ATHENS, Ga. — Tennessee basketball picked up its second straight road win Wednesday night, knocking off Georgia 86-85 in overtime. The Vols trailed by six points at halftime and led by six in the second half before the game went to overtime and Tennessee found a way to get it done.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed Nate Ament’s growth, dominating on the glass and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways As Tennessee Basketball Outlasts Georgia In Overtime
Opening Statement
“One, just so much respect for Mike White. I mean, I think he’s truly one of the great coaches in the country. And I’ve always had great admiration for him. And (Georgia is a) really hard team to prepare for because he’s just going to get the most out of his guys. I think he’s got a really terrific basketball team. And we expected both teams, if they can play to their ability, they’re going to be in games like this.
“But overall, for the most part we handled the pressure. And they obviously did a great job of not letting us getting to a flow, as much as we’d like to.
And again, that goes back to Mike and his staff. And they’re switching back and forth, which believe it or not, they went zone and we were kind of okay with it, because we had some guys that were playing a lot of minutes. And we were fortunate in a lot of ways.
“But really happy for our guys. They fought hard. And again, Georgia’s a really good basketball team, really hard to guard. And as many times you can get one like this … We’ve got to be better. We had too many empty possessions the last couple minutes. And I got to take the blame for that. We can’t come up empty or force up shots. We’re getting into our actions way too late. And again, it was hard to communicate on that end sometimes, getting the guys to get to it. But they did a great job, one of the last possessions out, where they were just going to take Nate (Ament) and Ja’Kobi (Gillespie) out and make Bishop or somebody make a play, and we got fortunate. I guess Bishop thought the shot clock was coming down and JP was able to get it. That was a big play. That was a big one. But, again, just happy for our guys, obviously. Happy for all of us.”
On how he coaches Tennessee final defensive possession, up three points with 15 seconds left
“Well, with that much time, we were thinking they could take it to the basket like they were. We were switching and they did a nice job of keeping the guard back, and the guard was getting down the lane on our post player and getting to the rim. We were going to switch out and weren’t going to foul. We were switching and if they were going to shoot a three, we wanted to contest it. But early we were thinking we just got to guard, guard, guard. And our guys did a really good job. They really did a good job.”
On if they had to emphasize with Tennessee players to not foul at the rim in that moment
“Yeah, we told them, we bailed them … I don’t want to say bailed them out because that takes away from what they did. They kept putting fouls on us at the basket, going down, playing off two feet, getting by our guards. And again, they’ve got good players and they’re hard to guard. But the last one we were standing in front. And, you know what? I’d like to say to when it gets under five (seconds), three, somewhere in there — five, four — we could foul before they get the three off. But there’s so many other variables that come into the game and we just feel like we’re going try to go down and give us a best defensive effort and see if it’s good enough.”
On if this Tennessee team grew up with the two road wins back-to-back
“I hope so. We came back from Alabama, had some good days work. And (Georgia is a) really good team. And, I mean, Mike does a great job, man. I’m telling you, we just got our guys, I think they understand that at this level, if both teams play to their ability, there are going to be games like this every night. And if you don’t play, you’re going to get beat and get embarrassed. And we got a long ways to go in some areas. But I always use that saying, proud peacock today, feather duster tomorrow. You feel good right now, but you can’t enjoy it very long because you got to turn around, you got a really good Auburn team coming in. And as good as you feel tonight, it could be over like that. So it’s a matter of understanding you’re in the grind of a college basketball season. I think with maybe six weeks to go. And this is where separation starts to happen. And we’ve got to keep getting better.”
On what he liked from Tennessee forward J.P. Estrella in the win
“When he starts rebounding, he does a good job talking. And he did, again, he came up big. When he goes up and gets it with two hands, he’s really a force. The more he’s out there, again, the better he’s going to get. He missed a lot of basketball, but really happy with him because he’s doing the things that we need him to do.”
On the importance of JP Estrella’s two buckets early in overtime getting them back in a rhythm
“Well, it was. And I mean, we feel our post guys can score, but you could tell he got lost in it and playing. And when he does that, he’s really good. He’s oftentimes way too hard on himself. We’ve tried to encourage him to, one play at a time. If it’s a good one, get on to the next. If it’s a bad one, get on to the next and not beat yourself up. And we’ve got a lot of confidence in him. And we knew the middle of the zone was going to be open and we wanted to get it there. And we didn’t care who got it. Just go make a play with it.”
On Estrella and Felix Okpara’s offensive rebounding helping the offense
“Well, it’s a big part. It’s probably our best offense. And I think everybody knows that with our size. We get to a point and a couple times a night we discuss, well, maybe we should go small and put Nate at the four. But I just feel like this is who this team was built to have those big guys out there. And the more they’re out there in these situations learning how to guard when we have to start switching, which we did. That’s the way for us to go right now .And by that, it gives us an advantage on most nights where we can get to the glass.”
On the motivation of moving Estrella to the starting lineup
“Well, he asked a week or 10 days ago, what he had to do and we told him, but we’ve also told him before. But he started doing it. And you know what? He loves to play.I mean, with these games, I mean, you should have heard him in the huddle right before we were getting ready to start overtime. I mean,you could tell he’s loving it. Like let’s go, let’s play all night. And that’s a great thing about him and he’s just getting started too, and I think the more success he has, the more he’s gonna climb that plateau and keep going. Because throughout the year, you do hit plateaus and can you keep climbing or if you just stay there, you’re going backwards because everybody else is getting better. But I’m happy for him. We’ve always loved him, we’ve always believed in him and we just know that— and he knows it. I’m gonna tell him tomorrow, there’s still more. He’s raised the bar to where he’s doing what we know that he can do, but now we expect him to raise the bar even more.”
On the importance of Bishop Boswell and Nate Ament on the glass
“Huge. I mean, Bishop was I think averaging five rebounds coming in and I think Mike (White) and them were really prepared to not let Nate get isolated up over there. But Nate is getting so. I mean, I’ve told you guys, I think he’s been great all year. Everybody, I don’t know what they expected but for a guy learning to play on the perimeter both offensively and defensively, it’s a hard thing to do coming in at this level knowing that you got a huge target on your back every single night with somebody trying to go after you. But Nate, he is really starting to see the game.
I love watching him right now talk to the guys. Like during one of the timeouts, I said what I said, and he circled them up and he took control. He said, ‘listen, here’s what we’re doing.’ And he repeated it exactly. We haven’t had that but he’s starting to see the game. Like when we run some actions, he’s starting to just play out of it, know what he needs to do. But we need other guys to see what he’s seeing. Nate again, he’s been terrific. I can’t read this (stat sheet), it’s too dark in here. What did he have? How many points? (19 points, six rebounds, three assists) And how many fouls did he draw? He normally does a great job. (He drew six fouls). He’s starting to understand the whole thing, too, the more and more he plays.”
On how exciting it is as a coach when a player of Ament’s talent starts to see and feel the game in a great way
“You know, I’m excited for him because he’s such a great human being and when we talked throughout the recruiting process, I told him it was gonna be hard. I can tell you the last conversation before he committed to us, I said, ‘Nate, this is what we want you to do, but it’s gonna be really, really hard, and it might take you six months to really understand it.’ And the other night, Coach (Justin) Caldwell said to me, (he) remembers (a) statement I made to Coach Calwell. He said, ‘back in September when we were talking about Nate,’ I said, ‘you know, it might take him until the middle of January to figure this out, but he will figure it out.’ And you can see, I really think starting at the Florida game where you just saw it in a way — and I wish I knew what he did or didn’t see, but going into that game, he just has had a totally different perspective. I think he’s letting plays — I think he was really hard on himself. I think he beat himself up when he’d miss a shot or do something that maybe wasn’t to his standard, but I love him to death because you know what? He wants to be coached, he’s a great teammate, guys love him and he’s fun to be around every (day). I’ve never seen him in a bad mood, ever. Even as hard as I get on him sometimes, but I think he understands. When I say get on him, I’m just pushing him, you know? Because I just know with him, he’s just getting started.
“But he wanted it. He said that from the very beginning. He said, ‘I want that.’ But I’m telling you, the best part right now, he is seeing the game, really seeing it from all areas of the court, perspective. I mean, he sees it all from almost every position, which is a great talent.”
On Bishop Boswell’s defense against Georgia guard Jeremiah Wilkinson, holding him to six points on 3-of-10 shooting and 0-of-6 from three
“He’s hard. I mean, again, when you play against guys like this you know can shoot, you’re just hoping they’re gonna have to take a lot of shots to get to their numbers. And Bishop is gonna fight every night. I mean, he’s gonna do that. But he would tell you he can’t do it if the big guys don’t do their job, ’cause these guys got so much wiggle and they can shoot it.
“We still get stretched out a little bit too much. I think when teams come out and start making threes on us early, we start getting spread out a little bit more than we need to. But Bishop, he’s gonna fight as much as he can, but he would tell you that he needs as much help from his post guys, too.”
On how important J.P. Estrella’s offensive put-backs in overtime were
“Well, it’s huge. I mean, that’s what he needs to do. I think he realizes how he can impact a game, what he needs to do. He’s long, and he’s really long when he goes and gets it with two hands. But he’s done that two games in a row. He and Fe (Felix Okpara) have been really good, both of them, both games (Alabama and Georgia). They both have been really good coming down the stretch.”
On what Tennessee point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie needs to do better at the end of games
“You know what? That’s a great question. I know he wants to, there’s no doubt about it. He’s never been in this situation totally. And I told him, he’s gotta over dribble the ball. We get him set up.
“Ja’Kobi Gillespie has — I promise you — as good a mid-range game as anybody in the country. He doesn’t want to utilize it and he keeps going too deep, getting himself in trouble, gets cut off. Now the clock’s getting down and it’s hard. He’s putting more pressure on himself and then putting us in a tough situation. It’s experience, you know, but he’s just gotta be willing to shoot his shots. He’s got a lot of confidence getting to the rim, finishing, which I’m good with that, too. But there’s certain times because you see the rebounding, if he gets it on the glass, we got a good chance to go get it. And that’s all I tell him. Sometimes you just gotta get it up there and we’ll go rebound the ball.”
