LAS VEGAS — Tennessee basketball dropped its first game of the season on Wednesday night, letting a double-digit lead slip away in an 81-76 loss against Kansas. The Vols struggled to get shots to fall in the second half and their defense slipped with it.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed the second half struggles, learning from the loss and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways As Tennessee Basketball Lets Second Half Lead Slip Away AgainstKansas
On what went wrong in the final 12-14 minutes
“I thought when we were up, Kansas kept playing and we didn’t do the things that got us up. We didn’t do it on the offensive end or defensive end, and they obviously started driving the ball and we fouled too much.
But too many scouting report breakdowns, things we had talked about. Again, you can talk about we only had a day but we’ve got enough guys that can understand that. But they deserved to win the game because at the end they got done what they needed to get done and we didn’t.”
On if they let offense affect their defense
“Absolutely. Absolutely. You start missing shots around the basket, and Ja’Kobi has played a lot of minutes while he’s been here for three days and he had some great looks; didn’t go down.
But we can’t get where we’re putting everything on him. But some of those other shots that you’ve got to come up with or get fouled when you’re certainly like him struggling from the three. But you look at the stat sheet, too many guys that honestly didn’t do the things that they need to do to help us win.”
On taking 25 threes, if Kansas made them settle
“No, if we settle we can get in the lane. We’ve proven that. We settled. And, again, I told our post guys when they’re out there shooting jump shots, I’m sure Bill and his staff were sitting on the bench saying, good let them do it. Let him. We don’t want them in there.
That goes back to where we didn’t follow the things we talked about and what we need guys to do. But you look at the offensive rebound between Felix and Cade, they didn’t have one today. We’ve got to have more than that out of those guys.
But it’s frustrating when we needed to get some baskets. Again, I thought we had some looks at it, we just didn’t make it. I’m not even talking threes. Most of the threes I would say were okay, but some of them obviously we should have been thinking time and score, but also knowing that we had them in the double bonus we should have been trying to drive and to get to the foul line where they did a great job.
They shot 26 of 30 and we were 17 of 22 and we should have been up around the 30 attempt mark if we would have driven the ball with authority the way we should have.”
On if Cade was supposed to foul with 40 seconds left in a three-point game
“No, he wasn’t. Miscommunication.”
On if they can leave Las Vegas with positives
“Yeah, I think the positive is we know that we’ve got a chance to be a really good basketball team and play with any teams in the country. But I think the positive will be is how hard it is to compete every night.
This group of guys, a lot of them it’s the first time they’ve been together, and to win at this level and to be a highly ranked basketball team when you go on the road, people are going to give you their best shot to win a big game.
I know Kansas has respect for our program. I know that, and they came out, and again, second half I thought they out-competed us when it counted, and that’s the hardest thing to take when they’re doing things that we could have done. But I don’t want to take anything from them. It’s a compliment to them because I thought they deserved to win the game.”
On what Jaylen Carey brought them the last two games
“Well, again, we think Jaylen has got a chance to be even better. He’s a guy that obviously we think that — we got him the ball a couple times tonight, and we need him to finish at critical times, too.
What did he do at the free-throw line? What was he from the free-throw line? 3 for 6. He’s got to be better than 50 percent free-throw shooter. That’s the tough thing about it, if you get the ball where you want it, get fouled and come away with not enough, it’s tough.
But he’s just got to keep growing, just like our team. The guys that want to learn from this will do it and they’ll get better and move forward, but it’s not going to get any easier, which is the way it should be. We go on the road now, and we know that we’ve played enough opponents to know what we’re capable of.
But I think Nate is really saying we hurt ourselves tonight, and again, not to take anything away from approximate Bill and Kansas, but we really didn’t deserve to win the game.”
On if the second half offensive struggles are why they try and have an emphasis on the post
“Yeah, you’re going to have some nights when — Ja’Kobi went 1 for 10 and that’s part of his game. Nate, we count on those guys to do that, obviously. But when you’re struggling from out there — again, we should have been driving the ball more to get fouled, but you drive and they don’t foul, you’ve got to make some of those shots, too, if you throw it up there.”
