What Rick Barnes Said After Tennessee Fell To No. 1 Kansas

Tennessee basketball dropped its second game in less than 24 hours when No. 1 Kansas knocked off the Vols 69-60 in the Maui Invitational third place game.

The Vols and Jayhawks played a back-and-forth game for 30 minutes before Tennessee went ice cold offensively and Kansas pulled a way.

After the loss, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes met with the media in Honolulu. Here’s what they had to say.

More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways On Tennessee Basketball’s Loss Against Kansas

Opening Statement

“Just disappointed with our inconsistency. We’re just inconsistent. We need to know night to night what we’re gonna get. This tournament, I think it’s great for us. There’s no doubt in my mind. I know we’re gonna get much, much better as a basketball team. We’re gonna learn from it, both games. But I know we’re better than we played today. And give Kansas credit. I thought they executed extremely well. I thought their key guys did exactly what you’d expect them to do night in and night out. We’ve gotta get that with our guys.”

On where Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler is right now in terms of his workload 

“I think, again, he hasn’t had any problems in terms of swelling or anything like that after the games. And that’s coming in. I think he’s fine today. So I think once we get back home this week, he’ll be able to go back to the doctors and they do what they do in terms of the measurements they need. But I expect more and more now he’s going to get closer where, in terms of the minutes. I mean, he’s not that far off. Actually, last night he played more than he probably maybe should or could have, but tonight it was around 20 minutes I think. But we gotta get more solidified there at the point.

On Tennessee needing more of a post presence and needing to finish around the rim

“And we still need a presence with our post guys. We need those guys that understand we need them. And I don’t want to be a team where we’re making threes, it’s all going great. We’re not, we’re not. Because we’ve got too many different ways. We missed too many layups today. Way, way (too many) at the rim that we’ve gotta make. And it seemed like they made all theirs. And we gotta get back to where we can finish those, somme way, somehow get to the free-throw line.”

On how much Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi improved in the Kansas game

“I thought he was good. And again, just so many things. I mean, looking back at it again, (Kevin) McCullar is a tough matchup. And Santi is a guy that, I mean, he is really, what he does for defensively every night, he’ll take on those challenges. And one thing about him, he’s all about winning. I don’t think he’s cares if he scores. I mean, really and truly we tell him we need him to shoot the ball a bit more. But he knows when he’s got it, when he doesn’t. And if he doesn’t have it, he’s gonna find a way to impact the against some other way.

“We need some other guys to learn that. But the fact is, thought he and Josiah did what we would expect them to do. Josiah was the one guy coming in today that we were worried about from a fatigue standpoint because he played 30-some minutes, two nights in a row. And we’re gonna be okay. I mean, I believe it. I think we got a chance to be as good as anybody in the country, but we’re gonna have to get better. Like you would say this time of year.”

On what he learned about Dalton Knecht during the week playing against the competition they went up against

“Well, I don’t think I learned anything that I didn’t think coming in, that would happen. Would be, could he make in-game adjustments as much as we talk about it, try to give him the, you know, the blueprint of how they’re gonna guard him, what they’re trying to do, and understanding how much harder he’s gonna have to work to get his space on the floor. He’s gonna have to do some things. I mean, he made some nice moves, got to the rim, missed some shots. We think when he gets in there, he’s gonna finish it. I think he’s gotta get back to getting his balance and he’d want to make some of those.

And really particular situations — I’m thinking of three right now. I don’t think their defense had anything to do with it. I thought he just missed the shot because he was off balance, maybe thinking somebody’s coming over to make a play because we did play against some size. But I would like to think that this tournament shows him how he’s gonna have to learn how to make those in-game adjustments in terms to how he’s being played.”

On how much the non conference schedule will prepare them for SEC play

“I think it’s great. To win a big game, you gotta get in a big game. Coming here was — again, am I disappointed we didn’t win this tournament? I am, because I think our team’s good enough to win this tournament and win any night (we) go out on the court. But I do know that, you think about it, we played three teams counting our exhibition game from the Big 10 that all have a lot back and you know, we’ve gotten enough back too. And all those games were high level games this time of year.

“I look at the Kansas team, I think they’re gonna get better and better as the year goes on as they keep going. I think we have a chance to do that, too. I mean, I really do. But I do think that playing this schedule, I think it’s great. I mean, I think that’s what, I’ve been doing this a long time and I enjoy these games, you know, because I wanna see us at the highest level. I wanna see us execute at the highest level. I wanna see our guys learn from this. You know, we talked about it last night, we didn’t have a lot of time, and this game’s different because we don’t get to do a normal prep, but they’re in the same situation. But we gotta get consistent with key guys. I mean, if you look at the teams that are constantly right there and answered that question will be just that. So we go in every game and into getting ready for conference play that we know night in night out what we’re gonna get from each individual guy.”

On how hard the field and structure of Maui Invitational was

“Well, it is because nobody wants to play the consolation game. Nobody does. As much as you talk to our team and Bill (Self) did — they did a better job obviously than I did because they were more consistent than our guys coming out. But it is tough because we all come here and — I know we did — I know I believe every team does obviously, that they wanna win this thing. When you get beat, it’s disappointing. But then you turn around and you gotta give it up to Kansas. They played later than us last night. Came in today, had a lot of guys play a lot of minutes. I think they had four guys over 30 minutes again today, I think. But again this time of year, you don’t wan to be your best. You want to be really good and you want to win every time you go out. But what will be the key is that if we can look at each other, look at our team, and each guy can look at themselves individually and say, ‘Okay, what do I have to do to settle into the role this team needs from us?’ And that’s what it will be. And then over this next month, really, before you head into conference play, it is about consistency. Can we know what we’re gonna get night in and night out and making shots? I mean we can shoot the ball. We didn’t have a great tournament here where I thought we shot the ball the way we’re capable of. But that’s part of it. Everybody goes through that. We had some high-quality looks. But I told our team, I don’t want us to be a feast-or-famine team from the 3-point line. We’ve got to have enough in us to know that we’ve got to get the ball inside. Got to get fouled more. We didn’t get fouled enough while we were here. We got to keep developing our post players because I do think we’ve got some guys that can score there and to get ready for conference play, we’re going to need that because as the year goes on, people are going to push out, try to take away the 3-point line, which is fine because the court opens up. We’ve got to get downhill like we did today a couple times, but we didn’t finish it. We’ve gotta be a better finishing team inside of the 3-point line.”