Tennessee basketball dropped its regular-season finale against Vanderbilt 86-82 on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville. The Vols fell behind early and never recovered as the Commodores earned a coast-to-coast victory in the rivalry matchup.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed early game struggles, Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s quiet night and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On what went wrong for Tennessee in the first few minutes of the game
“Turnovers. Not establishing what we wanted to do. Not very good guard play. And when you do what we did to start a game, you almost have to play near-perfect basketball. Mike Keith just asked me on the radio, that was his comment and he’s absolutely right. When you play against a team as good as them, as well-coached as they are, you dig yourself a hole like that, you’re fighting uphill the whole way. And then still had too many breakdowns defensively, fouled too much.
“But offensively, it’s just when you look at it this time of year, you’ve got to have really good guard play and our guard play wasn’t great today. And I thought we did that for the other night, understanding our post game, how we need to establish it. We didn’t. I think (the forwards) had two shots in the first half, I think. Our post guys didn’t even touch the basketball, whether they scored or not. And we always talk about playing inside out. And there are different ways to do that.
“But give Vanderbilt credit, they came in and for whatever reason, the way the game started, I don’t understand it this time of year because we’ve had enough of them where we know that we’ve got to be on edge. You can’t be relaxed. You got to realize that everybody plays just as good, and better, if you’re not ready to play. And the way we started the game, again, we were fighting uphill the whole way.”
On why Tennessee’s guards didn’t understand the need to play through the post early in the game
“You know, Mike, I wish I could answer that, because we’ve talked about it all year. We have. And again, I ask the question why, and their answer is mostly, ‘I don’t know.’ Some of it is a lot of guys that haven’t played with post players, that may be some of it. But by now, there’s really no excuse. I mean, if I’m up here and I’m just talking the talk. And we know what we should be doing. We established that the other night (at South Carolina). And we thought we finally had gotten the balance that we wanted, but evidently we didn’t. And just the turnovers, the way you start the game, throwing it out of bounds, getting picked, all those plays, you can’t do that this time of year.”
On what led to Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s struggles, if the emotions of Senior Day had anything to do with it
“I don’t know. I don’t. I love Ja’Kobi. I don’t know. I don’t. I wish I could (answer it). Because I know he wants to win, but it goes back, again, I think he’s made some great strides this year and he’s still got some time to make greater strides. But got to give a lot of credit (to Vanderbilt). I was really proud of Amari Evans. I thought he was terrific today. And we told him, ‘They’re going to leave you open, you got to shoot it.’ And I think he showed us what he can be and will be, because he works at it so hard.
“But got to give a lot of credit to Tyler Tanner. I thought he controlled the game. And we defended the three OK, but I think they were content going inside and letting some of the post guys play in there, which is fine. But it’s just the way we started, just constantly fighting uphill. And even some of our shot selection, at times wasn’t really good.”
On how frustrating it is to go from J.P .Estrella and Felix Okpara combining for 42 points at South Carolina to not playing through them against Vanderbilt
“Well, it is frustrating. And I think some of you guys watched practice yesterday, and we didn’t have a lot of guys here yesterday. But that’s not an excuse. It’s never an excuse this time of year. I don’t care what happens. But that’s all we’ve talked about. If you watched yesterday, that’s what we worked on all day. And we got to get there.
“I told our guys we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to do in the regular season. We got a conference tournament left, and then the NCAA Tournament. And this is when, by now, we should really truly have a real identity of who we are. We had too many defensive breakdowns today, too, to go along with it. And again, Mark (Byington) and the team, man, they’ve had a great year. But I told our coaches, as bad as we were, even to have a chance to get back in it, I’ve got to give our players credit for that. And at the end we had a chance. We got a great look to cut it to one. We didn’t. That’s part of it.
“It’s just we had to fight that hard just wanting to to stay afloat and hoping to get back in the game. And we just didn’t. After you start the way we started, you are fighting uphill all the way long, and that’s what it felt like.”
On where Nate Ament is in his return from injury and he expects him to play for Tennessee in the SEC Tournament
“I do (expect him to play). And I’ve told you guys, Nate wants to play. Obviously we’re going to listen to our doctors and play the long game with it, I guess, is what we would do. But again, Nate is a tough kid. And if it were up to him, there’s no doubt he would’ve played against South Carolina, he would’ve played tonight. But we listened to the doctors. And I think he would tell you he’s feeling better. But the tough part this time of year, knock on wood. He’s got to practice. He hasn’t done anything in practice since the last game.
“And maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that we can get to Nashville, get more games in, give him a chance to get some rhythm back going, because it’s hard this time of year to miss. But I know he’ll do everything he can. It might, for him, for the beating that he’s taken this year, the rest might be good. And so you’ve got to look at it, I think, in a positive way that the good Lord, whatever part of the plan. But I just know Nate, he wants to play.”
On Amari Evans emerging, if he could be a third scoring option when Nate Ament is back
“Yeah, I think so. I mean, I’m proud of Amari. He’s not afraid to compete. He’s got a good solid game, and I’m excited about him. I mean, he’s earned it. I mean, he’s closer to being a sophomore than he is a freshman, but I think he shows what he can be. And I know him well enough to know that he’s going to keep working because he’s a hard worker, and for a freshman, I think he’s done a terrific job, and I’m excited about his future. I’m excited about him and this team when Nate comes back.”
On if he’s concerned about Tennessee having not yet reached its full potential
“Oh, yeah. But I’m glad we haven’t peaked because I don’t think we have peaked by any stretch of the imagination, I’ve seen … how old are you?
Reporter: 20
Barnes: “I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve seen teams this time of year be struggling, and all at once they catch that magic in a bottle, and yet they roll with it. I’ve seen teams that you thought couldn’t be beat, they get … So I don’t know. I just think God’s the architect of everything, and you’ve got to do your work, get your team ready. And then who knows how it’s going to play out. I remember, if I’m correct, the year we won (the SEC Tournament) in Florida, the SEC, I think Texas A&M, Buzz and them had come all the way through, didn’t they? And play there. So it’s tournament time. It’s this time of year. This is the time you need to be peaking right now. You need to be peaking right now. You do.”
On the SEC’s historic success last season, how he would assess it this year
“Well, last year we had a lot of older guys. We did. We had a lot of older guys. I think we’ve seen this year a lot of young guys come in the league and do really well. When you look at this freshman class in college basketball, it’s elite. And we’ve been blessed to have a number of guys in our league. And, I mean, I’m impressed with Tyler Tanner— how much he’s improved from one year to the next. But last year the difference was we had a lot of returning players coming back, and a lot of teams were up there, were able to stay there.
“Like people ask me all the time about being ranked in the top 25. I don’t pay a lot of attention to that. But if we’d have probably been higher ranked early in the year, we probably would have never fallen out. And I’m not into the rankings. I’m really not. But people ask me about that all the time. But the league is balanced. But I think it’s the way it’s going to be going forward. I just think with the NIL, I think everybody’s starting to, unfortunately, right now have to line it up for next year, and retention’s really important.
“I think the sad part about where we are today is senior day. I don’t know if we’re going to have many more of those senior days when you have guys that are here three, four years, and maybe five. If they eventually cap it at five. And we’re going to always try to build that way. Like, we’re hoping that when a guy’s — if he’s done enough to check the box to put his name in early for the NBA Draft, you want him to do it.
“But I will say the highlight of today was after our walk through this morning, we were in, doing our power talk. And this time of year, the last home game, we let the seniors talk. And it was really special hearing those guys, Mo Abrams and Felix and the guys, Ja’Kobi and Grant, those guys talked about this is the best team they’ve ever been a part of. And it was good, you know? And they appreciate everybody in the room that made it a great year. Because I do hope players, when they get older, and that they always feel like there’s a home they can go to.
I hope that. And even if a guy comes here one year, like I know that Dalton Knecht and Chaz Lanier and Ja’Kobi and all those guys feel like (that) here. And I think so much goes to our program, the people that are in it at the very top, what Danny White does with the athletic department, everything he does to make it the best academic department in the country and his staff. And Mary Carter, what she does in her role is so important. And she would tell you, we’ve got a really good group of guys.
“And I want to see us win, because I want to see these guys stay together as long as they can. But in today’s world, I think you got to have, even in the portal. You go into it, you got to get what fits your program. And so I give our coaches a lot of credit for their job with that. As we move forward, certainly hope to retain a lot of guys, and we know we’re going to have to bring some new guys in here, but we want them to leave and feel like those guys that have only been here a short time, going forward.”
On executing the foul drill late in the game
“Well, did a pretty good job with it, obviously. Ja’Kobi had a good look at it to maybe cut it to one, but we didn’t. Now, we didn’t listen twice. We fouled the wrong guy too early in the clock, and that’s what my message to our guys after the game, we’ve got to do a better job listening in the game and whoever it might be. And at that time, guys are wanting to win, and some of them obviously are disappointed that we even had to be in that situation. But still, trying to extend the game like we did, and you don’t want to put their best shooters on the line without giving them a chance to pass it maybe to a lower percentage shooter. But we had a chance. So in terms of that, that’s all you can ask for when you’re fighting uphill like we did all day.”
On Tennessee freshman Amari Evans’ 24-point performance against Vanderbilt:
“Always trying to make winning plays. Doing the dirty work, doing the things that most players don’t wanna consistently do. He’s obviously — and he learned. You know, he made a mistake tonight going for a steal. And he knew it right away. That’s being young, knowing that in games like this, if you go, you gotta get it. If you don’t, pretty much sure you’re gonna pay for it. That happened twice tonight, and they came up with big plays where — and it’s out of wanting to win, wanting to make something happen. At some point in time, the way we were playing, we needed somebody to try to go make something happen, and he was part of a number of those good plays
“But he’s willing to do the dirty work. Now, he listens. He does listen. When he wasn’t playing, he came to us, and we told him what we thought he needed to do. He’s bought into it. Obviously now, when you start playing, doing what he does, you trust him more and he’s gonna be able to do more.”
On Tennessee senior forward Felix Okpara being emotional on senior day
“Senior days are tough. I’ve done it — early in my career, I learned that, you know, you want your seniors to be recognized. You want them to be appreciated by the fans. But early in my career, we were in a game, and we were up 20 points, and I subbed with a minute or so to go in the game — we were up 20 actually — and with 35 seconds to go, we were up seven. So I had to put our starters back in. That kinda gets seared in your heart, you know?
“I like to think that just one day is not how we celebrate our seniors. I think it’s great they can have that time with their family on the court. But I think to the man, they would tell you, yeah, they wanna win the game. They work all that time to do it. And the way I think we really embrace our seniors, and every player that comes through this program, anytime they walk into this building from now on, their names will be on the wall back there with every one of our teams. They know that the door’s gonna be wide open for them anytime. They know we’re gonna help any and every way we can moving forward, whether it’s basketball, wanting to get into coaching, whatever it may be. And again, I understand it.
“Fe’s been — I love Felix. You know, he’s been a really good player for us. He’s going to be a hard guy to replace. Guys love him, and he had some wonderful things to say today, how much it’s meant to him being here, in front of the team. So when you hear that, to me, that is senior day right there when, when those guys get to share it with each other. But obviously I appreciate our fans. Again, we got the best. It’s tough on them because a chapter in their life is getting ready to close.
“One thing, again young guy, that I’ve learned about life is the brevity of life. A vapor’s about two seconds, and that’s about what life goes. I mean, it goes real quick. And the older you get, it goes quicker. But I’m blessed to have this group of guys, and we’re not done yet. We’re not done. We’re gonna come back here. We’ll go to Nashville like everybody with an idea that we got a chance to win a championship. Hope that we can do it, and then we will have one more chance after that, that these guys have earned to put themselves in the NCAA tournament. We know what March Madness can be, and I know that anytime we walk on the court, I know these guys know that we have a chance if we play up to our ability.”
On how concerned he is that Tennessee continues to dominate the offensive glass, but isn’t scoring very many second-chance points
“Felix got, what? Four or five in one possession? We got wide open three’s and we didn’t hit ’em. I mean, that’s the fire drill we’re in and where we’re looking to hit ’em. But, you know, again, the way those guys throw it out on those shots, I wish sometimes the guard would throw it in, when we’re not in the fire drill. Because those — that’s what we’re looking for. We know that’s a high-percentage three, certainly with the right guys loading up. But after a couple of them, I told them, ‘we’ve missed three in a row, we need to bring it out and now let those guys touch it again.’ I just wanna keep rebounding our misses. That gives us a chance possibly to make another one.”
On Tennessee point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie struggling from three of late
“Guys go through it. But again, what I’ve told him, he doesn’t — he’s more than a three-point shooter. I think when he struggles is when he thinks he’s gotta make three. I think when he gets lost in the game — like he was terrific against South Carolina. I mean, you could see he saw it. Today, he wasn’t using the ball screen. They were in a quick — what we call a black in and out — he could’ve attacked it in different ways, but we also didn’t screen the way we had talked about it, and that’s not only on him.
“But he can score at any level, and he’s obviously not afraid to compete, but I don’t think there’s no doubt today they were really wanting to try to take away the lob threats. And I promise you, we still could’ve got them, but you had to fight harder to get it. You know, different coverages there. By now we need him to come off thinking that way, as opposed to thinking, ‘I gotta get a shot.’ But Ja’Kobi will be fine. He’ll be fine.”
