Everything Rick Barnes said about Tennessee’s win over Kentucky

On what his message was to the team when Tennessee was down 12 points in the second half:

“It was because I said hey guys, I’m telling you over and over, you can’t — we had two back-to-back turnovers. Ridiculous turnovers. I said we can’t get back in the game if we’re going to keep turning the ball over. You have to get stops, we have to get a shot every time. And both times we tried to pass the ball in tight quarters. And all we had to do was turn around, we had guys behind us that can shoot the ball, that were waiting. And we just made poor decisions there. And that’s what it got down too. Again, when you’re down 10 you can’t turn the ball over back-to-back like that. We worked through it. It was a game of two different halves, obviously. Them in the first, I think they got the free-throw line, (hit) 13 out of 15. In the second half, we were able to get there.”

On why Keon Johnson was more aggressive than usual:

“I think it’s based off the fact that we’ve showed him enough tape, where we want to drive the ball, how many times they’ve stopped themselves. Even the play where he went in there and got blocked, believe me, that was a great Keon Johnson play. It showed that hey, I’m going. They blocked it, it didn’t faze him. That’s what we’ve asked him to do. We’ve asked him, Jaden, Josiah, VJ — VJ could’ve dunked the ball twice tonight. Too many times we stop ourselves when we’re driving. And some of it is the fact that it’s a different style than we’ve played in the past. We still have John and Yves. If that’s not effective, this is what we felt we could always do with those guys once they figured it out. Hopefully tonight they did. We thought we might have had some things figured out after the Kansas game and we came back and didn’t do what we wanted in terms of being aggressive. I’m just really proud of those guys. Hopefully they understand that they’re more capable, doing more than they probably have up to this point.”

On why Jaden Springer didn’t shoot as many three’s in the second half:

“To be quite honest, I got upset with two of them because at that point in time we were behind and we needed to get to the foul line. When you’re down like that, I said I don’t mind the one-pass threes, inside-out threes, but jab-jab step-back, jab-jab raise up, at that point in time in the game. I really like the way he responded after halftime because I got after him a little bit. I said hey man, this is a learning situation right now. You guys work on shooting. We’ve got to understand game time, shot-clock situation, all that. I thought he really responded in the second half.”

On the play of Josiah-Jordan James:

“In the second half, Josiah did a much better job. You know Brooks had his way. He had 22 points, I think, with seven minutes to go in the game. He ended up with 23. Josiah was big on (him). He and Yves Pons both were big.”

On preventing Kentucky from getting into the paint:

“They got there and we got in foul trouble. They’re a well-coached team. When you get to the double-bonus as quick as they did, they’re going to drive the ball and it’s going to put you on your heels on the defensive end. Where I’m saying we can’t keep giving them foul shots. We have to make them earn some things. And that makes you a little bit tentative. We had some guys. We played some guys. But I think you have to give (Kentucky) some credit for that too. They were doing it. But we were getting spread out a little too much, more than we wanted to be. Again, we kept talking about our gaps, getting in our gaps quicker and helping. But too many times in the first half I thought we were leaving guys alone where they were either being isolated off of post moves, back to the basket, or letting guys coming downhill. They run good offense, now. They run some things that are hard to defend.”

On Tennessee’s success at Rupp Arena during his tenure as head coach:

“Every game does mean it. I think we all know Kentucky is our rival. I don’t think there is any question about that. I am not sure I even knew it when I got here, but people let me know real quick how important the Kentucky-Tennessee rivalry has been starting way back in the 60s. Then from the time that Bernard King spoke to our team, Yves Pons and John Fulkerson heard his comments about Kentucky. I get it. I know what it means to Tennessee being three hours south of here and playing all these years. At this point in time, you all know how much respect I have for John (Calipari) and his program and the way they do things. I am happy for our guys. I am happy for Yves Pons and John Fulkerson. Those guys have had a chance to come up here and win some games. Other than that, I realize our fan base, they love it — they do. I get it. We have a lot more that we can do.”

On how Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer stepping up when Tennessee needed them most:

“I will go back and I believe this, I think it is true of Kentucky and I think it is true of us. I think is true of all university’s basketball programs that are playing freshmen. It is not a typical year. It is not. You would think that without having the full summer, I can tell you, I think Keon and Jaden are getting into the kind of shape that I think they would have been in a month and a half ago if things were normal. Both of them took themselves out of some games. Tonight, they played longer and harder than they’ve played since they have been at Tennessee. We would have been a month and a half — as would have been Kentucky and teams that play these guys. It has taken these young guys and I think John would tell you the same thing, it has taken longer to get them to understand what goes into into this. Tonight, those guys did play through fatigue, which they haven’t always done that. They have been willing to take themselves out. I must have asked them, each one, two or three times, ‘Are you okay?’ The only other guy I might say that to is Yves because he is out there so much. But no one else. They kept saying, ‘I am good, coach. I’m good.’ In the past, they would say, ‘Give me one.’ I think that is a big step for those guys. Now, the real big step will be can we count on them to bring that kind of level of fire every night from here on out?’”

On Tennessee’s foul trouble in the first half:

“I have experienced that and probably worse. I think we came out and our guys, they were wanting to play. I thought we were too aggressive, too physical. We’ve talked about when we haven’t, at times, been physical. I am not arguing with one of those calls. I think every call that was made was a legit call. I told them. Some of them, they happen in bang-bang situations, but others — like Santi’s right in front of me — those are ridiculous fouls. No reason to foul right there. I am not denying any of those fouls. I haven’t seen them all. I haven’t watched it. During the game, a couple of times, the fouls they called, I thought were fouls. I was just thinking maybe we need some of those. I am not going to question anything those officials did. I thought early, the ones they called that I saw, were fouls on us.”

On what it means to win at Rupp Arena once again:

“It means that we have come up here with good basketball teams and guys that have had to — a year ago, we were down with 11 minutes to go and came back and that was one of the great comebacks I have been part of it. Tonight, we were down 10. The credit goes to the players. They were out there tonight. You saw them. It was fun watching them play like that from where I was. It really was. I just love the way they got locked into the game. They were oblivious to everything that was going on other than what went on between the lines. I am just excited for those guys and excited for our fan base.”