Tennessee coach Rick Barnes met with the local media Monday morning following the Vols’ loss against Florida and ahead of its matchup against Texas A&M. The Vols enter the week 1-2 in SEC play with two home games and a chance to improve to 3-2.
Barnes discussed turnover and front court issues at Florida, Tennessee’s inability to find consistency and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On if Tennessee’s loss at Florida was more frustrating after he went back and watched the film
“I’m not sure it could be anymore (frustrating) because I had to watch it live, you know? But it’s the way we turned the ball over, just so many unforced turnovers. And (Florida is a) really good basketball team, but you can’t turn it over the way we did, give up that many more opportunities for the other team that (is that) good, I think, have 15 more shots and 30 points off turnovers. But there’s still a lot of other things defensively that we obviously weren’t happy with, but it’s all fixable.”
On Tennessee center Felix Okpara playing 27 minutes at Florida and getting just one rebound
“It is (disappointing). And he knows that. We talked about it, obviously. And we know that when Felix is being the player that we know he can be, especially defensively, that’s where he really impacts the game. And when he’s not rebounding, doing that, it hurts us. He knows it. But when he’s at his best, it really gives us a chance to beat anybody in the country.”
On Tennessee’s inconsistencies from game to game
“Well, one, you’re right, endurance is the name of the game. It’s wanting to be where you want to be at the end of the year. But it’s a great question that I’ve asked a lot in the last probably three weeks trying to find out dependability. Who can we count on every single day? We’ve just been too inconsistent.
“We’ve put way too much on Ja’Kobi (Gillespie). Other teams are making him work for every step he takes on the court. I look at that, we need more consistency from our front line probably as much as anything. And that’s not just scoring, that’s being where you need to be on ball-screen defense. Because oftentimes Ja’Kobi is in those screens more than anybody and he’s having to work really hard on the offensive end.
“And then the other area is our other guards, because when other teams put our other guards in position, they’re going to have to handle the ball more than maybe they’re used to. Are they going to make the right decisions? Are they going to get us organized when teams are just flat-out taking Ja’Kobi out? And we’ve talked about that. I mean, we’ve told them almost every game going in how the other teams are going to play us based on what we know about them. And there’s a lot of little things that can be big things if we don’t see it.
“But that’s a great question. And I don’t have an answer to it right now because when I ask them that question, what do you think their answer is? ‘I don’t know.’ And I don’t understand (that) either. For as much as we talk about it, as much as we, and I know we got a group of guys that care. But all I can tell you, in the end, I tell them that if they don’t fix it is because they really don’t care. Because it’s right there. I mean, there’s no question about it. And it’ll always come back to your training, your preparation, the process you go through. If you don’t do it every single day and understand that it’s all— it’s simple. You’ve got to get better every day. We had some guys, and I told him yesterday, had some good games back early, a month ago, but they were fine with it. And that’s not— you got to get better.
“I showed them right before the Florida game. We played them three times last year and it was really amazing how much both teams, Tennessee and Florida, got better from the first game to the last game. And obviously Florida goes on to win the national championship. We go to the Elite Eight because of improvement. And that’s what this team’s got to understand. I mean, it’s a long way to go and we have to get better and we got to get better as individuals. We got to really understand the game because when you turn the ball over like that, and I told him yesterday, you don’t understand the game of basketball. You don’t understand athletics. It’s hard enough to beat somebody, let alone, you beat yourself by just not taking care of what I think are simple details.”
On JP Estrella and Jaylen Carey not finding a rhythm
“Well again, I mean, you think about it. Those are our older guys, guys who have been through some of this. Those are the guys that we expected to be consistent. You kind of maybe expect that from younger guys. I mean, I think Nate Ament has done great. I think Amari Evans has figured it out, getting better and better. A long way to go, long way to go. I even look at Bishop, you think about it, the role Bishop is playing right now. Jahmai Mashack wasn’t even in this position when he was a sophomore. I mean, so Bishop has been thrust out there to do it. So you expect a little bit of those guys working through mistakes, but it’s always your older players that while these guys are trying to figure it out, that they’re there and we haven’t been as consistent there. And that’s what we thought could be a strength for us. I mean obviously I could, you know, Cade going down hurts a little bit, but it shouldn’t hurt at all with what we have on the front line. And it goes back to everybody like Felix, I love him to death, but he can’t get one rebound a game. He can’t that. That’s his job to go out there and do that. And we need JP to give us a real force physicality. And need Jaylen, same thing to want to be a better defender. And again, you look at the front line guys, arguably the most consistent guy has been DeWayne Brown. And that’s a problem, that’s a problem.”
On if Texas A&M’s style of play is as unique as it seems
“Well, they press. I mean, you know, there’s been a lot of teams that press and they’ll jump up and press you, even on a missed shot. They’re up there trying to, you know, create that tempo and it goes back, that is what they do. They keep doing it well enough and they’re good at it. They’ve gotten better. I remember seeing ’em earlier in the year and well-coached, because that’s exactly what Bucky (McMillan) believes in. You know, that’s his style of basketball and he’s got a group of guys that are buying into doing that.”
On what he saw on tape from Tennessee sophomore guard Bishop Boswell that led to his six turnovers at Florida
“I think one, he made some really tough decisions. You know, he threw some passes that nobody’s gonna catch. And it’s not because he doesn’t wanna win ’cause he does wanna win. He cares about it as much as anybody on this team, but it’s just decisions and being put in a position that tried to do too much when they were really trying to work to take Ja’Kobi (Gillespie) out, which I think can be an advantage for you, if we learn how to do it. But just his decision-making is what it really got down to. And he let it affect him on the defensive end. He was not the defensive guy that we know he is during that game.”
On where the line for Tennessee freshman forward Nate Ament is at defensively in terms of being aggressive, but also managing fouls
“Well, you know, again, I told him last night, and I’ve told him for a long time, I don’t think he should ever get driven by because (of) his length. He should be able to space people and use his length to do that. But there’s so much more he’s learning. And again, I know how hard he works at it, but I was really happy with him Saturday. I thought he played, felt like he had just let go of the pressure that he was putting on himself and people have no idea what he has to go through with expectations and all that. And again, I’ve said it before, he’s a tough kid. He’s a tough kid. People might say he’s not, they don’t know who he is. He’s going to do everything he can. He’s very unselfish. He’s learning a whole new position. All through high school, he played on the front line with guys obviously not as physical. Like he told me Saturday, he’s realized every game, the physicality gets ramped up every game. And that’s something that he’ll continue to deal with and he’ll learn how to do it. But I just loved the way he was focused and felt like he, you know, had really settled down and made some really good plays and really kept us in the game early. I’ve seen it happen. He’ll keep doing this and all at once, it’ll all just, it’ll all click for him.”
