Tennessee Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes watches during the second half of a game against the Houston Cougars on Sunday, March 30, 2025, during the Elite Eight round of the NCAA March Madness tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Houston defeated Tennessee 69-50. Christine Tannous/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Everything Tennessee Basketball HC Rick Barnes Said Following Exhibition with Duke Basketball

Originally posted on Tennessee Volunteers on SI
By Dale Dowden | Last updated Oct 27, 2025 12:41 AM ET

The No. 6 Duke Blue Devils traveled to Knoxville for an exhibition game vs. No. 18 Tennessee Volunteers on Sunday night.

The Vols was fall short as Duke would leave with an 83-76 win over the home team.

Rick Barnes would join the waiting press following the contest to field rapid fire questions from reporters.

What Did Coach Rick Barnes Learn About the Team

“What I like, we went up against a really good team, one of the best players in the country, and he did it. He was terrific. Cameron Boozer, what can you say about him? 24 points, 23 rebounds. I thought our guys, I do think coming into this game, I do like the preparation. I knew it was going to be new for a bunch of them. I appreciate Jon (Scheyer) and Duke doing this. I think we will both learn tremendously. We’ll learn a lot about this, about ourselves. I thought both teams really competed. Physical game this time of year. I think they wanted to come and play against a physical team. I thought they did a great job of being physical. I thought we were not as physical as we were a year ago. We got to get there. We do need to get there. We’re not there yet.

“I did not like, I didn’t think we executed. I thought we let our offense dictate what happened on the defensive end. Guys came out and they were making shots, got away, gave up way too many baskets on things that we covered in practice. Give them credit. They are long on the primer. They got guys that can pass the ball. Big team, long team. And we didn’t do a good job with ball pressure overall. Do I think we tried to fight and do what we need to do? We did, but we can’t get beat on the glass the way we did. That’s been a major emphasis in the off-season.

"Give them credit for that. Then the free throws. I mean, think about it. They were 25-for-27 and we were 10-for-14. We should have been better than that, but we just settled for some shots that weren’t good shots. And I thought that was being young a little bit, just wanting to hope you make a shot. Then we let the fact that certain guys let the offense get in their head, and we weren’t effective defensively. Everything can be fixed, but we’ve got to do that.

“Also, I didn’t think we were great coming out the timeout. Executing some of the things that we wanted to do. Then we had a couple lineups there that we just want to see what could happen and just try to learn some things about our team. It was great for us. I think Jon will say the same thing, and they have a terrific team. I love these games. I think it’s really important we get a chance to do this, but we’ve got a lot to learn from it. We’ll see if we can do it really," Barnes detailed.

Click HERE to watch and listen to everything Rick Barnes said.