No. 9 Tennessee (1-0) opened its 2026-27 basketball regular season on Tuesday. The Vols defeated Wofford (0-1), 90-59, at Food City Center.

Tuesday marked the beginning of Rick Barnes' 12th season as Tennessee's head coach. He discussed the Vols' season-opening win after the game.

"We were playing a good basketball team, and, you know, they run good stuff," Barnes said. "They're well coached and they've got some quickness. They have some size and we knew that we'd have to guard and I do think from our point of view, we had some guys a little bit uptight, which you would expect, but you know when we had a chance to maybe get a little bit more separation we had some breakdowns defensively and left really scout report breakdowns, but and they're they're a good basketball team. And uh

"The second half, I just thought that we got out-played more sort of wide open. I thought when Terrence (Hill Jr.) came in the game, he started getting the ball even though he didn't shoot it well. You know, he got the ball in the gut of that defense and some good things started happening. Dwayne Brown 17 and 17, by far, you know, his best game and Dwayne has struggled up to this point, you know, our exhibition season, but I thought he was terrific tonight. Juke (Harris), we started again, I've told people I'm not sure who all, I'm not concerned about starting lineups. I'm more concerned about how we finish games, but Juke started the second half had I thought played great. He was a plus 29 in the game, which I thought was really, obviously good, and I thought defensively he really, really worked hard and that's what we're still trying to get that mentality defensively where we can guard. We started rebounding the ball, we went at it with a lot more force in the second half, but overall there are some good moments for everyone. Tyler (Lundblade), certainly, when he was in the Davidson scrimmage that was his first time out and he had had a calming effect on everybody and I thought he did that tonight. Once we got out and got stops, rebounded, things started working and that's what it takes, and you know, I'd like to see us have more offensive rebounds, but I don't know what we shot as an overall team last year, but tonight we shot 52% and there's not obviously as many offensive rebounds, but overall after we got settled in it was the kind of a game, you know, we expect. I mean, we I didn't think we're going to come out here and beat Wofford by 30 points in the first half because they're too well coached and they got they got good players, but we stayed with it and we got better as the game went on."

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