Rick Barnes evaluates the development, comfort level of Tyreke Key

Rick Barnes and Tennessee are hopeful graduate transfer Tyreke Key can be a spark for the Volunteers this season, and he delivered last weekend in an exhibition game against Gonzaga.

Coming off the bench, Key led the team with 26 points in 27 minutes as the Tennessee defeated the Bulldogs 99-80. He also finished 4-of-7 from 3-point range while adding four rebounds and a pair of assists.

A few days later while speaking with reporters, Barnes talked about the role Key will play this season, saying the team wants him to handle some point guard duties despite playing shooting guard previously.

“Tyreke, from the time that he’s got here has impressed us with his character and who he is,” he said. “He’s an incredible worker. Second-to-none. He’s blended right in with what we do here and we watched him throughout the summer. He can really get going shooting the ball. He’s got deep, deep range.

“We decided to tell him, ‘You need to play a little bit of point here and see if you can do it,’ and he embraced it. It’s tough when you’re out there going against (Santiago Vescovi) and Zakai (Zeigler). We’re not surprised because we’ve seen him do some of the things that he did the other night. We’ve seen him get going in practices where he can really get it going.”

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Key spent the first five seasons of his college career playing for Indiana State, where earned back-to-back first team All-Missouri Valley Conference honors in 2019-20 and 2020-21. He sat out the entire 2021-22 season after undergoing shoulder surgery, and left ranked sixth on Indiana State’s all-time scoring list.

Now he is hoping to find the same success in his final collegiate season at Tennessee. Rick Barnes knows playing point guard will be a transition for Tyreke Key, but the exhibition was a perfect example of the value that he can bring this season.

“He’s not there yet in terms of being as vocal as he needs to be,” Barnes said. “He was defensively really good against Gonzaga doing some things that we hadn’t seen. He was flying around doing some of those defensive type plays and more vocal than normal. That’s something he’ll need to get better with.

“Again, the more comfortable he gets at understanding what that position calls for, because it is the hardest position to play on the court offensively, he’ll get there. He’s one of those guys always trying to figure out how to get better. He dreams like everyone playing at the highest level. For him to do that, he does what he has to do daily to improve on his skills.”

Key will look to carry over his success from the exhibition into Tennessee’s first regular season game against Tennessee Tech at 7 p.m. ET on Monday in Knoxville.