Tennessee basketball is searching for its first true road win of the season Saturday when they travel to Gainesville to face the defending national champion Florida Gators. Ahead of the matchup, associate head coach Justin Gainey and sophomore guard Bishop Boswell met with the media.
Gainey discussed Amari Evans emergence, the challenge of facing Florida’s front line and much more. Boswell discussed embracing physical matchups, what needs to happen to win on the road and much more. Here’s everything the duo said.
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Justin Gainey
On the growth of Tennessee freshman Amari Evans over the last month
“Yeah, you’ve kind of seen it from from day one when we recruited him.We always loved his physicality, the edge, the toughness that he played with, the swagger, so you always saw it. And it was just a matter of him, just kind of, you know, getting acclimated. And he suffered an injury early that kind of slowed him down a little bit. But, I mean, he always comes to work every day. He brings it. He listens and has kind of accepted and bought into his role.”
On what makes Florida’s front court so good
“The depth, first off. They have four of them that they can roll in there at you. They all have experience, they’re older, been through the fire, they won a national championship. Obviously they’re talented. I mean, (Thomas) Haugh and (Alex) Condon and Micah (Handlogten) and Big Reuben (Chinyelu). I mean, all of them are talented and they all bring different things to the table. Haugh, just kind of his complete skill set. Condon is similar. All four of them are physical, big.
So it’s a really good collection of post guys. And so all of that combined kind of makes them tough to deal with.”
On Tennessee forwards JP Estrella and DeWayne Brown getting their first look at Florida’s front court, the staff’s message to them
“The physicality that’s going to come at you on every possession. When that ball goes up, it’s going to be a battle. And so you can’t relax on one play because that’s all they need to get that offensive rebound, to get that second shot. And that’s a huge part of what they do and they do it really well.”
On what he remembers from the three games that Tennessee and Florida played last season
“Last year I thought they had a great combination of the physical skill inside, along with three guards that were high, high level. Will Richards, he could guard, he could shoot it. (Walter) Clayton, obviously, just from an offensive standpoint was really good. And then (Alijah) Martin kind of brought that edge, that toughness along with being able to score. And all three of those guys on any given night could go for 25. So it was a complete team. Yeah, it was a complete team. You looked at that roster and said, man, that was a well-assembled roster.”
On how different this Florida team is after having to rebuild its backcourt
“It’s different. It definitely is different when you lose three guys of that caliber. But the guys that they’ve replaced them with, been able to slide Haugh to the wing and he has transitioned nicely. And then the two guards in the backcourt, (Boogie) Fland has experience in the league, and (Xavian) Lee is getting better by the game. Both of those guys are really good. Those three last year just, they were different. They were different. And I think it’ll take time for those guys to get to there, but they’re definitely talented and they’re gifted and it’s a good team.”
On balancing defensive aggressiveness with not fouling
“I mean, you want to maintain that level of physicality, that level of being aggressive. And you don’t want to discourage the guys from being active like they were. But we just kinda show them the unnecessary fouls. There’s some fouls that may have been close, right? Maybe not, and then there’s some where it’s like there was no need to take that risk. There was no need to reach in there in that situation. And so those are the ones we show them, but we still encourage them to be active, be active in your gaps, be aggressive defensively, and just make those minor tweaks and adjustments. But it is a fine line.”
On if Amari Evans emergence changes their defensive ceiling
“Yeah, I think so. I think so. And look, Coach (Barnes) has always talked about our depth and how he feels like we are as deep as we’ve been. And so being able to count on him on a night-to-night basis, I mean, just gives you a bigger body. When you look at he, Troy, Ethan, Mo (Amaree Abram), he’s physically bigger. Can guard different positions, whether it’s one through four, you feel good with him, with his physicality being able to guard him. So being able to play him more does add to your defensive presence.”
On if this is one of the most confident group of freshmen he’s ever been around
“I’ve been around some really talented freshmen. But what I would say about this group is they’ve been really good at just continuing to get better, not being complacent, not having the shocked moments or the moments lasting so long. And they’re really coachable. You can get on them and Coach can get on them, and they take it and keep going and they understand like what coach means and where they got to get better at. They’re all humble. They all are, you know, they work at that game.”
On how Amaree Abram and Ethan Burg have responded in practice to lesser minutes against Texas
“Yeah, they’ve been good. They’ve been good. I think with both of those guys, they’re older guys and yeah, they’ve been through the fire. And so the hope is that it lights a flame under them, right? To take it to another level. And I thought both guys in practice yesterday responded. We’ll see how they respond today.”
On the conversations that are being had with Tennessee freshman forward Nate Ament
“We liked, defensively, his presence. I think he had four steals. I think he had like two blocks, you know, some being contested, some at the rim. He had some great plays in the gap where maybe he didn’t get the steal, but he was able to slow some things down. He rebounded well. So, all of those were good. Again, just like I was saying earlier, showing him on film, there was no need to reach on this foul, on this play where you had three fouls and, you know, love the aggressiveness, love that you’re listening. We’ve asked, ‘hey, lose yourself on defense.’ And he’s done that, and now it’s just, you gotta be smart with it. But you know that’s something that, an area you’d rather have to pull a guy back on then to have to say like, ‘Hey, come on, you gotta be better on defense. So it was good to see.”
On where Nate Ament’s confidence level is on the offensive side of the ball
“I don’t really think much changes there. I think the big thing with Nate is, really glad he’s not like pressing and, you know, hunting bad shots, right? And I think he’s doing a good job of just kind of staying within the offense and finding his moments to strike and to be aggressive. So, just finding that balance is huge because, you know, again, in high school and at times, you’re the only high-major division-one player on your team, right? So you gotta press, and here, we have a lot of good players, and so you don’t have to. You can impact the game in a lot of different ways. And I think that’s one of his greatest gifts is that he can truly impact the game in a lot of different areas, whether it’s rebounding, whether it’s assisting, whether it’s getting steals, blocked shots. He touches the game in so many ways and he brings value in so many ways. So not really overly concerned about it, and I don’t think he is. His main focus is just, he wants to win. He wants to win at all costs.”
On how Tennessee freshman forward DeWayne Brown is impacting the game and what his biggest challenge will be against Florida’s frontcourt
“You know, DeWayne has given us another, you know, post presence inside, another body. You know, he’s physical and has good touch around the basket. I think for him in this game, it’ll be the first — well, Houston, but he didn’t play a lot against Houston — but it’ll feel like that for him from a physicality standpoint. So I don’t think he should be too caught off guard by what’s coming, because you’ve kind of seen it before, he’s been there, but it will have a different feel in the sense of they have the depth that I think we have, where they can rotate a lot of different bodies at him.
“So again, we’re not asking him to kind of get out of character or do something different than he’s been doing. Just get in there and do your job. Do your job and whatever adjustments need to be made, he’ll have to make it, but we don’t need him to come in and be superhuman or, you know, do anything that he hasn’t done this season.”
Bishop Boswell
On what he remembers about the Florida matchups last season
“Really talented team, obviously, over there. Really good guard group. But think more than anything, just the physicality and the size they had inside, but last year we went down there, we didn’t get the job done. So the mindset this year, totally different.”
On what his message to JP Estrella, DeWayne Brown about facing Florida’s physical front court
“Yeah, I think JP and Felix know, you know what I’m saying. And I think they’ve been kind of talking to DeWayne and some of the new guys we have inside, just the level of physicality we got to play with. And obviously Jaylen was able to play them last year, being in the SEC. So I think we know what it takes. You know how physical we have to be. We just have to go out there enjoy it.”
On how they can help the big men out as a guard group
“I think just instilling confidence in them. Every day just talking to them, staying in their ear. We know how talented they are. So just instilling them with confidence.”
On where Amari Evans has made the most strides the last month
“Yeah, just from the summer to now, it’s been incredible how hard he’s been playing— has been the biggest thing, you know what I’m saying. And that’s what’s going to get you on the court. So just him crashing the boards, him being confident with this shot, getting to the rim, getting out in transition. So it’s been really good to see.”
On if he looks forward to these physical matchups
“I do.”
Why
“Because I’m not soft.”
On if he plays the game like a football player
“I definitely think my past in football helped me in the basketball sense.”
On taking a lot of hits in the Texas game
“Man, I get hit in the face a lot. I definitely get hit in the face a lot. Last night might have been No. 1 for sure.”
On what needs to be different in the second half at Florida compared to what went wrong in their road losses at Syracuse and Arkansas
“I think Syracuse more was just getting organized, and I think that’s something we’ve gotten a lot better with. Just being organized on offense, everybody being on the same page and knowing what we’re doing.
“And then I think Arkansas is just the little details and finishing plays, whether it’s making layups, making free throws, you know, ball-screen coverages. I think that was more such, just little minor details that we got to clean up and I think we’ve watched film on it, and, you know, been working at it.”
On if Tennessee takes pride in being the more physical team
“Of course we do. That’s Tennessee basketball, I think, at its core, and we talk about it every game, how we know the other coaching staffs are going to be telling their guys that they have to be physical because of the Tennessee teams before us, so it’s our job to play to that standard.”
On Tennessee having the mindset of nobody can beat them at home, how they can have that mindset on the road
“Yeah, I told the guys yesterday, we’ve done a good job protecting home court, and obviously that’s a big thing for us, but we haven’t got a road win yet. We’ve gotten some neutral-site wins, but not a real win yet. So I think that’s something we’re going to have to do if we want to win the SEC. We’ve got some stuff to prove to ourselves in this game.”
On how easy it is as a leader catching the younger guys up to speed about progressing throughout the year
“I don’t think it’s too hard. I think everybody here is eager to win, and I think that’s a testament to the coaching staff. They recruit guys that want to win and want to get better. So I don’t think it’s too hard, you know, everybody has the same goal.”
