Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes met with the local media on Tuesday morning before the Vols leave later in the day for Nashville and this week’s SEC Tournament.
Barnes provided injury updates on a number of players, talked Jaylen Carey’s close to thee regular season and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On if the time off before the SEC Tournament can help this Tennessee team
“I think so. We got hit a little bit last week with some different things that, I hope the last couple days has helped us. I think it will, obviously. But then we’ll do a little bit of work here today, head over to Nashville and get ready to go and hope that we can stay and have a long weekend.”
On the status of Nate Ament( right leg)
“He’s OK. He did some more. He did some things with Chad (Newman) the last couple days and I think he’ll see a little bit more today. But still we’ll just see. He has been doing more with Chad running and ‘G’ (Garrett Medenwald), those type things. He’ll probably push a little bit more today and see how he responds from it.”
On the status of Troy Henderson (shoulder)
“I don’t think Troy will practice today because of that stinger. He got hit again right where it stings. And we know that he’s going to have to do offseason surgery. But again, Troy (said), ‘Hey, I want to stay and help as much as I can until the season is over.’I looked at the report this morning that said he wouldn’t be available today.”
On the moments that Troy Henderson has provided, how much he’ll be missed if he is out
“Well, I don’t think there’s any question. We know that with time, he’s going to be able to help us. Because he wants to, he wants to be here, obviously. But it’s the things you go through when you are in a season as long as our season is. And we’ll just have to hope other guys will step up and do the job for us.”
On Amari Evans appearing to turn his ankle in Tennessee’s game against Vanderbilt
“Yeah. He’s nursing with it. It’s still sore, which this time of year, I’m not sure guys that have those kind of injuries — Nate, him — if they ever truly get back to 100%. It’s what they can tolerate and what we can do with it. But I know again, with both of those guys, they’re doing everything they can to take care of their business with that.”
On if Amari Evans has been practicing
“I think he’ll do some today. I think he will, but we’ll see.”
On how much more confident Amari Evans is toward the end of his freshman season compared to when he arrived
“I think there’s a lot of difference. He came in and Amari has worked hard. Like all freshmen coming in, he went through it thinking it was going to be easier than it was. He had his ups and downs. But he never, never went backwards, really. He hit the wall there for a little bit. He got hurt at a tough time to get hurt and fell behind, I think, a couple weeks. But came back and realized he had to catch up. But he asked the coaching staff, ‘What do I need to do right now to help this team?’ And we told him, and he’s pretty much taken that and he’s ran with it. The other night just showed glimpses of what we think he can be. We believed in him from the time we recruited. He’s the kind of player that we’ve done a lot of great things with. And I think the other night, and I mentioned it after game, he knows that we need to have an inside presence, and he turned down some shots early because he knew that we wanted to get the ball in there. And they obviously were backing off of him. And Amari can shoot the ball. We told him, say, ‘If you’re open, you got to shoot it. You got to be aggressive.’ And he had a great night.”
On what that says about Amari Evans determination
“Well, I think anytime it speaks volumes about a player when they ask and they want to know the real answer. Sometimes players will just come in and ask, but not really want to hear the truth about it. And Amari’s not afraid of the truth. And he had a good run, then he kinda went backwards a little bit. And like most players, when they start having success they all at once want to try to do more, and more, and more. And they get out of where they are at that point in time, because as time goes on, you expect to see players’ roles expand and change.
But I mean, he really wants to be a good basketball player. But I think he’s got the character, he’s got the work ethic, he’s got the determination. Again, every time he’s asked for some coaching, he’s received it well. So we’re proud of him. But I told him the other night, I said, ‘Hey, this is just the start. You can never get complacent. You can never think you’ve arrived. As long as you’re in this game, you can never think you’ve arrived.’ And I believe that he’ll continue to get better.”
On Jaylen Carey’s close to the regular season
“We need more from him. I mean, the other night during the game, he was sick. He left in the game and had a bout with throwing up. But we just need him to be really good defensively and rebounding. If he scores, he scores. We just need him to do the things defensively and rebound the basketball. And we’ve talked a lot about his percentages aren’t what we want them to be and what he wants them to be. But if he’ll play defense and rebound an when he has the opportunity to score the way that he needs to, he’ll help us.”
On if this team knows its identity yet
“I think we’ve shown it. I think that because of some different things— I mean, we’ve been right there with every team. You look at every team in the country, every team— they’ve had some ups-and-downs, and we’re no different than those guys. Players, I was with Ja’Kobi the other night. I think he cares so much. I think he put a lot of pressure on himself playing his last game here, which could be a blessing in disguise because this time of year, you can’t get caught up in emotion of wanting to play well.
“You just got to concentrate and do what you’ve done all year, and he’s had a great year for us. He’s had a great year. And that’s the things that when they happen, you have to maybe for the right time, the right reason, because we know that we’re going into tournament play now, SEC, and then next week the NCAA. And you’ve got to be at your best. And we’ve had some games this year where we’ve shown that we can be really good, but we’ve got to put it together for 40 minutes. I think we’ve got to be better at closing games. Second half, our defensive numbers aren’t as good in the second half as they have been in the first half. And whether that’s guys getting tired or whatever it might be, we’ve got to figure out that here in the next couple of days and try to improve on that.”
On why JP Estrella was so much more effective in the second half then the first against Vanderbilt
“Well, I think anytime, it’s important that you get big guys involved early. And I mean, those guys are no different than guards. I mean, they want to shoot the ball. They want to touch it. I don’t necessarily think they want to shoot it every time they get it, but I do think they want to be involved, and it’s up to guards to get that done. But JP, again, he’s got to stay out of foul trouble. That’s important. It really is. And he’s a guy that can do a lot of different things with the ball.
And as long as he can stay healthy, and his conditioning is getting better and better, that’s what we need from him right now.”
On if he feels Jaylen Carey has better touch around the rim than his shooting numbers would indicate
“Well, it’s angles. You look at him, more times than not this year, he’s got himself trapped underneath the basket where there’s nowhere to go. And by this time, and we’ve talked to him at length about it, it’s all about — you guys are (at) practice. We talk about space, attacking space. He hasn’t figured that out yet, in terms of where his space is and where he’s got to get, because he has gotten underneath the rim to where he’s got nowhere to go but back, which is an easy shot to block. You can block that shot — anybody. I mean, he’s had guards block his shot because he’s got nowhere to go but backwards, and he has to put the ball right back in their face and in their hands. And that’s where, again, we keep talking to him about it, but that’s the part on the offensive end he’s got to figure out.”
On the difference between a good team and a great team this time of year
“I think totally being connected and everyone understanding how difficult it is to win and that you can’t have bad nights right now. You can’t. As you keep going into, certainly tournament play, I mean, there’s such a fine line between winning and losing, and one possession, two possessions here or there, would be the difference. And knowing that everything that we’ve talked about after every game, you know, taking care of the ball, transition defense, rebounding the ball, all those type things, and shot selection, it shows up this time of year.”
On if it’s possible for teams that have been inconsistent throughout the season to put together a consistent 40 minutes this time of year
“Well, like I said the other night, I’ve lived a long time, and I’ve seen that from teams that come out of nowhere. And this time of year, they just, it clicks. And I’ve seen teams that, you know, you look at the NCAA Tournament, a 16-seed has beat a (No. 1 seed). So, you know, to answer your question, if teams can get going and for whatever reason, and sometimes, you know, your opponent will help you. That goes back to your question about good teams, great teams. Great teams aren’t gonna help their opponent. They’re gonna do what they need to do to take care of their business and get it done. But, yeah, I think there’s so much parity right now across the board that matchups will be important. That’s certainly important, but it’s about taking care of yourself and knowing what you have to do to put yourself in the best position to win.”
On what he appreciates most about this time of year
“Well, it’s everything you work for. We all work — I’ve said many, many times that you don’t ever take getting to postseason for granted. It’s hard, and I think (it) will always be more difficult, the more — well, if you wanna talk about the NIL, whatever it might be — you don’t take it for granted. And when you get there, you wanna make the most of it. We’re playing for championships. That’s what we want. There’s only gonna be one this weekend (at the SEC Tournament). There’s only gonna be one in four weeks from now. There’s gonna be one. And everybody else that started out would say that, you might say you had a good year, a great year, a so-called year, whatever it may be. But the ultimate is trying to be the last team standing this Sunday and in three weeks on Monday night.”
On what he remembers about his bout with kidney stones last year
“Well, I’ve had it so many times, I’m a tough guy. I’ve lived with kidney stones my whole life, and I know how to handle it. Now, the first one I had, I thought I was dying. Now, I can tell when it’s coming. I’m just glad that UT Medical got me in there real quick and gave me great care and got me out of there and got me right up to the game. So I feel good about it. If I get hit all at once, I know I’m gonna be in good hands here at UT Medical.”
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