Tennessee basketball is just five days away from opening up its 2025-26 season against Mercer at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. It’s the 11th-year of the Rick Barnes era at Tennessee as the veteran head coach looks to keep the Volunteer program rolling.
It’s an offseason full of turnover for Tennessee. The Vols return just four scholarship players from last season’s team. Gone are program stalwarts Zakai Zeigler, Jordan Gainey and Jahmai Mashack while a number of new pieces make up the Vols’ roster this season.
Barnes went one-on-one with Rocky Top Insider’s Ryan Schumpert two weeks ago at SEC Media Days in Birmingham. He discussed life without Zakai Zeigler, roster construction and much more. Here’s what Barnes had to say in the one-on-one conversation.
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Ryan Schumpert: “From a roster building standpoint, you guys have a lot more big men this year. Why was that a conscious effort from you guys?”
Rick Barnes: “Well, a lot, the last couple of years we haven’t really had an identity at all with an inside game. I don’t think anybody game planned for that as much even though we tried to work on it. We just thought we had to go there.”
Schumpert: “Those four guys, really five with DeWayne (Brown) seem to have very different skillsets. How much versatility can you have even in some of these two big lineups?”
Barnes: “I do think we’re different. Because a couple of those guys we can play on the perimeter as well. We really like them, what we call our fours and fives, to rotate. We don’t want to put them into one spot. So all of them can do that. But with Cade (Phillips), and we’ll even at some point in time I’m sure see Nate (Ament), depending on the lineup, play at that spot, it would look like that spot in a different way. That part of it, we are excited about the versatility. Now we just have to get production. The real key is going to be, can we make free throws? Because I think they’re going to get fouled a lot. The question is can they go up and make free throws.”
Schumpert: “From my standpoint, JP (Estrella) seems to have gotten a lot better. Is that rare for a player who has been rehabbing over the last year to make the strides that he’s made?”
Barnes: “Well he went at it with a lot of vengeance. He wanted to get back. Sitting out, I think it matured him in a lot of ways. I think he realized the potential he had. I think watching, he missed it. Which is a wonderful sign. That he found out he loved the game more than he even thought. He worked really really hard. He got himself in the best shape he’s ever been in and now it’s a matter of him transferring it over to the court.”
Schumpert: “You talked with Mike Keith a couple weeks ago about letting Felix (Okpara) shoot threes. Is that something all those big men will have a chance to do?”
Barnes: “Yeah, if they’re in the right time, right spot. If they’re open, because we work on that with them. They all have, at some point in time, the only one with an exception hasn’t done a lot with it yet is DeWayne. But he’s working at it. If it’s the right time, we don’t have a problem (with it).”
Schumpert: “Could you have asked for a better one year plug-and-play point guard than Ja’Kobi (Gillespie)?”
Barnes: “No. He has been tremendous. He’s been better than advertised. We’re excited about him because he’s shown so much. Great durability but a terrific teammate. Again, I’m excited because I think he’s just really getting started and as he continues to learn the system and the way it needs to go, he’ll just keep getting better-and-better.”
Schumpert: “In the past, you’ve talked about guys taking big steps as returners. I know it’s a small group but does anyone in that group stand out as (having) taken big strides this offseason?”
Barnes: “Well I thought they all really had. Some of them had to deal with injuries that go with the territory. But everyone of them, they’ve shown that they’re better than they were a year ago.”
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Schumpert: “Have any of the freshmen surprised you?”
Barnes: “DeWayne Brown. He was a player that we knew we loved him. We knew we wanted him to be a part of our program but we weren’t sure how fast he would come along. But he’s probably been the biggest surprise.”
Schumpert: “How different is his body from the time he’s committed to now?”
Barnes: “Well it’s different. He comes out of a terrific high school program (Hoover High School). Really well coached. He’s got great instincts and a lot of things that coaches love. He’ll still going through the growing pains of being a freshman with it. But he’s worked hard and, again, every year you have someone surprise you and he’s been the biggest surprise.”
Schumpert: “How mature is (Louisiana Tech transfer) Amaree Abram in knowing what you all want from him? In knowing how he can help this team?”
Barnes: “He’s mature. I think with Amaree, his biggest deal is going to be his consistency. What can we— I think that with all these guys that are coming in with one year trying to learn a system and know what we expect. Consistency is the key word.”
Schumpert: “Where is Troy Henderson at? He seems like a talented offensive player.”
Barnes: “Troy has come in and we love everything about him. His demeanor and everything about him. He would be one of those guys that has a little bit surprised us because the fact that he’s willing to compete. He and DeWayne are typical freshmen who are going to learn a lot here in the first part of the season, for certain. But we’re happy with him. We’re happy with our freshmen class. We think we really did well with that class.”
Schumpert: “What excited you the most about this team?”
Barnes: “I would say, when you bring in as many people as we did, you wonder how the locker room is going to be and the way we like to do things. We didn’t want to lose any of that. I think the older guys and the coaching staff have done a terrific job letting them know how we like things done and they’ve rolled right into it. We’ve been able to keep that part of it going and now we need to just show the production on the court.”
Schumpert: “I know you all want to get better everywhere, but is there an area that you’re concerned about right now? Where y’all should be further along?”
Barnes: “I don’t think we’re anywhere near where we have to be defensively. Offensively, I like to think we’re going to get better, but we’re not where we have to be, anywhere near where we’ve been defensively in the past. We’ve got so many younger guys and it takes some time with that. So we need to get that caught up quick.”
Schumpert: “How important is Felix, his voice and obviously his production, to getting where y’all want to be defensively?”
Barnes: “Felix is. He’s a much more confident player. What he does defensively, he anchors it all for us. But you got Fe, you got JP, you got Cade— we’ve got shot blockers back there and those guys like doing that, but you mentioned his voice. We need their voice.”
