Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes met with the local media on Monday afternoon ahead of the Vols’ matchup against George Mason.
Barnes discussed the challenging slate to date, the status of a number of injured players and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said on Monday.
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On an update on Dalton Knecht and how his health has been in recent days
“Well, he’s progressing. I think we’ll know more tomorrow. But he moving around, doing what we’ve asked him to do, and he tells me he feels okay. But we’ll see. Again, I just think it’s a day by day right now.”
On if it makes sense to hold him out against George Mason
“No, it depends on him. I mean, if he wants to play, if he’s capable— we’ll hold him out if we don’t think he’s ready. But players like that they want to play and we’ll leave it up at what (trainer) Chad (Newman) and he thinks, but, again, we’ll know more after practice today.”
On how Santiago Vescovi has responded from a bad performance at UNC
“Well, like you would expect him to. He wasn’t happy with himself either. And he’s had a lot on him lately. I mean, first of all, academically, it’s the hardest semester he’s had since he’s been here. And then, we forget that he also had to take a long trip back to Uruguay before we left to go to Maui. But you know, he’s a pro with the way he goes about everything. And, again, he wasn’t happy himself and which I would expect from him.”
On Tobe Awaka playing against Purdue and Kansas but not North Carolina
“Well, he turned, he hurt his ankle.”
On if that happened again in practice or just the original injury in Hawaii
“In Hawaii. And he’s been out since then. He was full go yesterday. And if things stay like it is, he’ll cleared and he had a good day yesterday and we expect him to do it today.”
On the challenges of reaching their potential when they’ve constantly dealt with injuries
“Well, it’s different. But I look at it the other way as giving other guys a chance to get some minutes that we know we’re gonna need ’em all at some point in time. But obviously we like to have everybody. We haven’t had everybody at their best yet. And everybody with the different injuries that we’ve worked through. But, again, we’re just now getting into December. Our schedule’s been extremely difficult, obviously, when you think about it, but disappointed because we felt we should be undefeated, but we’re not. And so you are who you are. But with that said, every night we go out— we’re gonna have a real test tomorrow night. Big week with George Mason being here, and then Illinois coming in, and it’s about us getting better and hopefully we can get everybody healthy. We’re not, certainly not gonna be totally healthy this week but we’re going to keep moving forward and hope at some point in time we do get everyone on the same page.”
On the benefit of immediately playing six challenging games in November
“I did an interview earlier today and someone asked me if I’d ever coach a team that played that kind of schedule in November. And I don’t, I mean, I know I haven’t, but I also know that the thing about the travel that was involved with it. Going to Michigan State, getting back up to Madison, and then obviously going to Maui and all that. We’ve done a lot of traveling. But, again, you have to believe it’s going to help you. And I can only tell you we break the game down after the North Carolina game, like we do every game. Talk about it. But also reminded the guys about this is a, it’s a long way to go. You go back to a year ago, you had a team like Creighton, who went over (and) won Maui, came home, lost five straight. I think UConn last year at one time, lost five or six straight. And, not that I wanna lose five or six straight games, but the fact is, we gotta be where we need to be when it counts most. And hopefully what this schedule’s going to do for us is get us ready for the SEC then hopefully you can win enough games to put yourself in the postseason play, and that’s when you want to be at your best.”
On how close Tennessee’s Freddie Dilione is to returning
“He’s starting to work his way back in. He hasn’t been full going practice yet. But I think we’ll be able to use them some tomorrow if it goes well today in practice.”
On upsets across college basketball early in the season and if that’s a message he sends to his Tennessee players
“I think they’re aware of it, what goes on in everything. And I think if you go back every year, there are some, I mean, maybe more because we’re living in it right now. But the fact is, that’s the transfer portal. Teams that you think that might not, and again, I go back to this and I tell our team, I mean, you can compare scores, you can talk about this, you can talk about that. But the bottom line is every game takes on its own personality. And as much as you prepare, you try to get your team ready. I don’t think in any way, shape or form, I could imagine what, how we played the first 20 minutes at North Carolina, but they played great basketball themselves.
“So you compare, you put those two together, or we weren’t very good and they were terrific. It can turn. Give up 61 points and a half. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that in, in a lot of games, other than the NBA in a quarter maybe. But the transfer portal, there are teams that there’s no more rebuilding really. You go out and reload your team every year, and I think you’re seeing more of that now than maybe ever.”
On the decision to start Zakai Zeigler in Tennessee’s game at North Carolina
“You know, I think he was pressing way too hard. Coming in, trying to be overly aggressive, which I was not surprised by in the least. The thing about Zakai is he wants to win so badly. He’s a high-level competitor, and I know he felt he would be able to come right back and pick up where he left off, even though we kept telling him that he couldn’t. But he’s the kind of guy that has just tremendous belief in himself. There’s no way he’s going to sit there and say, well, I gotta work my way back. That’s not who he is.
“But he was trying to do too much. But I thought the second half of the Carolina game, he started really settling back in, being the kind of player that we need him to be and what he wants to be. And I think each time he goes out, he’s gonna get closer and closer. I don’t think he’s back where he will be, but I wouldn’t expect it at this point in time.”
On his memories coaching at George Mason
“I remember going there in 1980 and I was a part-time assistant at Davidson College. I got the call and the first thing I did, I got out the college Blue Book to look up where it was. I was surprised that it had 18,000 students, but I didn’t know until I got there that they only had like 500 living on campus. It was considered the fastest-growing university in the country at the time. I was the first full-time assistant coach they had ever hired in any sport there. (George Mason coach) Joe Harrington, who hired me and gave me the opportunity, was the first full-time head coach they ever had. He told me this and it was truly a great statement: He said, ‘You’re going to learn more in the time here because we’re going to have to build a program from the ground floor up.’ I go back (and) he was right and then I stayed five years and through that time being in D.C., I got to meet a lot of people. Back then, that was — and still is — a hotbed for recruiting. I met (former Duke coach) Mike Krzyzewski and ended up interviewing for a job with him. Bill Foster was at Clemson, interviewed for a job there. Wimp Sanderson, obviously went to work there (at Alabama) for a little bit, but being there was an area that opened up contacts that I don’t think I could imagine at the time. But in itself, watching the university grow to what it is today and it’s a special place to me. It always will be. Both my kids were born while we were living in Fairfax at Georgetown Hospital. Some dear friends. I have one of my former players here. I guess to answer your question: He’s 60 years old. So that tells you something.”
On what stands out about this George Mason team
“Again, I think they play really good. Really good offensive team. They change their defenses. They’re shooting I think the three maybe better than they thought they would. They’re shooting the ball really well, but I still think they’re more of an inside-out team. They know what they’re looking for and they’re gonna try to keep in balance as much as they can on the offensive end.”
On this Tennessee team going as Dalton Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi goes
“I think people rally around your whole team when you’re making shots. I said it makes it all look good, obviously, which we’ve just found that out. But the fact is, over a course of time, again, I think it always going to get down to discipline. I think it’s gonna get down to consistency. And I think that would be the two things that we’ve gotta continue to get better at every day. We’ve gotta be highly disciplined in terms of the details that go into winning. And then the word is what can we expect from people every night, which is consistency.”
On what the key is for Tennessee center Jonas Aidoo to continue building and reach his potential
“That he just continues to understand how important he is to us. And he can give us a component that we desperately need. I think anytime you can throw the ball inside, Jonas, he’s a really good basketball player. I don’t even think that he has even scratched the surface of what he can be. He knows how to pass it. He can shoot it. He’s quicker than most people might think. And I think that if, as long as he will believe in himself and understand the expectations we have for him, I think the sky’s the limit for him.”
