ETSU Will Be Better Than the Vols in 2019–20.

The two men’s basketball programs won’t meet this year. Because Rick Barnes doesn’t like to lose.

Some schools live in the shadow of others, but East Tennessee State seems to be subservient to the University of Tennessee.

From the fact their athletic director, head football, and head men’s basketball coach all used to coach at Tennessee to the fact the Volunteers often get hometown coverage the Buccaneers don’t in the Tri-Cities media, where other SoCon members beat the larger schools in their vicinity, Randy Sanders joked he’d probably walk home naked if the Bucs beat the Vols on the gridiron last year.

There was no such comment when the Bucs traveled to Appalachian State last year.

That’s the difference between shadow and subservience.

But that should stop this basketball season. Because ETSU will have a better team than Tennessee in 2019–20.

Yes, the Vols were ranked, for a time last season, as the №1 team in the nation, but that’s last year.

Yes, Sports Illustrated, in their rankings of every Division I basketball program in the country, had Tennessee №37 and ETSU №59, but what is the difference between №37 and №59 in a preseason ranking?

Yes, Tennessee is a member of the Southeastern Conference and ETSU competes in the Southern Conference.

But the SoCon has improved, ending the 2018–19 season as the 12th ranked conference in…