Rick Barnes says a black alternate uniform is 'in the works' for Tennessee basketball
Rick Barnes watched Tennessee Baseball win a national championship on Monday night at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha looking not all that different than head coach Tony Vitello.
Barnes, in a suite seated next to Peyton Manning, wore a black alternate Tennessee Baseball jersey, the same one the Vols were wearing on the field, complete with a No. 27 on the back.
That’s the most popular color for the head coach when he’s running a basketball practice, too. And now it could be a look that Tennessee basketball players can wear in games.
During an appearance Thursday afternoon on ‘Josh & Swain’ on WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville, Barnes told Josh Ward and Jayson Swain that a black alternate uniform has been “mocked up” and is “in the works” for his Tennessee basketball team.
“I will tell you this,” Barnes said, when asked about the possibility of a ‘Dark Mode’ alternate basketball uniform during the radio appearance, “we have designed one in the offseason. Because one, Nike wants us to do that. Obviously our brand is popular and I know people like (black uniforms). I wear black most every day.”
Tennessee added an off-white alternate jersey in January 2023
Tennessee in January 2023 introduced a ‘Tennessee Classic’ uniform, an off-white uniform with orange piping and a script ‘Vols’ across the chest, paying homage to uniforms worn by the team in 1936. The alternate uniform has been worn multiple times each of the last two seasons, including both NCAA Tournaments the last two years.
There was a ‘Smokey Grey’ uniform designed and worn in 2017, but has not been used since.
With a ‘Dark Mode’ alternate uniform, Barnes had a point he wanted to make with Nike. If the Vols are getting black uniforms, he wants them to be all black.
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“I told them, I said, (if) we’re going wear black, we’re going to wear black. It’s not going to have a lot of piping on it. It’s going be pretty much look like our baseball uniform, but with black pants and with no piping on it. Because I said if that’s what we’re going we’re going to do, we’re going to do it that way.”
Rick Barnes: ‘I know the players will love it’
Tennessee Baseball won its first national title wearing its ‘Dark Mode’ alternate uniform. The black jersey, which itself has no orange piping, has ‘VOLS’ in orange block letters across the chest, with orange numbers.
That’s the same look Barnes would be hoping for in the basketball version.
“We’ve got a mockup of it and it’s in the works,” Barnes said, “and I know the players will love it. I know that if you walk into one of the stores to buy a Tennessee jersey, I think it’s the kind that people say, man, I’d like to have that.
“It’s simple, but I think it’s well stated because it’s got the most important thing on it. And that’s ‘Vols’.”
