Rick Barnes isn’t handing out Tennessee’s starting five just yet, and he’s not pretending otherwise.
With the Vols set for two preseason exhibitions over the next seven days, the lineup picture remains unsettled. Tennessee has plenty of new faces after bringing in the nation’s top-ranked transfer portal class and a highly touted high school recruiting class, but Barnes said Tuesday at SEC Tipoff ’27 that he still hasn’t settled on who will open Thursday’s exhibition against Xavier.
“I got a call yesterday from (Tennessee SID) Alex Schwartz, asked me who we were going to put down as our probable starters. I said I have no idea until after tomorrow’s practice,” Barnes said.
“I’m going to watch film today. I watched a little bit of it flying over here.
We’ll practice tomorrow and I’m going to determine tomorrow. That’s how close these guys are, in terms of 10 guys.
There hasn’t been a lot of separation. From a coaching standpoint, you wish there were some.
But there hasn’t been.”
That uncertainty goes beyond the preseason opener. Barnes said Tennessee may keep changing its starting group as the season unfolds, depending on performance, practice habits and availability.
“We could have a lineup that could change every game this season,” Barnes continued on to say. “Because we’re going to get to a certain point, if we need to use the bench to create that, the guys mentally, that motivation, that’s what we’ll do. So we do have the liberty to do that this year.”
The Vols have no shortage of candidates. Juke Harris, Terrence Hill, Tyler Lundblade and Dai Dai Ames all arrived with the kind of production that makes them look like legitimate starters. The frontcourt is just as murky, with Miles Rubin, DeWayne Brown, Jalen Haralson and possibly Jalen Washington all in the mix.
Barnes pointed to last year’s Texas team as an example of how a season can take shape over time.
“I tell everybody, the team that we were able to take to the Final Four at Texas, we had nine guys that played over 10 minutes a game,” Barnes said. “Another two that played right at 10 minutes a game.
And that team could really guard. They could do a lot of things, but they could really guard you.
And this group offensively, yeah, we can score the ball. Again, we’re shooting the ball well.
It could be great for us. But yet, our post guys are different than a year ago.
We were bigger, bulkier. This year we’re quicker, faster.
But in some ways we’re more physical because of the length on the perimeter. And so we’re still trying to put it together, I think, like everybody else.
But at some point in time over these next three exhibition games we have, we hope we can figure out what we need to do night in and night out.”
There have already been a couple of outside guesses on the projected starting five. In May, Rocky Top Insider projected Terrence Hill, Tyler Lundblade, Juke Harris, Jalen Haralson and Miles Rubin. Then in June, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein went with Terrence Hill, Dai Dai Ames, Juke Harris, Jalen Haralson and Miles Rubin.
The wrinkle now is Jalen Washington, who was not in those early projections and is still waiting to see if he’ll be eligible for the Vols this season.
For now, Tennessee’s answer will come the old-fashioned way: on Thursday night.
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The setting should feel as big as the stakes, with Neyland Stadium already sold out and fans expected to pour in early for a rare chance to make a long Saturday of it. Tennessee is also sweetening the game-day experience with half-price concessions for the first hour after gates open, which figures to help fuel the kind of atmosphere the Vols hope to ride once the broadcast lights move from campus to the stadium. [Read more 🡒]