Rick Barnes reveals why Victor Bailey Jr. elected not to go through senior day

When Tennessee held its senior night March 5, Victor Bailey Jr. didn’t take part in the ceremonies. Afterward, Rick Barnes explained why.

Bailey hasn’t played a big role for the Volunteers in his second season since transferring from Oregon. He’s played in 29 games and averages 2.9 points per game this season. In 27 games last year — including 12 starts — he averaged 10.9 points per contest.

In his postgame press conference, Barnes told reporters why Bailey wasn’t part of the festivities.

“We discussed everything with him,” Barnes said. “He still has another year left and he’s not sure. He’ll have options if he wants to. We hope he’ll always be a part of the program. But as you know, with the rules today, he can choose to go somewhere else and play.

“One way or the other, we love him. His teammates love him. … But we’re in a [day] where there’s options for players. Like I said, we love VJ, we’d love him to be a part of our program. But he chose he didn’t want to do it.”

Rick Barnes breaks down if playing top teams is advantage heading into SEC Tournament

Tennessee men’s basketball put together a successful regular season – compiling a 23-7 overall record with a 14-4 mark in SEC play to earn the No. 2 seed for the SEC Tournament. Coming into the postseason with nine wins in their last 10 outings, the Volunteers look to be a legitimate postseason contender.

While Tennessee is on a row heading into March Madness, the Volunteers’ wins to close the regular season didn’t come against weak opponents by any means. Instead, Rick Barnes’ club had to face off with teams such as Kentucky, Auburn and Arkansas – and they were able to find ways to win.

With the regular season in the books, Tennessee’s full attention is now on making a run this postseason – and Barnes made that clear. During his postgame press conference Saturday following the Volunteers’ win over Arkansas, the head coach was asked if playing the top teams in the SEC late in the regular season is an advantage heading into tournament time.

“It seems like it’s been forever since we’ve played Arkansas, and it was just a few weeks ago, I think,” Barnes said. “The season runs together so much and you really are just thinking day-to-day with it. I think if you go back and look, the way that we started the season – we had to go to LSU and Alabama, two teams that were picked up there. Then, Auburn puts together a great season and Arkansas, they’ve done a terrific job. It’s been hard – I can tell you. I think we’ll learn a lot – and we need to.”