By Camden Gober
Ugly, sloppy, chaotic. Exactly what you expect from a team’s first exhibition game of the season, especially one with as much turnover as Tennessee had this offseason.
Win or lose, you’re expected to learn valuable lessons from an exhibition game between two high-caliber teams like Tennessee and Xavier. However, one team is walking away from this one with far more questions than answers.
Xavier took down the Tennessee Volunteers on their home floor Thursday night, but that’s not the surprising part. The Musketeers dominated down the stretch en route to an 86-70 runaway victory inside Food City Center.
“It was good for us,” said Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes. “I told the coaches, if we’re going to get beat, I hope they really beat us so maybe we can really get their attention.”
The Vols underwent a complete overhaul this offseason, bringing in nine players through the transfer portal, seven of whom averaged at least 10 points per game last season.
Those seven players include Juke Harris (21.4 ppg), Dai Dai Ames (16.9 ppg), Jalen Haralson (16.2 ppg), Tyler Lundblade (15.6 ppg), Terrence Hill Jr. (15.0 ppg), Miles Rubin (11.3 ppg) and Braedan Lee (10.9 ppg).
So to say the expectation is for this team to score would be an understatement. To be fair, everyone needs to understand that with that many ball-dominant scorers on one roster, it will take time to gel.
It definitely is a new-look offense, but one thing to notice was how passive some of these traditionally ball-dominant guards looked.
There’s only one ball to go around and plenty of proven scorers on the floor; there has to be more selfishness offensively rather than simply trying to go with the flow.
With all the offensively gifted guards Tennessee has, more of them need to create their own shots off the bounce.
The one guy who wasn’t afraid to do so was Hill Jr.
The VCU transfer was a major bright spot for the Vols in an otherwise lackluster offensive performance. Hill finished with a game-high 22 points, shooting 9-for-17 from the field and 2-for-9 from beyond the arc. Hill looked comfortable with the ball in his hands, and when he had it, he made plays.
Harris and Haralson also stood out.
Harris, the Wake Forest transfer, finished with 15 points and looked comfortable and confident for the most part. However, he couldn’t get anything to fall from downtown, finishing a whopping 0-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Haralson, on the other hand, didn’t necessarily jump off the stat sheet, but the Notre Dame transfer was seemingly everywhere on both ends of the floor, making winning plays.
Tennessee’s best backcourt trio all night was Harris, Haralson and Hill Jr. The ball movement and spacing between the three led to some of the best offensive possessions of the night. That trio will be playing together a lot more down the stretch with the chemistry created.
Tennessee returned just 9.5% of its minutes played and 7.4% of its scoring from a season ago, with nearly all of that production coming from DeWayne Brown II and Troy Henderson.
Despite the complete roster overhaul, Barnes and his staff made it a priority to retain the two promising sophomores. To put it simply, the Vols need more production from both of them moving forward.
Brown finished with six points on 1-of-4 shooting and went 4-of-6 from the charity stripe. To his credit, Brown battled down low and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Henderson also had a rough night, finishing with three points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 from beyond the arc.
“I take that on the chin,” said Tennessee guard Troy Henderson. “I’m a returning player. I know what it takes to win.”
Both players were expected to take a significant leap heading into their sophomore seasons, but Thursday night was far from an encouraging start for the two returners.
At the end of the day, it was all about Tennessee’s inability to guard down the stretch. Forget about the offense; Xavier scored 59 points, shooting 70.4% from the field and 57.1% from three in the second half alone. It really doesn’t matter how many points you can score when you’re giving up that many in a single half.
“We’re going to have to learn to guard at a high rate,” said Barnes. “All we had to do was try to guard the basketball, we didn’t guard the ball.”
At the end of the day, there is a lot to take away from this one.
Xavier kicked the Vols’ teeth down the stretch, but this was only the first of two exhibition games Tennessee will play before the regular season.
Does this game actually count? No, but there is a ton to learn before the season officially tips off.
Despite what some people may say, no, exhibition games don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.
Just ask Tennessee the last couple of years.
In 2024, the Vols lost an exhibition game at home to an Indiana team that did not even make the NCAA Tournament that season.
Last year, Tennessee fell at home to a juggernaut Duke squad led by Cameron Boozer. Did those results indicate how either season would unfold for Tennessee? No, but Barnes and his teams learned valuable lessons from both exhibitions, and the Vols ultimately reached the Elite Eight in each season.
UP NEXT: Tennessee will have an opportunity to correct those mistakes Tuesday night when the Vols travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on Duke in their final exhibition game before the regular season officially tips off Nov. 3.