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Tennessee basketball’s five biggest preseason storylines for 2021-2022

By Caleb Calhoun

Tennessee’s Olivier Nkamhoua (13) participates in a drill during a Tennessee men’s basketball practice in Pratt Pavilion, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021.Basketball0929 0237
Tennessee’s Olivier Nkamhoua (13) participates in a drill during a Tennessee men’s basketball practice in Pratt Pavilion, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021.Basketball0929 0237 /
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Rick Barnes addressed the media Tuesday, and Tennessee basketball held another practice Wednesday. With the first exhibition game set for this weekend, the preseason is fully underway for the Vols. A top three recruiting class, the addition of one transfer and the return of five key rotational players once again has created lots of expectations for the program.

As the Vols enter their seventh season with Barnes as head coach, they begin 2021-2022 ranked No. 17 in the AP Poll and No. 18 in the Coaches Poll. While media members project them to finish fourth in the SEC with no All-SEC players. They had one Coaches All-SEC player.

Last year’s 18-9 record and first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament despite a top five recruiting class has lots of people questioning Barnes’ abilities with elite freshmen. Whether or not he can prove the public wrong hinges on lots of questions. These are the five biggest storylines surrounding Tennessee basketball’s preseason.

5. What impact will two new assistants have?

We asked the exact same question in our preseason storylines for the Tennessee Lady Vols. Just like Kellie Harper, Rick Barnes had to replace two of his assistant coaches this offseason. One of them was a longtime assistant on Rocky Top.

Desmond Oliver, who had been with Barnes since he joined UT in 2015, left to take the head coaching job with the East Tennessee State Buccaneers. Meanwhile, Kim English left to take the head coaching job with the George Mason Patriots after just two years with the program.

To replace them, Barnes brought in Rod Clark from the Austin Peay Governors and and Justin Gainey from the Marquette Golden Eagles. Clark is just 28 years old and brings the perfect level of youthful energy. Gaines has experience working at multiple elite programs.

Both of these guys are solid additions for Tennessee basketball, but as always, we don’t know how they’ll mesh with the players. Neither has worked under Barnes. Michael Schwartz returning will help some, but these guys will be key.

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