LAS VEGAS — Tennessee basketball earned an early season marquee win on Tuesday evening, knocking off Houston 76-73 in a thriller at MGM Garden Arena. The Vols trailed for much of the first half before taking control of the game in the second half and surviving a late Houston push.
Following the game, Barnes discussed Bishop Boswell’s strong performance, what’s next for Vols in Players Era and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On Bishop Boswell setting the tone for Tennessee
“Well, like I said yesterday, I think he’s becoming one of the best defensive guards in the country and there’s no doubt that it’s a hard role to put a player to want to buy into, to want to do it, but he’s all about team. He wants to win more than anything else, and we knew during the whole recruiting process he was a winner and he would do whatever it would take.
We’re asking him to fill a major role and he’s embraced it, and obviously proud of him. I’m glad — those free throws were huge, and while he was shooting them, I said, if anybody deserves to make these it’s him because of how hard he’s worked even through his rehab. But he’s starting to — he’s got so much more growth for it. Offensively he’s going to just continue to get better and better, but we need him to keep that focus, and he was terrific, as he was last night.”
On what about the win he’s most proud about
“Well, everybody had heard the chatter that we hadn’t played anybody, but we had. We had a great scrimmage against Ohio State and then we had a great exhibition game against Duke. We knew after both of those that if we could continue to grow that we had a chance. We’ve got a group of guys that really like each other. They work hard. They work hard every day. More and more guys are starting to understand their roles.
Everyone we played tonight, whether — you think about Mo’s steal, you think about Jalen coming off the bench and doing what he had to do, and obviously these two guys in the backcourt with Nate getting three fouls that were questionable at best and working through that.
It’s just we — this team we knew that if we’d be talking about what we had done up until this point with this group of guys, want to make this their team and their season, and they’ve worked at it now for six, seven months. And just a great team — it was truly a great team effort by so many different guys.”
On Boswell making an impact with more than just his defense
“Well, you need a guy. Obviously we feel like we’ve got some scorers in Nate and Ja’Kobi and our post guys. That the difference in our team from a year ago. We had no inside game. We got something there, but you need a connector too, and that’s what he’s done. He’s willing to sacrifice some things offensively to know who he’s playing with, knowing what he has to do.
I think he’s really starting to understand the game more and more. But you have to have a guy that plays that role. In some ways it might be the most important role on the team. I know one thing, it’s definitely the hardest in terms of just having to go out and grind it out. And not only is he doing that, he’s trying to get down the court, doing what he needs to do offensively. Tonight I thought he impacted the game in more ways than just his defense.”
On Tennessee’s defense forcing Houston into a seven minute scoring drought
“I thought the biggest thing throughout the game, we started the game and we missed some shots that we feel like we need to make, but at no point in time did these guys stop believing. They know it’s a 40-minute game. I think as the game goes on guys start feeling each other out. I think these guys definitely do that. We talk about how we like to pressure as much as we can.
But I thought these guys figured it out themselves, and they were very talkative, very active in the time-outs, and got some good play with our post guys. A little bit better with our ball screen coverage. Still got to get better. Just being with them and hearing them talk, coach each other, hearing them talk about adjustments that need to be made is a step in the right direction.”
On if it feels different playing for a championship in a MTE with 18 teams
“I can just say this, it’s the first time in my career that we’re 24 hours away from playing a game and we don’t know who we’re going to play. I don’t know. It is difficult, but it will be the same for them too. I guess we’ll play one of these teams that’s still left to play. I don’t know how that works out.
On if he knows when they will know their opponent
“I guess we’ll have to wait until both of these games are over. I don’t understand the points (differential) and all this and all that. You’re coming out here, obviously you know you’re going to have great competition, and obviously the money that is involved too. But that’s not the drive. You come out here knowing that you want to play, get a good read for where you are and that was our goal coming out here.”
On if Tennessee’s interior scoring and physicality against Houston is what he envisioned putting this roster together
“We knew when we walked off the floor last year after losing to Houston, obviously we have great respect (for them), but we knew that if we didn’t get something inside— I went back and watched that game four or five times. Actually watched it twice in the last couple days. We had absolutely no presence in the lane. At all. We walked off the floor and I remember talking to Danny White and I said, ‘we’re going to have to get an inside game.’ Really proud of our post guys. Jaylen (Carey), all of them made a big time contribution.”
