Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes met with the local media on Tuesday afternoon before the Vols travel to Columbia to face South Carolina in a critical SEC matchup.
The Vols could potentially earn an outright SEC Championship with the win and can definitively earn a share of the title with the victory.
Barnes put the final bow on the Alabama game, recounted Tennessee’s loss against South Carolina in January and much more during his Tuesday press conference. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On what stands out about this South Carolina team this season
“Well, one, how well they’re coached. A team that doesn’t commit a lot of mistakes. A team that knows exactly what they’re looking for. A team that can very quickly exploit the matchups that they want to get if you do a lot of switching and they get you in a position where they can get the switch they want. They took great advantage of it here in a lot of different ways. But just extremely fundamental, plays the pace that they want to play with. And Lamont (Paris) has done just an incredible job. One of the great jobs coaching jobs, not just this year, but as long as I’ve been in basketball, watching what he’s done and the way he’s turned it around and where they are today. And they’re got good players, don’t make no bones about (it), they’ve got good players. You wouldn’t be able to be where they are today in this league because it’s, again, we’ve talked about how competitive it is in this league. It may be the most competitive ever. For them to be playing for a championship, speaks volumes not only about the players, but also the coaching staff.”
On if this South Carolina team reminds him of his 2017-18 Tennessee team that went from picked 13th in the preseason to winning a share of the SEC regular-season championship
“I do. And they understand each other’s roles is what I think is what’s really impressive about them. They understand each other’s ability and what they need to do and where they need to get. And some older guys have been around, but again, they’ve done just a great job of doing that, believing in the system for one, and then believing in themselves and now they’ve got a lot of belief because of, again, having just an incredible year and a great year. And it’s impressive with where they were, where they finish up. It just shows you that they didn’t buy into any of that. It was all about them, what they were trying to get done. And again, during the last week of the regular season, fighting for a championship.”
On how much it helps this Tennessee team to play a tough four-game stretch leading into the postseason
“I think this time of year it is all about trying to build momentum. And I said all along, you’re going to learn from every game — something. You hope to win games and learn that way. But with the regular season (ending) and the conference tournament ahead, there’s a lot that can still be learned. We all need to continue to get better. But yeah, I think great competition always helps you late in the year.”
On if this Tennessee team has been different since the loss to South Carolina at home on January 30
“I don’t know. We’ve been in a lot of hard fought basketball games. And our league is, again, I know everyone talks about how good their leagues are and it’s true. Conference play is tough in any league. I don’t care what numbers and all this say, I mean, you go on the road or you play at home and every league is tough and demanding. But our team, I think we’ve tried to get better. As you guys have been with us from the beginning, I know we’ve talked about consistency, we’ve talked about rebounding, ball screen out a lot of different things. And the kids, I think that we’ve still tried to improve as the season goes on. And I would tell you we’re going to court today with that in mind, knowing that we’ve got to (have) a mindset that we can really try to get our game plan in and know we we’re going to have to execute it, but also things that we know we’ve got to get better with, we’ve got to try to get better with.”
On the intangibles Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James brought to the Alabama game
“Well, they know our system so well and to be quite frank, they know me better than anybody. I mean, we’ve been together a lot and I’m going miss so much of those guys. I mean they just, I think they know what I’m thinking probably sometimes more than I do. And like I will, between the three of us, we can bring back things that we did five years ago and they’ll say this, that or whatever. But they’re just, honestly, they’re both like coaches on the floor and they just understand, again, how we’re trying to play and we talk about them being able to fix this or fix that. I mean, you can do a lot with them just to communicate the flow of the game. Just saying this or saying that. And they see it, they get it. And they’ve helped all of our guys this year with that. They have the last couple of years and that’s something that’s going to really be hard to replace when they leave.”
On if he’s ever had a player grab a whiteboard from him like Santiago Vescovi did at Alabama
“Yes, and I love it. What I love about that, Santi, I looked at him, I said, ‘what are you thinking?’ And the play that we wanted, we ended up going, he wanted to make sure that Tobe knew exactly where he had to be because he could, (and) I could, when we called the play we looked at Tobe and we could tell he was like not quite as sure as we want it to be. And Santi just took it and said, you’ve gotta do this right here. Which I think it’s great when players do that. And I’ve always said, when you got a team that’s led by players, that’s when you got a chance to be good.”
On if they play worked
“It did. They, well we ran it. We didn’t score out of it, but the first look that we were trying to get, we didn’t get it because they defended well, but we got to the second option and got a great look at it. Didn’t make the shot, but we executed it.”
On if he pays attention to seed lines, Tennessee being either a No. 1 or No. 2 seed
“I don’t because we can talk about it all we want to talk about the bottom line is it’s going to get down based on what you do. I mean, I think this week’s a big week for a lot of teams that are fighting for whether an NCAA bid or whatever the committee’s looking at from past experience. I don’t know what the SEC Tournament or any post-season tournament plays into it in some ways other than teams can get a bid out of it. But I don’t talk about things that, or think about things that we have no control over other than what we do on the court. And I’m sure there’s always going to be debates about this, that or whatever. But all I can say is that when we’re done with the regular season, I can’t imagine anyone’s played a more difficult schedule than we have all year long. And I don’t know how that weighs into what they’re looking at, but you got to win games and hopefully that takes care of everything.”
On South Carolina hitting corner threes against Tennessee the first game
“We got to play better, obviously in a lot of different areas, but their execution was good and we’ve go to do a better job with everything we talk about every game. You know, whether it’s transition defense, executing in our halfcourt defense, offensively, do what we need to do there. You go back. I mean it’s another game. They’re better than they were here. We’re better than we were here too. But it’s going be a great atmosphere, great crowd, and it should be. They deserve it. They’ve earned it, but there’s not one part that we’re going have to do everything. And again, it’s gonna be another 40 minutes and we’re going to have to be better.”
On what’s been different about Jahmai Mashack since the loss to South Carolina
“The last couple games, I thought his defense has gotten back to an elite level and I think his focus has been the biggest thing. I don’t think there’s any question it’s his mindset. Knowing again what he’s great at, trying to play to that. I think he’s really relaxed on offense and not thinking, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. He’s let it come to him and he’s made some great decisions in the last couple games and we just hope that he can keep building on it. Because when he’s locked in like that, it just gives us, really a great weapon to have.”
On how much Jonas Aidoo has developed to where he can sit on the bench with foul trouble in the first half and then have a big impact in the second half
“Jonas has grown in a lot of ways. His cardio and his physicality has gotten so much better. And again, here’s a guy that, I mean people physically go after him every game. I mean, there’s not a game that we’ve played this year where people aren’t trying to bounce him around. So he’s learned how to deal with that and he’s continuing to learn how to make it work to his advantage. But he’s grown so much from the time when he first got here.
“I’ve said it many times, he’s really just getting started with the kind of player he can be. But it’s about him and his mindset, his attitude on embracing the physicality that’s coming his way and doing the things that he’s capable of. His length at the rim defensively is a factor. I’ve said many times that he needs to make that a factor on the offensive end as well.”
On how his team has been able to come from behind in different games this season
“I don’t know if it’s anything other than the fact, it’s a 40 minute game and basketball’s a game of runs, whether you lead from start to finish, which doesn’t happen very much. Or we’ve had leads that we’ve lost, other teams fought back and you’ve gotta play for 40 minutes. I mean, you have to and you hope that you can in the end, prevail.
“You ask me why have we done it? My question would be, why do we get behind? ‘Cause I don’t want us to fall back when we do it. But when we do fall behind, it’s pretty simple. It ends up being bad shots and turnovers, which leads to easy baskets for the other team. You let down just a little bit on the offensive end and allow guys to get spotted up and get the threes they get.
“But one thing I admire about our players is the fact that, again, I go back to our schedule. We’ve been in so many games that have been possession games and I do think they understand, again, it is a game of runs. The other team’s good, they’re gonna make their pushes and in the end, over 40 minutes, we hope we can come out on top.”
On how comforting it is to be able to play Josiah-Jordan James at the five when the bigs are in foul trouble
“Well, he can do it. And obviously it’s the same thing with Jahmai, sliding to the four if that needs to be. Jo’s been around. He pays attention to the scouting report, and he and Jahmai probably have as much to do with knowing that they could be anywhere on the court in any five spots going into a game. So they’re locked in that way. But it allows us to play a lot of different ways. We’ve had a lot of different lineups out there and we’ve had that lineup, is small. We can get big somewhere in between and so the versatility on the team is really a compliment to our players that they’ve — that one, they know. ‘Cause it’s not like we’re changing, we got 15 different systems that we’re running, you know, within that system that we run. There obviously are tweaks and adjustments you make, but they understand the scheme of it and what we need to do. So it’s really a compliment to them that they can play multiple positions.”
