When Rocky Top Insider sent out our final score tweet from the contest between No. 11 Tennessee and Virginia on Thursday night, it was 12:18 a.m. on Friday morning.
The game officially flipped from Thursday to Friday at the media timeout with 7 minutes and 33 seconds still left in the second half.
The game was set to tip-off at the late hour of 9:30 p.m. ET on Thursday but an uncommon double-overtime contest between St. Johns and Baylor pushed Tennessee’s start time back to 10:23 p.m. ET.
The tournament itself was taking place in the Bahamas.
While Tennessee did end up getting the win and a double-overtime contest is hard to account for, it ended up pushing the Vols into what will be one of their latest contests this season. These 18-22 year olds are in great shape, but the grind of the two-day tournament is still tough, especially early in the season.
There’s hardly time to rest, though, as Tennessee will now prepare to take on No. 13 Baylor in the Baha Mar Championship on Friday night at 9:30 p.m. ET – let’s hope against another double-overtime game in the preceding third-place game, too.
Rick Barnes voiced his frustration about the scheduling after the game on Friday morning while looking out for the best interest of his players.
“The only thing, I wish we’d play at 6 and 8 [p.m.] instead of 7 and 9 [p.m.] because of, you know, forced into a double overtime (in the first game) like that, which is an outstanding game, but nothing you can do about it,” Barnes said during his postgame press conference. “But if you think about, it’s 12:40 a.m. and our guys won’t get wound down until probably 3:30 in the morning.”
The adrenaline rush after games for media members and fans is real. On a personal note, there have been several football games this season that have ended past 11:00 p.m. but the adrenaline from the game keeps me up until 3, 4 o’ clock in the morning. That adrenaline rush must be even higher for the players. Barnes mentioned that his players might not even be fully wound down until 3 or 4 in the morning, which is just about 18 hours from their next tip-off against a Top 15 team.
“So that’s the tough part about this when you go back to back,” Barnes continued on to say. “But people will always say it kind of assimilates a conference tournament. (That’s) a long way off. We can handle that, you know? But right now, just the competition and getting here, and the guys, they want to play. They want to play as many good games as they can.”
More from RTI: No. 11 Tennessee Basketball vs. No. 13 Baylor: How to Watch, Betting Odds, Prediction
Barnes offered the suggestion of each game moving up one hour, which would’ve put Tennessee closing out the game before midnight in the Bahamas. Still a late night, but anything in that time frame is helpful.
Neither Tennessee nor Rick Barnes went to the Bahamas to complain about the scheduling, though. And that’s not what Barnes was doing here, as he simply talked through the Vols’ tough draw as a storyline for the weekend. But at the end of the day, Tennessee went to the Bahamas to play two great teams in hopes of a tournament non-conference championship.
That’s exactly what the team will be preparing for on Friday.
No. 11 Tennessee will take on No. 13 Baylor at 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday night in the Baha Mar Hoops Championship. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider and RTI on X on Friday night for live updates from the game.
Check out what Barnes had to say below:
