There’s a buzz coming Sunday to Thompson-Boling Arena and Rick Barnes knows it.

It’s the type of buzz that Barnes says comes with programs like Kentucky, Villanova, Michigan State and – in this case – North Carolina when they come to town.

It’s different. It’s elevated. It’s a goal for Tennessee.

“I want our program to get to that point some time,” Barnes said. “We are not there yet. Our goal is to get there. But we’ve got a lot of steps in between. Those are places that have done it year in and year out. It’s not one year and that’s it. You’ve got to build something and to bring that buzz every night, you’ve got to be somebody year in and year out.”

The No. 20 Vols (7-1) could take one of those steps Sunday, when they host No. 7 North Carolina (9-1) at 3 p.m. ET (ESPN). The game is sold out and the Vols announced it as a “Checker TBA” game with the defending national champions making the trip to Knoxville.

But Barnes wasn’t playing up the matchup or its potential meaning on Wednesday.

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The third-year Tennessee coach said the only reason the game would be circled on his schedule is because it is the next game – the same and sole reason it qualifies as the biggest game for Tennessee.

“I’m not worried about us showing well,” Barnes said. “I’m worried about us getting better and continuing to build the kind of team that we want to be. We are not there yet. I’m glad because we are not even a third of the way through the season. If this was all we were going to be, I would be really disappointed.”

The Vols have impressed through the season’s first eight games, winning against a ranked Purdue team and holding a lead on now-No. 1 Villanova in the Battle 4 Atlantis. They’ve won on the road against Georgia Tech and beat NC State in the Bahamas as well.

Now, they’ve got another ACC team on the docket in the Tar Heels, whom they let off the ropes last year in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Vols led by double digits in the game, before dropping 73-71 to leave lingering lessons beyond the film Tennessee will study this week.

“What I hope they remember is we didn’t win,” Barnes said.

Tennessee has won in big moments under Barnes, with a pair of wins against ranked Kentucky teams. But finding a way to do so consistently is part of the next step for the Vols. Barnes has continued to hammer that reality home to his team as it prepares to face a UNC program used to playing in big games and having a winning mindset.

“That’s part of the culture you’re trying to get built,” Barnes said. “I’ve told them before, when you become a team that everyone wants to beat, you’re either going to get better or you’re going to get worse. If you don’t get better, everybody is going to beat you.

“You have to take on the responsibility of knowing how you prepare every day so you can continue to climb.”

That climb and the turn from being the hunter into the hunted brings with it more of the buzz Barnes wants his team to have – both on the road and at home. And Sunday will give the Vols an idea of just how close – or how far – they are from being that team.

“Well, if nothing else, I hope it is going to be a learning experience for them because this is where we want to be and even better,” Barnes said. “If they can’t handle that, they can’t handle playing high-level basketball. That comes with the territory.

“We want to be a program that is big on everybody’s schedule. We don’t want to be a program where it’s, ‘Tennessee is coming in, no big deal.’ We want people to know that we have got a good basketball program. We are not there yet. We are still working on it to get there. But we are not there yet.”