NASHVILLE — Tennessee coach Rick Barnes saw a chance to bring the Duke men’s basketball team to the Knoxville campus for the first time in nearly 50 years and jumped at it.
His 18th-ranked Volunteers host No. 6 Duke on Sunday night in an exhibition that sold out minutes after tickets went on sale despite the result not counting.
It’s much more important to the coaches as a preseason checkup for a pair of programs that finished in the top five of the AP Top 25 last spring after the NCAA tournament, where Tennessee made its second straight appearance in the Elite Eight and the Blue Devils made the 18th Final Four trip in program history.
“I wish we played more of them,” Barnes said of the high-profile exhibitions. “I really do. I think it would help all of us.”
Barnes has lots of company, with the Duke-Tennessee matchup at Thompson-Boling Arena only tipping off the fun.
The last weeks of October will look like the second week of March Madness with a bunch of games between power conference opponents providing a fresh revenue source along with a chance to test team chemistry during a transfer-heavy era that leads to rosters being rebuilt on a seemingly annual basis.
The onslaught of star-power games start up next Friday, with No. 1 Purdue at No. 9 Kentucky, No. 25 North Carolina facing No. 8 BYU in Salt Lake City, and No. 19 Kansas at No. 11 Louisville. The next day, No. 5 St. John’s plays No. 7 Michigan at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and the day after that, No. 2 Houston — last season’s NCAA runner-up to Florida — plays Mississippi State. The same day, the ninth-ranked North Carolina State women will face No. 10 Maryland
There are more games like this before the regular season opens Nov. 3, including No. 22 Michigan State against the fourth-ranked University of Connecticut in Hartford on Oct. 28, as well as the 11th-ranked North Carolina women taking on No. 2 South Carolina — last season’s NCAA runner-up to UConn — in Atlanta.
The fuller preseason schedule is another change in a wave of them for college sports.
Exhibitions had been allowed before this season if the proceeds went to charity, and some of those will continue.
Memphis hosted a doubleheader last October benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the men will play Arkansas on Oct. 27 at the FedEx Forum after the women host No. 19 Vanderbilt earlier that evening on the same court in the second Hoops for St. Jude Classic.
However, the NCAA men’s basketball oversight committee approved a rule change in January allowing Division I programs to play two exhibitions without a waiver. Also eliminated was a requirement that the proceeds be donated to charity, and now schools now can split the proceeds however they want.
Belmont men’s basketball coach Casey Alexander initially hoped that all D-I programs would play two exhibitions, giving mid-major conference programs like his Bruins of the Missouri Valley a chance to bring an opponent from a power conference to campus for an exhibition. The rule change was designed to help programs offset expenses from revenue sharing with athletes, which is now permitted under the House v. NCAA antitrust lawsuit settlement approved this past summer.
Yet the only exhibition Alexander’s Nashville team has scheduled is against Tennessee Tech from nearby Cookeville.
“That’s the reason why you’re seeing the high-profile teams playing each other,” Alexander said. “It’s one more game for them to draw 10- or 15- or 20,000 at home, and therefore a lot of revenue that they can put in their pocket to offset what they’re spending.”
AP photo by Mark Humphrey / Tennessee men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes, right, watches the action as his players celebrate a basket during an SEC regular-season game against Alabama on March 1 in Knoxville.
Duke last visited Tennessee for a men’s basketball game on Dec. 7, 1976, and the Vols beat the Blue Devils the last time they met in the second round of the 2023 NCAA tournament.
Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer was looking for the toughest game possible to prepare for a challenging nonconference slate ahead of Atlantic Coast Conference competition. Visiting SEC power Tennessee gives him a chance to learn about his reshaped roster after losing all five starters from last season, including forward Cooper Flagg, who was the AP men’s college basketball player of the year last season and the No. 1 pick of the NBA draft.
It’s also a game, even if it doesn’t count in the standings, that could resonate all the way to March in preparing the Blue Devils.
“I’m anxious to learn,” Scheyer said. “Without trying to shoot every bullet in the chamber that you have, either. That’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re just trying to make sure we’re true to who we are. It’s going to be interesting.”
Kentucky men’s basketball coach Mark Pope said coaches thought the rule would pass in 2024. He is grateful to finally have the chance to test his Wildcats against No. 1 Purdue and Georgetown in the preseason. Pope even has a number in mind after expanding to 33 games: Eight more for 41 a season would be nice.
“It’s fun for our fans. I think it’s elite for us,” Pope said.
There are some power conference programs playing second exhibitions against neighbors outside the blue-blood lines. Indiana played NAIA program Marian on Friday night. Purdue hosts Division II member Indianapolis on Oct. 29. Two days after that, Kansas State will host Newman, another D-II school, a week after an exhibition against fellow power conference program Missouri.
Kansas State coach Jerome Tang said playing an SEC team on the road is a great preview for what his Wildcats face this season during the nonconference slate with the likes of Creighton, Mississippi State and Indiana ahead of the Big 12 schedule.
“We might as well start preparing for it early,” Tang said. “Every night in the Big 12, we’re going to play a team with a number next to their name.”
The exhibitions also help replace the secret scrimmages where teams experimented with potential rule changes. Those aren’t all gone, with Vanderbilt facing Virginia this week playing by NBA rules with four 12-minute quarters.
Just how vanilla the exhibitions wind up in terms of schemes and sets remains to be seen.
“You get a chance to experiment a little bit more,” Scheyer said. “I think in this, you know it’s going to be seen. You try to not show everything you have. So it’s a trade-off.”