Tennessee basketball was far from its best but found a way to pull out a win as they knocked off Missouri 72-67 in Columbia on Tuesday night.
The Vols trailed by three at halftime and by seven early in the second half before Dalton Knecht and Tobe Awaka came alive and sparked the Vols past the Tigers.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes spoke with Bob Kesling and Steve Hamer on the Vol Network postgame to discuss the bad first half, Awaka’s performance and more. Here’s what he had to say.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways On Tennessee’s Win At Missouri
On Tennessee finding a way to win a game after struggling in the first half
“Well, the good thing is we won a game. In the first half, I thought we were absolutely horrible. I just felt like we didn’t have the energy, the fight that we should have had after the game (against Vanderbilt before) we came over (to Missouri). But I don’t want to take anything away from Missouri because as a coach and staff, we knew it was going to be a hard fought game, especially if we didn’t come out and rebound the ball the way we should take care of the ball the way we should. And now, again, I think it’s probably the first half this year we’ve gone without making a three. But too many turnovers by certain guys. And defensively, our defense, kept us in the game because we were absolutely horrible the first half (offensively).
“And you came out early the second half, we knew we wanted to get to the bonus as quickly as we could because we were having a tough time, obviously making shots. But I thought when we went with two big post players, I thought that changed the game for us.”
On Tobe Awaka scoring a career-high 18 points and grabbing 10 rebounds
“Well, I told the team at halftime, I went down by the numbers and I said, how about letting these guys (Awaka and Jonas Aidoo) play a little bit? You know, let’s get them involved. And they did. And again, I mean, tonight to combine, he and Jonas must have shot 80, 85% and did a good job … I thought both of those guys were playing with force.”
On what changed for Dalton Knecht in the second half
“He can get going. I mean, that’s what he does. But he had too many turnovers in the (first) half. I mean, we don’t want him bringing the ball up the court. That’s not what we want. And in those situations, at the end of the game, Jordan — and I didn’t think our guard play overall was particularly great tonight — I appreciate the fact when Josiah came in, he was still ready to play, knocked down some (free throws). Those were big free throws. Then obviously I thought we fouled too much at the end when they were trying to either shoot a three or drive it in there and our guards were slapping down as opposed to just playing straight up. And we got two big guys in there, let those guys come and make a play.”
On his message to his Tennessee team at halftime
“Well, I obviously wasn’t happy with the fact that the way we were playing offense, everything that we talked about. We lost our poise again, where everybody’s trying to go one-on-one. We didn’t know where shots were coming from. We didn’t. And if you don’t know where shots were coming from, because we weren’t executing and what we’re supposed to do, we’re not in position to rebound the ball. And that was, again, we didn’t move. We didn’t move the ball and everything they did tonight, we knew exactly what they were going to do. We just didn’t execute. And again, give them credit. First half I thought they beat us all the 50-50 balls. And the second half we came out, fought forward. The post guys got it done for us tonight.”
On Tennessee’s defense wearing Missouri down in the second half
“It’s a 40-minute game and you want to do that. And again, I think one of the biggest keys of all was that we didn’t let them get to the bonus. Because arguably their four players that they count on are probably the four best free-throw shooters in the league. They’re all up here in the 80s, 90%. And the fact that we didn’t get them to the bonus, let them get to the bonus early was key because we felt like we didn’t want to give them those points. They were going to have to make shots. And they obviously, I don’t know what they shot for the game, I haven’t looked at the stat sheet yet, but we got it done. That’s all I can say. We got the win and we knew it was going to be tough, but we made it a lot tougher than it needed to be.”
On road wins being hard to come by in college basketball
“They are hard to get. And again, we knew this time of year, I mean, you’re playing against a team that hasn’t had a win all year and you knew they would come in and … first of all, Dennis (Gates’) teams, they have not stopped playing hard all year. I’m telling you, they have played hard. They’ve done what they do. They’ve gone through some scoring lulls like every team can, but the fact is they played us hard, tough, and we were fortunate to get the win.”
