Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes met with the media Friday morning before the Vols travel to Tuscaloosa to take on rival Alabama on Saturday night. The Vols are coming off their midweek open date and are looking to get back in the win column after blowing a lead against Kentucky.
Ahead of the matchup, Rick Barnes discussed Charles Bediako’s situation, what stands out about this Alabama team and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
More From RTI: Why Tennessee HC Rick Barnes Doesn’t Believe Alabama’s Charles Bediako Should Be Eligible
On if the bye week came at a good time for Tennessee Basketball
“You know, who knows? I mean, I think we got some work done. Hopefully, got a little rested. But we knew we had to get some work done, even though we’ve tried to do that, not just with any one particular area, just trying to get guys, each player, to get what we need. Because we still know we’re going to need every one of them. So from that point of view, I think we’ve just been good for us.”
On how a basketball coach can coach consistency
“(It’s) really hard. You talk about it a lot. And what it is is simply this. You got to get it up — I made the statement to him yesterday. If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, that means you haven’t done anything today. It’s all about improving. Our whole goal here has always been to get better, each and every day. Because I do know this, if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse because of the competition, the level that we’re at. I asked the players why they can’t understand that and they don’t know the answer. I know the answer, and the answer is it’s hard. It’s hard to try to improve every day. It’s hard to get up and take a good hard look at yourself and understand that, man, I got to grind this out again and find a way to push through it. But that’s what, again, separates good teams from great teams. And not just basketball, in any profession.”
On if this Tennessee team struggling to take practice work to the game, if that’s still an issue at this point
“Yeah, to some extent. And again, it still goes back to, as coaches, we’re going to continue to teach and hope they get it. But you can practice and practice, but when the lights come on, you’ve got to be able to handle that. And we have at times, we have. It’s just been consistency. And that’s something that’s hard for, I think, coaches to understand. I think it’s really hard for players to understand. Because I don’t think they don’t want to do it. I just think that it’s very, very hard. And to separate yourself, to want to be special, to continue to strive towards your goals, there’s got to be something there that just makes you get up every day knowing that I’ve got to get better. And it’s not just going through emotions. I mean, you can’t mistake activity for achievement. You got to put your whole heart, soul, and mind into it, and pursue it as hard as you can. And that’s what separates you as you continue to go up the ladder. That’s why there are very few guys that make it to the highest level. They’re the ones that are able to do it. And the ones that can stay there a long time, there’s something about them that they get up every day knowing,I’ve got to keep going because there’s somebody trying to take my job.”
On if Tennessee prepares for Alabama any differently after the Charles Bediako news this week
“No, we do it the same way. We’re going to prepare, obviously, we talked about him (in terms of) personnel, like we would anybody else, and that’s the extent of it.”
On his view on former G League players
“You know, I’m not making this comment based on this case or whatever happened earlier. I don’t know all the ins and outs of it. To me, it’s simply everybody comes to college and they have college eligibility. When you make the choice to give up your college eligibility, you’ve given it up … once they start that clock and they made that choice, they’ve made that choice. And I don’t care if it’s someone that has been in the service, come back, once they start that clock and they make that choice, they’ve made that choice. And sometimes, we know this, that some of those choices haven’t been good through the years. And I can say that with some of the players that I’ve coached, and they would tell you that if they were standing here. But once you make the choice, you made the choice. And without diving deep into it, because we could sit here all day and talk about all the different angles— this, that, or whatever— but just in a nutshell, that’s what I think. Once you make that choice, to leave college, you’ve made that choice.”
On if he would change his roster building outlook if G League players become separately
“Well, you have to adapt. I mean, there’s no doubt that’s the key to all this. You have to adapt to it. I think for us older coaches have been in it a long time, and we can go back to the days where the NCAA, you felt like they were watching every move, secret police. And now you wonder what’s going on, but I think it’s out of the hands of the NCAA when judges start stepping in. I mean, what can they do? And I don’t know how it’s got to this point, to be honest. I don’t know where it’s going to end, but all I can say is, whatever the rules become, or whatever they are, they fold into, we have to adapt. Whether we like it or not, but we’ve also got to be true to the guys that we recruit. When you go out recruiting, you make a commitment to them, and I don’t know, it will, per se, save a scholarship if something like this should happen. I like to think that once we start in the spring with the team that we have, and we know the roster, because you know what? There was no doubt that Ethan and Clarence, JP, and Jaylen, they missed a lot. They missed a lot, and they really want to do the right thing for us. They want to work in place, and we believe in them. But they missed a lot of basketball, so I can’t imagine trying to add someone to the roster in the middle of the season. Personally, I can’t, because we’re trying to continue to get this group and that we believe in with our whole heart. So you adapt, but you’ll still have to have your own philosophical philosophy in terms of what you want, how you see it.”
On Alabama and Auburn not recruiting Hoover native DeWayne Brown, what Tennessee saw that others didn’t
“Well Gregg Polinsky had watched him, and that’s one thing I’ve said before. Our coaches have been around a long time. We don’t go by the ratings of anybody else. We’re going to rate players ourselves, and know what we’re looking for, and for the very get go, GP loved that he played for some great high school coaches. He was really well coached. When you’ve been in the game as long as he has, as long as a lot of my staff has, you often can make— you feel comparisons to guys, and what you see, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but he went— I mean, he went to bat for DeWayne from the beginning. He said hey, this is what I see, this is where I see him. And has DeWayne came on quicker than we thought? He has. Again, that’s a compliment to him, his work ethic, his people around him, his high school coaches. He came in, and from the get go, you get surprised every year by somebody. He was a big surprise. But GP saw him early, and that’s happened with a lot of our guys here that when we see guys early, and I think I’ve said it before, our staff is older, been around the game a long time, and we trust their evaluations. I certainly do, and I count on them. When I talked to him about him, I said, it’s your call. You worked it, you know what it is, and you know what we’re trying to get done here, and I can remember GP saying, he’s all about us. And we’re certainly glad that we have him.”
On 22-year-old professionals from Europe coming over to play college basketball, how that’s different for Americans
“Well, I don’t know if I have a problem with age. I don’t with that because, you know, there’s some religious affiliations (where) kids go on mission trips. They’re gone, they come back, whatever it might be. My whole (thing is) what I said, once you make that commitment to enroll in college, and you decide to walk away from it, you’ve made a decision. We could talk all day about comparing this, comparing that. You could ask me, what if I were in a situation where we were really, really struggling, and I had a chance to bring K.D. (Kevin Durant) back, would I bring him back? Absolutely. So I’m not gonna be a hypocrite here, you know, but that’s, we’re talking really different things, different ways we could go. And I hate it.
“I hate it for the players, ’cause sometimes when they choose to leave, they’ve gotten some bad advice, and bad information, and he made the decision based on that. But I will say this, too. There’s a lot of decisions in my life that I made, I wish I could go back and fix. I really do. So I think every case can be different. But the age limit, I don’t know if we can talk about that for various different things, but do I think that players should have five years to play college? Absolutely. And they should know that coming in, but once they decide they’re out, they’re out.”
On if he’s talked to Kevin Durant about the possibility of coming back:
“Well, I could talk to a couple more, maybe. But, believe me, I love our team. I love the fact these guys are continuing to work, and I can say for this particular team, even though we don’t have a scholarship (available), we would not add to this roster, because we’re gonna ride this horse, and we’re gonna go with it, because we believe in them.”
On what stands out about Alabama
“One of Nate’s (Oats) most efficient offenses. They really can score the basketball. (Nate Oats) totally believes in his system, how they play, and because of it, they’re never out of the game because they can explode at any point in time. He does the job that he always does, getting his guys to buy into what he wants them to do.”
On how tough it is to find consistency with this Tennessee basketball team given how many newcomers there are
“Well, you expect some of it when you have young people, and you have young players, you have some older guys, too, that haven’t had a chance to compete at this level against quality competition every night. So you do expect some of it. You really do, and sometimes, it goes back to your hoping that some guys that are maybe older, grasp it quicker. Younger guys only know what they know, but when you bring together as many players as we have — but we’ve proven we can do it. It’s just a matter of doing it for 40 minutes.”
On how DeWayne Brown responded to Jaylen Carey starting over him against Kentucky
“He did well. You talk about consistency, sometimes you expect that with younger guys. What the biggest thing that you’re trying to get more than anything is just a great mental and physical effort, in terms of — and like I said, it’s hard. It’s really hard for young guys to understand how hard it is to sustain it for a long period of time, especially when you’re tired. So young guys are learning how to fight through that. Older guys, I think, should already know how to handle cardio toughness, you know, when they get tired, how to play through it. The longer you play, that shouldn’t even be an issue, really, but the fact is, he was great coming back. He had a really good practice yesterday. DeWayne is a great teammate and a great team player. This is all new to him, but, he’s trying every day to continue to get better, and he’s gonna have a great career because of the way he approaches things.”
