Stokes goes up for a dunk during practice.
Photo by Reed Carringer

NASHVILLE— The Vols open tournament play Thursday at 3:30 p.m. ET against the winner of tonight’s South Carolina—Mississippi State matchup (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network/ESPN3). Tennessee practiced at Lipscomb University this morning before heading to Bridgestone Arena (the site of the tournament) for a brief 30-minute shootaround. For the vast majority of the half-hour session, the Vol guards worked on acclimating their stokes to the new environment, while Tennessee’s forwards focused almost exclusively on finishing in the paint. The new surroundings didn’t seem to bother the Vols to any noticeable degree; we’ll see if that carries over into tomorrow’s game.

Here are a few notable quotes from the post-practice press conference.

“Our confidence level is really good as a team. We’re playing really well together. We’re playing for one another right now so our confidence level is really high.” —Trae Golden

“We’re here to play as hard as we can and win as many games as possible.”—Jordan McRae

“Jarnell’s doing a great job understanding they’re going to double team him down there. He’s more patient that he was. He’s doing a great job of getting fouled and getting to the line.”—Jordan McRae

“Jarnell is really using his body and strength against opponents, usually there’s 4 or 5 guys hanging on him when he gets the rebound. You have to commend him for sticking to it through the double teams.”—Trae Golden

“We’re not worried about the NCAA Tournament or anything, we’re just worried about trying to win this SEC Championship, and doing that game by game.” —Trae Golden

“I’ve never been the type guy to go after rebounds like I have as of late. Dealing with double teams, I wanted to find a way to impact the game without scoring, and I’m starting to find that on the rebounding end.” —Jarnell Stokes

“The SEC doesn’t get the credit it deserves as a league, as a league of this caliber and talent. Going into last week (the SEC had) 9 teams in the top 100 of the RPI, the only league with more was the Big East. I just don’t think we get the credit we deserve. Sometimes people might want to take shots at the SEC for whatever reason, when you’re talking about a league of this caliber with only 3, possibly 4 teams in (the NCAA Tournament), that’s ridiculous.”—Cuonzo Martin