More from RTI: Tennessee Basketball Practice Observations: Nov. 3
With the 2022-2023 season right around the corner, Tennessee basketball head coach Rick Barnes met with the media on Thursday to discuss his thoughts on the team.
In his 10-minute press conference, Barnes hit several topics ranging from Tennessee’s big win and his takeaways from Gonzaga to what he would like to see in the season opener against Tennessee Tech. Additionally, Barnes also spoke about a couple of players by name, pointing out Olivier Nkamhoua’s consistent work ethic and Tyreke Key’s ability to mesh with the team.
“Tyreke, from the time that he got here, he’s impressed us,” Barnes said on Thursday. “First of all with his character. Who he is but then he’s an incredible worker. His work ethic is second to none so he’s blended right in with what we do here. We watched him throughout the summer and fall, he can really get going shooting the ball. He has deep deep range and then we decided that we need him to play a little bit of point (guard) here and see if you can do it and he embraced it, but it’s tough. When you’re out there going against Santi and Zakai at that position. He embraced it but we’re not surprised. We’ve seen him do some of the things he did the other night. We’ve seen him get going in practice.”
After Barnes’ press conference on Thursday, the Tennessee team went out onto the court for practice. Check out RTI’s practice highlights from Thursday here.
No. 11 Tennessee will open the season against Tennessee Tech this upcoming Monday night in Thompson Boling Arena. However, the Vols have already been on the court a good amount prior to Tennessee’s opener. The Vols hosted Tom Izzo’s Michigan State squad recently in a preseason matchup and then defeated No. 2 Gonzaga by a score of 99-80 in Texas last weekend.
