Vols head basketball coach Rick Barnes met with the media following No. 19 Tennessee’s win over South Carolina on Wednesday night inside of Thompson-Boling Arena.

Barnes discussed the play of John Fulkerson and Victor Bailey Jr., preparing for South Carolina with uncertainty regarding who may miss due to COVID, the health of Josiah-Jordan James, South Carolina’s success early on from the three-point line and much more. Here’s everything Barnes had to say following the game:

On the play of John Fulkerson and Victor Bailey Jr.:

“The last couple days in practice we were short guys. Just kept talking to guys about, hey, you have to get yourself involved some. We can only do so much from a coaching staff standpoint. Our offense since Fulky has been here hasn’t changed a whole lot. If it has changed some, it’s because we’ve added to take advantage of some other talent. Otherwise, his position hasn’t changed that much. We just said hey, you’re going to have to do it. I thought he did the best job of running tonight that he’s done all year. He really ran the floor hard. I still think he has to play quicker in the post. He’s wanting to catch it and spin and do this. He’s not going to get time to do that unless he really does his work early. And VJ, I think the last two days, Santi (Vescovi) wasn’t able to practice so those three worked together. I thought it probably helped VJ as much as anyone, just the last two days really just playing the point, understanding what we want him to do. I thought he just did a really good job with it.”