Photos: Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee has been stuck on the doorstep long enough. Three straight Elite Eights and still no Final Four. That gets old. You watch the same story every March. Close. Tough. Respected. And then sent home one game short again.
This year feels different.
Rick Barnes flipped the whole roster and he did it for a reason. Almost everybody who scored for them last year is gone. In their place he went out and got real buckets. Juke Harris averaged over 21 a night at Wake Forest and can take a game over when he gets going. Terrence Hill can create and shoot it. Dai Dai Ames brings scoring. Tyler Lundblade stretches the floor. These aren’t just guys hoping to fit in. These are players who have produced and know how to put the ball in the basket.
The frontcourt got a boost too. Jalen Washington just came over from Vanderbilt after getting an extra year of eligibility. He’s 6 foot 10, physical, and put up almost 9 points and close to 6 rebounds a night last season while shooting it well around the rim. That’s another body who can bang and finish. He gives you the rim protector the team needed. Pair him with Dewayne Brown and the other bigs they brought in and the interior suddenly looks a lot more solid than it did a few weeks ago.
For years Tennessee has been physical and elite on the glass. That identity got them deep into the tournament over and over. What it never quite gave them was enough offense when the shots stopped falling or when a good defense took away the easy stuff. March is about surviving those nights. This roster finally looks like it can.
The defense isn’t going anywhere. Barnes doesn’t forget how to coach that end. They added length on the wings and now another experienced big who knows the SEC. The same nastiness that made them a pain to play is still the foundation. They’re just pairing it with more scoring this time.
People will say there’s too many new faces. New groups need time. But Barnes has shown he can get transfers ready to play his way pretty quick. He’s done it before. And after watching this program hit the same wall three years in a row, the hunger has to be different in that locker room. These guys know what the goal is around here and they know that it still hasn’t been accomplished.
There’s also the timing. Barnes isn’t getting any younger. The program has never been to a Final Four. The fan base is ready. The pieces on paper look like they can actually survive a tough region and still have something left. This combination doesn’t come around every year.
Tennessee doesn’t need to be perfect. They don’t need to run the table in the SEC or look like a finished product in November. They just need to be dangerous enough on both ends that one hot weekend in March finally gets them over the hump. The toughness is already there. The scoring should finally be there too. The coach who keeps getting them close is still on the sideline. This is the year it should break. The door has been cracked open long enough.
Somebody needs to kick it in.