Tennessee coach Rick Barnes met with the media for the first time ahead of the 2023-24 season Tuesday afternoon during the Vols’ in house media day.
The ninth-year Tennessee coach talked the injury status of his team, its three-game trip to Italy, the growth of the returning players and much more.
Here’s everything Barnes said Tuesday.
More From RTI: Bishop Boswell Talks Commitment to Tennessee Basketball
On having Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James as veterans on a Tennessee team with transfers and young talent
“You know, I think those guys, Santi and Josiah probably have made that easy. Got a really good call the other night from one of our parents that said that when Josiah and Santi decided to come back, (as a parent of) a freshman, they were concerned. They said it’s been the best thing for your son to have those guys be big brothers to them and lead them and show them the way. And the part blending is not so much in getting along together because I think we’ve got a group of guys that really do care about each other, but it’s getting the younger guys to understand how hard it is to play the defense and play the way we want to play. But those guys have been just great mentors for the young guys. But we do have, what four, five, six new guys that are out there at a time that we’re trying to get them to understand what it’s going to take to win at this level.”
On how much Tobe Awaka and Jonas Aidoo will play together versus how many four-guard lineups they’ll play
“I think that will depend a lot on who we’re playing and the matchups, both of those guys. We do have some different ways we can play. We can play with Josiah, Dalton (Knecht) to Mashack (at the) four spot and because of what they can do there. And Jonas and Tobe are a totally different look. And we haven’t had a chance to get JP there. He’s got a fractured finger he’s been dealing with. I don’t know exactly, but we just know that we’re playing those guys together. But it does give us a different breadth of what we have with a smaller lineup out there.”
On the benefits of Tennessee’s trip to Italy and if the team is further ahead this time of year because of it
“I don’t know if we’re further ahead from the trip, but I do think the trip was beneficial in the fact that we wanted to build the camaraderie with the new players and let them have a lot of time together doing something different than what is part of a daily grind what we do here during the summer. So that part of the trip is really good. I think this time of year, this is a big month for all of us in college basketball because we know we’re all a month away from starting to compete and trying to get everything going, but knowing that we get some time during the summer, we don’t want to be tired come March. And so we’ve tried to work that. Older guys, I’ve always thought that older guys don’t need a lot, but they can take all you want to give them. Younger guys, they need a lot, but can’t take it, physically and mentally. And so that’s the part you’re trying to blend. And that’s where it’s important that your older guys help these younger guys understand how to max out and not mistake activity for achievement. And when you’re in practice, you gotta go at it. But that’s probably this month, in some ways is a really a rude awakening for I think most freshmen because it’s time now that (there are) longer practices, more practices and the grind is tough. But again, I really appreciate our guys and what they’re doing and what they’re going through. But the older guys have been really good mentors for the younger guys.”
On how this team is different than past Tennessee teams he’s had
“Well we scrimmaged Saturday and we only had nine guys available, so we had to use a couple of walk-ons that were excited about having on our team. And the one thing, you look at a stat sheet, we made 20 out of 42 threes from the two teams combined. But I really believe that the defense was such that I think I could have got off a couple threes and I can’t even do it anymore. But it’s hard. I mean, Cam Carr told me he’s never been so tired in his life playing the first four minutes of that scrimmage, in terms of the pace and what was planned. And again, there’s no subs. So a lot of guys were (tired) and we only went with a 32-minute game. That’s what we went for, 32 minutes. But the fact is, I know we have more depth on the perimeter than we’ve had since we’ve been here. And up to this point we’ve shown that we can shoot the ball. But I just know that we’ve got a long way to go defensively. And the fact is these guys have proven to us that they want to work, they want be good. And there’s a definitely a difference right now with the older guys in terms of the tempo and the pace we want to play with compared to the younger guys.”
“But actually at the end of practice yesterday, I thought there was a glimpse that I’ll be able to show these guys today before we do get on the floor. That they can do it. Because they started playing with the speed and moving the ball the way we wanted it done. Some good cutting action, the type of basketball that we want to play. So we just gotta continue to build each day.”
On Tennessee’s depth on the perimeter and how it important it will be for players like Dalton Knecht and Jahmai Mashack to play the four-spot
“Jahmai can do it. I mean, he’s done it. He’s basically has played every position, like Josiah since he’s been here, so he’ll play any of those positions. And then Dalton learning the whole system and not just two wings pretty much do the same. Point guard obviously is a difficult position to play and look forward with him is different than the way Tobe (Awaka) and Jonas (Aidoo) would play in some ways. But learning the organization side of it and understanding that they’ve gotta understand what we’re trying to get done out there and get comfortable with the movement patterns that we want both offensively and defensively. And I tell our guys all the time with our defense, it is as much a play as as you run, as you do with offense. And Dalton’s got terrific offensive instincts. And so I think that should help him on the defensive end. It’s a matter of a mindset and he’s working at it. I think he would tell you one of the reasons that he came here was he knew that he wanted to get better defensively and we were recruiting him. And there’s no doubt he’s gonna help us tremendously on the offensive end, but he also knows what we expect from him on the defensive end. And he’s point blank told me, he said, coach, that’s why I came here, because I want to be able to learn how to play defense the way that I think it should be played. So that’s fun going forward because he’s got a chance to just get so much better. But he is having to learn a lot quick. And he’s embraced it. He’s not afraid of it and it’s just a matter of him getting better with it.”
On the difference in Tennessee sophomore forward Tobe Awaka this year versus last year
“Well he’s a much different player right now than he was. I mean, his confidence is totally different. And Tobe was a player that, no one’s ever ran a play for him (or) tried to play through him. We’ve obviously tried to work on doing things with he and Jonas because we think they both have skills that we can take advantage of. And it’s up to us to get them in positions where they can be effective. But Tobe’s rebounding, it is just a great talent. It’s something that he has an unbelievable passion for. He’s got great instincts for it, but he’s also gotten better in so many (ways). There’s not an area that he hasn’t improved in. I think what he did with USA Basketball is a big confidence booster to him. And, again, I just think he’s got an incredible future ahead in basketball for himself because he works so hard, I mean, it really matters to him. And he’s learning, he is learning a lot of things right now that. And he’s being asked to do some things we didn’t ask him to do a year ago, but we’re asking him to do more and be more of a force on both ends. We think he can shot block if he wants to. It’s in his mindset, because he’s so quick getting to the offensive boards, he gotta be that quick, getting off the ground to go block shots. And then offensively, we think if he’ll get himself off the ground as quick as he can, again, going to offensive rebounds, you gotta be able to do that with ball in his hand too.”
On Tennessee’s No. 2 point guard at this point and who will start there while Zakai Zeigler is out
“You know what I said it to the team almost every day, but I know I said it to them two days ago, I’m not really concerned about who’s gonna start the game. I told them I’m trying to figure out who we can finish it with. And I think we’ve got so many different things, different players that, I can tell you we’ve got eight guys, nine guys that I think could be, would be considered starters. Again, like I said, the honest answer to that is I don’t know who is going to play or is out right now, but we haven’t had the whole team.
“Zakai’s not back out there totally. He’s doing a little bit right now. I would say that I think he, Chad (Newman) and Garrett (Medenwald) would probably tell you they think he’s probably ahead of schedule, but he has done a little bit at the start of practice each day and we back him down. Now if it were up to him, he’d practice the entire time, but we won’t let him.
“Tobe’s been out a couple days (in) concussion protocol. And and JP (Estrella) hasn’t really done much all since we started here regular season. And DJ (Jefferson has) missed the last couple practices just due to the fact that he hasn’t lived up to what we want him to do and all that facets of the program. So we haven’t put it all together. And in terms of putting together the whole thing, I don’t know other than the fact that I like where we are, I think we’re going to have a lot of different options. And I think this group of guys, I’m not sure it matters to them. I’d say, I think everybody would like to have a name called before the game to go out. But we just tried to drive home the point we want to see who we can count on in the last five minutes. We think we’re gonna be in a lot of close games this year. Again, the schedule that we play, and we’ve gotta be able to finish those games out.”
On how Tennessee redshirt freshman guard Freddie Dilione V has progressed defensively, where he’s at playing without the ball offensively
“Great question. I think he’s gotten better in all those areas. I think that he’s finding out, again, where he is right now reminds me so much of where Kennedy (Chandler) was. Had been asked his whole career to have the ball in his hand and just go create offense, find a way to come off a screen, go create some offense for your teammates, and shot talk gets down, just get a shot up. And he’s found he’s learning how to play, but he’s got a great attitude about it. I don’t think Freddie yet truly understands all he can do and the way he’s going to have to continue to. He does know, I will say that he does know what he needs to do, but it’s hard.
“And he’s going to do it because he’s got a good attitude about it. He’s open to being coached, but for me, he’s learning how to play a whole different style of basketball. And it’s up to us to get him to do what he does well, make sure he understands how that can blend with his teammates and what they need to do, what he needs to do to play well with them, that they want to play with him. He wants to play with them defensively. Again, he goes through it like most young players, they lay on screens, they don’t realize how fast the game is from going from one play to the next play to the next play to the next play. Young guys, when we make one play, then stop, then they make two plays and stops getting three.
“So it’s a matter of getting a mindset that you’ve gotta play in the possession. You gotta end the possession. And he’s gotten better with it every day. But I would say it not only any of the young guys, certainly they’ve got a long way to go to still understand just how hard it is to play the game the way it needs to be played from a cardio standpoint. And we talk a lot about cardio toughness. I like to get guys tired and, and see if they can play. And it’s hard, when you’re tired, can you make the right play? Can you make that extra effort, play those types of situations. And there’s not one freshman on our team that’s not going through that right now, including Freddie and Cam and the rest of the guys. It’s just, again, they’re playing against some, there’s four or five guys out there right now that understand that, and you watch the game practice with them or just practice tape they see. They see it the more we show it to them and I’ve seen. I have seen improvement with them every time we show them, show it to them on tape the next day.”
On playing Michigan State in a charity exhibition for Maui wildfire relief
“I think it’s awesome to have the opportunity. I mean, obviously our heart and prayers go out to the families over there that, you know, it’s gonna be a long comeback for ’em. And the fact is, you know, Maui, they held on as long as they could hoping that they could have the tournament there. But with what they’re faced with right now, I think with FEMA and everyone over there it was just really hard to try to put it all together. But the fact is Maui’s been a big part of college basketball for a long time. A lot of great memories have come out of that tournament and the fact that they need help and when it came about and we called Michigan State, there was no doubt in my mind if, you know, Tom Izzo, I mean there was no hesitation, you know? That’s the right thing to do. And it’ll be, they’ll sell it out. It’ll be a great crowd there. I mean, they have one of the great fan bases in the country and certainly have great respect for Tom and what he’s done through the years. But I think we’re both, the fact we’re in it this year, it’s just neat that we can play a small part in trying to help that community be built back.”
On if he’s ever had a player-assistant coach duo like Justin and Jordan Gainey
“You know, I don’t think I have really. Maybe a walk on or something like that, but certainly from a player standpoint, I mean, Justin should be a crowd dead, but you know, he always kind of low keyed that. I tell the story, from the time that, Jordan started hanging around here when he first went off to college at USC-Upstate, Spartanburg, he (would) come to gym and he’d work out with Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner. And I can tell you from the— they all said, coach, if he ever did want to transfer you, we would want him to be in our program. When he decided it was time that he was going to do that I think I would, Justin probably tell you, I was the one that said, we have to have him. You know, it’s either him or you, you decide, you know. Not really, I didn’t say that, but the fact is, we knew we wanted him. And I wanted Justin to know that, and I said, you know, we’ll recruit him. You don’t have to. Let us recruit him. And he was, Jordan had the opportunity to go to a lot of places and I think because of obviously the love he has for his family and they are close-knit family, but he’s much more than what we thought. We knew he could shoot the ball. There was no doubt. But he’s much more than that. He understands it.
It is gonna be fun watching him continue. I mean, I’ve watched him now just, he’s competitive. A guy that can score from three different levels. A guy that can get a shot off when he has to get it off. But again, and his body’s changed a lot since he’s been here, but it’s just only gonna continue to change more. He’s got a really good basketball IQ. He’s, like I said, he’s competitive. Having to do what he has to do every day against the guards he has to play against has been good for him. And we spent pretty much the whole summer playing him at the point. And now, because of that, I think that’s helped him a lot too, because he can, again, play certainly all three perimeter positions. And so we’re excited about him and, you know, he’s gonna be a big part of this team.”
On where freshman Cade Phillips is and if he will redshirt
“There was no doubt when Cade came that we, we said from the beginning, we talked to him about he was gonna redshirt, But because of JP being out and and Cade didn’t get to do anything with us this summer and wasn’t able to play on the trip over in Italy. So his first real work was when we started, when school started, and moving him in through the vitamins and, and but one thing he has done since he’s been here, he has spent a lot of time reconstructing his shot where, you know, he’s gotten much better with that. But to answer your question, I don’t know if we can redshirt him because if you ask Santi and Josiah, they would say, you can’t. Because you watch him every day in practice and I go home and watch the tape he’s productive, you know? And he might not even score a basket the whole day. I think actually in the scrimmaged the other day when we scrimmage Tobe didn’t scrimmage. And if I’m not mistaken, Cade was our leading rebounder. He had nine or 10 rebounds, and he gets things done. He’s understanding what we want to do offensively, you know he’s picked it up quicker than we thought. And I would say that he and Cam have probably been the two biggest surprises with everything that’s going on. But again, as I’m standing here being honest with you, I don’t know, I don’t, I don’t know that question. I think it depends on the next couple weeks, how it plays out. But I know one thing, he’s got a great future and he’s going be, he’s going to be a guy that’s going to help us win a lot of games here. And he’s going, he’s a big part of this program this year and moving forward.”
On the impact fifth-year seniors Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi will have the first month of practice
“You know, the biggest thing, I told both of those guys when we talked about them coming back, it was leadership. Knowing that we had a lot of new guys in the program. And then I told ’em, I said, personally, coaching staff wise, we’re not going to judge you on — because you guys have worked, they’ve always worked. You know, they’ve been guys that we know they have represented this program the way we wanted it represented. And they are guys that, they bring it every day. I mean, I get on ’em like I would anybody else and they handle that fine, but I said, you’re going to judged this year really more so than ever on your leadership, what you’re gonna do to help these young guys. And when we got the call last week, one of the assistants got it about how they’re (a parent) glad that those guys came back and how much it’s helped the young guys. That’s what we were looking for. And they’ve lived up to it. But we expect a lot from those two guys. And certainly when, when Z(akai) gets back and Jahmai, Jahmai Mashack has been a big part of it. I mean, those guys have played a lot of big minutes, but again, leadership I think will be the biggest thing when it gets right down to it.”
On why he thinks Josiah and Santi decided to come back
“Well, the good thing about them getting to go out and experience what they can experience through the, you know, finding out what, what they need to do. I think both of ’em, and I think anytime someone comes back to the back like that, I think it shows a lot of maturity in the fact that they ask questions. They certainly have agents that they believe in it and have helped ’em, but when they get down to it, both of those guys are guys that are going to with or without an agent, they’re going to ask their own questions and they’re going to, they’re gonna get the feedback. They want to hear the feedback themselves. I’m sure during the interviews they would be the kind of guys that would point blank say, ‘Hey, what do you think I should do? or What do you see me doing?’ But I was glad that both of ’em got to go through it because next year it is, that’s what will be their future. They’re gonna have to go through it again. I think there’s no doubt both of ’em would tell you they learned from the tryouts they had and what they had to do. And both of ’em have come back and they really are better than they’ve ever been. If you think about it, this was the first summer Santi’s been here since he’s been here. And I think it’s shown up. I mean, we know that he’s a machine when it comes to cardio fitness and the way he runs around. But he’s at a level that he hasn’t been. And I think a lot of that has him ’cause he was here for the first time (in the summer). Josiah has had his best off season where he hasn’t missed a day. He’s been, knock on wood, you know, he’s taken great care of his body, which he always has. But the little nagging injuries he had, he’s been able to stay ahead of all that. And they’ve gotten, again, I think after the feedback, there was no doubt they knew they wanted to come back. And I think it speaks volumes about our program and the university and our fan base here. Both of those guys, they love it here. They love this university and they know that— and I really think when some of these guys go out and they have people, like each of ’em have people they can talk to about, you know, what’s it like up there? What’s it gonna be like here? And I think some people say, Hey, look, it’s different. Believe me, when you’re in college, that’s some of the best years of your life. And I would want to ride that train as long as I could ride it. And I think obviously with the NIL that plays a part in it now. So I do think both of them made really wise decisions in coming back.”
On the difference in Jordan Gainey and Zakai Zeigler at point guard
“Well, there’s a lot there just because, you know, Zakai’s been with us. I don’t, I think it kind of, after Zakai got hurt last year, I think it kind of went unnoticed how much he had gone from being a guy that just scored when he got here to where, how he became such a good distributor. I think he tied Kennedy’s (Chandler) record for assists in a year, what Kennedy had the year before. So he’s been around and Zakai, they’re different. I mean, I do think this, when Zakai comes back, I think it’s gonna really help Freddie (Dilione) and Jordan a lot. He’s gonna help them a lot because there’s nobody on our team that can do what he can do defensively the way he does it. And Zakai’s a guy that changes the court when he’s out there. I mean, he changes it in a lot of different ways, but Jordan can really shoot the ball just like Zakai. They both can shoot the ball. I’d just say right now, the fact that Zakai’s been around, he knows that he’s played with these guys longer. He’s been able to, obviously he knows the defensive system better and ball screen defense. That’s something that I think Jordan probably has had to learn more because when he is at the point, you know, he’s gonna get screened a lot more there in ball screen situations as opposed to when he’s off the ball more. Again, he’s improved. He’s embraced it and we’re just fortunate and blessed that we have him both.”
