Everything Rick Barnes Said at SEC Tipoff Ahead of Tennessee Basketball's Season

Tennessee basketball is inching closer and closer to their first game of the season, which is set for early November.

Ahead of tipoff, Barnes spoke with the media at SEC Tipoff. He had a lot to discuss. Here is everything he had to say at the media event.

Rick Barnes's Opening Statement

"Okay, I'm ready," Barnes said.

Rick Barnes on Keeping a Balance With Shots After Adding Multiple Scorers

Tennessee guard Juke Harris (2) attempts a shot during an open scrimmage held at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Oct. 3, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

“Well, I’m not concerned about guys and how many shots they think they should get. We’re going to do what we need to do as a team to be the best basketball team that we can be. And I do think that if you talk to each one of these guys that we brought in, they would tell you man for man that this is the best group of talent they’ve ever played with. Certainly guys that have some great production in college basketball. They’re coming in from different leagues, and our league is different. The SEC is different than any other league in the country, and they’ll have to make those adjustments. But when we set out to put together this class, we decided we were going to pay for production as opposed to retention. Everybody thinks that in the past we haven’t tried to recruit offensive players. We’ve always tried to recruit good offensive players. But with that said, when you’re part of a single-elimination tournament, there’s nights when the best of the best will have an off night, and we’ve always tried to hang our hats on being a defensive team, a rebounding team, a fundamentally sound team. And we can bring the perfect storm together where we shoot it that night, we think that we will give ourselves a chance to beat anybody that we play against,” Barnes said.

Rick Barnes on DeWayne Brown II

“A lot. We expect a lot because last year he was the biggest surprise on our basketball team. We talk about it with our players once we get everybody together. We always tell them that somebody’s going to surprise us and somebody’s going to disappoint us. And last year DeWayne was the biggest surprise. We certainly, more than anything, appreciated his loyalty. He was the one guy, along with Troy Henderson, that’s back. But we knew that we wanted DeWayne Brown back. Because he stands for everything that any coach would want. Just a great character person. A guy that works hard every day. And he’s the ultimate team player. And we’re going to ask him to do a lot more. But we went back, and as we bring recruits in and start showing them highlight tapes, and show them plays and situations where they might be in, it dawns on us every time that Dewayne Brown was part of those clips, even a year ago. And we expect him to do more. He’s gotten himself in even better shape. But I don’t think we would be as far along with this group right now that would work for DeWayne. I wish Troy would have had all summer, but he didn’t while recovering from a shoulder surgery. But once he came back, those two guys, knowing what we’d like to see every day in practice, have really done a lot with their leadership, just from the way they go about every day of practice," Barnes

Rick Barnes on if There is a Trend With How SEC Rosters Have Been Built

“Well, I think our league is back where it was two years ago. I do. I mean, again, 12 years ago when Commissioner Sankey took over, we were the one sport in the SEC that was lagging behind. We were, as a league, very inconsistent up to that point. He made the call that he would do everything he could to improve anything that had to come from the SEC office, which he did. But then some universities didn’t buy in as quickly. And I think today there’s a buy-in from every university in this conference from a basketball standpoint, too. And because of that, I do think that when you look around, the league was always known as an athletic league. Now we’re a highly skilled league, athletic, terrific coaches, best officiating staff in the country. But the competition this year will be- even on your best night, you better be ready every night. But even if you’re ready, you know you’re going to be in for a battle. Because I think every team, as you look around the league, has improved themselves on paper, certainly. That’s why we’ll play the games. But I think it’s going to be just a really great, hard, demanding year in this league this year,” Barnes said.

Rick Barnes on How the Offense Has Looked After Adding Some Scoring Weapons

“Yeah, to be quite frank with you, early we looked like an incredible offensive team because we couldn’t guard anybody. It felt like we were dummying offense every day. Now in the last month, that’s all got changed around a little bit. And we’re not doing it quite like we did. But we have some guys that are shot makers. We’ve got some guys at the end of the clock that, need be, that can improvise, they can do that. But we’ve got a good group of guys. We’ve had different guys in scrimmages. We’ve probably had five different guys that have scored over 25 points in a scrimmage, when we put it together. But it’s going to get back. I got a call yesterday from Alex Schwartz who asked me who we’re going to put down as our probable starters. I said I have no idea until after tomorrow’s practice. Because I’m going to watch film today, which I’ve watched a little bit of it flying over here. We’ll practice tomorrow, and I’m going to determine tomorrow. That’s how close these guys are in terms of 10 guys. There hasn’t been a lot of separation, which from a coaching standpoint, you’d wish there were some, but there hasn’t been. We could have a roster, a lineup that could change every game this season. Because we’re going to get to a certain point, if we need to use the bench to create that for the guys mentally, that motivation, that’s what we’ll do. So we do have the liberty to do that this year. We can go. I tell everybody, the team that we were able to take to the Final Four at Texas, we had nine guys that played over 10 minutes a game. Another two that played right at 10 minutes a game. And that team could really guard. They can do a lot of things, but they could really guard you. And this group offensively, yeah, we can score the ball. Again, we’re shooting the ball well. It could be great for us. But yet, our post guys are different than a year ago. We were bigger, bulkier. This year we’re quicker, faster. But in some ways we’re more physical because of the length on the perimeter. And so we’re still trying to put it together, I think, like everybody else. But at some point in time over these next three exhibition games we have, we hope we can figure out what we need to do night in and night out," Barnes said.

Rick Barnes on How Key Jalen Washington Would Be If He Was Ruled Eligible to Play This Season

“That's a great question. He changes our team. He changed our team once he came on campus. Because he and DeWayne Brown, for whatever reason, and it’s not something that we did as coaches, but when we break down individually, post, perimeter, those two guys went at each other. And they go at each other every day. And I keep asking the other guys, why won’t you guys do what these guys are doing? I mean, they are going at it. Jalen gives us a real physical presence. He’s improved so many other things with our team. So he is a difference maker. But if he’s not, when we started, we didn’t think we would have a fifth-year guy. We had one scholarship left. We were not going to give it to a high school player because we were already into the summer. So when the rule broke, what it is today, which I don’t like it, I don’t, but it is what it is. I don’t think the NCAA should have done what they did by announcing it when they did. If they had a way, we wouldn’t be in this situation. But now I think, in my honest opinion, if one (fifth-year) guy is eligible, they should all be eligible. And it won’t play out like that. Probably not. But the fact is, without him, we’re going to have to have more from Miles Rubin, Braedan Lue, those guys, and even a high school player, Chris Washington. We’re going to have to get something there. But with the versatility, we can swing Jalen Haralson there and play small ball. We actually, the other day, were playing with five guards. So there’s a lot of different ways we can go with it. But we really would like to have Jalen (Washington). And, again, I just hate that what’s going on with all this is going to hover over the basketball season. This is going to be a great year in college basketball, and we shouldn’t have any of that hovering over it right now. But it looks like he’s going to do it all year long," Barnes said.

Rick Barnes on Jalen Washington's Mindset While Holding Hope of Playing

“He’s been an absolute pro with it. He wants to play. He has been great in terms of every day he comes to work. Every single da. And he’s obviously preparing and we are preparing. If he does get to play, he plays. And we’re preparing if he doesn’t get to play. But the fact is, he’s handled it in a great way. And his presence already has made our team better. He’s made Dewayne Brown better. He’s made Miles Rubin better. He’s made Christian Fermin better. He’s made them all better because of his attitude and his approach to everyday at practice," Barnes said.

Rick Barnes on Justin Gainey Playing Tennessee, and His Thoughts on Him Taking the NC State Job

"Well, I am really thankful and blessed to spend the time that I was able to spend with Justin. You know, I coached against him when he was with NC State as a player from the time that he walked on to that campus, and I have just the upmost respect for him as a person. There's not a finer human being that you'll ever meet. Basketball-wise, it's really neat. He has worked with some terrific coaches through the years. He's always had a great basketball mind, great evaluator. He came in, and again, left our program better. And the fact is, NC State made a great hire in Justin. He's the kind of guy that I would want my son to play for. He's the kind of guy that is going to demand the most from the players. He's going to do what he does. He's very mature for his age in terms of already having a vision in terms of how he wants his teams to play, and he's going to do great. You know, you always hate going up against guys that know what we are going to try to do. I'm sure there's going to be similarities there, but the fact is I'm just ecstatic for him, because his dream job was to be the head coach at North Carolina State University, and for him to get that opportunity, I mean, he's a Wolfpack and always has been, and I'm just excited for him. But he definitely earned the job. He deserves to have a shot at it," Barnes said.

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