Vols head basketball coach Rick Barnes met with the media following Tuesday night’s 52-50 loss to Ole Miss in Oxford to discuss what went wrong with his basketball team.
Barnes discussed why Tennessee struggled with Ole Miss’ 1-3-1 zone defense, why John Fulkerson only attempted five shots, what went wrong offensively in the second half, and much more. Here’s everything Barnes had to say:
On what went wrong offensively for Tennessee in the second half:
“We lost our aggressiveness and their changing defenses and what they were going to do and how they do it. And how we want to have an attack mode. We got to where we were throwing the ball sideline-to-sideline, holding the ball. Letting them trap one side of the court, the other side of the court. We did not attack the ball the way we needed to. We just had some horrendous turnovers. And when you add that with the fact that we missed some shots that I like to think we can make around the rim, then you add that with missing the front end of one-and-ones, free throws, it makes for a long night.
“That’s the disappointing part of it. Great guard play, we didn’t have it. You’d like to think that when teams change defenses, that you have guards on the floor that have good basketball IQ, they can make those adjustments. It’s disappointing. Because again, the thing we’ve been looking for all year is consistency and we just don’t seem to get it enough, the way we need to. I’ve said before, I think we can shoot the ball. But you look at our plus-minus tonight, I think we only had two guys. We had Santiago (Vescovi) and Yves (Pons) with a plus-nine. And Olivier (Nkamhoua) was three. But you’ve got some guys minus-11, minus-four.
“Tough night, it is. It’s just disappointing that we didn’t handle their pressure, because we just didn’t attack it. We were holding the ball. We have to attack that. As much as we talked about it, and not doing it, that’s just really disappointing.”
How Tennessee went nearly 13 minutes without making a basket:
“I understand some nights where you’re not making three’s. I mean, we shot the ball early, turned down some shots early. Again, that allowed them, they got a lot of baskets off of our offense. We talk about the two, defense and offense, being married. You can’t give a team, I haven’t even looked yet, it has to be around 20 points because of just not passing the ball, executing on the offensive end. We had a chance a couple times to really stretch it out and put some pressure on them.
“Some missed free throws, layups, turnovers, let them get back in the game. Then (Romello) White got aggressive inside scoring, putting us in foul trouble, and we didn’t have an answer for it. I just felt like, again, we’re too good of a defensive team to continue let people score off of our offense. With four guards on the floor, guards are supposed to take care of the ball and handle the ball. Some of the ways we turn it over is honestly just being lazy, not understanding how important the ball it is. I can’t. Right now it just baffles me to think of some of the ways we turned that ball over.”
On why Tennessee was unable to attack the 1-3-1 zone:
“Probably the smaller lineup out there. I’ve said before, we still have some guys that don’t know our offense. They should, but missed practices, not concentrating the way we need to. I mean, we had some busted out-of-bounds plays where guys went the wrong way. The young guys. Those all hurt. We got the ball in the middle of the zone, we got it there. Again, it’s just hard for me because we normally don’t have that problem. Yves had the ball, (Romello) White had I think three or four fouls on him. Instead of going up, making a play, he passed it out one time. It’s one thing catching and facing up.
“Sometimes you’ve got to go, especially when a guy has four fouls on him. Attack. He’s going to do everything he can to not make a foul. We feel that Keon (Johnson) can go inside and play against the zone, too. When Josiah (Jordan James), he’s obviously not as good with his back to the basket, but stepping him out opens up gap for us. Keon was able to drive the ball in there a few times, he just couldn’t finish it. Then when we got fouled, we couldn’t come away with the free throws we needed at the time. But just too many breakdowns. Again, still not understanding. It’s the young guys trying to figure their way through some of this. Realizing that, hey, there are guys that can play. Some of our turnovers, again, are absolutely ridiculous.”
On the turnovers against Ole Miss’ trap:
“Not only is it deflating, but it’s an energizer for them. It is the way we gave it to them. Santi comes across halfcourt, not where he is supposed to be, drags his foot. Josiah, at 6-foot-7, throws a pass that gets deflected. Actually, had another one that got deflected that we got. Same thing. Coming over halfcourt, caught the ball exactly where we told him you cannot catch it in that area. Santi, again, shouldn’t have thrown it because the guy was too high. He hadn’t slid down. Never got the ball. They ran the same thing early in the game. We were just getting it to the baseline and looking to attack. We just stopped attacked. Some of that had to do with guys getting to their space quicker. That is what happens when you get tentative and get back on your heels.”
On John Fulkerson only taking five shots:
“It is frustrating. He reverted back early to catching the ball and holding it like he had been. When he finally made a little jump hook, he went and played with it. He is a guy that has to be, I can talk about the freshmen still learning, John has played enough right now. He should be consistent. Over the last three games or so, Yves has done the things that we like him to do. Fulky had a good game the other night and we felt like, we were hoping, he would be back. But he wasn’t.
“He is a guy that in the past when we needed those baskets inside, we could go. But he is waiting too long. We knew they were going to double-team. That was the kickout threes we were getting early. Just a really frustrating game in terms of consistency. I am not sure anybody had a solid game. I could probably make a case for Yves doing some good things. Santi plus, but those turnovers. Guards should not turn the ball over against that defense. We talked about that as much as anything because we felt that is what they had to do to try to mix things up with their defense. It is frustrating. You can tell I am frustrated. I don’t know understand how we can do it.”
On if he’s surprised by young players still learning as much they are at this point in the season:
“Yes. And not listening coming out of timeouts. Throwing the ball to the wrong side opposed to throwing it where it is supposed to go. Whether it is listening or understanding. We call some plays and one guy or a couple guys will look around and say what is it and where. When we have the older group, they can execute more. The younger group just does not understand the importance of offensive execution the way they need to.”
On how concerned he is with the free throw shooting:
“You are only as good as your last time out and right now we are not very good. Those missed one-and-ones are like turnovers. We had turnovers. You can go ahead and tack on two or three more because that is what they turn into it if you don’t make the front end of one-and-ones.”
On if Tennessee lacks focus or mental toughness:
“I would say both of them. Mental toughness and focus. I would put those two together. I don’t think you can have one without the other. You can call it mental toughness or focus or whatever. But I would definitely put those together. I think with our team, those are issues right now.”
On the decision to have Keon Johnson make a free throw at the end of the game:
“What we were trying to do. We wanted him to make that and then foul. We wanted to push the guys inside, under the basket and foul without any time going off the clock. We didn’t execute that either.”
