How Rick Barnes is handling Tennessee Basketball's No. 1 ranking

Rick Barnes had already talked about it with his Tennessee Basketball team Monday morning. The Vols were going to be the No. 1-ranked team in the country in the new rankings later in the day, so the head coach was getting ahead of it. 

“It doesn’t mean a whole lot other than the fact it’s a compliment to the start we’ve gotten off to,” Barnes said while meeting with reporters before practice on Monday. “And it’s a compliment to (the players). They worked hard and they certainly want to be No. 1.” 

Tennessee (8-0), off to the best start of the Barnes era and the program’s best start since the 2000-01 team went 9-0, moved up from No. 3 to No. 1 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the Coaches Poll on Monday.

The Vols received 58 of 62 first-place votes in the AP Poll and  and 26 of 32 first-place votes in the Coaches Poll.

It’s the third time Tennessee has been ranked No. 1 — the Vols were atop the polls for one week in 2008 and four weeks in 2019 — and the earliest in the season the program has ever been there. 

“But they want to be No. 1 at the end of the year,” Barnes said. “And I think if you embrace it, it can make you better because you know that everyone else is looking to build a resume.”

No. 1 Tennessee vs. Miami, Tuesday, Jimmy V Classic

That starts with Miami (3-6), the first opponent for top-ranked Tennessee in the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday (6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN) at Madison Square Garden in New York.  

Miami limps in having lost six straight games, including the last three at home. Nothing would help the Hurricanes more than a win over the No. 1 team in the country. 

“I mean, if we’re on the other end of it,” Barnes said, “we’d be talking just like that. Hey, this chance (to) beat the No. 1-ranked team, build your resume. So we’re on this side of it. So you embrace it. You realize it can help you get better because the challenges you’re going to see all year long. So it is what it is and you deal with it.”

Tennessee made the jump to No. 1 thanks to chaos at the top of the rankings last week. Kansas, the previous No. 1, lost at Creighton and at Missouri. No. 2 Auburn lost at Duke. No. 4 Kentucky lost at Clemson and No. 5 Marquette lost at Iowa State. 

But the Vols will try to use the ranking to their advantage all the same. 

“I don’t think anybody expects any team to go undefeated in college basketball and that’s what happens,” Barnes said. “You get ranked early and teams in front of you that sometimes are playing difficult schedules lose and you just move up just by the way it happens.” 

“Our key and it always will be, we’re going talk about where we are every day. We’re going to talk about what we have to do every day to get better.” 

Vols are 8-2 in 10 games ranked No. 1

Tennessee in February 2008 was ranked No. 2 when it went to rival Memphis and took down the No. 1-ranked Tigers. The Vols took over the No. 1 spot in the polls two days later, then lost at Vanderbilt the next night.

Tennessee was back at Vandy in its first game back at No. 1 in 2019. The Vols had to survive in overtime, the first of seven wins as the No. 1 team.  

Should the Jimmy V Classic test be passed against Miami on Tuesday, a trip to Illinois awaits on Saturday. 

Barnes said what he talked about with his team included the “outside noise” that comes with the No. 1 ranking and the challenge of using it in the right way. 

“It is what it is,” Barnes said. “But (we) can use it and say, hey, if you really want to be No. 1, there’s a lot that comes with it, with other people trying to lift their level of play because they know, hey, for 40 minutes, we got a chance to really do something special. 

“… You embrace it. You do talk about it with them and say, hey, this is the way we’ve got to go about this.”