Cotton Bowl Recap: Alabama Beats Down Cincinnati
The Tennessee basketball team and head coach Rick Barnes are back in Knoxville and are working to get everything in line before they host Ole Miss on Wednesday evening. After dropping their first SEC game last week, the Vols are in rebound mode. In a game that saw Tennessee put both Kennedy Chandler and John Fulkerson on the COVID list, the Vols fell to Alabama on Wednesday night by a score of 73-68.
With a week in between the Alabama game and the upcoming Ole Miss game, the Vols have been able to get healthy and stay healthy. On Monday morning, Tennessee gave an update on the team’s COVID status heading into week two of SEC play.
As things stand on Monday, all of the Tennessee players that did not participate in the Alabama game or did not travel to Tuscaloosa are clear to return to practice and all team activities. In addition, all of the Tennessee roster is expected to participate in the Tennessee practice today with no one down due to COVID.
Aside from the COVID update, Barnes spoke about how the Vols approached the Alabama game regarding the roster news and how he felt like it prepares the team better moving forward. Another topic of conversation that Barnes hit on was the defensive presence of certain players. For instance, Barnes mentioned that defense aggressiveness is going to be a sure-fire way to see players like Justin Powell and Zakai Zeigler on the court more.
Speaking of the Tennessee players, Vol forward Uros Plavsic also met with the media on Monday. Plavsic spoke on several topics regarding the Tennessee team, hitting on everything from the COVID situation adjustment against Alabama to the team unity the Vols have heading into 2022.
Below are the full press conferences for Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes and forward Uros Plavsic from Monday. Tennessee will return to the home court in Knoxville this Wednesday evening as they host Ole Miss in the second game of conference play.
