Rick Barnes doesn’t buy the easy storyline about his Tennessee teams.
For years, the outside view has been pretty simple: if you suit up for Barnes on Rocky Top, you’re signing up for defense first and everything else second. Tennessee’s track record has fed that image, with Zakai Zeigler and Yves Pons each winning SEC Defensive Player of the Year, Jahmai Mashack taking home National Defensive Player of the Year honors, and Grant Williams stacking back-to-back SEC Player of the Year awards while anchoring things on that end too.
But with Tennessee bringing in a wave of new faces this offseason, including several players known more for scoring than stopping, Barnes pushed back on the idea that the Vols are built by recruiting lockdown defenders.
Speaking at UT Media Day on Tuesday, Barnes called that notion “the biggest myth” around the program.
“Well, the biggest myth is that we recruit defensive guys. That’s not true,” Barnes said.
“I mean, in my lifetime - We were talking about it as coaches, we sat down the other night, we tried to name guys we knew that were going to be great defenders when they came to college. And all the guys we coached, we came up with about six.
And so I don’t think any guy, any of them, would come to college and think about knowing what it takes to be an elite defender. And we just seemed to recruit a lot of them this year at one time.”
Barnes pointed to former Vols as proof that defense is often developed, not simply discovered.
“I mean, I go back here, you had guys like Josiah James and Santiago Vescovi. Those guys weren’t defenders, but they turned into great defenders,” Barnes said.
“A guy like Jahmai Mashack, he was a defender coming in; Zakai Zeigler was a defender coming in. And so the majority of guys, 95 percent of them, are guys that they all think they are offensive players.
All of them do. But that’s our job as coaches.
We’ve got to teach them how to play the defense the way we want to play it. And some of it is obviously new to most of them.
But it’s just a progression you’ve got to keep trying to build.”
That’s the heart of Barnes’ point: Tennessee’s identity on defense has never been about only signing players who arrive already polished on that side of the floor. The program has made its name by teaching, developing and demanding, turning players into defenders over time.
Barnes said the standard for earning minutes hasn’t changed either. Defense, rebounding and taking care of the basketball remain the quickest route onto the floor.
“The easiest and best way to get on the court for young players is to play defense, rebound and take care of the basketball if they want to play,” Barnes said. “And I can go back to every team that we’ve ever had when young players come in or new players, and they will ask, what do I need to do to play?
What do I need to do to play? We tell them exactly what we told you six months ago.
And some of them pick it up quicker than others.”
There has been some offseason skepticism about how Tennessee’s defense will hold up with so many offensive-minded additions, but inside the program, that concern doesn’t seem to be taking root. Terrence Hill said the fit makes sense because the Vols know exactly who they are.
“I think it’s a great match,” Tennessee guard Terrence Hill said on Tuesday. “Us bringing a lot of offensive guys into the team, and just obviously the DNA of what Tennessee has always been on the defensive side.
The coaches have been on us every single day, saying we know we can score. We know what we can do on offense.
Defense is what’s going to win us a lot of games. And when it comes down to the stretch, defense and rebounding are what’s going to win those tight games when it comes to SEC play and further on to March.
I feel like everyone has bought in as far as what the coaches have been preaching to us and how much they get on us every day.”
Tennessee opens the regular season on Tuesday, Nov. 3, against Wofford in Knoxville.
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