Rick Barnes reveals first thoughts on Florida

Next up for Tennessee hoops in their quest for an SEC title is a road game against Florida. The Gators aren’t great this year but they’re a talented squad battling on the fringe of the NCAA Tournament. A home win over the nation’s No. 2 team would be an eye-catching feather in their cap come Selection Sunday. In other words: this is a huge opportunity for a Florida team that will be fired up at home. The Vols cannot afford to overlook this contest, and head coach Rick Barnes knows that well.

Following the big home victory over Texas this weekend, Barnes was already ready to move on to the Florida game, where he pointed out that the Gators have one of the toughest matchups in the SEC in big man Colin Castleton.

“Certainly, new coach that’s done a good job with his roster. A post player in (Colin) Castleton that is as effective as any guy in the country,” Barnes said Monday of the Gators, before outlining what they do on offense.

“They do a great job of playing through him and 40% of the game they’re going to play with guards and shoot a high percentage of three-point shots there. Going back to what I just said, transition defense. They’re going to look to get it up quick and to get that early kick out, bust out and look to shoot the three in transition so that’s going to be really really important obviously.”

As for Tennessee’s own offense, they could see several defensive schemes.

“But switching, they’ll mainly man but they’ll play some zone. They have some zone presses that they’ll run but they’re going to probably switch it one through four which we’ve seen a lot this year from a lot of different teams.”

Lastly, Barnes emphasized that his guys need to compete, because Florida is going to give them 40 minutes of hard-nosed ball.

“And they’re going to play hard, they’re going to compete. Extremely well coached. It’s hard to win, man. I don’t care where you are, what level you’re at, it’s hard to win basketball games and we know that it’s going to be hard to go to Gainesville, Florida and get a win. It’s hard but we have to be locked in and go one day at a time and get better today, tomorrow and go play.”

Big road test coming up for Tennessee and Rick Barnes.