Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes loves playing preseason exhibition games. In fact, he wishes the Vols could play five of them, because they teach teams a lot about themselves.
Xavier picked apart Tennessee's defense
, shooting 70.4% from the field and 57.1% from 3-point range in the second half during an 86-70 win on Oct. 15. Barnes was less concerned with the loss itself and more worried with how the Vols played."That’s why we love playing those teams, because we do want to get exposed in these exhibition games," Barnes said on Oct. 19. "If you win, you win. But I’d rather get exposed more than winning a basketball game right now. Because as much as we harp on these things, sometimes it takes exposure like that to really grab their attention.”
The No. 9 Vols play No. 2 Duke for a final exhibition game on Oct. 20 (7 p.m. ET, ACC Network) at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. And there's still a lot to fix.
Against Xavier, the Vols didn't communicate on defense, didn't execute key parts of the game plan, weren't sound fundamentally and allowed their inability to guard affect the offense.
But Barnes says there are easily identifiable solutions to what went wrong against the Musketeers. It's all a matter of getting the team's 13 new players to mesh with one another and understand how the small details can have a major impact.
"We’ve got some guys that simply are in a deny stance when they should be in a gap stance, just subtle things that they’ve got to get right ... certain things that we’ve got to do to make our defense work," Barnes said. "We’ve got to get everybody on the same page."
Barnes has little concerns the mistakes will be corrected. But the Vols need to start improving now, with an elite opponent next and the start of the regular season on Nov. 3 against Wofford.
"I think the way you get better is to play games and get exposed by other teams, play different ways," Barnes said. "But now we’ll see if our guys can grow from these games. I mean, we’ll see if we can make any growth from the other night because we know what we’ve got to fix."
Tennessee expects Tyler Lundblade, Jalen Washington won't play vs. Duke
The Vols will be shorthanded against the Blue Devils with Tyler Lundblade and Jalen Washington, who didn't play against Xavier, both unavailable, according to Barnes.
Lundblade, a transfer guard from Belmont and UT's best 3-point shooter, continues to make progress after undergoing back surgery in August. He started practicing without limitations before the Xavier game, but still has to get back into game shape.
“Yeah, he’s getting back," Barnes said. "I mean, if you guys watch practice, he’s out there with us, but he’s on a timetable where the doctors want to make sure he’s slowly building back into it.”
Meanwhile, Washington hit another road block in his eligibility lawsuit against the NCAA on Oct. 16. The Davidson County Chancery Court denied his request for review of the stay on a temporary injunction that had initially made him eligible to transfer to Tennessee and play this season. He will only be eligible again if he wins his lawsuit.
Barnes is optimistic that Washington will be made eligible at some point this season, so the 6-foot-10 transfer from Vanderbilt continues to practice and prepare for a return to college basketball.
"We think he will be eligible to play. We think it will happen, but until then, he’s going at it," Barnes said. "But his attitude’s great. He’s getting better. And I’m sure he’s frustrated inside. He hasn’t said that to me, but he has to be, because he knows he’d like to have a chance to play. And it feels like he deserves that chance.”
Stephen Thompson covers Tennessee Volunteers men's basketball. Email him at stephen.thompson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @stephenethom.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Rick Barnes was happy to see Tennessee basketball get 'exposed' in exhibition
