Tennessee hosted Indiana in a high-profile charity exhibition game between two top 20 team on Sunday.

Though the preseason No. 12 Vols' 66-62 loss to the No. 17 Hoosiers counted for nothing, it did give 10th-year head coach Rick Barnes a better idea of his team nearly a week before they officially open their 2024-25 season.

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Coming off of an SEC title and the program's second-ever NCAA Tournament Elite Eight appearance, Tennessee debuted a plethora of newcomers in the exhibition at Food City Center and relied on a couple of returning veterans down the stretch.

The Vols led for much of the second half, leaning heavily on their defense before shooting woes caught up with them late.

Here is everything Barnes said about the loss.

"The one thing I told our guys, the biggest thing I want to see was the effort we could put on the defensive end. And I think the effort was there for the most part. We just gave (Indiana) too much with bad offense. I think it's really important for this team to establish the type of defensive team that we need to be. We told them going in that we're going to get good looks, which we did early, but they're not going in. And then we forgot about Felix (Okpara). We wanted to still play inside out. We wanted to really deflate the defense and then come in, out, maybe back in, but we didn't do any of that. We let them get some of the long shots and turnovers.

"That's when they got out in transition and that's it's hard to defend because they've got a nice team with good players. And if you give them space, they can go finish shots. But defensively, I thought it was, again, it was our main focus going in and for the most part, I would think--and again--looking I might have a different mind after seeing the film, but offensively, not very good. Had shots to start with and to be honest with you, shots that we need to make. But with that said, we're not making them. Our defense kept us in the game and it makes it always harder when you're not making shots, but you got to have something that you know you can count on every night. And that's why coming to this game, my main focus with our guys was could we guard and sustain it? At the end of the game, we did not execute well at all in terms of what we needed to do.

"You know, we put a lineup out there right around the 9 minute mark that honestly we, uh, it was a tough lineup for us to be, but we wanted those guys to be have a chance to be in a moment like that. So we've got to get it on film. We got to look at it.That's what these games are for. love playing Mike (Anderson's) teams because they're good. They're well coached. They do what they do. But it was important that we did put some guys in some situations to see how they're going to respond coming down to stretch. We we're too slow getting into it. Actually, we didn't get into some actions that we wanted to get into."

"It has nothing to do with making shots. I mean, his job, if he's up, we want him to shoot the ball. You use these games to sometimes let guys understand, 'Hey, we've talked about it. We've done it. You got you got to play hard.' At the end of the game, that's why we went with our (lineup) that we thought gave us the best chance defensively to, because teams can do some different things. We we knew that we would if we play defense the way we want to, we're going to put them in deep into the clock. And with that said, there's going to be some things that happen that we can't control. And you've got to have guys out there that know how to fix it. They can come out of those areas and make a play if somebody gets screened and which they do a good job of too.

"But it gets down to again, I think a lot of our guys that played today and I just talked to them about it, is they've got to understand. They've got to do the basic things for us to get where one trust becomes a factor, but it's about a role you got to play. And we want them to shoot it. So it had nothing to do with missed shots. It really didn't. It all comes down to, how can you impact the game if you're not making shots?"

"That's that was our whole game plan coming in today. And we didn't do it. You know, we wanted to get the ball going side to side and move because they get entrenched in there. The very first play of the game, we turned down the shot that we practiced getting it to where we wanted it and if you start doing that now it doesn't end it doesn't end well because it goes back to trust in what we're trying to get done. We we knew it. Just like they knew us, we knew the shots we were gonna be able to get. In the first possession of the game, I think we turned down 3 shots that you've gotta take. And it just ends up not being what you want at all. But we just didn't move them the way we needed to and that's what we've talked about really for whether we're playing Indiana or anybody that plays that type of defense and just didn't do a good job with it."

It's more that Chaz has not practiced as much. You know, he's had an injury that he's been dealing with and so I've said it before, what we do in practice will determine who's going to start and who's going to play. I tell the guys all the time the film's going to decide who's going to play. And and we watch it constantly. We show it to them and there's certain things that we just have to get from guys and if they're not willing to do that, you hope that they will. But if not, you just gotta put the guys out there that are really your most consistent guys. And that's what we're trying to figure out, but we know we need them all. We need every one of them. I mean, our goal coming into this year was we wanna play 10 guys, didn't want to play (Zeigler) as many minutes as he as he played. But that's that was our mindset as a coach, but our players haven't let us do that because of not buying into what we need them to do for a minute and a half, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes at a time. That's what we need them to do and then because the way we defensively, we want to sustain that. We want to we want to play 94 feet. We want to run and we do wanna shoot the ball quick.

"But we got to be smart enough to know, you know, if you're not making shots, especially when we talk about getting we had a lot of times we could've made one more by getting to the lane, putting more pressure on trying to get to the foul line, all those type of things. But the turnovers were the ones that were smart because we we told them it's not a two-dribble gap game the way they gap it. But we played too much really not downhill, too much kind of east and west But am I surprised going in? I'm not sure I am because I've been watching it. And we need more of these games. We do now. We only got two, so we got to be ready. We got a lot of improvement to do before we open up."

"Well, I told him that's he's got to call time out. I mean, again, we didn't execute the play. We didn't. And that's what we talked about. Everybody told him they knew what was on it. We didn't execute it. It goes back where I think guys are either letting anxiety or too uptight where they're not listening and they're not able to function in that situation, which sometimes you find that out too about players. We had a play on, but I told him and he saw from the beginning that it didn't develop right. I told him I said, you know you know we had time out. You got to call a time out. Because that that was a big possession right there."

"(He's) still trying to learn what we need defensively, consistency, and if you look at the guys that had fewer minutes, it gets down to what we see everyday in practice, what we want him to do. And understand exactly what he's got to do when he's out there."

"He does (need to be more aggressive in certain shooting situations). But I think he's a perfect example of knowing who he is. And you know he he he's not going to go searching them out but he knows if he's there he's going to take them. But, you know, he's the guy that has bought into his role. I mean, he's a star in what he does and he has improved his shot. And again, when he's open, we we expect him to shoot it, but he's also become a smart player in the fact he he knew early we'd been missing some threes and he was the guy trying to get some paint touches. And early in the game, I think we had eight at one time early. I think one time in the game, we had 13 or 14 paint touches, but we only scored on two of them. And we just weren't very efficient on the offensive end."

"A lineup that, you know I'm not sure would play a lot but we wanted to put them in that situation at that time. We wanted to see how they would respond with it and that's why they were out there. But we wanted some guys that they want play, but sometimes as much as you talk to them about what they need to do, you got to put them in those situations when you're playing a different opponent and let them realize it's a whole lot different than what they might think. It's a whole lot harder than they might think. But that's the reason we took him out and went with that lineup at that time because I felt those guys out there at that point in time without (Zeigler) and Jahmai (Mashack) on the floor, we wanted to see if they could maintain the level of intensity, if they could defend the way those guys defended when they're on the court and then see if they could play together on the offensive end."

"Rebounding really well. (Milicic) is a guy that can he can give us a lot more, but he's going have to slow down. He's going to have to really have a great awareness of who he's playing with and know his teammates inside out. I think he made the effort. He made some plays. You know, he got blown by, you know, 50 I mean, what, 70 feet from the basket, which he can't do. We're not asking anyone other than Zakai (Zeigler) and Jahmai (Mashack) that can really toughen up the guys and make them work. We wanted him to contain the ball. At the end of the game, his execution, not knowing what we're in, all those things are fixable things, but he's got he's played enough basketball that he should already be there on on those things."

"Consistency. Really. We need Cam to really help us. The one thing I talked to him about is defense, and we we we went through it yesterday. We do it a lot. He has a tendency to stand and stare at the ball and he got back cut. And that's one thing I said to him before the game, 'I don't want you to get back. Show me you're not going to get back cut.' And he went in and he got back cut. Now, this being the first game in front of people and all that, you expect a little of the jitters and all that. But to me, we've played enough, he's played enough basketball that you say one thing, 'Hey, we're not going to get back cut. We got to be there.' And then offensively, if he'll just, again, settle in. We really need him to help us because he can."

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