Rick Barnes isn't overlooking Kentucky, playing its best basketball in March (again)

Tennessee will be saying goodbye to Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi as the Volunteers celebrate Senior Day in Knoxville. That’s a combined decade of experience with 282 total games in orange and white, this team being their best as a potential No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

And they’re ending their careers playing inside Thompson-Boling Arena against the program’s bitter SEC rival, Kentucky. It’s a group eyeing revenge after taking a disappointing double-digit home loss inside Rupp Arena earlier this season, one building momentum heading into postseason play.

Rick Barnes hopes to find the right balance of celebrating the Tennessee seniors properly while protecting the team’s home floor and its own momentum to close out the regular season. Considering his own winning record against John Calipari during his time as the head coach of the Volunteers, he knows the challenge facing his program on Saturday and what it takes.

Point being, despite having the SEC locked up and Senior Day festivities planned, don’t expect Tennessee to overlook this Kentucky team.

“We’re proud of what these guys have accomplished up to this point, but we know that there’s another game Saturday. And it’s a big game, last one of the year and certainly Senior Night for some special guys here. But it’s a mindset. We keep talking about that,” Barnes said ahead of Saturday’s matchup. “And we know that we have great respect for Kentucky. I think they’re the most explosive offensive team in the country. And John (Calipari) does what he always does and gets his guys playing great basketball at the end of the year and they just keep building.

“They been on a little bit of a roll themselves. It doesn’t take much to get our guys’ attention because of the respect that they have for Kentucky and their program. So we know that we’re going to have to be ready to play.”

Tennessee took care of business in Lexington earlier in the season, winning 103-92 back on February 3. That was a game the Volunteers led from start to finish, a complete 40-minute manhandling.

But that Kentucky team isn’t this Kentucky team, and that’s something Barnes has been stressing to the Vols ahead of the regular season finale.

“Justin Edwards has become more of a part of it. DJ Wagner didn’t play up there, so they’ve got different guys. And I think they’ve all improved,” he said. “We saw what Rob Dillingham did against us, but Reed Sheppard, those guys are all improved and they’ve got a lot of guys that can make difficult shots and go get their own shots.

“But again, it’s what John does. His teams always get better. They always do. And he had a lot of young guys work into it and he’s done exactly what all of us that know him would expect him to do.”

Kentucky gave up 103 and never led inside Rupp, but it also scored 92 on 49.3% shooting and 44.4% from three, Rob Dillingham himself going for 35. The Cats were still elite offensively, just horrific on the other end.

Barnes knows the danger in taking on explosive team like this one, especially considering the defensive growth it’s seen since the previous matchup. They haven’t been otherworldly, obviously, but they’ve put together stretches of stops to allow the offense to carry them across the finish line.

“Well, they’re great in transition. Gotta keep the floor balanced because they got some guys that will leave early because I think they got confidence in their rebounders to get the ball and we gotta take away those quick-hitting plays, segments where they can put up a lot of points quickly. They have some really prolific scores that can go,” Barnes said. “I look back on our game with Rob Dillingham, I mean, we guarded him I think as well as he could be guarded, but he just made some terrific shots and they’ve got other guys now that have, I think (have) gotten confidence and a plan.

“So it’s gonna be us really understanding how important every possession’s going to be and being ready to do what we need to do to try to stop those runs and not letting them hit us with a lot of.”

We’ll see which side comes out on top at 4 p.m. ET in Knoxville.