Vols Coach Rick Barnes Not Worried About Expectations Next Season

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Back in March the Vols basketball team claimed a share of the SEC regular season title for the first time in ten years. Not bad for a team that was picked to finish next-to-last in the conference. But head coach Rick Barnes knows the expectations will be different next season. Barnes joined the Big Orange Caravan tour Thursday night at the First Tennessee Pavilion in Chattanooga. Tennessee returns a lot of talent from last year’s team that made the second round of the NCAA tournament, so they won’t be picked 13th in the SEC next year.

Said Barnes:”We’re not going to let that be a distraction to us. I’ve said all year long, I never used being picked 13th as a motivational tool. I didn’t talk about it really at all. And I won’t talk about where we are picked in the pre-season wherever that might be. I’ll talk about what we can control every day. Are we willing to make a commitment to work hard every day.”