Rick Barnes previews Tennessee Basketball's exhibition game against Duke

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes met with reporters Friday afternoon to preview the sold-out exhibition game against Duke on Sunday night (7 Eastern Time, ESPN2) at Food City Center:

Having a sold-out exhibition against Duke

“Well, I love it, man. I think players do. I think most coaches do. And I think most of us really would love to have more of them. We’ve practiced for a long time in the summer months and into the fall. And I just think they benefit all of us. Last weekend against Ohio State, obviously in a closed session, was great for both teams. We both came into it with an agenda and we were able to get out of it what we wanted to. And obviously this is different in front of a great crowd here at Food City Center and certainly a great opponent, a young Duke team that’s extremely well coached. Jon (Scheyer) always has done a great job since he’s taken over that great program and we’re excited about it. And I’m sure we’re excited to see somebody else, too.”

If he knows Tennessee’s starters for the Duke game 

“Not yet. I think after today’s practice we’ll get closer to it. And it’s right there. I mean, with this group, I could tell you there’s probably eight guys that we could consider (starters). And a lot of it will be based on where we think some of the guys have been out a little bit, where they are from an injury standpoint. They’re all ready, but some of them aren’t 100% yet, so we’ll decide after today probably.”

How the Duke exhibition game came about

“Well, again, we reach out. There’s a lot of different ways that you think about doing these exhibitions. Obviously you can have them both open to the public. And we thought we had a couple of different things. I mean, there’s some things going on within our league, where the league’s talking about, like, when we go down and play Alabama football on a Friday night, we would scrimmage Alabama. And teams that you know that your football teams are going to play you every year, that’s been a discussion in the league that. Again, I’m good with it. I think a lot of coaches in the league are. But then if you don’t do that, we thought we were going to have a scrimmage against Michigan and that fell through right at the end. But, you know, Gregg Polinsky is in charge of our scheduling and he does a great job. And word gets out there that teams are looking for different programs to play. And him being on top of it, we got into conversation with him and we went back and forth, where it was going to be played and ended up deciding to come here, which obviously our fans are excited. I was told it sold out in three days. But sometimes things just pop up a little.”

His reaction to seeing Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello taking the San Francisco Giants job

“Well, I love Tony. I’m gonna really miss him. And he did one of the great building jobs. I mean, what he did here in a short time to turn this program around and take it to a national championship. And I know what he went through. I can think back to when I was somewhere in that age where I had the opportunity to go to a couple of different places, but never had the chance to make a jump from college to the professional league like he did. Being the first coach, it’s unbelievable. And I’m sure the emotions that he went through were wide, very hard, because I know that he loved what he had built here and what he had going. I know that when something like that comes, when you have a chance to go do something that’s never been done and with one of the great franchises ever. But it’s, to me, you think about the lifestyle change. He goes from what, playing 60 some games to 160 some with a couple months I guess down in Florida before that gets started. 

“Obviously leaving here, going to California is all different, but I can assure you that when he met with his team and he left them, it was very emotional. And because when you change, it’s tough. But you guys know how I always feel like God has a plan for all of us and his plan that this is where Tony is right now. But I think we all look at what Tony did and you applaud him. It’s incredible.

“But I can also tell you that all this stuff that goes around, people try to break it down and diagnose what went on here. So many people read into things that aren’t there. I mean, the bottom line is he had a chance to leave the University of Tennessee and go to the San Francisco Giants. And it’s not like he’s going to another university. That’d be something that I think you could talk about, but the fact is, I can tell you from my position, being here on this campus and the administration that we have here from Randy Boyd to Donde Plowman and to Danny White — it’s the best in the country. It’s not even close. 

“I’ve never seen people align like they are. And I do know this, Danny has given every one of us what we need to compete at the highest level to give us a chance to play for the national championships in our sport. And if he hasn’t done it, I can assure you he’s trying to do it. And with that said, because I did hear that people jumped on Danny about it, I just know how hard he’s worked to try to put us where we need to be. I do know this university, this program, and when you’re in a position where you have to make decisions that affect people’s wallet, when you talk about raising prices and this and that. I mean, he knows what’s going on and does he want to do it? I can only tell you that people that had seats, I feel them saying, we signed a deal where I was supposed to be able to do this forever. I don’t know if it was a passed down deal, grandfather deal, but all the people that were there, and I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and ask me about it, what can I do? I can’t do anything. And I know this, Danny would do anything he can, but with that said, when you walk down in the arena today and see what they’ve done underneath to provide the kind of amenities that he felt that people should get when they pay the money they pay, the upgrades and all that. I just know it’s a tough job. I mean, it’s a tough job.

“I’ve said before, I don’t think anyone on this campus has a harder job than Josh Heupel. You look at what he’s doing right now, when you talk about (revenue) share, all this, all that that we’re going through, you know, we don’t know. We’re all trying to figure it out, too, but I’m just glad that we do have the leadership here that’s going to stay on top of it and give us a chance to compete at the highest level.”

What he’s going to miss most about having Tony Vitello around

“Well, I loved his enthusiasm. I mean, I love him. I love him. He was around. I loved the fact he’d come over here and wear his Zakai Zeigler jersey and, you know, the fan base, everyone fell in love with him because everyone loves a guy that comes in and goes about his business the way he did to build a championship team and program. I hope he wins a World Series. I do. I’d love to see him do that, obviously. But Tony is a baseball guy. I mean, I don’t know there’s a better sport in the world that you can do until you’re forever old, get out and hit fungo and all that stuff. He’ll be missed because he came in here and did what he was hired to do and put himself in position — a professional franchise thought it was worth taking him as a first collegiate coach to ever do that. 

Where sophomore guard Ethan Burg is at in his transition to Tennessee after two months

“Getting better, getting more and more settled in, understanding what he needs to do. Just learning. I mean, again, he hasn’t had 20 practices yet, but he’s not disappointed in any way. He’s just continued to settle in with what he needs to do.”

What he’s most interested in learning about this Tennessee team against Duke

“Trust. Can we trust guys to do what we practice? Can we trust guys to understand our game plan? Can we trust them coming out of a timeout? Can we execute those situations? Can we start developing some level of consistency? And hopefully we’ve improved from a week ago. We made a lot of mistakes in the Ohio State scrimmage that we worked on and corrected and things that we shouldn’t have made. But we’ll see if we’ve improved from that game in terms of communication and just doing a better job with some details.”

How much better of a player Ja’Kobi Gillespie is because of his path from Belmont to Maryland to Tennessee

“Ja’Kobi a terrific player, obviously. Going to Belmont where he was extremely well coached, Maryland really well coached, going in from Belmont there to becoming an All-Big 10 player I think speaks volumes about him personally to his commitment, his work ethic. Since being here, he has given us more than we probably would expect. I mean, terrific teammate. Got to get more boisterous on the court, talking and we keep talking about that with him. But he, Felix (Okpara) certainly have probably put in more reps than anybody from the time that we started. But he’s versatile and each day he keeps showing us a little bit more things that he can do that we have to continue to implement in what we’re trying to get done.”