Rick Barnes told his team a story during Friday’s film sessions about the most notable win of his career. In the 2003 Elite Eight, Terrell Ross came off the bench and gave Texas strong minutes to spell All-American point guard TJ Ford in the Final Four clinching win.
Enter Ethan Burg Saturday night, coming out of nowhere to stabilize a faltering Tennessee offense in the first half of its 73-63 win over LSU on Saturday night.
“My whole point to that story was that you got to be ready now,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said postgame. “From here until the end of the year, it might be one game, might be the last game. You’ve got to be ready.”
“That stuck with me,” Burg said. “I figured that I just needed to be ready when my name was called. That’s what I was trying to do today. Just be as solid as I can. Shoot when I’m open because I know I can shoot it. My guys have my back. The coaching staff has my back. I’m happy I helped the team get a win today.”
Burg struggled early in SEC play and quickly fell out of Tennessee’s rotation. Entering the LSU game, he’d played just one minute in the last six games and had not scored in his 13 minutes in conference play. After poor performances riddled with turnovers in January, Barnes hit the reset button for Burg.
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“We moved him to the scout team, along with some other players, just to try to get him to calm down, slow down, because he’s always been competitive,” Barnes said. “He was trying to do way too much. And all I asked him to do when he went to the scout team, just show me you can play without turning the ball over. That’s all I want to see. Just don’t turn the ball over. Be fundamentally sound. And you know what? He embraced it.”
But Barnes quickly went to him against LSU and Burg rewarded his trust. Two days after Burg’s mom traveled from Israel to surprise him, the first-year shooting guard provided his best performance of the season.
Burg scored eight points, all in the first half, knocking down a pair of triples and a tough transition layup. He played 18 minutes, the most of any non starter for Tennessee. His eight points tied him with JP Estrella for a team-high in the first 20 minutes.
“I feel like tonight is kind of a night where he’s proving himself to everybody that he can do this on a daily basis for us,” Estrella said of Burg. “Especially those two threes, they were huge. … He played great and we need that out of him every single night.”
“Ethan was huge tonight. He really was,” Barnes said.
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Barnes often talks about how he never wants his players to let go of the rope. Just because they’re not playing consistently doesn’t need that the team won’t need them at some point.
It’s just one game. Troy Henderson and Amari Evans have both been better than Burg in SEC play. But Burg’s performance was a good example of not letting go of the rope. And it changes the dynamic of Tennessee’s bench rotation moving forward.
“I feel like the reason I got to this point is only because of me,” Burg said. “Obviously, I underperformed. That’s the beauty of basketball. You stay ready. The season is long. You just keep working hard and keep believing in yourself.
“It cost us a lot of wins when Ja’Kobi had to go out there and play 40 minutes. He’s tired. … I think I can do that. I just need to be consistent.”
