Rick Barnes: Tennessee players deserve all the credit for reaching Sweet 16

The Tennessee Volunteers are back in the Sweet 16 this March. It’s a third season in a row getting this deep under head coach Rick Barnes in the NCAA Tournament and actually the first time in program history that the Volunteers made the Sweet 16 in three consecutive seasons.

After beating UCLA to get to this round again, Barnes took time to reflect on the accomplishment. In doing so, he insisted that it’s the Tennessee players first and foremost who deserve credit for this deep run.

“Again, I just thank God for Him bringing us all together, for one,” Rick Barnes said. “Because we have half a new team, sorta, kinda this year, but it goes back to Zakai [Zeigler] and Jahmai [Mashack], and certainly Jordan [Gainey] has become a part of that core group, and they do come in. I’m glad a year ago that Cade [Phillips] got some time to play. It goes back to leadership with our players. They deserve all the credit. They want to be coached, they know what we as a coaching staff expect from them every day and they know we’re going to try to be as consistent as we can doing our jobs and we want them to do that. It’s just a great testament to these guys that they really do like each other. They care, and they love our fan base.”

In the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Tennessee beat UCLA in a defensive effort. The Bruins were held to just 58 points in the game, shooting 37 percent from the field. Tennessee had its own issues on offense, scoring 67 points and turning the ball over 18 times. However, 11 for 22 shooting from three-point range helped lift the Volunteers. Chaz Lanier led the way in scoring with 20 points while Zakai Zeigler and Jordan Gainey were both in the double digits for scoring.

“Obviously, it’s great being here and having a lot of — we’ve got the best fan base in the country and we believe that. Everybody says it, we truly believe it. These guys want to represent our university in the right way,” Barnes said. “But it goes back. Obviously, I’ve got the best coaching staff in the country but it goes to the players. They’re the ones that grind it every day. Some of them, obviously, want to play more but the fact that our motto is ‘it’s not about me.’ I think these guys really do exemplify that extremely well.”

Tennessee has now made it to the Sweet 16 11 times in program history. Only twice, including in 2024, have the Volunteers made it to the Elite Eight. They also have never made it past the Elite Eight, which is a task this year’s team believes it’s more than capable of doing.

Before any of that, though, Barnes knows he needs to focus his team on the task at hand in the NCAA Tournament. In the Sweet 16, Tennessee is set to take on Kentucky. They’ve already lost twice this season to the Wildcats. So, they’ll have to find a way to turn the tide if they want another shot at the Elite Eight.