Tennessee Vols basketball head coach Rick Barnes’s media session and a new football assistant lead our Volunteers news for Friday, Feb. 1, 2019.
Happy Friday, and happy first day of February. As always, this is a huge month for the Tennessee Vols because it’s the heart of basketball season, and National Signing Day hits as well. But for today, there is more generic news to bring you.
Our morning update on Rocky Top leads with men’s basketball news and Rick Barnes specifically. But when it comes to coaches, the big news is a new football assistant that we’ll get to. Those are the lead stories today.
However, we also have a recap of a women’s basketball game and a track and field event to close out our morning report. So there’s a decent bit of news to get to as we start off the new month, and we’ll begin with basketball.
Rick Barnes speaks ahead of Texas A&M – Grant Ramey, GoVols247
Tennessee Vols men’s basketball head coach Rick Barnes spoke with the media Thursday and previewed his team’s weekend match-up at the Texas A&M Aggies. He said Jordan Bowden is still being worked on but should be fine and talked about the next step to continuing this ranking. Here is a bit of what he said.
"“Just really focus on what’s at hand, knowing that every game, you expect — again, I’ve said it before I just think when you have a number in front of your name, you’re a ranked team, teams keep trying to build resumes. I think you have to expect people to play their best basketball. I think our guys do understand that. But I think now more than ever, they understand it’s about what we do, it’s about our approach.”"
Tennessee football hires new quality control coach – Dan Harralson, VolsWire.com
The Tennessee Vols football program lost three of its quality control coaches recently, but they just hired a new one Thursday. Michael Colosimo will join Jim Chaney’s offensive staff as an offensive quality control coach.
"Colosimo comes to Tennessee from Kentucky where he served three seasons as a graduate assistant and working closely with tight ends.Before arriving at Kentucky, Colosimo served as a volunteer assistant and working with quarterbacks at Pittsburgh under offensive coordinator Jim Chaney."
Tennessee Lady Vols blow out Florida – APNews.com
The Tennessee women’s basketball team dominated the Florida Gators 67-50 Thursday night. Rennia Davis led the team with 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Cheridene Green added 15 points and 10 rebounds.
"Tennessee (14-7, 3-5 SEC) has won two consecutive games after dropping six straight for its longest skid since 1970. The Lady Volunteers ended their losing streak Sunday with a 74-65 triumph over LSU."
Kiara Rhodes picks up huge victory at Carolina Challenge – UTSports
Tennessee Track & Field sophomore Kiara Rhodes finished first place in the women’s pentathlon points at the Carolina Challenge Thursday. It was the first multi-event win of her college career.
"A Memphis, Tenn. native, Rhodes led the Carolina Challenge pentathlon wire-to-wire and set three personal records on the afternoon. Her mark of 3,762 points ranks sixth on Tennessee’s all-time top-10 list. The score also went down as a facility record, as it is the first time South Carolina has hosted a pentathlon inside its new facility."