Rick Barnes addresses home atmosphere in Tennessee upset win over Auburn

Tennessee men’s basketball has been on a row lately and is playing strong basketball heading down the stretch of the season. Currently ranked No. 17 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Volunteers are coming off a big 67-62 win over No. 3 Auburn on Saturday, which gave them their seventh win in their last eight outings.

As they look like a legitimate contender for the SEC title and a squad who could make a run in the NCAA Tournament, the Volunteers’ win over Auburn on Saturday was powered by an electric home atmosphere inside Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.

With a sellout crowd of 21,678 on hand for the marquee SEC matchup, there’s no question that Tennessee’s loyal fans helped it to the big win – and head coach Rick Barnes certainly thinks that’s the case.

“I get so locked-in – I’m almost oblivious to it,” Barnes said of the atmosphere at Thompson-Boling Arena. “I really am. So, when I start to hear it, I know it’s loud – I do. But when I first got here, I met Kevin Feltner who’s from here in East Tennessee and he told me, he said, ‘I promise you’ll find out that Tennessee has the best basketball fans in the country.’

“He said that to me. … And I tell you what, I’ll get a text from him tonight as I did after every big game and he said, ‘I told you so.’ I do believe we’ve got the best home court advantage – I do. I think our fans are great. I just told them that it’s great to be a Tennessee Volunteer. They made a difference. Our student section’s been outstanding.”

While Barnes said he is typically not a coach who uses the crowd to coach his teams during big games, he did point out that he decided to do that on Saturday – and it worked.

“I told our guys – first time I’ve said it since I’ve been here – I said, ‘If you guys will get it going on defense, we’ll get this crowd in the game,'” Barnes said. “I’ve never alluded to a crowd – I don’t know if I’ve ever done it in my career, to be honest with you. … And I don’t know why I did it today. But I did say that during a timeout.

“… ‘This place would come to life’ – and it did.”

Following Saturday’s win over Auburn, Tennessee – which is now 21-7 overall with a 12-4 mark in SEC play – returns to action Tuesday on the road at Georgia. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.