Everything Rick Barnes said about Tennessee’s win over Georgia

On why freshman guard Jaden Springer has played so well the past two games:

“He is doing a lot of things well obviously offensively he has been explosive there. He can score at all three levels, and you guys see that. He is learning a lot, and I think he is still learning a lot about his game and things that he can do that he maybe has not been asked to do that we are expecting him to do a lot. Defensively, he’s really good night in and night out, but he was tired fatigue-wise. At one time three guys wanted out of the game, but we only took one, and we went with the one who had been out there the longest. But I am really proud of him with Keon sitting a little bit longer tonight because of foul trouble, otherwise he probably would have been into the thirties. At the end of the game, I thought we did good when they were pressing for the most part when they would get us in the double teams we would pass out. We made good decisions, and Jaden will learn now that he has a really big target on him when he starts to play one-on-one and in isolation situations. We would like him to move the ball quicker, and he is going to have to understand that spin will not be there because people are going to get that and try to steal that.”

On the play of sophomore guard Josiah-Jordan James:

“I think Josiah is the calming force for these younger guys. That’s why I think he has matured really well in terms of doing that. He’s still trying to learn some things as a forward, but he gives us a fourth really good ball-handler out there. But again you think about when you are in his presence he is talking to the young guys a lot while the game is going on and trying to get them to understand what is happening and what we need them to do. There are certain sets we call where they are not as comfortable as they should be right now, but the fact is I see Josiah really starting to put together a game where he is being effective in a lot of different ways to impact the game.”

On if he likes Tennessee’s small-ball lineup with four guards:

“It all depends on matchups. Tonight is a team that you maybe could do that with a little bit, because they seemed like they were playing guards — and even their post is a very quick player. I think there’s games when we can do it. We’ve gone through a lot, and as guys continue to grow and develop, we get to do different things. Then, can we guard? Can we guard with a small lineup when they start isolating in the post and things like that?”

On how he thought Tennessee played in transition:

“Obviously in the first half a lot of good things, good decisions. I think that the faster we play and stay with it, people will try to slow you down. We want to get out. We want to go. We want to get in the open court. We’ve been talking about it for a long time, and right now they’re looking to do it. When it’s not clicking the way you want it to, that’s where we’ve got to take care of the ball and whatever it is we want to get into — we’ve got different ways we can get into different things — but we have to continue to be aggressive. We have to take our shots, and I’d like to see us rebound a little bit more. I think this is the kind of game where Yves (Pons) could’ve done some damage on the boards. The more space we can give those guys before teams get collapsed the better off we’ll be.”

On what Josiah-Jordan James means to the team:

“His basketball IQ is getting to where you want it to be. He’s starting to understand where he can be effective. His mid-range game – we want to see him finish more around the rim, and he did tonight. There’s nothing he won’t continue to work at getting better at. He likes passing the ball—this team likes passing the ball. They like to move it and get it going. It’s been fun watching Josiah, his hard work paying off, because he’s a worker. He knows that there’s a time that he’s going to have to be the ability and versatility to play all five positions on the court.”

On if he is concerned about senior forward John Fulkerson only taking three shots:

“No, I’m not. We’ve got a package and we need to play through him. We’ve done that for most of the year. These other guys have continued to improve. It’s obvious that we’ve shifted, which I think helps us because now we still can go back to that if he gets it going. Within what we’re doing now, he’s got plenty of opportunities to get involved to still get shots. We have a group of guys that want to move the ball and pass the ball, but he’s got to get what he needs to get done. Right now we’re playing at a tempo that I think should help him more than what we were doing. This tempo should allow him to get out on the open court with more space to move, but he’s going to have to do his part to get involved with it.”

On Tennessee having four player in double-figures:

“We like it. It’s hard to game plan against Georgia because there’s a lot of guys that can put points up. We like balance but also like the fact when someone’s on because we like to get them involved and play through them. Tonight we started the game with two freshmen and two sophomores and played without a guy that’s played a lot of minutes for us and they did a lot of really good things. Everyone in the starting lineup tonight has had a game of at least 15-plus points in a game. It’s great when you can have great balance on the offensive end.”

On freshman guard Keon Johnson’s spectacular dunk:

“I’ve worked with him a lot on that dunk. I showed him how to take off and wind up with it. The reason you haven’t seen him do that yet is because it’s taken me awhile to get in shape to show him how to do that little helicopter dunk. Keon is a very explosive player and we’ve gotten on him for not stopping himself too many times in transition where we want him to go attack the rim and he does that. That’s what makes him a high-level explosive athlete that is just scratching the surface on how good he can be. He’s just like Jaden who can score at all three levels.”

On if Tennessee can sustain offensive success with the guards doing most of the scoring:

“All year long we have tried to get out and run like this; getting the ball ahead and getting easy baskets. It stops and starts and it’s for all the teams around the country. The fact is these guys have continued to work and we’ve gotten the game experience we’ve needed and tonight is going to help us even with the turnovers. If you get a lead people are going to come after you. In the second half, we missed some shots where we had great looks with great players. Some nights when they don’t go in, they need to think about driving the ball or looking to get something in the post or in the midrange. That’s where we’re going to continue to learn because we have to maintain a very aggressive attitude. 2-3 days ago we worked against a 2-3 zone and not having that slowing us down; we’re going to keep coming.

“Tonight when I thought we were slow when we got deep into the shot clock a couple of times, I thought it was fatigue. I thought it was stagnant and thought about using a couple of timeouts to get a back-to-back break because I could tell we were fatigued because of heavy minutes. To maintain the pace that we’re playing with right now, the younger guys need to stay in this shape that they’re in right now and having the mindset and mentality of knowing that they have to keep going. We need to keep getting offensive rebounds and keep getting stops and not turning it over the way we did. Turnovers put us back on our heels tonight but that’s something we’re going to work on.”

On playing LSU in Baton Rouge on Saturday:

“They got the eighth-ranked offense in the county and have guys that can score because they are a very heavy isolation team. They’re going to see who they can take advantage of and they are going to use that 2-2-1 press they always use so that’s going to be a challenge. They’re a very explosive offensive team.”