PHILADELPHIA — Tennessee basketball got its run at the NCAA Tournament started successfully, coasting past Miami (Ohio) 78-56 on Friday afternoon.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s big game, the challenges defending Miami and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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Opening statement
“First of all, I really want to congratulate Coach Steele and his team on an incredible year. Any team that wins that many games, and it took maybe our best half of the year, the start of the game to beat them today, but hats off to them as we were getting ready for them basically yesterday, and you just had to be so impressed with how they played together. They put on a show in Dayton, but, again, congratulations to them.
Really proud of our team. Ja’Kobi was phenomenal today, not just making shots, but really running the team and helping us be effective on the offensive end. But our defense, in some ways, them making those early threes, woke us up. We practiced getting out there yesterday, but we didn’t get out there early.
After they hit those, our guys realized we better get out there. That helped us, obviously, once we were able to get out there and stretch them out there a little bit further. I thought our guys did a decent job when you spread out like that, not getting back cut. I can’t say enough about Peter Suder. He’s the real deal. We couldn’t do anything with him, he was terrific. Just proud of our effort, proud of our team and what we were able to get done defensively.”
On the offensive improvement compared to the Vanderbilt game
“We really wanted to establish inside. That’s not just going to the big guys. We felt like we got it in there they would double, which they did. But then Ja’Kobi, when he gets going like that, we’re going to let him go with it, but it was our defense. Early getting out in transition, deflections and going out, getting some of those baskets without having to play against a set defense is always important.
They went zone there, and I think the reason they probably came out of it, I think we came up on that possession with three offensive rebounds. It’s hard and we obviously had the size advantage in there.
Really everything that we did well today stemmed from our defense. It really did. It got us in a flow. We felt like we could spread them out a little bit and get some of those lobs we were getting early and felt like we could make the right read. It would be hard for them to get up there and get them but a good all around game. 16 turnovers are too many and self-induced. We can’t get back to doing that.”
On the challenges that Virginia poses
“I really don’t know. I haven’t looked at them. I have a lot of unbelievable respect for Ryan Odom. I feel in the game. Ryan is a terrific coach. He spent a year at my alma mater, Lenoire-Rhyne. He’s a great coach, basketball coach and quickly put Virginia back where they want to be. I know just from the brief time talking to my coaches, they can really score the basketball at all five positions. They know how to play. They know what they’re doing, obviously, but we’ll get — we obviously did work on them before we got here, but watching the game today, we’ll start on it tomorrow with them.”
On Nate Ament’s health status
“Well, I’ve said it. Nate would play every minute of every game if he could. He’s not going to be 100% healthy until the season is over because he had that ankle sprain where he had it. He tries. I was watching him in practice just doing some basic stuff and he never says a word but I could see on his face he was wincing a little bit. When we had the lead, right now he needs as much rest as he can, but he’ll do everything he can To be ready. He will be ready to do what he can do.”
On if it’s still special to be at the NCAA Tournament after 30 trips
“Well, it is special to be here. I think this is the greatest supporting event in our country. For three weeks, it captivates the country. Every state is part of it. It goes east to west, north to south. I know how hard it is to get here. I have the best athletic director in the country who wants us to be competitive, and he’s given us everything that we need to do. We got a great coaching staff. Every year is a different challenge, but you start out the year — every team in the country starts out wanting to be in this tournament.
It’s something you never take for granted. The first one is the hardest one. I don’t care who you play, it’s always the hardest game and you watch that. One of the hardest things, believe it or not, is sitting in the locker room as long as you do at halftime. A lot of people don’t realize it’s really tough. After that, we just hit it all head on. We can’t let this take away our momentum. We have to come back, but it’s different, longer time-outs, all those type of things.
But it’s special because I thank God for — he’s blessed me so many great jobs, players, administrators, and I know our fan base here, everybody talks about their fan base being the best. I know our first year at Tennessee, we were terrible and we played in front of 16,000 people almost every night and not many people can talk about that.
I just thank God for the blessing of being here and I’m blessed. But it’s something, obviously, as a coach, love our players and thankful that my family has been able to hang in here with me all this long.”
On his team staying composed after Miami’s fast start
“They weren’t contested the way we would call a contested shot. It’s really interesting, yesterday, and even today we practiced at the 76ers facility and one thing I learned about that game, wherever that three-point line is, that’s where players play. We talked about, we show them against SMU where they were able to dribble up to the line, and I’m not picking on SMU, every team plays differently. We felt like the battle picked up, had to be right at half-court. Yesterday at the Sixers, that puts you out there. We started the game today, we weren’t out there. They shot those shots, and I think our guys realized, hey, we better get out there and we did.
They’re capable of making them, obviously, which they have proven that. Our guards did a pretty good job trying to get off the screens. They’re really a well-coached team. They have really good counters. They move you and play with speed. From a coaching standpoint, we were really concerned because this time of year, again, you see it every year in this tournament. This can bring out the best and worst in things and some crazy things happen, but I really do think the fact they made those early woke us up, and we realized we better get out there.”
On being lesser talked about this season
“I don’t know. The standard general mind, we don’t look at ourselves like that. But Miami of Ohio should have been the darlings, the talk of the tournament. You win 32 basketball games, I don’t care what league you play in. I don’t care what anybody says. And they would win some games in our league, make no bones about it, but this game is a difficult in.
You have guys who have never been in it. You don’t know how they’re going to respond. You really don’t. In terms of, I don’t know, underdog this or that. I know we’ll wear the dark jerseys, I guess, from here on out, which if it plays like normal, fans normally pull for the dark jerseys. So maybe we’ll pick up more fans along the way, know who we are and again, believe me, J.P. and Ja’Kobi said it. We prepare for these guys today like we did anybody else. We gave them the utmost respect in terms of knowing if we weren’t good today, they would beat us. We’ve got to take that approach from here on out, obviously.”
