Vols, Barnes praise fans after drawing 21,165 vs. Tennessee Tech - 247Sports

Rick Barnes saw all he needed to see during his first season at Tennessee, when his no-name Vols, picked near the bottom of the SEC standings, were still drawing crowds at Thompson-Boling Arena.

“I figured it out my first year, to be honest with you,” Barnes said on Saturday afternoon, after No. 3 Tennessee’s 96-53 win over Tennessee Tech. “I knew that Tennessee had a great fanbase.”

During the first two seasons, when the Vols were still building under Barnes and struggling to win 31 games over the course of two seasons, the announced crowds most nights were closer to 12,000.

Saturday, for a 1 p.m. Eastern Time game against a Tennessee Tech team that entered at 4-8 overall, the announced crowd was 21,165, just 513 short of the Thompson-Boling capacity and narrowly edging the 19,846 that showed up last week for a win over Wake Forest.

“I can’t thank our fans enough,” Barnes said. “We had almost 20,000 against Wake and tonight we went over 21,000. You know what, I really feel good for our players, too, our program.

“The one thing we know is that we have a chance to have something extremely special here. But it’s going to continue to take work every day to stay there and do it.”

The average announced crowds have been 16,976 during the eight home games this season. The Vols have won 16 straight at home, the longest such stretch under Barnes, dating back to the 94-84 loss to Auburn in the SEC home opener last Jan. 2.

Tennessee was eighth nationally in attendance last season, averaging 16,209 fans per game in its home arena, with a capacity of 21,678. Kentucky was No. 1 nationally, averaging 21,874.

“They’ve been with us for the last four years,” Barnes said of Tennessee’s fans. “Our teams weren’t the best of teams three or four years ago, but (the fans) were here.”

The bulk of this Tennessee roster — seniors Admiral Schofield and Kyle Alexander, redshirt junior Lamonte Turner, juniors Jordan Bone and Jordan Bowden — have logged a lot of minutes in front of those fans.

Barnes said that plays a factor, too.

“I think they’ve enjoyed watching these guys grow up, too,” Barnes said. “When you look at them, see the growth that Kyle Alexander, that Admiral, Grant, Lamonte, I think they appreciate the way all these guys have continued to grow and improve as players.”

Tennessee is 44-11 in 55 home games under Barnes, including wins in 21 of the last 23 in Knoxville. The crowds for those wins haven’t gone unnoticed. Associate head coach Rob Lanier had to address the crowd on Twitter after Saturday’s win.

“The University of Tennessee has the best college basketball fan base I’ve ever experienced,” wrote Lanier, who coached under Barnes at Texas and also made stops at Florida and Virginia.

Schofield said when he came to Tennessee four years ago, one of his goals was to help rebuild a basketball culture, to help create a product that got “excitement around the program.”

“I want to be a competitor and compete for championships, like we are doing now,” Schofield said. “It’s just amazing how far we’ve come as a program, just by the hard work that we’ve put in and how much more room we have to grow as a program.”

The crowd numbers are only going to grow with the SEC schedule starting Saturday at home against Georgia, a game with limited numbers of tickets remaining.

Games against West Virginia (Jan. 26), Florida (Feb. 9) and Kentucky (March 2) have already sold out. Alabama on Jan. 19 isn’t far behind.

Tennessee’s players plan to put that home-court advantage to good use as the season rolls along.

“There are a lot of things we haven’t checked off the box,” Schofield said. “SEC Tournament, NCAA champions, regular-season (SEC) champions, officially, not co-champions.”

But first: Georgia. In front of another big crowd.

“There are things we have to improve on,” Schofield said. “But at the same time, that’s not our focus. It’s next week, preparing for Georgia. Then after Georgia. It’s one game at a time, one day at a time. Not look ahead.”

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