Early lessons for Tennessee from its exhibition loss to Duke

Tennessee's men's basketball team lost its exhibition game against Duke, and the immediate reaction focused on what the result revealed about the Volunteers before the regular season begins. An exhibition defeat still counts for little in the standings, but a matchup of this level gives Rick Barnes and his players a clear measure of where they stand.

The value of a game like this is in the problems it exposes while there is still time to address them in practice. For Tennessee, the takeaways from the Duke game will shape the work that follows, as the Volunteers turn from a difficult exhibition test toward the games that will actually define their season.