Tuesday night inside Food City Center, Rick Barnes and No. 8 Tennessee men’s basketball will officially open the 2026-27 season. The Volunteers will host Wofford at 6 p.m. ET, and the game will air on SEC Network.

Tennessee has already felt the growing pains of building on-court chemistry. Also, the Volunteers have found that what Barnes has harped on all offseason is true. You have to learn to play good defense and can’t shoot your way to a successful season.

However, after two tough exhibitions against Xavier and No. 2 Duke, Tennessee reportedly had a better day in a closed scrimmage against Davidson on Oct. 24. Thursday afternoon, we heard from Barnes at Pratt Pavilion ahead of the season-opening tip. Below is everything he had to say.

Miles played well against Davidson. How has he built on that in practice this week?

“I think they’re all, including Miles obviously, I think they are starting to get more and more of an idea of what consistency is all about, and that you’re not going to be able to just flip the switch when game time comes. And trying to come up every day and continue to build on what he did. I think it was probably a good confidence builder for him. But we need him, like all of them, to keep grinding and keep getting better back in practice.”

Has Juke Harris practiced this week?

“Yeah, he’s practiced. Once we've been back, he's practiced.”

Is Juke good for the opener?

“Oh yeah. I think everybody right now is good to go.”

Is Terrence Hill Jr. back?

“Terrence hasn’t, but I think he’ll probably be back with us today, doing some. I saw he was starting to do stuff on the court with Chad and Garrett the last couple of days."

How has Juke embraced the need to rebound better?

“He certainly has made that effort in practice. But it’s not just Juke. It’s all of our guards in particular. We’ve got to get more out of our guards from that area. In practice they have, but they’ve got to carry it over.”

How has the team responded to the message that it’s a long way from where it needs to be after the preseason?

“We’ve shown it to them, but sometimes you’ve got to live it. You’ve got to go through it and live it. And the way they responded has been good. I thought we were a much different looking team against Davidson. We have the utmost respect for Davidson, and that was without two guys playing. But the fact is, it’s all new to them. As coaches, we knew that with 13 new players, with Troy missing pretty much the whole summer and DeWayne being the only person back.

"The great thing about it is we know we’ve got the ability to be a lot better basketball team. Sometimes you need to get skinned up a little bit to get your attention. You don’t want that to happen, but you need to. That’s why I love those exhibition games, because you can do so much with them to try to get some points across. Sometimes it takes getting burnt before you figure out you’ve got to do something about it.”

How different does the team look with Tyler Lundblade on the court?

“I’ve had so many people comment to me about how he was even at the Duke game. He was talking to the team, and that did translate to the game Saturday against Davidson. His leadership is experience. He’s been through it. It’s not about Tyler. He knows that our team needs that. When he played Saturday, it’s just different because of him being vocal. One thing he does, he really encourages his guys. He’s been around the game. He knows more than just basketball, and he understands the mental side of it.”

Was facing outside competition a big step in his return?

“He did a terrific job Saturday for a guy that hadn’t played at all. He did a lot of things, but it was probably leadership as much as anything for him to step out there. Even the way he’s been out, he’s been very active on the sideline. He’s a great encourager with those guys, trying to get them to understand, because he’s been in the game a long time. So that part of it was good, and we’ve had some good work since then.”

Are you more patient with Terrence this early, knowing how much the team will rely on him?

“He didn’t play against Davidson either, and he saw that Troy and Dai Dai [Ames] and Jalen Haralson did a lot of good things. Guys are going to have to figure it out. Whether you use a game like Duke to try to make some points or a game Saturday, we have some guys that look like a basketball team, and those guys have to be a part of it. We know they can be. We know they want to be. But I’ve said to you guys before, they don’t know what they don’t know right now. This is a whole new system for all of them. Maybe we’re asking them to do things that in the past they weren’t asked to do. So it’s about them changing too, and understanding this is what this team needs from them.”

How does Lundblade change your offense, and how does his shooting affect opposing defenses?

“We got a lob in a game one time strictly because of him. His guy was staying hugged up to him, we lifted him on the backside and the lob was there. People aren’t going to give him much separation. They’re going to stay pretty close to him, so that really opens up the court to take advantage of that space. He knows how to play with it too. He’s an excellent screener. He knows when he’s being taken out. He moves extremely well without the ball. He’s not going to just stand there. He’s very active moving.”

Will he be good to go against Wofford?

“Oh yeah. Unless something changes between now and then, he’s good.”

What did Lundblade give you defensively in the scrimmage?

“He’s solid. There’s certain guys that you expect to be high level defensive guys. Other guys, you’re looking for them to score the ball and things like that. But whatever role they’re in, we expect them all not to hurt you defensively. They might not be the guy you say we’re going to shut this guy down with, but on that end you just can’t hurt the team. He knows positioning. Is he going to be perfect there? None of them will ever be. But he understands what we’re trying to get done as a scheme.”

How impactful is it to already have a vocal leader identified?

“I think he’s going to help DeWayne. We feel Troy should be more vocal. He’s been here a year. But you get one guy going like that, it can be contagious. And we need other guys to have the spirit that he has.”

What do you know about Wofford?

“Not much. We always do these things three days out, and we’re still concerned about ourselves. But as you know, we prepare for every team the same way, whether it’s somebody in our league or whoever we’ve got early in the year.”

Beyond building defensively, what do you need to see against Wofford?

“Whether we’re taking on Wofford or anyone else, we’ve got to guard the ball better. We’ve got to do a better job with closeouts. Obviously, we’ve got to rebound the ball better. But when you have as many new players as we had, we knew it would be a work in progress. I went back, as I do every year, and watched how we were as a team this time last year, and last year’s team at this time wasn’t very good either.

"We were getting blown by. Mercer came in and drove the ball at us and got it where they wanted to get it. We turned the ball over, didn’t do the things we wanted to do, just taking quick shots. That’s the beauty of this game. We’re just getting started. If we keep the right attitude that we’re going to continue to get better, we’ll find a way to get better.”

Can this year’s post players provide the rim protection Felix Okpara and Cade Phillips did early last season?

“We’ve blocked some shots. Miles had one in the game Saturday where he ran the distance and made a great play. But we’re longer on the wings. I mean Nate was, obviously when he was out there, we were longer, overall. We think we should get that from some of our perimeter players, not just our post players. Like last year, at this time we were not a very good lob threat team offensively.

"We got better with that, and obviously Felix was terrific. But you go back and watch him the first part of last year, he was struggling. So they’re all still trying to find their way, and again, it’s all about getting better. With this group, we think we’ve got some guys that can block shots. We don’t have an identity yet. Once we get that, that should be a part of it.”

You said the team looked like a team Saturday. What made you say that?

“Moving the ball. Very few bad shots. That gave us a chance to rebound the ball better. We’ve been scrimmaging Davidson for 25 years plus, and that game has always been a great one for us because we’re very similar in what we like to get done, and I think they do it better. We always learn something from it.

"They did some things, like posting our guards, that we needed to see. We really moved the ball, and the effort was really there. We’re getting closer to understanding. We just don’t have that bite yet, that we’re going to do more than just be where we need to be. Now we’re going to make a play. That will be the next step.”

What do you make of Dalton Knecht getting a fresh start with a new team?

“I’m excited for Dalton because I think he needed a new start. I know he loves basketball, and I really do believe they’ll pour into him. I think a fresh start for him is what he needed, and I think he’ll make the most of it. Mike Brown and his staff will do a great job. He’s just got to rebuild his mindset to be the kind of player that he knows he is. But he’s going to have to do his part, and I’m sure they’ll do their part.”

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