Tennessee's rise under Rick Barnes part of SEC college basketball resurgence

Lindsay Schnell | USA TODAY

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Should anyone need to find Rick Barnes, they’d be smart to not look in his office.

The Tennessee men’s basketball coach thinks of his gym as a classroom. He figures if you need to find your teacher to ask a question about that day’s lesson, you go where the teaching tools are. For him that involves hoops and basketballs.

So Barnes sets up shop in the gym. He’s got a folding table, his computer, his practice plan and a box of Kleenex. If his secretary needs him, she knows to head to the Vols practice facility, not down the hall.

“You know, I’ve never been to his office,” senior transfer James Daniel told USA TODAY Sports. “It is kinda weird, but he likes to be with his players.”

Clearly, the unconventional approach is working.

EVOLVING GAME: As defenses focus on him, Oklahoma's Trae Young gets better

WOODEN WATCH: Can Marvin Bagley III beat out Trae Young for Player of Year?

The Vols, coming of an 81-64 win over LSU on Wednesday, are currently ranked No. 19 in the USA TODAY Coaches’ Poll, boasting an overall record of 16-5 overall and 6-3 in the SEC. The Volunteers are on track for their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2014. Barnes, in his third year in Knoxville, is leading a Tennessee resurgence — and his team’s success falls right in line with an SEC basketball resurgence.

Though the Big 12, which boasts likely national player of the year Trae Young of Oklahoma, likes to call itself the best, and toughest, hoops conference in the country, it’s easy to argue otherwise. Last week in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, the league known more for its football prowess finished with a winning record on the basketball court, going 6-4.

The SEC’s biggest wins came from unranked Vanderbilt and Alabama. The Commodores, alone in last place in SEC standings, upset TCU 81-78, especially impressive considering the Horned Frogs spent much of December and January ranked. And Alabama, home of freshman standout Collin Sexton, topped Young and Oklahoma in Tuscaloosa, 80-73.

The Southeastern Conference has been known for its football dominance, as well as excellence in women’s basketball, baseball and gymnastics, among other sports. Men’s basketball didn’t just play second fiddle at most schools; sometimes it barely felt like a member of the band.

But that’s changed in the last few years, evidenced by three teams reaching the Elite Eight last spring, and punctuated by South Carolina’s surprising trip to the Final Four. This week, four teams — No. 13 Auburn, Tennessee, No. 22 Kentucky and No. 24 Florida — are ranked, with the Tide also receiving votes.

“Because of what happened last year in the NCAA tournament, there was more credibility coming into the season, and then the league recruited very well,” said Barnes.

Bruce Pearl coached Tennessee from 2005-11 and is now in his fourth year at Auburn, where the Tigers are in first place with an 8-1 conference record (20-2 overall), and two-game lead. He believes this has been a long time coming.

“It started with (former SEC commissioner) Mike Slive and (current commissioner) Greg Sankey basically telling their athletic directors, ‘We win championships in everything else. In every sport, we’ve got breadth and depth. It’s time for men’s basketball to get it going, too. You need to start investing — in coaching, in facilities and in student athletes. Let’s make a commitment.’ It took off from there.”

Back then, Pearl said he used to have long talks with Slive about how the SEC could not be known simply as Kentucky and everyone else. He points to the ACC, which has been led Duke and North Carolina’s success, but where “all of those programs — Wake Forest with Tim Duncan, N.C. State and Jim Valvano, for example—have been good at one point or another in the last 20 years.”

In Knoxville, they’re good by being good, not great, in a variety of categories. Daniel told USA TODAY Sports the team takes pride in sharing the ball, evidenced by their 16.7 assists per game; 64 percent of their field goals are assisted, a stat Barnes loves. They’re balanced, too, with three players scoring at least 10 points per game, led by sophomore forward Grant Williams (16.1).

“Coach Barnes, he’ll hold us accountable to even the smallest thing on the court,” said junior Admiral Schofield, who chips in 12.4 points and six rebounds per game. “But we talk about focusing on progress, not perfection.”

The Vols have two non-conference losses: In the Bahamas to current No. 1 Villanova, and in Knoxville to North Carolina, the defending champs. Their conference losses have all come to opponents that were unranked at the time — Arkansas, Auburn and Missouri— more proof of the SEC’s depth. But Barnes has a tough time labeling anything a “bad conference loss” because regular season conference championships are so hard to win.

Schofield knows football will always be king in the SEC, but also thinks the script can be flipped.

“Everyone thinks of the SEC as being football-dominant, but we’re trying to change that,” he said. “The way we’re moving as a country is to basketball being our main sport. And across the conference, everybody is taking pride making their school a little bit more basketball-oriented.”

IMAGES FROM THE WEEK IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL