Tennessee basketball wrapped up its non conference slate with a 105-54 rout of South Carolina State on Tuesday night in Knoxville. The Vols started somewhat slow but blitzed the Bulldogs with a 64-point second half to coast to the blowout victory.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed Amari Evans strong performance, free throw shooting woes and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On Tennessee’s turnovers early in the game
“Give (South Carolina State) credit. They played extremely hard. Our whole conversation with the team about South Carolina State was how hard they play, how competitive they are. You look at their record and the fact that they just keep competing. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they end up winning the league again and getting back to the NCAA Tournament. Really, really well-coached team. And we told the team coming in, as much as we tried to simulate it, what they do, we turned it over I think five times in the first four minutes. And after that we didn’t look anything like what we were trying to get done. But we settled in and had some good moments.”
On Tennessee assistant coach Bryan Lentz saying Monday that freshman guard Amari Evans is one of the team’s most-improved players in recent weeks
“Well, I think consistency. And early (in the season) he fouled out in six or seven minutes. And in the game after that, probably not as aggressive as he as he needs to be. I think it’s just getting playing time understanding it. But in practice, taking advantage of what he’s trying to do in practice. And he missed some valuable minutes in the preseason when he was hurt. But if he competes, does what we need him to do, he’ll keep getting better. He wants be a good player. He really does. He wants to be a good basketball player.”
On Tennessee having 30 assists on 39 field goals
“Well early, I keep telling our guys if we don’t call a certain set or something, they don’t even look inside. And we’re a better team — I mean that one possession where Jaylen ended up getting his shot blocked, that ball should come back outside. There were so many guys in there and we had guys spotted up, those are the threes we want. But you know, we found a balance. But we got to find it early, we shouldn’t wait. But again, give them credit. They’re a hard team to get some rhythm against because of way they play, which is again, give them kudos.
That’s what they do. They really try to disrupt you 94 feet. But when we were organized, we’ve proven when we can pass the ball, our shot selection is better.
“But overall, you know the second half, obviously we got some good things. Our size is overwhelming, some of the teams we play. But I just thought we had some good moments. But we’re going to have to have more. We can’t get off to the kind of start we did earlier. Defensively we weren’t very good to start the game either. They got the ball to the rim. I think Felix made two really good blocks there. But we were taking guys out really pretty quickly tonight because of just not doing their coverage on defense. And in games like this, you find out a lot about your team in terms of who can be locked in and understand everything is going for you (and) you’re really competing against yourself. And regardless what the score is, every possession matters.
“You’re trying to develop the kind of habits you want see. And when you look at it, they had a guard (Jayden Johnson), a guy that we really talked about, he had a great night against us. Just because we weren’t disciplined enough to stay in front, reaching. We fouled too much when the clock was under five and slapping down things like that. We still got a long way to go with some of this stuff.”
On if he can appreciate the strong rebounding numbers despite those things
“Yeah, I mean obviously our size there, but that’s got to be a big part of what we do. Again, all goes back to consistency and DeWayne, first half, I don’t even think he had anything but zeroes across the board, right? He can’t do that. I thought Felix again defensively, I mean I think Felix, when he’s locked in, is the best post defender in the country with how he can guard both the perimeter and around the rim. I think we got what six or seven offensive rebounds on one possession there. We did a really poor job on the free throw line. There were some good things, but I didn’t think our concentration was great at the beginning. Especially with five guys, not all five of them, but some of them started.”
On how they can fix the poor free throw shooting
“They got to fix it. I mean if I shot them we’d make them all. I can take care of that, but I don’t get to be a shooter. If we had a designated shooter, I’d go do it. I think all of our coaches could. Gainey would say he could do it. Polinsky would say he could do it. McClain, I’m not sure about. Riley would certainly think he could do it. And it’s mental toughness and that’s what I think it is. I mean, guys that can make threes should all be able to make free throws. It’s harder than you think because you go from being guarded and someone in your face where you go up there, you’re standing there by yourself. And I think it all goes back to a routine. We’ve tried different things with different guys. I just think you just lock in on your routine and trust it.”
On if tonight was a nice stepping stone for Nate Ament ahead of SEC play
“I mean Nate, I love Nate. I love everything about him. I keep telling him when he drives he’s going to have to learn to take on the physicality. He’s gonna drive, you know when you bounce the ball more than twice when you are playing upright, it’s hard to get in. My favorite play was the last basket he scored where he missed two threes in a row and instead of settling again, he was wide open, he took one dribble. And that’s experience. I mean, at some point in time you just can’t keep thinking, I got to make a three, I got to make a three. You got to do the right thing and Nate can shoot. Again, he’s a better free throw shooter than he’s right now. But he’s like every guy, the slate’s clean for us as a team. Everybody’s numbers are gonna get rewound here and I expect him to be the guy that I know he is. But he’s so much more. I mean he’s a terrific passer. He sees the floor. Like we told Ja’Kobi, he finally got a layup, he could have had that three different times because Nate was waiting on him do it and he just wouldn’t go in there. Nate is a really, really terrific passer up there. Again, I think potentially the most complete guy in the country. I really believe that. And I think he’s going to keep getting better and better.
I mean, we were talking the other day at lunch and Steve McClain reminded me of, we were in conference play against Texas last year. Start of the second half, we ran a play for Chaz (Lanier) and he didn’t shoot the ball and we took him out, but from January until the end of January, Chaz made just incredible strides and I think we’ll see the same thing out of Nate.”
On what the next step is for freshman forward DeWayne Brown
“Consistency, again, because he’s proven he can do it. He’s got to do it every night. You got to find a way. I thought he was— he’s normally a guy that really does a good job connecting us on the offensive end. He was slow getting where he needed to go spacing wise. Slow getting into ball screens where we need him to get there. And because he’s a guy that can keep things going and he can score the ball. He can do a lot. But tonight I just thought he was very lethargic.”
On Troy Henderson making an impact with six assists while taking just two shots
“He can. And again,we left him out there a couple possessions longer than we normally do because he missed a tag and he knew it. That was the good thing. He at least knew that he missed it. And when they got up, you know, we are aggressive in our ball screen coverage, but he knew right away that he missed it. But yeah, he can— Troy can be— he does see the floor. For most of the game he plays through the net and sees what’s going on and we know he can shoot the ball. He can get going there. But he’s got to see himself not just as a guy that can score the ball, but can defend.”
