Tennessee basketball concludes its regular season on Saturday afternoon when they host rival Vanderbilt at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. The Vols are looking to complete the regular season sweep of the Commodores after winning in Nashville late last month.
Ahead of the matchup, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed his senior class, the Commodores and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On how he would describe Tennessee’s senior class
“You know, senior day and all that’s so different now because of the transfer portal. Back in the day when you did the senior day, it was mainly guys that had been with you for a long, long time. But I can tell you the guys that are leaving the program, we appreciate every one of them. They’ve all had a impact and we appreciate it. Obviously time flies and it’s one of those deals where you want them to be recognized for the commitment and the loyalty that they gave to your program. And we appreciate this class, we do, because we’re in that era now where year to year you’re going to have some guys that might just be here one year, but we’d like for them to leave knowing that they’re a part of the Tennessee family and they always will be welcomed back.”
On if Tennessee point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie is one of those players he wishes he had for more than one year
“Oh, no doubt. Growing up here in East Tennessee and watching his growth this year has been really, really neat. And we appreciate that at times so much was put on him that it was hard, but he’s kept working. And he’s just an incredible person and works really hard at the game, knows that he still wants to get better and better. Again, he’s one of those guys that I think that is just getting started in who he is as a player. But he’s helped us more this year than we could possibly imagine.”
On how Tennessee’s Nate Ament (right leg injury) is doing physically, if it’s possible he play vs. Vanderbilt
“I don’t know that, if he’s going play. I know he’s doing everything he possibly can through rehab, working with Chad (Newman) and ‘G’ (Garrett Medenwald) and obviously through our doctors. And he’s a model patient, if that’s what you want to call him. But other than that, we don’t know. I’ve said it before, if it were up to him he’d play every game. But we’ve obviously got to make sure that we’re doing the right thing for Nate.”
On if Nate Ament has done anything in practice this week or will practice Friday afternoon
“No (he hasn’t practiced). I don’t know. We’ll see today. I really don’t (know). “I think Chad had him do a little running yesterday, but he didn’t do anything with us (in practice). And again, I think it’s one of those deals where Chad might tell you he’s doing better than expected, but still that high-ankle sprain, it takes time.”
On why they decided to hold Tennessee’s Senior Day ceremony before the game instead of after
“We just decided to do it. Ask (director of basketball operations) Mary Carter (Eggert), she’s right there.”
On if he worries about the emotions of the Senior Day ceremony affecting the start of the game
“I’ve seen it happen, obviously. But you really want these guys to be recognized, you do. But I like to think that as seniors, too, they can put it behind them and know that we’ve got a really tall task in front of us, and we’re going to be ready to play.”
On how to replicate Tennessee’s effort from the win at Vanderbilt two weeks ago
“Well, we’ll have to play better than we played at Vanderbilt to win the game. They’ve had a great year and I think like anybody can beat anybody in the country, any team. So we’ll have to have a great effort. And again, I think it has to be better. I think that when you have teams that compete as hard as Vandy competes, certainly I know that we’re going have to compete at a higher level. We’ll have to have a better effort.”
On what it says about Nate Ament that he would play through injury
“Well, he would. And that, I mean, it speaks volumes. I mean, Nate’s got so much depth to him. I mean, he obviously loves the game of basketball. It’s not who he is, but, his DNA is such that, he really cares about other people. He cares about this team. He cares about this program and it bothers him that he’s not able to help us right now. He knows what we’re trying to play for. But we know to get the ultimate goal, we need him to be at his best.”
On if there’s any significance to him in earning a double bye in the SEC Tournament
“I mean, I’m sure they, people talk about it as another day of rest. But we’ve seen teams that, I think the year we won that tournament, I think A&M came all the way through that, didn’t they? I mean, so there’s different ways. You still have to go win basketball games.”
On the ways Ja’Kobi Gillespie has grown this season
“Well, on the court, I mean, he really has worked hard at learning how to be a point guard and really knowing how to run a team, learning how to play with his players, playing with post guys. I mean, he had never been in a situation where he ever had a lob threat. So the other night, I mean, you see how far he’s grown in that area. But defensively, he’s gotten so much better defensively. I think that he’s realized there’s so much more to his game. Everyone knows he can shoot the ball. And off the court, he’s been just a beautiful person from the time we met him and, and the fact that he wanted to play here. I mean, I’ve said before he could’ve gone last year and made a lot more money, but he said, ‘No, I want to come home. I want to play in Food City Center.’ He dreamed about it and I can tell you, I think that he’s probably been the best value in all of college basketball this year by far, by far.”
On how is Vanderbilt a different team than when Tennessee won on West End two weeks ago
“They’re really good. I mean, they execute. Duke Miles, that was his first game back (against) us, so obviously he’s settled in more. But you look at their team, every one of those guys have improved, and every one of them has been able to impact winning games. Everyone has their core guys that they wanna play through, but I’m impressed with the roster because Mark (Byington) has done a great job there in a short time, and they’ve been in every game. They’ve all gotten better.”
On how Tennessee is preparing differently to prepare for the NCAA Tournament
“Well, it’s not that you’re doing anything different. There’s a standard that you’ve set in your program and, you know, this time of year, you’re still trying to be better at everything that you do. The mental side of it is probably more important. Obviously you wanna be (as) fresh as you can possibly be, but you, there’s a fine line there where you’ve gotta keep working because you are who you are. And, you know, we’ve developed habits here, and I think if we do something drastic to go away from that, I don’t think that works. So we’ve gotta keep doing the way we do things here, and players have to do their part, coaches have to do their part, and hope that that formula works.”
On if he wants to give an estimate on how much more money Ja’Kobi Gillespie could have made by transferring to somewhere other than Tennessee
“I could because he’s not gonna get it from us now. But the fact is he has been an incredible — I really do, I think of all guys, I think we got the most value out of any one player. And I think it also speaks volumes with him ’cause he knows he could have, but he wanted to come home and I hope that — I know that we all appreciate (him) and I hope that Vol Nation appreciates it because he did what he wanted to do and didn’t make it all about the money.”
