Frankie Sullivan didn’t need someone to fill him in on the details about his new basketball coach.

Sullivan, Auburn’s lone returning contributor from last season, and Tony Barbee go back years, ever since Barbee tried to recruit him out of Uniontown first to Memphis, and then to UTEP.

When Barbee held his first meeting with the team Thursday, Sullivan said the coach hadn’t changed a bit.

“Everybody was uptight at first and he told us to loosen up and threw a couple jokes so that we could loosen up,” Sullivan said. “You know how it is when you meet a new coach and you’re very tense and don’t know what to say … but he’s a great guy.”

Barbee said, after a weekend of work with CBS College Sports Network as an analyst for the NCAA Tournament, he will meet with each returning player individually. He’ll also be in touch with Auburn’s six signees in order to gauge what type of team he’ll be able to field in November.

If the entire group remains intact, a rarity during coaching changes, Barbee will have zero scholarships to offer for potential signees. The spring signing period starts April 14 and runs through April 19.

It was far too early Thursday for Barbee to guarantee anything other than a team that will play hard.

“My expectations are always probably greater than everyone else’s expectations. I’m an eternal optimist, so to speak,” Barbee said. “But there’ll be no timeline put on the type of success we’re trying to build here.

“I’m here for the long haul. I’m not here to build a team. I’ve proven I can do that. I’m here to build a program.”

Barbee has made the postseason in 18 of his 19 years as a college basketball player and coach — “and I’m madder than heck of that one year,” he said.

No one will expect him to maintain that streak in his first year with the Tigers.

Auburn returns a group of players that contributed just 20.8 points and 14.5 rebounds per game in 2009-10, playing behind a group that didn’t exactly light the SEC on fire.

Sullivan averaged nearly half those totals, making him the de facto centerpiece of next year’s team.

“He’s a talented young man and I’m excited to rekindle that relationship that we had at one time, because I think he’d be a great fit at how I do things as a coach,” Barbee said. “Hopefully it’ll work in my favor and he can be a little bit of a buffer between some of the guys if there are any issues.”

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