Lady Vols and Vols have Knoxville bouncing to a winning beat

Holly Warlick and Rick Barnes are alike in a lot of ways – University of Tennessee basketball coaching jobs, old-school values, folksy deliveries, mutual respect – and quite different in how they view their respective situations.

Barnes isn’t really having it, this excitement over a 7-1 team that was picked 13th in the 14-team SEC by short-sighted media and ranks No. 20 in the nation entering Sunday’s sold-out game at Thompson-Boling Arena against No. 7 North Carolina (9-1).

“It’s like fool’s gold, you know?” the third-year UT coach said. “If you start saying, ‘Oh, we’re there, we’re good, everybody’s talking about us, we’re really good,’ that’s not how you win games. If what we did yesterday looks big today, we haven’t done very much.”

Warlick, she’s excited along with everyone else. And she should be. Barnes has a team that should be upper echelon in the SEC and make the NCAA tournament, while her No. 7 Lady Vols (10-0) could win the league and make March a long month. But that’s not why she should be excited.

Unlike Barnes, Warlick entered this season with some public grumbling around her, because in five seasons of doing the impossible job of replacing late mentor Pat Summitt, she hasn’t been Summitt. Now she has a chance to cement herself. But that’s not it, either.

It’s that she enjoys coaching this team. Simple but so important. From afar, Warlick looks like a different person on the sidelines this season.

“I don’t want to jinx them, but it’s just great chemistry right now and it’s a fun group to be around,” said Warlick, whose team is at Long Beach State on Sunday and at No. 18 Stanford on Thursday. “Effort, energy, play hard. I love the consistency Mercedes (Russell) and Jaime (Nared) are having. They’re playing like seniors. It takes a while sometimes for players to understand the importance of getting into the gym, doing things on your own that will make your game better. As seniors, you see every day that you have less time and it kind of means a little bit more. But I’ve really been pleased with the freshmen as well, being willing to learn and get better, not being satisfied with their games. For them to want to openly say, ‘I don’t know, I want to learn,’ it’s huge. Huge.”

So is this basketball renaissance in Knoxville, much-needed for a Vols fan base that just suffered through a 4-8 football season and the mother of all wacky coaching searches. Barnes’ team, featuring several players who are outperforming their recruiting rankings, is trying to follow up the Lady Vols’ thrilling home win over No. 2 Texas a week ago with a signature triumph of its own.

The Vols already have neutral-site wins over Purdue and N.C. State, and a road win over Georgia Tech. They have balance, depth, improving guards and the bruising forward combo of Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield.

They have the memories of “surprise team” status midway through last season, only to fade late with senior and top scorer Robert Hubbs III getting a knee drained every few days. They have the benefit of a resurgent SEC to aid their NCAA pursuit. And they have a coach who isn’t letting up.

“We weren’t tough enough to overcome that last year,” Barnes said. “And there’s not a single guy this year who I’d say has played really consistent basketball. Here’s what I ask our guys all the time. How can you win a big game and then lose games you shouldn’t lose? I want consistency. I want guys to play their hearts out every single night.”

Warlick is getting that so far, and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class is more than a collection of talent. Evina Westbrook and Rennia Davis are starting, and Anastasia Hayes is a blur off the bench. Those three, seniors Russell and Nared and junior Cheridene Green took turn making clutch plays to fend off Texas. A free throw here, an offensive rebound off a free-throw miss there, a confidence that the game would be finished everywhere.

“It’s very gratifying,” Warlick said of that finish. “And never, when we came to the huddles during timeouts, did I look in the kids’ eyes and see they were scared. They don’t have a fear factor right now. They feel like they’re going to come back and win the game and do the right things. As a coach, when you see that in your kids’ eyes, oh my God. You can conquer the world.”

It’s a team with a high ceiling. Of course, the Lady Vols could be very good and still finish fourth in the loaded SEC. Fourth would be a terrific finish for Barnes’ team. These are two programs at different stages. But they’re sharing in the excitement of a college town that needs some.

Said Warlick of Barnes’ team: “It’s been really fun to watch Rick’s kids grow up. You can have talent, but you’ve got to do something with that talent. Their kids play hard and our kids play hard, and I think our fans are loving both teams because of the effort.”

Said Barnes of Warlick’s team: “I’m really happy for Holly and her staff, because I know the last two years wasn’t the standard she wants. And I’m really excited for her players, because I think their hard work is showing the rewards. There’s a culture, there’s a vibe with their program that is unlike the last two years. I’ve only been here three years, and you can just feel it. They’ve worked. Believe me, I know how much time they’ve put in and how hard they’ve worked.”

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.