What Rick Barnes said at the Big Orange Caravan stop Thursday in Knoxville

Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes met with reporters on Thursday before the Big Orange Caravan stop in Knoxville, discussing Zakai Zeigler’s rehab, his team’s schedule for next season and Olivier Nkamhoua moving on from the Vols:

Where Zakai Zeigler is at in his rehab after tearing his ACL

“We hope that we’ll have him for the start of the season, but we don’t know that timetable. I know he will do everything he possibly can to be ready as quickly as he can, but obviously we’re going to make sure he’s 100 percent totally healthy. He’s doing — I just left him. He just finished up. He’s always the last one in there with (trainer) Chad (Newman) and (strength coach) Garrett (Medenwald). Just doing everything above and beyond. He’ll get back and be full speed. In terms of a timetable, we don’t know.”

How big of a summer it is for BJ Edwards

“I think it’s big a summer not just for BJ, but for all of our guys because we’ve got a team where we’ve had some young guys have some big moments. But in terms of BJ himself, we’ve got a lot of confidence in BJ. He’s working really really hard and he knows he’s going to need to become a better shooter. He’s putting the time in, he’s putting the work in, he’s putting the concentration in to do the things he needs to do to develop that part of his game along with the other things he needs to develop. We watched him from day one almost a year ago in the summer with the way he went at it with Zakai, I thought utilized that time. We’re expecting him to be a big part of this.”

Conversations with Santiago Vescovi over the last month as he tried to decide whether or not to return for a fifth season

“With all those guys, it’s not that we have a lot of conversation with them because we think they’ve got to go out and find out what information they need to know moving forward. It’s really on them with also them knowing that, ‘Hey, we’ve got to make sure we have a team here next year.’ We don’t put any timetables on any of them. We don’t do that. I think each guy knew that, that’s in it and that everybody has their own timetable. That they’ve got to work through it, but I think that Santi in someways wanted to come back and we just wanted him to do it for all of the right reasons. And I think he wanted to do it for all the right reasons. But we’re all excited about it because he has proven himself here, been durable, done everything you can ask from a player since the time he walked on here. I think with the young guys we have in the program he’s going to be a person that can give them some stability and teach them what this is all about.”

If he’s still having conversations with the other three Tennessee seniors, Josiah-Jordan James, Olivier Nkamhoua and Uros Plavsic

“Yeah and with where they are — well, the conversation, they’re both (James and Nkamhoua) training. I think what we pretty much have been told that when you go into that, their goal is to potentially work their way into that league and they’re training with their trainers. They’re with their trainers working towards trying to get themselves into a position to chase that dream, but they know how much we care about them and certainly, we love them. I just know that all that goes on with this, it always works out. It’ll work out. I don’t always have the answer for how it’s going to work out, but I just feel it always works out.”

Tennessee’s Big Orange Caravan stop in Knoxville

“Well, this is the first one since I have been here. You will have to ask somebody else that question. I don’t know what it was like before. Everywhere we go, it has been fun. Great response. I expect this to be really good obviously. I do think and appreciate everyone that puts the effort into make these events work. We will have fun with it, getting out with it, having a chance to (be in) touch with our fans, let them know how much we appreciate them and what they mean to us.”

Olivier Nkamhoua deciding to move on from the Tennessee program

“Olivier has told us day one that his No. 1 objective is to be a pro basketball player. He has told us that is his pursuit. He told us that his dad wanted him to put his name in the portal, which is a decision they have to make. From day one, our conversation with him has been that his ultimate goal was to try and put himself in a position to be a professional athlete next year.”

The Tennessee-Wisconsin game being announced and set for November 10 in Madison

“A lot of respect for Greg Gard and a lot of respect for Wisconsin and that program. I know they have a great fan base. It is going to be a very live arena. You know his teams are always so fundamentally sound. They are good. They are always going to be good. He has been there. He knows what he wants to do and he knows how he wants to play. It is hard to get these games together sometimes and because of the COVID it seems like these games have been backed up forever. It will be a challenge. They have a great arena to play in. They have a great fan base. For our young guys, it will certainly be a great test to get them ready for SEC play.”

Tennessee’s scheduling for next season

“We are still looking to get one more. We are looking at all the ways that all the metrics and everything plays out for our team right now. I think we will probably add one more game and maybe a couple buy games. We are just working through putting together the best schedule that gives us a chance to be where we want to be at the end of the year.”

DJ Jefferson handling the redshirt experience as a freshman

“He was great. DJ has been awesome. He is just getting started in this game. When we started with him, we know — and we know — that he has got terrific athletic ability. He is skilled. There are so many other parts of the game that all players not just him have to learn. His progress really the last month and a half of the season, you could see him starting to turn the corner. You could see it starting to come together for him. As he continues to mature like all these guys, we believe in this group of guys. We also know that a lot of things happened this year that we couldn’t have possibly thought that could have happened. That is why it is so important that every one of these guys know how important they are and how much we are going to need them. They have to be ready when their number is called.”