Ut-vandy will be 'regular week' despite back-to-back games
Rick Barnes hasn't had a week like this in 32 years.
The Tennessee basketball coach was in his first season at Providence in 1989 when he got a brutal welcome to the Big East. The Friars faced No. 6 Syracuse and No. 3 Georgetown in mid-february. Then Providence had back-to-back meetings with eventual national runner-up Seton Hall.
For the first time since, Barnes is leading a team into consecutive regular-season games against the same opponent as Tennessee faces Vanderbilt on Tuesday and Saturday.
“We'll go about this game the way we do it and then we'll turn around and do it again,” Barnes said Monday.
No. 10 Tennessee (9-1, 3-1 SEC) is scheduled to play at Vanderbilt (4-5, 0-3) on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2). The Vols and Commodores are expected to play again Saturday (6 p.m. ET, SEC Network) in a previously scheduled matchup.
The Tuesday game was moved from Feb. 24 because of COVID-19 issues at South Carolina and Missouri — the scheduled Tuesday opponents for UT and Vanderbilt, respectively.
“We understand that this time of year when cancellations start happening, we are going to have these type of situations,” Barnes said.
The SEC informed Tennessee of the change before the Vols boarded the bus to leave Texas A&M'S Reed Arena after their 68-54 win Saturday. Barnes and Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse acknowledged the possibility of the shift earlier Saturday.
Barnes said not much will change about Tennessee's preparations for Vanderbilt, an opponent the Vols face twice every season.
“Obviously, they will be fresher in our players memories after the game, but we'll proceed as we always do,” Barnes said. “Normally, you have some games in between where you can see them go up against some different things to make some adjustments to your plan, but in this case the adjustments from one game to the other will be made based on the first game.”
Barnes called it a “regular week” in large part despite the change. The Vols still will take Wednesday off, which they would have if they faced South Carolina as scheduled. They'll use Thursday and Friday to prepare for Vanderbilt.
He said the gap between games allows the week to maintain a sense of normalcy.
“The preparation will be the same for us, with us going about doing what we do,” Barnes said. “I watched our games from a year ago. I saw the adjustments that we made from a year ago and the adjustments they made. There will be adjustments made obviously, but I think both teams will go about preparation in the same way, because it's a Tuesday (and) Saturday game."
How Rick Barnes has fared in back-to-back meetings
Barnes' 1989 run against Seton Hall didn't work out well for Providence. The Friars dropped both games – an 84-80 defeat on Feb. 25 at Seton Hall, then an 80-68 home loss on March 1.
But Barnes fared much better in March 2008 when he was at Texas.
The Longhorns capped the regular season with a 62-57 win against Oklahoma State on March 9. They opened the Big 12 Tournament against the Cowboys on March 14 with a 66-59 win.
Barnes recalled a 1994 stretch with two games against Georgetown in a sixday span. In his final season at Providence, the Friars beat the Hoyas 73-67 on March 7 in a game originally scheduled for Feb. 12 that was pushed back due to weather.
“We had a snow date on a Saturday,” Barnes said. “That was our last game of the regular season. It got pushed back to Monday.”
Providence and Georgetown played again on March 13. The Friars won 74-64 to claim the Big East Tournament title.
“That is the only time I can remember playing a team back-to-back in a week,” Barnes said. “There were some games in between obviously. I don't think we have ever played back-to-back.”