Coach Rick Barnes has reshaped his Tennessee team’s roster and plans on taking a much more offensive-minded approach this campaign.
After a strong showing in last year’s NCAA Tournament, the No. 8 Volunteers will begin their season against Wofford on Tuesday night in Knoxville, Tenn.
In an up-and-down season, Barnes’ group went 25-12 overall and 11-7 in a very competitive Southeastern Conference that had another great showing.
With point guard Zakai Zeigler departing, Tennessee survived conference play with an 11-7 mark with Ja’Kobi Gillespie running the show.
It then beat Miami (Ohio), Virginia and No. 2 seed Iowa State as the No. 6 seed before eventually falling to national champion Michigan in a 95-62 Elite Eight rout.
In his 40th season as a head coach, including a dozen on Rocky Top, Barnes saw freshman sensation Nate Ament go to the NBA, while J.P. Estrella (Michigan), Jaylen Carey (Missouri), Cade Phillips (Texas A&M), Amari Evans (Texas) and Bishop Boswell (Maryland) transferred to other programs, many in the SEC.
Of the nine newcomers, seven scored in double figures last season, including five with over 15 points per game.
Former Wake Forest standout Juke Harris averaged 21.4 points and shot 44.4% from the field including 33.2% from long range and 78.3% at the line. He added 6.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals for the Demon Deacons.
“Juke Harris is extremely strong,” Barnes said. “I tell him all the time (but) he doesn’t realize it yet. He is strong, can really pass the basketball and is very unselfish, a little bit to a fault.
“He doesn’t want anyone to think that all he is, is a guy that’s going to shoot the ball. He wants to be more than that. He loves to pass it. There’s time where we need him to be more aggressive shooting it.”
The Salisbury, N.C., product needed help on playing better when his team does not have the ball.
That led him to east Tennessee and Barnes, who stresses a defense-first approach.
“I feel like I unlocked being mentally strong, being able to play through contact, being able to be a dog on the defensive end,” Harris said of the practices, which are extremely physical without any fouls being called. “I never thought I’d be decent on defense, but I’ve seen it develop and I feel like it’ll show this year.”
Wofford was 19-13 overall last season and 11-7 in the Southern Conference, good enough to earn a second-place tie with Mercer behind conference winner East Tennessee State.
However, the strong season ended on a sour note as the Terriers were shocked by No. 7 seed UNC Greensboro 75-72 in a quarterfinal matchup.
Second-year head coach Kevin Giltner, previously a former Virginia Tech and Terriers assistant, hosted former Wofford-now-Hokies legendary coach Mike Young in an exhibition game on Oct. 16.
“Really happy with our team,” said Giltner after his squad took the Atlantic Coast Conference school to the buzzer in a 78-76 loss to Virginia Tech. “I think we’ve got a deep team. … We’ve got tough kids, man. I was really happy with that.”
Freshman Cutter Sisk came off the bench and scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting with six rebounds, three assists and two steals.