Rick Barnes will need to 'make some adjustments' in Tennessee's third matchup with Kentucky

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Rick Barnes, Tennessee Basketball | Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images — (Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images) Tennessee Head Coach Rick Barnes during a college basketball game between Tennessee and Syracuse held at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center in Knoxville, Tenn., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024.

The first SEC head-to-head matchup in the 2025 NCAA Tournament will occur in Indianapolis during Friday’s first session. No. 3 seed Kentucky will play No. 2 seed Tennessee for the third time this season with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.

Mark Pope‘s first team enters this contest with some advantages.

The Wildcats swept Tennessee this season thanks to some hot three-point shooting (24-of-48) and good defense. Kentucky appeared to be a matchup problem for the Big Orange. Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes says the Vols will need to make some changes before these two programs meet for the 242 time on the hardwood.

“I think it’d be a little bit different if we played them in the SEC Tournament. Honestly, I’d have to go back and think about it because games just come one right after another. Just great respect for Mark Pope and what he’s done with this program coming in like he did having to put a team together real quickly,” Barnes said in a radio interview with Paul Finebaum. “They’ve shot the ball extremely well against us. They played well against us. So I’ve got to give them all the credit. We’re gonna have to, obviously, make some adjustments and try to get some things figured out because they beat us twice.”

It's @Vol_Hoops vs @KentuckyMBB III: Sweet 16 Edition pic.twitter.com/GumMNoHqV9
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) March 24, 2025

Rick Barnes also told Finebaum that he couldn’t “even remember the first game” when Kentucky beat Tennessee in Knoxville without Lamont Butler and with a Andrew Carr. The head coach has likely blocked that performance from his memory bank since the Vols shot a woeful 11-of-45 from three in the 78-73 loss.

Rick Barnes went on to say that getting into this tournament is hard and advancing is even harder.

“Just getting there is something you don’t take for granted. When you get there, you just hope that you’re playing your best basketball. You don’t want to have a day where it’s just not clicking for you,” Barnes explained. “It’s hard to win one game in that tournament. Let alone to try to get to six.”

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The NCAA Tournament struggles for Rick Barnes have been well documented. Barnes has 835 career wins but has only been to the Elite Eight three times in the last two decades. Kentucky has a chance to prevent another trip to keep Tennessee’s very long Final Four drought alive.

Barnes also opened up on how important matchups are in this tournament and pointed to the St. John’s-Arkansas result as an example. Kentucky certainly does seem like a tough matchup for Tennessee.

Seth Greenberg is riding with Kentucky

The relationship between Kentucky fans and ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg has been complicated this year. Despite the recent past, Greenberg is riding with the matchup in this Sweet 16 contest after picking Illinois to beat the Cats in the Round of 32.