Tennessee basketball picked up its third straight win Saturday night withstanding a second half push to defeat Auburn 77-69 in Knoxville. It ended a four-game Auburn winning streak and marked a second consecutive win for Tennessee in the series.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed playing without Ja’Kobi Gillespie, the strong interior performance and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On what Tennessee got out of DeWayne Brown and Jaylen Carey on the floor together
“I can tell you what I just told Mike Keith. He said if you thought you wouldn’t make a three, I think he said the last 35 minutes. I told him Mike, you forget how old I am. I said I still believe in the Single Wing. I played when there was no (3-point line). We played everything 15 feet and in. So I’m good with that, you know? But those guys played big for us, obviously. Our guards, three perimeter guys, eight rebounds. Jaylen had eight. But we needed all of them. Auburn is a really good team. Steven has really done a great job with his team and they’ve gotten better from the beginning. They’re a very efficient offensive team. He does a great job of getting his players in the position where they’re really effective.
“And we’ve got to stop fouling. I mean, there’s too many things. But our front line, yeah, that something we hadn’t had for a couple years. And DeWayne Brown is going to be a really good basketball player. He is now. He’s come quicker than we thought. We’ve talked about that, I think in the past. But we need Jaylen’s consistency. That’s what we need as much as anything. And J.P. staying out of foul trouble.
“But tonight, a lot of different guys, really, truly a team win tonight because (Auburn) kept pushing and they weren’t able to get it (there). I just was there taking, especially the first four minutes of the second half. People ask me about fouling six times in the first four minutes. It was because they were playing hard. They came out of halftime and it had nothing to do with your officiating. We fouled because we were back on our heels, they were going right at us, and that’s where we got to mature as a team. And one time during time out I said, hey, guys, we got four freshmen out here, and it’s time you guys grow up. And they came out and did a pretty good job for us.”
On Tennessee freshman DeWayne Brown having 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists
“Sometimes guys are just content to play a role because they think so and so, it might be their time or whatever. Maybe a freshman not wanting to step on somebody’s toes or minutes, whatever. But Felix being out, he tried everything to get ready, but he couldn’t do it. And they just got to play. And maybe, I don’t know, they see it differently when they’re in that situation. But we told him, we did tell him, he’s hit a plateau and he’s got to make that next move. Then you think, especially this time of year, most people think a freshman hits the wall this time of year and go backwards. And it’s not that he’s gone backwards. It just that he hadn’t progressed. But tonight maybe he understood what he we meant. And tonight he went out and competed at as high levels as he could be.”
On Ja’Kobi Gillespie having to sit with four fouls in these second half and Tennessee maintaining the lead during that stretch
“It was good for us because, again, I think when Ja’Kobi is out there sometimes, — he’s got to stop fouling in situations he’s in. But in practice, actually, I think a week ago, we wouldn’t let him practice. We said we’re going to learn to play without him. Because he was tired. And we went two days where he didn’t do hardly anything, because we can play without him. And the ball moves a little bit more, and that’s what we’re trying to get him to understand. He’s got to let it get off of him some and get back to him.
“But I thought it was great for those guys and I thought they were confident. And they should be because they’ve worked hard together. And they know they need each other. And I didn’t think any at any point in time, that stretch was going on, that anybody left anyone on an island by themselves. They were out there really trying to help each other, talking was really good.”
On if they could have survived a seven minute stretch without Gillespie a month ago
“That’s a good question. Maybe not. But we’re more prepared now than ever to do that. If it happens. Even Troy, I mean, Troy hasn’t been able to practice or do much in the last week, and we have confidence in him. We thought Troy was really headed in the right direction. I still think he is. He just hasn’t had many reps. He did a little bit in practice yesterday, but we didn’t do a lot in practice yesterday. So he went in, and he’s not afraid of the moment, but we just got to get him to work back in there.”
On Felix Okpara’s injury, when it happened
“Calf. He has some calf problems. Yesterday, it was after the Georgia game, he really got kicked there or whatever. But it was a calf.”
On how he’d assess the interior defense without Okpara
“Okay. We put in a zone we’ve never worked on. Box-and-one we have never worked on for a couple possessions just trying to buy some time, you know? My thought is, we don’t know what we’re doing, but they may not either. But I will say, Steven has done a really good job. He really has. They play hard. They’ve gotten better-and-better. We knew it would be a really hard game. We really did. We came out and made some threes early. I didn’t realize, I don’t think we made one the last 35 minutes of the game. Is that right? I didn’t think about it. But like I said, I’m okay with that. But, again, we need everybody. And if we could ever get everybody at one time, playing to a high level, we got a chance to be a pretty good basketball team.”
On Nate Ament getting to the foul line, scoring 22 points on a poor shooting night
“Yeah. He’ll make some of those shots and he’ll miss, but again, he impacts the game. Again, he’s gotten better defensively, and he had some big rebounds tonight, too. I mean, those rebounds were big, he came up with it. The free throw line he was great. He drew what … nine fouls. Yeah, that’s huge. That helps his teammates, but Nate, he’s been good all year. I’ve told everybody that he’s never played on the perimeter both offensively and defensively the way he is now. He came to college, whole different game. Physicality, all that. But I really felt mentally, he had his good moments and, whatever, right prior to, since the Florida game— he has seen the game totally different. You can just see it. You can just feel it. He is just talking, coming to the bench and I mean, tonight, he made a great cut against the zone the first time they went there, and he started to tell guys, what’s going on out there? Getting so much more vocal. He’s just seeing the game at a level where I think he let go of whatever pressure he was holding on to because he wants to be so good. He wants to almost be perfect, and we got to talk about it. I said, you’re never gonna be perfect, but you just got to be who you are and play. And really starting the Florida game, he’s just been a whole different player mentally.”
On what he liked about his front line
“Well, one, we have a lot of respect for Auburn. We watch them, and we told our team how good a team they were. They’ve been as hot as any team in the country. They’re going to win a lot of games. And we knew we had to be ready to play, and we came out, and I thought we were locked in, I do. I think we were really locked in, but we also know how explosive they can be. But I’d say the same thing. They came out and punked us the first four minutes of the second half. And that’s why, six fouls, we fouled them. But we’ve got to just get more consistent and we just got to stop doing, at the end of the game, some of the passes that we throw. I mean, I don’t know what to say other then sometimes, I wonder if guys are betting on games. I shouldn’t say that. Erase that. I just wonder what’s happening. I mean, I know that we’re too good of players to do that. Was that bad? Should I not have said that? I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that. But the fact is, we’ve got to get smarter. We do. We got to get smarter. We have to. And we have to. And they know it. We got a good group of guys, and I know they don’t want to do it, but sometimes we play so hard on defense, and we’re playing at a really hard frantic pace and we’re not able to gear it down like we need to on offense because it’s got to be played a different pace, and we’re still a little too frantic on the offensive end.”
On if the team needed to see that they could play good offense without Ja’Kobi Gillespie and good defense without Felix Okpara
“Well, I do hope that they see it. We’ve talked about it, but it’s one thing to do it in practice, but it’s another thing to have to do with when the bright lights are on, and they did it. It’s something that we can build on. And something I think Ja’Kobi can build on. I think he’s the one who needs to look at it as much as they did. But they stayed together, they were confident because he gets himself in trouble sometimes by trying to do too much, but I think the more he can sit there and see some of the things. I mean, Ja’Kobi’s been put in the position yet, he’s been in all year. I mean, he’s the number one target, absolutely one of the best guards in the country. Everybody knows what he can do, and I keep telling him, he’s got a great midrange game that he for whatever reason, he won’t get to it. He wants to keep going too far with it. But I think the more he could sit and watch too, like when he came back in, he was really great defensively and I think he saw it differently. So maybe it’ll be good, not only for our team, but for him as well.”
On how Tennessee is a more mature team at the start of February compared to a couple weeks ago
“Well, I would say one of it is the communication. I think that we got a group of guys that are talking. We still can get better coming out of timeouts, listening, those type things, but a great example, the other night against Georgia. We had come out of a timeout, and I wanted to make sure they understood exactly what — when I walked into the (huddle), Nate was telling them, ‘hey, this is what we’re doing if they’re in a zone. This is what we’re doing if they’re in man.’ And more of that happened tonight. When you start getting those guys, talking like that, and seeing it — is everybody at that level yet? No, but we’re getting closer.”
On if Ja’Kobi Gillespie was fouling three point-shooters because of fatigue
“No. It’s not — he can’t put himself, I mean, I’m not going to tell you what I said at halftime. I’ve already said something I shouldn’t say, but you can’t do that. I mean, we’re good with them shooting 30 threes if they’re contested, but we’re not — I mean, J.P. did the same thing? I mean, I think we fouled what? Three three-point shooters tonight. I’m not going to say the word I told them, but you can’t do it. You just can’t do it. It has nothing to do with fatigue. It has to do with understanding that they’re going to really protect three-point shooters in every way possible. You just don’t put yourself in that position.
“But you also don’t do what Amari (Evans) did at the end. (Folds arms against chest) You can’t do that either. But at least he didn’t foul. I’d probably take that over the other.”
On how Jaylen Carey needs to establish consistency
“I don’t know. You ask him. You guys talk to them about it, you know? Or we’ll talk to the guys that work in the studio at ESPN. They got all the answers, you know? Let them tell me, because I know we’ve talked about it a lot. We’ve talked about it. And it’s him. I told him today before shootaround, at some point in time, he’s going to have to look in the mirror, and be real with himself, knowing how much this team needs him, and how much that we need to count on him, but he’s got to do it. Because we’ve talked to him a lot about it, and it’s on him to push himself to that point he can do it.”
On Jaylen Carey fighting through his left leg injury in the past two games, especially against Auburn with Felix Okpara out
“Yeah. I mean, he’s said he’s been fine. I mean, we actually took him out at the start of the second half because we told him, you’re not going hard enough. He came out, and he said, ‘I got it, I got it,’ because we had not a good offensive possession, and he didn’t make an effort. But that’s something that he’s going to have to — and he’s got so much more in the tank. He’s got so much more left if he would make up his mind that he wants to dominate in his own way.”
On if teams can get a little bit more out of winning games in which their best players are not available:
“You know, that’s a great question. I will tell you, as soon as we go into games, and when we’re playing against somebody that all at once, game-time decisions, they don’t play. The first thing that goes through your mind as an opposing coach is somebody from them is going to step up. It’s an opportunity for somebody, and you hope your guys don’t let down, because, okay, this guy’s not playing.
“But it goes back to the game a year ago (against) Florida, to win that game, it did help propel some guys to where they got it. But then I go back to that game now, I know some guys that had a good game, but then they came back to practice and felt good about it, and didn’t climb. So I think I could answer it two different ways. Sometimes you just want to play the team you’ve prepared for, because I’ve seen that throughout my career where somebody goes down and the other team just gets something extra, and they come out and they’re just playing. And then on the other hand, you see some of your guys like last year, our guys come in and have success, but then they don’t handle it well.
“Hope we can handle the stuff like with Ja’Kobi not playing as many minutes. I hope we can handle that well. I told them my biggest fear ever in coaching has always been complacency. From everybody. Once you start winning games and you start thinking that (it’s easy), it’s never easy. We’ve told them every night, expect to be in a possession game. I think one in four SEC games this year has been decided by a point, or a possession. Complacency is an evil, because if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. Because I’ve got so much respect for coaches and players in this league that they all want to win at the highest level. If players don’t realize that they’ve got to get better every day, it gets away from you.”
On if Jaylen Carey scoring through contact against Auburn is the type of aggression Tennessee is looking for from him
“Well, if he can get it. We want him to shoot a shot he can make. Early in the year, he was throwing the ball up there, trying to score through three guys. We really love it when he kicks it out. He made a great one tonight where he kicked out, and we want those inside-out threes, too, but if he gets positioned and plays through people with two hands, he did — what did he do (at) the free-throw line tonight? He looked very comfortable there tonight, shooting it. What did he end up with? (3-for-4). Yeah, that was great. How many fouls did he draw? Can you guys see it? What, he drew three fouls? But again, his offense, he does a pretty good job of rebounding his shots, but I’d prefer him to make the first one, to be honest with you. We need him. We need him to be everything we know he can be.”
