Tennessee basketball stayed unbeaten on the 2025-26 season by knocking off Tennessee State 89-60 on Thursday night in Knoxville. The Vols quickly jumped out to a 20-point lead from there was sloppy, totaling 17 turnovers in the blowout win.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed the turnover issues, JP Estrella’s injury and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On Tennessee playing well the first 8-10 of the game
“Yeah, looking at it, I obviously get a chance to glance at it at halftime, even though we were making shots, some of the details that we talked about weren’t as crisp as we wanted to be. But defensively we came out and did a lot of good things, but then I thought we just got really sloppy and careless with the ball. But a lot of room for improvement for us, I can tell you that.”
On if he is concerned about Tennessee’s turnovers through the first five games of the season
“Yeah, very much. That has been our whole deal. I mean, we talk about possessions. We can score 89 points and turn it over 17 times. And it’s the way we turn it over. Again, not to take anything away from Tennessee State, because I think that they’re well coached, they play their style. They can get you maybe going in a certain way, but it wasn’t that. It’s just turnovers that we absolutely shouldn’t have. And yeah, it is a concern. I mean, we’re not going win the way we want to win if we keep turning the ball over every time.”
On the timeline moving forward for JP Estrella
“I don’t know. When I asked Chad about it the other day, he said he a bone bruise could be anywhere (from) a couple weeks — whatever a couple is. Somewhere there. I think it will be based on him and his comfort level and when he feels he is ready to go.”
On Tennessee’s forwards and their passing ability in the paint
“Well again, we feel like we’ve got guys in there that see each other, they play with each other. And again, I think that they need some more opportunities, to be honest with you. I think that would take care of some of the turn over problems and move the ball a little bit more, get those guys get involved because they do a great job seeing each other. They’ll connect it and keep it going. And we can, and I think we will continue, to get better there.”
On what Tennessee coaches are seeing in the team’s turnovers
“Well, we have a pretty good feel for the team we’re playing and know how certain teams are going to swipe and come challenge us. People know that we like to get out and run, so you get a rebound, people can take the attitude and we’re going to get it, we’ll try to jam the rebound or try to swipe, slow it down that way. If the guys get rebounds. Like Nate (Ament) had it one time where they just put it down by his leg. That’s something we talk about with this group. Anytime you play a team with sometimes four guards out there. You got to know that they’re going to take those chances to do that. Felix’s first roll that we had, he threw it right into a defender putting his hands up. Give the defender credit, he did exactly what he should do in that tag position. Just threw it right into his arms. It’s those plays that’s making— that would have been the right read but he’s got to get the ball up and over his head quicker than the guy can get his arms up. Those detail things like that we have to get better with.”
On if Bishop Boswell being out it just precautionary, if they have a timeline for his return
“No, we don’t. It went from his foot, which I think is better now. But moved into his leg, hamstring. Bishop is above and beyond doing what he is supposed to do. We’ve got to get him right. He has had some of that pain in his hamstring and you guys know how that injury — if you don’t get it right, it lingers and we don’t want that to happen.”
On ratcheting up for increased competition next week in Las Vegas
“Well, if we don’t. We’ll be in trouble. I can tell you that. I mean, we’re going to have to do a better job of the details and understanding the value of basketball. I didn’t think we were very good rebounding the ball tonight the way we should. We did do a great job on the free throw line tonight. Shooting the ball there. I was really pleased at the end. Some people might think it’s ‘garbage time’ for Clarence and Amari Evans, but last game they went in and didn’t do what we expected. And I thought both of those guys, that was encouraging. Because they went in the night and both of them did the things that they’re going to keep building where you continue to get confidence in them and know that they’re going to play and do the right thing.
But just too many turnovers, and it’s hard, from my perspective, to feel good about anything in a game like this when our number one thought process was we’re going to take care of the ball, and we didn’t do it.”
On Amaree Abram’s hot shooting start, what that does for them
“Well, again, we think all of our guards can shoot the ball. And, one, he took good shots. And after he did that and then he went back and he took a shot he shouldn’t take. He doesn’t have to force it. He’s a good player and he’s going to have to— all these guys have to know that they’re going to get the all the shots they want if they execute. But I mean, we’re not surprised. He can shoot the ball, especially when he takes good shots. He gets his feet set and he does what he needs to do. He can drive the ball too. He can. He can drive it. It’s just when he gets in a big hurry, like any player, it becomes an adventure. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do. We certainly don’t know what he’s going to do. And that’s some of our players tonight are still doing that. They’re trying to break out and make some things happen and it’s just not there. It’s just not there. But we love these guys. They’re a very unselfish group of guys. It’s just, they’re still learning how to play together and we’ve got a long way to go, but they’ll get there because they care about each other and they want to— there’s not one selfish guy on this team. They want to play the right way. We’re asking a lot of them. We are. We’re seeking perfection, which that’s the standard that we’ve said. And so as much as we talk about the physical part of it, we’re obviously harping on the mental side of it.”
On why Tennessee struggled to rebound against Tennessee State’s smaller lineup, if Estrella being out had anything to do with it
“No, I don’t think that. Again, one of the emphasis was we needed to rebound outside of our zone. I think it’s a mindset. I think that when you’ve got a young group — and I say young, young together — they look up at the scoreboard and they’re like, okay, we don’t have to put the effort in to go do the things. And that’s the most disappointing when you play a game and you get a lead and your mindset goes, okay, I want to score. I want to do this. Or I can let up a little bit. I think anybody, as hard as these guys work, if you’re playing around 20 minutes a game, you should be playing as hard as you can possibly play. And when you put a guy in the game that’s gone in and maybe played four minutes, he goes back and he doesn’t go all out, that’s the disappointing thing. We have to be one of the hardest playing teams in the country or we’re not going to be able to use our depth the way we need to. And yet we have not figured out how to do that yet in terms of attacking, approach, trying to keep the tempo where we want it and where we need to get it.”
On his confidence level in asking forwards Jaylen Carey and DeWayne Brown to do more while Estrella is sidelined
“Very high. Because, you know, they’ve been, I mean, we’ve spent more time with those guys this year than J.P. I mean, J.P. missed the entire summer, basically. And so those guys are skilled, can pass the ball. And so, yeah, that’s not a confident issue. It’s like tonight, Jaylen, this should have been a night where he really got more minutes, but he put himself in foul trouble by just being lazy. You know, instead of trying to work around, he just pushed and those were all fouls. I mean, those were the easiest fouls in basketball. You know, we’re in a hot situation on the baseline and before the play even started, you knew it was a foul because he already had his guy wrapped up. And those were fouls. I mean, he had three fouls tonight he absolutely shouldn’t have had. Just because, you know, not working, thinking he’s going to take the easy way out. I’ve talked to him about he can’t be a guy that’s going to be up and down. He’s going to be a guy that we can consistently count on. If he’s going to get in trouble, we won’t be able to do that.”
On what he liked about what DeWayne Brown did by scoring 11 points in the second half, how big his minutes can get with Estrella out
“They can get bigger. And again, I thought when he started the game, he wasn’t very good. You know, his ball-screen coverage wasn’t what it needed to be. And then the first time we run a little set, tried to thread the needle on a play that absolutely wasn’t there. You can’t pre-determine what you’re going to do in some of the sets that we run. And we got lucky, and I think he actually threw it off somebody’s leg and it went out of bounds. It wasn’t there. And those are the plays that, but he sees it — he’s got to read it, I guess I should say.
“But we all have high hopes for DeWayne, because you know what? He has been the biggest surprise on our team this year, by far. And we weren’t sure —we knew when we recruited him that he was going to be a really good player. We didn’t know how long it would take him, and he’s way ahead of where we thought he would be to where we’re not afraid to put him in and plug him in at any time. Does he have to get better with understanding what’s going on? Absolutely. But again, he’ll figure it out. He’s very smart, very intelligent player. He’s got a great basketball IQ. He sees the floor and is going to be a great connector. And so, you know, we have no problem playing him against anybody.”
