Rick Barnes likes Tennessee basketball's work ethic during summer workouts

While basketball season is far from people's minds after Tennessee baseball is coming off a national title and football season is quickly approaching, it's a pivotal time of the off-season.

Summer workouts are a time for the team to bond with newly tooled rosters coming together due to departures and newcomers.

For the Vols, Rick Barnes has formed a squad that features six returning scholarship players, four transfers and a single freshman.

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The group of returners can be split into separate groups, as well. Zakai Zeigler, Jahmai Mashack and Jordan Gainey make up the unit of experienced returners who all enter their senior seasons and were big pieces of last year's squad. JP Estrella, Cameron Carr and Cade Phillips are young players who enter their sophomore seasons.

Barnes is happy with how both of these groups have developed at this point in the off-season. The older players are doing a good job teaching and the younger guys are looking more comfortable.

This all goes back to the main thing that Barnes said has stood out to him through the summer workouts.

“Work ethic," Barnes said. "Our older guys I think have done a really good job of coaching our younger guys, great guys that we’ve got coming back. The young guys have a better feel for what’s going on. They’ve all improved and certainly the guys that are new are learning still, but (have) been great teammates. Very humble, wanting to learn, knowing they’ve got to pick things up quickly. And we’re all excited about what we’ve done up to this point. Yesterday was the first real day that we really went up and down the floor a little bit. But we get back here after (July) fourth. We’ll take it up and notch.”

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Along with the returners, the four pivotal transfers and lone freshman will be thrown into the fire, as well. Four-star guard Bishop Boswell may get a little more time to develop, but the transfers are being asked to instantly contribute.

The gem of the class looks to be Chaz Lanier. He shined last season with North Florida and looks to continue this as he returns to his home state.

Then, Igor Milicic Jr., Felix Okpara and Darlinstone Dubar will also be given their fair share of minutes to contribute.

As a whole, the expectation is to build off of last season. While key pieces in Dalton Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi ran out of eligibility and others like Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka hit the portal, the new roster will still look to return to the Elite Eight and possibly break through to the program's first Final Four.

For now, Barnes is looking at these newcomers and individually working with them to prepare for the lofty expectations that are placed on the team. He's been pleasantly surprised so far but he understands there's more work to be done.

“I think every year you’ve got to continue to get better and, we really are excited about what we have," Barnes said. "And some guys have maybe surprised us a little bit, everyone that we’ve gotten. I think every summer is important and right now as a coaching staff, we really put so much emphasis on each individual guy in terms of trying to get that person to understand how we see him right now to keep building roles and keep getting guys to understand what they need to do to take the next step to get better and help our team. And so we spend a lot of time, not just on the court, but talking, and obviously it’s a big summer in the weight room. They’re up there right now and we feel like we got to put weight on certain guys and certain guys we need to get them to where they have just their cardio goes up to a whole different level. And I would tell you that the new guys that are here would tell you that it’s been totally different for him. They would tell you it’s been good for him, but it’s something that they’ve never done up to this point.”

The Vols' schedule isn't cemented yet but some games have been revealed. Out-of-conferences matches against Syracuse (SEC/ACC Challenge) and a trip to Louisville are on the table.

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