Tennessee basketball turned a narrow, one-point halftime lead into an 84-66 victory over Ole Miss on Tuesday night, marking the Vols’ fourth straight victory.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed Nate Ament’s massive second half, Bishop Boswell continuing to make tough plays and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On Tennessee’s Nate Ament scoring 26 points in the second half, after having only two points in the first half
“One, he’s playing against a terrific defensive team. One that believes in physicality. A team that’s not going to get what you want without a fight. We sort of kind of had a feel for what they would do in terms of trying to double him. We were trying to get Nate to his sweet spots, where he could go with it. So it was a physical game to start with.
“I think what he has done — I’ve said all year, I really don’t care what anybody else said. I wouldn’t trade Nate for anybody in the country because I think he’s been good all year. I knew it would have taken some time to figure out the physicality part of it, like any freshman to add to his game. But for him to do what he did, I mean, he earns it. If you were here yesterday at practice, he was the last guy wanting to leave.
“But it’s the way he’s doing it. I mentioned, I think this week, the game has slowed down for him. He’s starting to see it differently. He made a really good play to Jaylen (Carey) early. They came with a quick double, and he got it to Jaylen right there at the foul line. He’s really seeing, seeing the court. He loves to pass it. He’s a really terrific passer. But I think the biggest thing is he settled in really prior to going to Florida, where you could tell he was pressing and maybe a little bit disappointed. And I told him prior to that game, ‘You’ve got nothing to be disappointed about. You’re trending in the right direction. Just play one play at a time and get on to the next one.’ And since that game, Florida, he is just a totally different person mentally, the way he’s approached the game and sees it.
“So that second half was something that, I think if you go back to the time that we started recruiting him, that none of us would really be surprised by.”
On Tennessee’s shot selection in the second half, hitting more shots in the second half
“Well, early we missed a lot of shots at the rim. We got to make some of those, or get fouled, either one. It did seem like even when we were missing those shots — and they’re a good defensive team. They don’t foul, but they do a really good job, they body up. You’re allowed to do that in there, and they stay down and don’t give you much room. So you really have to score the ball before you can get it against them or it’s difficult because they close so fast. And they’re a gap team and they attack the ball. But then the missed free throws, they were there, I thought, defensively. And again, Chris (Beard) does a great job of isolations. I mean, No. 1 isolation team in the country. He gets guys where he wants them to go. And then, probably the biggest thing, second half, we probably stayed in the middle third more and tried to play from there a little bit more, because they’re such a good help team. And we told our guys before the game we didn’t want to spend a lot of time driving to the baseline, because we know what they do with their defense that way. But we started making some shots, which always changes the game.”
On Tennessee using a play for Nate Ament in the game that the Vols used to use for Dalton Knecht
“It was a very sophisticated play. We put three guys to get him open. We call it bunch. Just bunch up and get him open. It’s really. We did it once. The second time, you’d think you could never mess that play up, but we didn’t get the spacing the second time. So I’ll have fun with that when we get back together.”
On how often Tennessee has been able to use that play with Nate Ament
“First time. I could tell. I saw it in his eyes. I could see he was, he was in it. I could just see where he was in it, I could see where he was locked in. And we made up our mind we’re going to get him the ball as much as we could there. And he did a great job, again.”
On if he has seen that look from Nate Ament before tonight
“I have. I see it every day in practice. I mean, Nate, he’s special now, just in so many different ways. And coaches will always talk about great teammates, and he is a great teammate. I mean, one of the most unselfish people I’ve ever been around. There’s so much more to him than basketball. He wants to be great at it, but it’s not what identifies him. There’s so much more to Nate. And, yeah, I’m, I’m happy for him because I know that how, how much he doesn’t want to let anybody down. He does’t. In one of our talks, I said, ‘I told you, you’re not gonna let anybody down, because you stand for so many of the right things that we all want.’
“But tonight was a really physical game, and I thought he came back the second half. And again, we’re physical. He sees it every day, but they’re an unbelievably well-coached team and they make it hard on everybody.”
On if he thought Tennessee sophomore guard Bishop Boswell would have this kind of impact this early in his career
“Well, when we recruited him, we told him he had to do it. We knew what we were losing. We knew we were losing some heavyweights, especially defensively, guys that are just tough, hard-nosed, everyday guys, that are highly competitive. And so we knew when he came in as a freshman, we wanted him to get some minutes. And to be honest with you, it didn’t come as quickly as we had hoped for him, but to his credit, he kept working.
“And one thing that probably helped him as much as anything, last year, he had to spend a lot of time in practice at the point, guarding Zakai (Zeigler) a lot. And no one — no one — worked harder than Bishop when the season was over with. I can’t imagine anybody in the country putting in more time than he does, and I’m not just talking. He watches film every day. He watches every clip he has in practice. And like I said to you before, he works so hard on defense, he has a hard time slowing down on offense. He’s just so wired to compete at a high level. And then when you switch to the other end, you kind of just get a little calmness about you. And he’s still getting (there). He’s not there yet. But he’s getting closer.
“But to answer your question, when we recruited him, we needed him to do what he’s doing right now. And did we think he would (do it as a sophomore)? He’s almost lead the team in rebounding. I mean, I think in league play, he’s right around seven rebounds a game. Six or seven rebounds, which I think it’s back to back, two eight (rebound) games. And he gets hit on every play, because he’s going to be on the best offensive player. And the team you’re playing is going to do everything he can to get their guys open. So some way, some how, he’s in some kind of collision, it seems like every play, which is he can take it.”
On Bishop Boswell and Nate Ament battling Ole Miss’ physicality
“It is what it is. I mean, tonight you got a great crew on the game, and, again, unbelievable respect for Chris Beard and the way— I mean, we’re very similar in a lot of things that we do. And I would imagine that, again, we told him straight up, the physicality and it’s gonna be a grind. If you go back and look, Ole Miss has been in every game they’ve played. I mean, they just have a way. They grind it, they can get you in a possession game, and again, they lead the country in playing in isolations. And they make some tough shots, but they’re shots that they practice, shots that they work on. And at some point in time, not just offensively is it physical, but it’s defensively, because they screen. They do a lot of really good things offensively where they’re gonna, again, physicality is the only word you can use.”
On Chris Beard calling Nate Ament’s shot unblockable, how it’s improved
“Well it took us a long time to get him to understand that if he gets it up over his head, that’s a weapon for us. And I told him that, I said, ‘man, this is a weapon, but you got to get to your spot. If you go dribble, dribble, dribble, you’re not gonna get there.’ Because a lot of times he’s playing against smaller players, and I think if you ask any tall guy, they would say they love to play against like size. They don’t like playing against small guys, because those small guys get up and under and make it really hard. He would tell you that probably Amari Evans has helped him as much as anybody, because, I mean, you guys watched some of the preseason practices. I mean, Amari’s in there beating him up, and Nate’s wanting him to. That’s all new to Nate. He had never gone through any type of preseason like that. But he’s learning the difference with his different matchups. When he’s got a guard, like size or someone in between— what he needs to do. Again, it goes back to seeing the game differently than he was. Because he was just playing at one speed with everything, and not really seeing the court, not understanding where to attack and space and those type of things.”
On if blowing out Ole Miss is a sign of separating at this time of year
“Well, I don’t think the score is indicative of how close that game was. I really don’t. I mean, we got going there a little bit, but it was a really hard-fought game. And again, I look at the score, and we got up on them, obviously, but yeah, this time of year, it’s simply about getting better. I mean, we talk about complacency all the time because I see it with our guys. I’ve seen it in many, many teams. I mean, it’s just easy to get comfortable. And we’re not in a position to be comfortable. Right now, we’re fighting like everybody else to get to the postseason and fighting to get better every day. You take none of it for granted. And I really appreciate the effort that our coaches put into the guys that maybe don’t play as much because we’re gonna need those guys. I mean, what they help us with in practice every day is invaluable, but they’re gonna help us. Like, we didn’t know the thing with Felix. We had no idea about that. Mo (Amaree Abram), we get a call that he’s got the flu this morning. We didn’t know that. And so as coaches, we spend a lot of time with the guys that you might not think. Like, I thought Troy and Clarence and Ethan, those guys are important. And I do think at some point in time this year that they’re gonna be needed in a big way.”
On keeping your emotions between the whistles in a physical game
“Well, it’s hard, but you embrace it because I think you embrace pressure, I think you embrace competition. I think you got to embrace the ups and downs, but it’s competition. It’s a competitive spirit that you’ve got to have, because it’s not always going to go your way. And I think the key is, how do you handle it? You got to let go of the last play and get on to the next play. And then when you get some emotion tied up in it, how quickly can you turn that loose and get focused, okay, what’s next? And it’s hard. It is hard because we’re still dealing with young people. But I don’t have a problem with the emotion, but I don’t want it to boil over because the first thing you’ve got to learn to do is not beat yourself, both physically and mentally. And so when that happens, it’s a matter of getting settled down and on to the next play.”
On the potential of Tennessee’s offense if Nate Ament is the primary scoring option instead of Ja’Kobi Gillespie
“Well, I think we’ll be better if we’re a balanced team, and we just make the right basketball play. That’s what I think is the key, because we think we’ve got five guys on the floor every time that can score the ball, if — if — they take the shots that they practice and what they need to do.
“But then you get in games like tonight, they were gonna be really content with certain guys — as the season goes on, they’re gonna play analytics, and, you know, early, they were content to let us have on the backside we were in the high-low, to have that game. Bishop had it over there. And, you know, we tell those guys, ‘when you’re feeling it, you gotta shoot it, but we’re not gonna wait until you make a three.’ And, you know, what are your options when they’re trying to bait you into shooting it early in the clock, what might it be? So we want our guys to do what they do well, but we want five options. We really do.
“Early in the year, it was way too much. I mean, I think what helped us as much as anything, during the off week, we made Ja’Kobi not practice. One day we didn’t do much. The next day, we didn’t let him practice once we got five on five, to make sure these guys understood how we could still be effective without him on the court. And I think it helped him more than anybody, because he’s tried — like tonight, you said it, he missed two point-blank layups to start the game. He’s so much more. He’s got a great mid-range game that he hasn’t shown consistently enough this year. Obviously, he can shoot the deep ball. Normally a pretty good finisher at the rim. But once people come to respect that he will pull up, it’s gonna help him even more.
“But we’re gonna play through who’s getting it done, and that’s where guys, the unselfishness comes in with this team. I mean, I think they found out tonight, Nate got it cooking a little bit, and they were willing to, you know, turn the burner up for him and let him get it. And I think that’s a sign of a good team when everybody starts seeing that.”
On if he feels like Tennessee will play better against Kentucky in Lexington this weekend after the Wildcats came back from a 16-point deficit to win in last month’s matchup:
“I don’t know about that. I just know this, if we don’t play hard for 40 minutes, we shouldn’t even drive up there, because Mark’s (Pope) done a really terrific job with his group, and they just took us apart in the second half. We didn’t — they did whatever, they had their way, and if we’re not going to compete harder than that, you know, one, you don’t deserve to win. But they came in and we got them down, but again, good team, not a big deal in the first half, and they just completely controlled the second half and deserved to win the game. It was a tough one because we didn’t — again, if you’re not going to compete 40 minutes, you don’t deserve to win. We’ll get it. We’ll start working on them when we get back Thursday, but we’ll have to be better, a lot better. I can say that.”
On Tennessee forward Jaylen Carey getting into the face of a couple Ole Miss players to defend Nate Ament and Bishop Boswell, if he likes that from Carey
“I don’t mind it, but I don’t want him to get technical fouls, you know? I don’t mind — especially when we’re short a post player. I know his teammates respect him for it. And I — it happens so quickly, so I think our guys appreciate it, I do. I think the guys on the team appreciate it. But like I said, I just don’t want it to get us at the wrong time when we really are playing with three of our — from the start of the year — five post players.”
On why he had a big smile on his face as Nate Ament was walking off the floor:
“I love the kid to death, because everything that you’d want in a player, in your program to represent, and I know how hard he’s worked. I know that — I mean, I don’t have to read what I know people are probably saying about him early in the year and all that. I don’t have to read it, and I will go back, the guy has been terrific. I mean, when you come out of high school, when you mostly have played, never really chasing guards around the court, learning how to play perimeter defense in this conference and learning a whole different game. And I know how hard he works. I know how much it means to him, but he’s so unselfish. He’s such an unselfish person. He wants to win at the highest level, but he’s got a lot of pride, and he should, because he wants to be good. He wants to be the best with his God-given ability that he can be.
“Tonight, I could see that look, that you know, it was good, you know? It was special. It really was because he’s earned it. He’s earned it and obviously the teammates, but he walked in and just had a typical Nate smile and like, went on to the next — I got on him about his three turnovers, actually, after the game, but he was terrific.”
