During a Monday afternoon Zoom conference with reporters, Tennessee's Rick Barnes began previewing the Volunteers' upcoming season opener vs. Colorado.

Notably, he had a number of good things to say about the Buffs and Tad Boyle.

Barnes' head coaching start came in 1987 at George Mason. He earned his chops at Providence from 1988-1994 and then coached Clemson from 1994-1998 before beginning a 17-season tenure as head coach of the Texas Longhorns.

Named Big 12 Coach of the Year in 1999, 2006 and 2008 while in Texas, he earned the same honor from the SEC in his third season at Tennessee, having led the Volunteers to a 26-9 record and a share of the SEC Conference title.

For Barnes, there was a lot to like about about Colorado in the moment right now, enough to go ahead and make this quickly-scheduled game in Knoxville the start to a three-game series.

“Anytime you’ve got a chance to play a quality program with a coach that’s upstanding and runs as clean and good a program as there is in the country, you want to be involved with them," Barnes said. "I’ve got great respect for (Boyle). We’ve got great respect for the way he does things. Kim English worked for him and knows everybody in the program. I’ve gotten to know Tad. He’s a terrific basketball coach and I think very much underrated."

Barnes also expects a big crowd to greet the Volunteers at the CU Events Center next fall for the second game of the series.

As for the third "neutral" game, to be played in Nashville, Boyle agreed to it for the challenge it'll present his players plus exposure it'll bring CU in an all-but-foreign part of the country.

Of course, Barnes has his own motivations and playing a high-level opponent close to home in 2022-2023 sounded like a plan.

"I know when we go out (to Boulder) next year, it’s going to be sold out," Barnes said. "Instead of exchanging money, we thought we’d make a neutral game out of (the third game) and go to Nashville. We do want to have a presence in Nashville and Nashville I think will receive it. We’ll be able to get a great crowd there and offset some of our costs this year."

"The fact is, we appreciate Tad and Colorado, (Rick George) and their department. They worked diligently to get this together as quickly as we could to make it fair for everybody."

“Tad’s led (Colorado) to where they're really going to be one of the favorites in the Pac-12 every year," Barnes said. "He’s done a great job bringing that program back. I remember from when I was in the Big 12 (at Texas from 1998-2015) and (Colorado) was in the Big 12 —he’s got it going at a level that’s really terrific. It’s really a complement to him and his staff.”

...

"I’ve gotten to know Tad...I think he’s just a terrific basketball coach — a very, I think, underrated coach. His teams play aggressive, they play hard, they rebound the ball and take great pride in that. They take care of the ball and offensively, do a lot of great things."

"It’s going to really be a challenge for our younger guys because they’re going to find out, if you let down for just a little bit, (Colorado) is going to hit you with some back screens, fade screens, down screens, ball screens — we’re going to have to learn to continue to play and not just think they can guard one action and be done. Colorado does a good job with their flow of game.”