NASHVILLE, Tn. — Tennessee basketball turned a double-digit second half deficit into a 72-62 win over Auburn thanks to a 20-0 second half run. With the win, Tennessee advances to the quarterfinals to face rival Vanderbilt.
Following the game, Barnes discussed Nate Ament playing well in his return, the physicality of the game and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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Opening statement
“Again, kind of game that it seems the last three months in the SEC, just a battle from start to finish. Every possession. Both teams I thought played extremely hard today. Great respect for Steven as a first-year coach. I think he’s done really well, I really do. I think the two games we had with them could have gone either way.
Our defense certainly got better as the game went on. Nate hasn’t been very much with us since the Alabama game. I thought our offense started getting more and more smooth the longer the game went.”
On how Nate Ament is feeling
“So you know, he wanted to play two weeks ago. We wouldn’t let him. I didn’t have anything to do with it. Obviously the right thing was to keep him.
Those high ankle sprains, especially to the inside, are really hard. Nate has done an incredible job with his rehab and our staff has. Believe me, if we needed him to play, he would have played because he wanted to.”
On what Tennessee did to get going the final 10 minutes
“Well, first thing I said to them when I walked in the locker room, this is like a first-round NCAA game, second-round NCAA game. Auburn did play last night. They were settled in a little bit. I told our guys we’ve got to get through those jitters early. We got a great group of guys. They really want to win.
Again, Steven, what they do is really hard to defend. I thought no doubt in the first half they were way more physical than we were. They were doing a great job pushing us off our spaces. But then Nate, we did not know coming in. We didn’t know. I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that we were going to start him simply because after he warmed up, we wanted to go right with him as opposed to bringing him off the bench.
He hasn’t practiced with us in two weeks. Yesterday I bet he maybe had 10 minutes of reps with us. So I knew it would be a little bit slow offensively. We were getting into ball screens way too much early. That’s not what our plan was. But we got better defensively. We did. But it’s a long game. Both teams I thought really competed at a high level.”
On if there was any minutes restriction from Nate Ament
“I didn’t ask (smiling). No one said it to me. Chad came to my room late last night, our trainer. We talked about it.
I do know that high ankle sprains on the inside are difficult to deal with. I meant what I said. Nate wanted to play. He wanted to go back in the Alabama game and play. He said to me, which was not a good thing to say to me, Coach, my ankle sprain feels like every ankle sprain I’ve ever had. He said, I’ve always played.
But we’re going to listen and pay attention to the diagnostics, all that stuff we get, the information. But that’s just toughness overall. No one told me today that we had a restriction. I thought they would, but they didn’t. I didn’t ask. I didn’t ask.”
On the challenges of coaching a physical brand of basketball
“Well, forget the coaches. It’s the referees. How about the challenge they have?
I mean, it’s a totally different game than it was. Our game is more physical than the NBA. You look, we obviously don’t have the size and the mass that they have. In terms of the freedom of movement, trying to post up, all those type things.
The problem, I was on the Rules Committee. I don’t want to get into it too deep. It was a couple years, obviously. Seems like everything wants to be done in two hours. You have referees some nights, If I call that foul, we’ll be out here all night. I don’t think that’s their fault. I don’t.
We got a rule book, got to officiate the rules of the game. The problem is I guess different guys interpret rules differently. I think it’s an extremely hard game to referee. Really hard.
The one thing I always say when I was on the Rules Committee, we need to have rules in place to help the referees officiate the game. The bodies are bigger. Guys are older than they were years ago. The physicality is going to be there.
I’m a big freedom of movement guy. I think guys have to be able to move and cut. If you can’t do that, it’s going to end up being a lot of ball screen stuff.
Again, I don’t think anybody wants to see 40, 50 free throws a lot. But I do know this: players adjust. I mean, Ja’Kobi made a pretty quick adjustment tonight. Picked up two fouls, didn’t foul anymore. Players want to play. Again, it’s a hard, hard game to officiate. It really is.”
On Nate Ament improving at playing through contact
“Tremendously. Nate has never complained about fouling. I said all year, he had one of the toughest whistles. I believe when you move underneath a guy when he drives, all those kind of things… All I’ve ever said is let’s referee the midrange game like we do the three-point line. I realize around the basket it’s difficult, there’s a lot going on there. The midrange game, I don’t think it is.
I think if you officiate it from the floor up, again, back in the day, we all taught that. When a guy goes up, show your hands high, but walk under him just a little nudge in there. That’s more of a touch shot in some ways than a three-point shot.
Nate, from the time he arrived, we told him how tough it was going to be. We told him we were going to put him in every possible situation with a guy like Felix guarding him, a guy like DeWayne Brown, Jaylen Carey, Amari Evans. If you would’ve watched those guys go at each other all summer, Amari coming in and just any and every way we could put him in position to be physical with him.
The great thing about it, he never got hurt. Never complained. He just kept working through it, to try to get him used to what we thought he would see this year.”
On offenses getting off to a slow start
“That’s a great observation (smiling). It’s real slow. We were awful against Vandy to start the game, turning the ball over the way we did. But again, tonight wasn’t surprised. I knew Auburn would come out very physical, really try to take Ja’Kobi out. Probably Nate a little bit. We knew our post guys were going to have to be involved.
But we were hanging onto the ball. Ja’Kobi was hanging onto it too long. Nate was, too. Our post guys were rolling out way too deep. We talk about the short roll, spray it. It’s a very fine line.
Again, that was the biggest thing we talked about at halftime. We’re going to ball screen. There’s got to be a shorter roll. Those guys have to get rid of it quicker.”
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