Tennessee Basketball Will Struggle In Rick Barnes' First Season, But Vols Fans Shouldn’t Panic

By Taylor Sturm
Rick barnes Tennessee
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

When it was announced that the Tennessee Volunteers would hire former Texas Longhorns head coach Rick Barnes to the same position, there was a sigh of relief from Vols basketball fans across the country. Not only was Barnes a coach who had been to the Final Four, but he had taken the Longhorns to the NCAA tournament 16 times and, more importantly, had no apparent NCAA investigations looming over his head.

However, Vols fans should not expect too much from Barnes in his first year as Tennessee’s head coach. In fact, they should expect Barnes and the Volunteers to struggle.

At first glance, it seems fairly obvious why Tennessee will not have much success next season. Several of the team’s most promising recruits chose to continue their careers elsewhere after Donnie Tyndall’s departure, and last season’s star Josh Richardson will have moved on to the NBA.

But the harsh reality for Vols fans is that SEC basketball has undergone a renaissance over the past few seasons since the SEC made college basketball a focus – a renaissance that Tennessee has struggled to keep up with due to coaching changes.

After the first week or so of conference play last season, nine SEC teams were ranked in the top 100 RPI, including the Vols. By the time the NCAA tournament came around, the number had dropped drastically. The Ole Miss Rebels, LSU Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs, thought to be guaranteed tournament teams, limped into the 2015 NCAA tournament.

This season, all of the teams that saw a late-season decline, such as the Texas A&M Aggies, Vanderbilt Commodores and Florida Gators, will be even better, while the impenetrable Kentucky Wildcats will once again be vulnerable.

The SEC is going to be one of the most difficult conferences in college basketball, and it could easily have eight teams make either the 2016 NCAA tournament or the NIT. Tennessee, in the midst of another transition season, is going to struggle against these teams and will likely finish in the bottom of the SEC.

I get it. Tennessee fans want to win. They got a brief glimpse of greatness under Bruce Pearl, had consistent top-five SEC success under Cuonzo Martin and are still in the midst of a downward spiral as a result of Martin’s departure and the arrival of Tyndall.

However, Vols fans should take heart in the fact that Tennessee is moving in the right direction. Barnes was a great hire, and he is going to have this team back in the NCAA tournament talk as early as the 2016-17 season. Stability is far more important than wins for the Tennessee basketball program right now.

And who knows, the basketball team’s likely struggles could be an afterthought behind Butch Jones leading Tennessee football to an SEC East title.

Taylor Sturm is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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