have easily snowballed into another opening-weekend exit from the NCAA Tournament. Dancing teams always hope that their conference tourney losses are wake-up calls at the right time.

The Vols have shown Barnes, and the college basketball world, that they learned a valuable lesson in Nashville.

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