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Tennessee basketball: Comparing Vols to last Rick Barnes team that reached No. 1

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 22: Head coach Rick Barnes of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts to a play during the first half of the game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 22, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 22: Head coach Rick Barnes of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts to a play during the first half of the game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 22, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images
Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images /

4. What does this all mean for Tennessee basketball?

The fact of the matter is Rick Barnes has a history of coming up grossly short after high expectations. You can go back to his days with the Clemson Tigers. His final team returned everybody from a team that made the Sweet 16. They started the year in the Top 5.

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But Clemson stumbled to an 18-14 record and first round exit from the NCAA Tournament. The very next year, Barnes got the job with Texas. You can also look at his final team with the Longhorns, which like this team, returned everybody from a second round NCAA Tournament exit, only to regress the next year, which got him fired.

So even though the Vols are No. 1 under Barnes in January, his history still gives reason for caution. And that’s enough for us to say pump the brakes just a bit at this point because it could still all go downhill fast. After all, the brutal part of UT’s schedule is the final three weeks of the regular season. They aren’t close to that yet.

At the same time, though, every season is different. And just because previous Barnes teams collapsed under expectations, it doesn’t mean this one will. They did do some things the last No. 1 team didn’t do, and Barnes has had postseason success before. The guy made three Elite Eights and a Final Four.

In his fourth year on Rocky Top with maybe the best team he’s ever had, there’s no reason to think Rick Barnes can’t do something special with his team as well. His history with a team to make it to No. 1 is an extremely small sample size right now.

Looking at the last 5 seasons Vols reached Top 5. dark. Next

Anything can happen going forward for Tennessee basketball. They are on a massive winning streak with a ton of impressive wins in the process. And they have a chance to maintain this No. 1 ranking for a while. So there’s no reason to look to the past for what might happen with them this year. That’s never applied before.

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