PHILADELPHIA — Tennessee basketball advanced to the Sweet 16 for a fourth straight season by knocking off Virginia 79-72 in the Round of 32.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s point guard prowess, Bishop Boswell hitting four triples and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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Opening statement
“Just really excited and proud of our guys. They worked hard, they had to, to play a team like Virginia. I got the most respect for Ryan Odom and what he’s done in a short time there at Virginia, but really proud of our guys. Both teams played extremely hard throughout. Every possession matters. A great win for us, but I was really proud of these guys. They fought through a lot of things that maybe we didn’t have to, but they found a way to fight through it.”
On Virginia’s comeback attempt, Dallin Hall’s performance
“Well, they are a terrific team. Ryan is a terrific coach, he really is. Our team this year, we turned it over in ways that we shouldn’t turn it over. Ja’Kobi trying to do too much at some point. Give them credit, they fought back in it, and we were really trying in the end to spread out, take away the three as much as we could. But we’re such an active gap team, and sometimes the guys get caught up in what we drill, drill, drill. Felix, a couple times kept getting sucked in and giving up the three to De Ridder which is not what we wanted to do.
They do a good job driving it and get you sucked in wanting to tech out. Both teams I thought played extremely hard. Give them credit. We, again, turned it over some ways that we shouldn’t have turned it over.”
On the main thing he takes from Tennessee’s two games in Philadelphia
“I’m really proud of these guys. We started the season with a lot of new guys, I think 11 new people on our team, and that’s where it is today I guess in college basketball. They’ve worked hard for us from the get-go. Nate, it’s been hard because he’s worked so hard to come down the stretch and have the injury, and he certainly had a hard time the other night and then but he moved better this morning. We saw that. I think he turned it — I know first time he cut through the lane today, I saw it. He didn’t do anything, but I saw it on his face. He’s such a tough kid. He fought through it today and really gave us, I thought, a big lift.
I thought some other guys, Jaylen Carey, every one of these guys this year helped us. We need J.P. to keep himself out of foul trouble. That changes us. A big play of the game, and I give Coach Gainey credit for it. When Amari went in the game, that was a big, big defensive stop. We had only one time-out at the time. I knew if we had a stop, we would have to use it to get Nate. And in the back of my mind, I was thinking we might need that one to get it in the way we were handling pressure, but it worked out that we used it, but that was a big stop at that point in time.
And then Ja’Kobi fouled there at the half court. Those are the plays we’ve got to eliminate. All this is going through my mind right now. I don’t even know if I’ve answered your question. But we found a way. We found a way to get it done. These guys, they’ve worked hard for us all year and worked hard competing against each other every day and Bishop alluded to that.
We normally have really high-level practices and we believe that it helps us and so, again, all the credit goes to those guys.”
On how Ja’Kobi Gillespie has replaced Zakai Zeigler
“One thing they have in common is they are high-level competitors and think they can win the game by themselves, which is a good thing and sometimes not such a good thing. They both have a great way of letting it go when they don’t play well. They move on to the next play. That’s a God-given talent. I wish more guys had that, but they’re got at that. They’re both high-level competitors and both incredible endurance. Getting into tournament, I go into the game honestly thinking we’ll play Ja’Kobi 40 minutes if we have to and he’s able to do it. They’re similar in the fact that they’re not going to back down regardless of what’s in front of them. They’re going to compete.”
On Bishop Boswell hitting a career-high four three-pointers
“Do what we practice. And we expect these guys, when they’re open, to shoot the ball. I thought Virginia did a really good, especially early in the game job, rebounding the ball. They went and took something away from us that we should have had on both ends, but he’s got to. We need that. Amari, those guys, when they’re open and their feet are set, all we keep talking about is do what we practice. That’s the shot you’re going to take in practice, take it now. When Bishop puts up these kind of numbers, and they mentioned it does give us a whole different look as a team”
On his experience in this tournament, winning while attempting just 19 three-pointers
“How do I look after all these years? I’ll tell you this, deep down inside, I wish there was no three-point line and everything was played at 15 feet of net. I would be a football coach. We would run the single wing or whatever. We would be running three yards in a cloud of dust. I’m not a — I don’t mind shooting threes with the right guy shooting it, but I believe playing inside out. I still believe there’s a great value on putting teams in foul trouble, trying to get to people’s benches by doing that.
But I grew up in an era, wasn’t a very good player, but literally, you know this, everything was 15 feet and in. That’s what it was. I still believe in it and still believe in hard screening, hard cutting. Sometimes, we probably pick and roll more than I would like. We do it some and sometimes I’m good at it. I like it when I look down and see that we’ve got 20 assists. I like that. On 26 made baskets. I like to see us sharing the ball and I love teams that are balanced. When we have a guy that can go, you have seen us do it through the years with a bunch of guys. We play their strengths but we love balance. We really do. We love balance.”
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