The question was lobbed to Rick Barnes Friday afternoon at Pratt Pavilion and the Tennessee basketball head coach didn’t miss. What did he not like about the closed-door scrimmage his Vols had against Davidson last Sunday?
“A little bit of everything in terms of consistency,” said Barnes, ever the perfectionist with his basketball team.
It was the first game-like setting for this new-look Tennessee roster, the one that lost four players to the NCAA Transfer Portal, added four new players out of the portal and returns six scholarship players from last season.
Up Next: No. 12 Tennessee vs. No. 17 Indiana, Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, SEC Network+
If nothing else, it was a starting point against outside competition, after the Vols spent all spring, summer and fall working against each other.
“What we talk about,” Barnes said, “(is) trying to really execute the fundamentals of the game. Whether it’s passing, fighting for your space on the court, rebounding both ways. Defensively, early in gaps, get there. Doing your job, doing your work early.
“I certainly don’t want us to be the best we’re going to be right now, but we just know that each day now you’ve got to continue to build on the areas that we’re continuing to get better with.”
The biggest addition for Tennessee over the offseason was North Florida transfer guard Chaz Lanier. The Nashville native was college basketball’s most efficient scorer last season, averaging 19.5 points per game on 16.3 possessions per game, averaging 1.20 points per possession.
A scorer is exactly what the Vols needed, trying to fill the void left by Dalton Knecht after his one-and-done season at Tennessee. Knecht averaged 21.7 points per game and 25.5 points per game in SEC play on his way to being named SEC Player of the Year and a Consensus First Team All-American.
‘He wants to do it. There’s no question about that.’
But when Barnes was asked about Lanier on Friday — what did he not like from Lanier in the Davidson scrimmage? — he didn’t have the same critiques as he had for the Vols as a whole.
“There’s nothing really I didn’t like,” Barnes said. “After games like that, you look at the things they can improve on and as long as the effort’s being made we can deal with that. And I thought he tried to make the effort that we’re asking (him) to do.”
It was a good starting point for Lanier, like it was for his teammates.
“(He’s) still learning the system where he has got to be and the extra winning plays you got to make, some of that’s new to him, but he wants to do it. There’s no question about that.”
