Tennessee basketball is back home for the first time in two weeks as they prepare to face Auburn at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center Saturday night. The Vols are coming off two straight road wins and are looking to pick up a third straight win against a streaking Auburn team.
Ahead of the matchup, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed closing games better, Jaylen Carey’s status and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On updating the injury status of Tennessee freshman guard Troy Henderson (shoulder)
“He’s coming back today. Because the game was Tuesday, he just felt like he needed a couple more days. But based on what I’ve been told, he’ll be back today.”
On what stands out about this season’s Auburn team
“Well, I think, again, Steven has done a really good job. I think that they continue to get better all year, which that’s what you’re looking for. And (they’re) playing with confidence. And he does, again, a terrific job of getting his guys where he wants them to be. And they’re doing a lot of really good things.”
On if he thinks Tennessee forward DeWayne Brown has hit a freshman wall
“Well, I think all guys, not just DeWayne, I think all players get to — that’s the whole, what we do. You’re trying to climb the mountain and you get to plateaus. And the higher you go, the harder it is to keep climbing. So I think all guys get there. And we talk about that plateau, where he is right now, and how he’s going to have to fight through it and keep going.”
On similarities and differences between Bruce Pearl’s Auburn teams and Steven Pearl’s first Auburn team
“Well, I mean, obviously, Steven was with Bruce for a long time, and had a chance to be a huge part of all their success. And I think that he has still stuck to some of the things they’ve done, but yet he’s put his own touch to it too, which I’m sure his dad is proud of. And they’ve just continued to get better. And I think if you go back and look at all of Bruce’s teams too, they did that. They got better as the year went on. And when I watched from Auburn, they’ve done the same thing.”
On some of the ‘different touches’ Steven Pearl has put on this Auburn team
“It is a different voice in the locker room every day even though I am sure he was a big part of the past with it. But now it is his voice and his culture — I am sure they had the culture, but it is his now. I am sure just like I don’t think all of my coaches would every totally agree with everything I do or think. You get to a point and the biggest thing is once you slide over to that next chair it becomes yours and I think he has done a great job with it.”
On how important it is for Tennessee’s other guards to be able to take some of the pressure off Ja’Kobi Gillespie
“Well, it’s important. I think Ja’Kobi’s got to quit putting so much on his shoulders, too. I think Bishop can do some of that. But we have confidence in Troy. And he was moving in the right direction. But we’ve still got to have them all, there’s no question about it. So that will continue to be a big thing going forward.”
On taking some momentum away from Auburn
“Well, I don’t know that you can take that. I mean, it’s the next game. And I’ve said many times that each game takes on its own personality. And you look at our league, I think about every four games is decided by a bucket. And that’s how competitive this league is. And I think you look around the country in other leagues, it’s pretty much the same thing. There’s so much parity now, due to the NIL obviously. But we’ve got to get focused on what we need to do. And as they will continue because they should feel good. They said they’ve won four in a row, and playing great basketball.
“And we’ve had two good road wins, hard-fought. And that doesn’t mean anything if we come here and are not ready to play. Because believe me, Auburn’s good enough to beat any team they play in the country.”
On where he wants to see them better closing games
“Just that, finishing it. Understanding that you can’t turn the ball over. Got to have cleaner offensive possessions. When you go back to some of those games, it’s too much dribbling at the wrong time, attacking, going too deep. One player, two players, three players, whatever number you want to put on it. Trying to do too much at the wrong time. It’s just a matter of execution, and on both ends. Not just on the offensive end, it’s on the defensive end because our the Kentucky game was just a total breakdown defensively. I mean, they just took us apart because we just didn’t guard at all, and they had a lot to do with that.”
On if Ja’Kobi Gillespie is specifically putting too much on himself late in games
“Well, I think he’s such a competitive player. I think he’s always, he’s out there really hooping, trying to win, trying to play. But he wants to win. And I think sometimes because he wants to win. And it’s a great thing, but it’s a balancing act. And that’s where he’s trying to figure that out too. Because he’s never been in this situation. He’s never been game planned for like he is right now. And he’s certainly one of the best players in college basketball, so he’s getting a lot of eyes on him every night. And so, still some of this is a learning experience for him.”
On Gillespie and overdribbling
“There’s times he can, but there’s other times he can’t. And it’s the area of the court that he’s in. And when he’s got more space to play with, he’s really, really terrific. But sometimes he can get himself hemmed into areas that where over dribbling not just hurts him, it hurts anybody.”
On how Tennessee junior forward Jaylen Carey’s knee is doing, if it affected him Wednesday in the win over Georgia
“I think he was limited some. There was a little bit of swelling there, but, you know, he felt like he still wanted to go. Of course we didn’t do a lot (Thursday). We’ll see where he is today.”
On what he trusts the most about his Tennessee team in tight games
“Well, what we’ve seen the last couple games especially, is their communication skills have gotten so much better. You can tell when we leave the huddle, where they are talking to each other, reviewing again what they’re supposed to be doing, which is a great thing. I think it’s great when players are coming over to our bench telling them what they’re seeing. We haven’t had any of that up until the last couple weeks, and when you start getting some of that, you feel like now we’ve got some things here we can build on.”
On if the amount of tight games Tennessee has played in lately is stressful at all
“You got to embrace the competition. You got to embrace the pressure. I mean that’s what we do. I mean there’s a lot of things in the world a lot more pressurized than what we’re doing right now, but this is what we do. This is where we are this time, and this is what we do, and it’s hard. Winning is hard. It really is, because we all want the same thing, and we’re in a league now where things are probably — just college basketball in general — there’s more parity.
“So, the key as coaches, what we want to know is what we can get every night and you’d like to think that effort is non-negotiable, but some nights, some guys are going out there taking it to another level, some guys will plateau. This time of year you can’t plateau. You got to keep getting better moving forward. It’s just simply getting better knowing that what you’re trying to get, the other group wants just as much.”
On if Tennessee freshman forward Amari Evans was an unsung hero in the win at Georgia:
“Well, Amari is, but the guy that you guys don’t talk about very much I don’t think — because I don’t read or listen — is Bishop Boswell. I mean, he’s the guy that, I mean, you want to talk about an unsung hero every game. Amari, I think you got two of them, and Amari as a freshman is going to keep coming. But I think Bishop’s averaging five rebounds a game. Amari knows when he comes in and he’s got to impact the game that way. We’re really excited about him, his future and what he’s doing and, you know, Bishop’s only a sophomore playing the minutes he’s playing. Those two guys have been huge for us.”
