Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes met with the local media on Thursday afternoon as the Vols’ summer practices wind down. Tennessee has one more week of summer practices before the team gets a short break before returning for the start of the school year.
Barnes discussed the team’s defensive growth, the injury updates on a handful of players and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On the progress Tennessee players have made since returning from the July 4th break
“It’s been good. There’s definitely been good progress. I think the guys, each and every day they’ve started to understand more and more what we’re looking for. And probably more defensively than anything. And over the last couple weeks I can see a lot of improvement in that area. And we’ve got today and then one more week before they head out. But up to this point it’s been a really good summer for us.”
On if there has been an extra emphasis on defense given Tennessee’s rebuilt roster this season
“Well, what made it obviously more difficult, we had so many new guys. It’s like starting Year 1. Because the only really active player from last year is DeWayne (Brown) with Troy (Henderson) being out. And in the past our older players helped us with that when the (new) guys come in. Every player we’ve had that we’ve recruited here has had to come in and learned to do what we want to do. And every one of them, even the ones that have ended up being terrific defensive players, they didn’t have it when they got here. A couple of them certainly had the DNA, but in terms of the technique and everything that we teach, it was a learned process for them. But now we’ve got so many new guys. And that’s what has been the biggest difference with this team compared to teams in the past.”
On Tyler Lundblade’s back injury that has kept him out of summer practices
“Well, you don’t want anybody to get hurt. But if a guy can probably do it and sustain it and come back, it’s him. Because he’s such a hard worker. And he still has stayed so involved. I love what he’s been doing during practice, trying to coach guys up and do what he needs to do. And again, just out of precautionary reasons, we’re going to make sure that we’re going to get him totally healthy. But he has kept involved and he’ll be fine. All these guys (will be fine). Looking forward to Troy getting back. Troy was probably ahead of schedule but we knew we weren’t going to allow him to do anything with the team, physically, until we got back in the fall. But he’s been doing more non-contact stuff with us. But he’s probably been ahead of schedule.”
On if Tyler Lundblade has been able to do individual work on the side
“Oh, yeah. He’s continued to do what he can do. I mean, I think any time you’re dealing with your back, it’s up to that person. If you’ve ever had a back injury, you’d understand it. So he’s been doing the things that he thinks he can do without causing any more harm.”
On how Tennessee freshman Ralph Scott has improved this summer
“He’s made some great steps. The physicality part of it, he’s had to adjust to learning how to deal with fatigue, cardio. We always talk about cardio toughness, trying to figure out exactly what that is. But he’s starting to, really, this week, I think he had a really good two days this week just understanding the physicality, how physical it’s going to be. And we’re, we’re not calling a lot of fouls in practice, but it’s hard on guys that’ve never gone through it … and it’s probably not just physically, but probably mentally more so taxing on him because he’s learning it. I do know Ralph is learning that he can do much more than he probably thought a week and a half ago. And it’s starting to show up in the way he’s going about things.”
On what he has learned about Juke Harris since he arrived at Tennessee
“That he really wants to get better and better. There’s no doubt he wants to be everything he can be as a basketball player. And again, like all these guys, it’s a whole new system. And the one thing that we’re going to do as much as we can with our staff, we’re going to continue to try to teach basketball to these guys at the highest level. And he’s embraced it. It’s new. It’s all new for all of them. But he’s gotten better. All of them. And it’s not Juke, it’s every one of them from a defensive standpoint, just knowing what it’s going to take to compete at the level we want to compete at. But he’s doing well.”
On how different Juke Harris is as a player now compared to when Tennessee recruited him out of high school
“Oh, so much. Juke Harris is extremely strong. And I tell him all the time, he doesn’t realize it yet. He is strong. Can really pass the basketball. He’s very unselfish, a little bit to a fault, you know? Because he just wants to be the guy that, he doesn’t want anybody to think that all he is is a guy that’s going to shoot the ball. He wants to be more than that. But he is a guy that is really strong, but can really pass it. And he loves to pass it. And there are times that we need him to be more aggressive shooting it. And he’s starting to get there a little bit, too.”
On Juke Harris walking a line by trying to be unselfish but also averaging over 20 points per game at Wake Forest last season
“It is a fine line with him. Our league is different. Everybody knows our league’s different than the ACC and the Big Ten. Each league has some different characteristics to it. But again, you guys watched us through the past year with Nate (Ament), trying to get him to understand the physicality that he would have to deal with last year. And we’re trying to do that with these guys because they’re coming into, I think, the most athletic, physical, skilled league in the country. And we’re trying to assimilate that as much as we can, trying to get them to do it because we don’t have guys in the past that have done it. And DeWayne (Brown) I do think has helped our frontline guys with that, because he understands what it’s about. But they’ve gotten better, they have. They’ve all gotten better with understanding the physicality of the game.”
On if they view DeWayne Brown as a player that can facilitate for others from his forward position
“Yeah, no doubt. He can because again, what I told you, he did so much more last year than I think that we all probably didn’t give enough credit for it. But he can do that.”
On if he feels like there are new players on Tennessee’s roster that have defensive DNA
“Yeah, I think everybody, can play defense if they want to. Some guys, whether you’re talking Zakai (Zeigler), Jahmai (Mashack), some of those guys that it was part of who they were. When you think about Santi (Vescovi), when he got here, he had no idea what it was about, but before he left, he was one of the best defensive guys in the league because he learned how to do it, knew how to do it, knew how to use the scouting report to his advantage. And we’ve watched a lot of that. But there’s not one guy on this team that doesn’t have the ability to be a good defender. Every one of these guys does have the ability to do it.”
On players other than DeWayne Brown who have stepped up as leaders on this Tennessee team
“Tyler (Lundblade) I think has been really good. He’s been really good with all these guys. And when you bring as many guys in as we have this year, and it’s all new to each one of them every single day, they’re trying to figure out what’s coming today, you know? And so I think the more that we’ve gone through this, the older guys, whether it is Terrence (Hill Jr.) or Troy is a guy that we’re expecting to do that too, and he has done it from the sideline. But those guys start realizing that I can do this. It’s just a matter of mindset. But it’s going to be interesting as we keep moving forward, who are those players that step up and become more vocal? Because we need to be more vocal as a team.”
On how sophomore guard Troy Henderson has handled his return from shoulder surgery, knowing he’s going to have to compete for minutes
“Well, I think when anytime you step into this level of basketball, SEC, University of Tennessee, you know you’re going to have to compete. And Troy’s done everything that he possibly could. He’s done a lot on his own. Like I said, he was probably ahead of where we might have thought he would’ve been. He’s done a lot of shooting, conditioning. But it’ll still be different once he comes back. But he knows what we need him to do and I think he’s ready to embrace that.”
