Tennessee men’s basketball tips off the 2026-27 season Tuesday night against Wofford, and the No. 8 Vols arrive with plenty already on tape. The preseason didn’t go easy on them. With 13 newcomers and only a couple of returners, this roster is still figuring out who it is, and it’s a long way from what it could look like months down the road. All of the summer & fall workouts and team bonding in the world can only go so far. It has to show up on the floor when the lights come on.

That No. 8 next to Tennessee’s name in the Associated Press Top 25 tells you what voters think of this new-look group. Preseason rankings don’t win games, but an elite number still grabs the attention of many. Just not Rick Barnes’. Inside the Tennessee locker room, outside expectations aren’t part of the conversation.

Barnes sat down with Mike Keith earlier in the week and was asked whether those expectations worry him. His answer was exactly what you’d expect from a veteran coach who has seen just about everything, and knows what really matters.

“I could care less about outside expectations,” Barnes said. “I don’t like the word worry. I don’t care what other people think. We know what our expectations are, and believe it or not, ours are higher than the people outside. I can assure you of that because we live with it every day.”

There’s still plenty of learning and fine-tuning ahead for Barnes’ team. The closed scrimmage with Davidson showed real progress. Tennessee cut down bad shots, which is an improvement from its two exhibitions where Barnes said bad offense never gave them a chance to defend. He was also clear that turnovers and transition defense aren’t where they need to be. That keeps the main message in focus. This team is making progress one day at a time.

“I have expectations today that we’re going to get better as a basketball team,” Barnes told Keith. “I’m not just thinking about the games, because if we don’t win today, we’re not going to win tomorrow. My expectations are to get a little bit better each and every day.

“I’ve always said expectations lead to disappointments if you don’t know how to handle expectations. If you’re going out trying to please people that don’t really understand what goes into winning, that’s when the expectations will bite you. If you embrace the expectations, if you embrace the pressure, and it’s pressure whether there’s expectations or not. We want to win. We don’t want to get embarrassed.”

For a roster this new, getting better starts small. Barnes stated that this team has seen what goes into losing, now it's learning what it takes to win. That starts with learning how to win in short bursts first.

“What we’ve got to do first of all is understand how to win four-minute games,” Barnes said. “We got to get players to realize that they can go out and give it all they got for two minutes, and then the next go-around see if they can play for 2:05, 2:10, 2:20, 2:30. Before you know it, by January, you hope they can roll for four if they have to.”

Beyond getting better, expectations right now belong to the talking heads and the fans. That doesn’t mean Barnes and the Vols don’t care. What would the point be if they didn’t? It just means this is the beginning. You have to get through November, and every month after it, before anyone gets to talk about March. There are a lot of steps and a lot of work between here and those lofty expectations.

Tennessee and Wofford tip off at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at Food City Center. The game airs on SEC Network.

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