Barnes on the expectations for his Vols: 'Ours are higher'

Whatever the outside world expects from Tennessee this season, Rick Barnes has a ready answer. Addressing the expectations around his team, the Vols' head coach put it plainly: "Ours are higher."

It is a confident line from a coach whose team spent the preseason absorbing exhibition losses and anonymous skepticism from around the league. Barnes' message is that the standard inside the Tennessee locker room does not move with the noise outside it — and his players will be measured against the program's own bar.