Tennessee will play its second and final exhibition basketball game on Tuesday. The Vols will play at Duke and tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. EDT at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina (ACC Network).
Tennessee lost to Xavier, 86-70, at Food City Center on Oct. 15 in its first exhibition game.
"I told the coaches, because I think these guys have heard so much about how good offensive players they are, their scoring production, and all that, but we've been telling them all summer, you know, there's going to be nights like tonight when we score, what, 70 points," Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said after the Xavier game. "I mean, we did that last year with guys that weren't offensively productive, but the fact is, on nights when you don't
shoot the ball well, if you're a good basketball team, you're going to find a way to win the game defensively. Once we hit a little bit of adversity, where they scored on us because of bad offense, it really got even worse because of really, really poor defense, and some of this, I'll be honest with you, you couldn't dream of.
"I mean, you don't let somebody run by you to get a layup, all those kinds of things, but it's good. I told the guys, I said, maybe now you'll realize what we've been harping on since you guys have been here. We're going to have to learn to guard at a high rate. In the first half, we thought we'd be a little jittery, which we were. Dwayne (Brown II) missed some shots at the rim that I think he'll make, and free throws. We really could have gotten out ahead, which maybe would have changed our psyche a little bit, but that might have been a little bit of false confidence or whatever. I like the way it played out when they came back and got into the game. When they came back with an 11 or 12-point run, I don't think we responded well. We thought we were going to outscore them, took too many bad shots, and they got too much stuff at the rim. We came out of timeouts talking about things we weren't going to give up, and then we gave them up. We've got to listen better, but now maybe they realize that we're not going to score our way to wins. Xavier, you know, Richard (Pitino) does a great job with this team. I mean, it was good for us. I told the coaches that if we're going to get beat, I hope they really beat us so maybe we can really get their attention."
The preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll was released Monday. The Vols are ranked No. 9.
2026-27 preseason USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll
Others receiving votes
Nebraska 66; UCLA 64; Missouri 60; Ohio State 31; North Carolina 24; Texas A&M 19; Villanova 14; Indiana 9; Wisconsin 5; Saint Louis 4; Cincinnati 4; West Virginia 2; Creighton 2; Maryland 1; Auburn 1
List of voters
The USA TODAY Sports Board of Coaches is made up of 30 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The board for the 2026-27 season: John Becker, Vermont; Jeff Boals, Ohio; Matt Braeuer, Stephen F. Austin; Pat Chambers, Florida Gulf Coast; Scott Drew, Baylor; Dan Earl, Chattanooga; A.W. Hamilton, Eastern Kentucky; Alan Huss, Creighton; Donte’ Jackson, Alabama A&M; Ben Jacobson, Utah State; James Jones, Yale; Greg Kampe, Oakland; Eric Konkol, Tulsa; Brad Korn, Southeast Missouri State; Anthony Latina, Sacred Heart; Shantay Legans, Portland; Jim Les, UC Davis; Luke Loucks, Florida State; Nick McDevitt, Middle Tennessee; Mike McGarvey, Lafayette; Dan Monson, Eastern Washington; Chris Mooney, Richmond; Mike Morrell, UNC Asheville; Andy Newman, Cal State Northridge; Nate Oats, Alabama; Matt Painter, Purdue; Paul Sather, North Dakota; Patrick Sellers, Central Connecticut State; Zach Spiker, Drexel; Stan Waterman, Delaware State.
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This article originally appeared on Vols Wire: Tennessee basketball ranked top 10 in USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll
