Tennessee basketball opened up its season with an 80-64 victory over Gardner-Webb on Monday night at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
The Vols struggled on the glass and on the defensive end, two things that Rick Barnes wasn’t overly upset about in his postgame press conference. Still, Tennessee pushed its lead to as many as 27 points in the second half before struggling down the home stretch.
Following the game, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes discussed the Vols’ banged up front court, what went wrong in the final five minutes and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said postgame.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways From Tennessee’s Win Over Gardner-Webb
Opening Statement
“First, it was a really good opener for us. It’s an extremely, extremely well coached team and we knew that coming in. They were going to do what we thought, and they do it well. They adjusted at the end where they were just driving, putting their bodies on us, taking us down low. And defensively, I thought we were OK for the most part other than what we gave them, turnovers and second-chance points. They went and took it and made made good with it. But the fact that they showed different defenses was great for us. And I thought for the most part our guys handled that OK, other than the last five minutes. I mean, the last five minutes, I didn’t think we were very good, with too many guys that weren’t aware of the clock and the situation. I don’t care what the score is, we’re playing the game the right way. We didn’t do that very well in the last five minutes, the way we needed to.”
On if that kind of game is more of what they expected from Tennessee transfer Chaz Lanier
“Chaz has the ability to to do that. I thought Jordan (Gainey) was terrific coming off the bench, and he gives us such a spark. And we got ‘Z’s minutes down where we’d like to have them because Jordan is the guy that can play multiple positions out there. Chaz, I thought he really tried to work hard defensively for the most part. He had a couple breakdowns where the post guys started going in there and he kind of stood and watched some guys sneak inside with offensive rebounds. But he’ll get better. We all have to get better, obviously. But they’re a really extremely well-coached team and they play hard. And their point guard was terrific. I mean, he just played outstanding basketball.”
On what is different about Tennessee’s Jordan Gainey this season
“I think he’s gotten better in a lot of different areas. He has really become one of our best players in a ball-screen situation. I think he’s a guy that can score at three levels. And defensively, he’s working at it to get better, like all players that have to. Very unselfish. He’s always a team first guy. And he should be confident in everything that he does because of the time and attention he puts into the details that we want. But he has improved so much in ball screens and and attacking the rim, those type areas.”
On how he would assess the play of Tennessee center Felix Okpara in the win
“Honestly, it’s probably, since I’ve known Felix, it’s probably the toughest day he has had. Not to make excuses, but to tell the truth, he’s got a really pretty serious hip pointer, but he absolutely refuses to come out of practice and play in the game. I mean, he’s going to play. And I thought he was slow getting off the ball, which he’s not normally slow at doing that. But I’m really proud of the fact that, if you’ve ever dealt with a hip pointer you know what it’s like. And I can show you film in practice where he’s almost trying to protect it with his hands. But, again, from a production standpoint, since I’ve known him, this might be the worst that he’s had. But he’ll work at it and he’ll get better. I’m talking more offensively. Defensively, I thought he tried to do the things that we asked him to do.”
On what Jordan Gainey does for Tennessee with increased confidence, how it affects other players on the floor and the rotation
“Well, it changes a lot because the fact that, again, in some (situations), we can actually get ‘Z’ off the ball a little bit. And Jordan has been around four years and he just does so many (things). He understands how we want to play, for one. I don’t think he’s forces things. I think he’s starting to understand exactly where he needs to get to on the floor with his spots, his space. I’ve always mentioned that the game is about space and knowing where to attack for yourself to be effective. There’s no doubt he’s figuring that out more and more. And he’s just working hard and working hard on both ends. And he cares a lot. And the fact is, I think he can get better.”
On starting three transfers, if he expects it to take the team longer to gel
“Well we’re a different team. I mean, we’re a whole different team than we were a year ago. Just what you said. We’re a young team in some ways, other ways, and we’re young in the fact we haven’t played that much together.. I mean, if you think about it, you got three guys in Jordan, Zakai, and Jahmai (that) have been in high level games. Elite Eight games. They understand what it’s like. Those other guys have no clue. Now we got guys that sit on the bench and watched it. Until they get enough time out here to run and play. Like, I thought Cade really settled down more in the second half. Cade can be a very effective player for us. But then you bring, you talk about the transfers that come in, it’s new to them. It’s all new to them. What we expect on the defensive end and the offensive end, putting it all together. We know this is a whole new team and a team that’s going to start a race on their own. We talked about that before the game. Now go on the road, purposefully, to play a team that we know is going to be an outstanding team and see what we can do to continue to build and get better. We’re got to get better and everybody knows that this time of year. But other than the last five minutes, there were there were a lot more positive than negative, but I want to play 40 minutes mentally the game the right way. Making shots, that might not happen, but in terms of making wise decisions and understanding the value of all those type things, we ought to be able to do that for 40 minutes. Defensively, got to respect the other team for some of the things that they did. Like, the night there the point guard did a terrific job. He really did and they battled. They played hard. They never stopped playing. I was so impressed. I just thought their bench stayed with them throughout the game and there’s no doubt they came in here with the attitude that they knew they could beat us. And the way we worked the game early, I thought it was really good from our point of view. And then when we had a big lead, we showed that we’re not ready to be where we need to be because they kept playing in a smart way, and we didn’t. So, again, give them great credit and it’s my fault at the game when we don’t play the way that we do, that’s on me. It’s up to me to fix it.”
On what they needed to do better offensively in the final five minutes
“Better decisions and understand you can’t come out of timeouts and just throw the ball away and bounce the ball in there. And knowing when you go for the big play, the explosive play, and when you don’t. Players can’t break out, go one-on-one, spin, dribble, lose the ball. Just not understanding the clock situation, all that, but we’ll fix it.”
On if he feels like the atmosphere is still different for transfers Igor Milicic and Chaz Lanier
“I mean, you got to play these games. And, again, I think our guys I mean, if you think about it— those guys came from this level, basically, if that’s what you want to talk about. The levels don’t matter anymore. I mean, those guys, I could talk about them all night. Their schemes, what they were doing, and how hard they were trying to get done what they practice. And, again, you always love watching the teams when you watch film of them going in and you see them coming up really trying to continue to execute what they’re trying to do. That team is gonna win a lot of games. And they adjusted. Coach did a good job. We were really trying to work hard and trying to run them off the line. I thought they did a really good job when we were jumping heavy gap, going back over top, getting downhill that way. Just a little subtle things that, from a coaching standpoint, you really appreciate. And then they were putting their head down some. Just trying to kinda bully us. Not bully, but just playing with a lot of aggression going downhill. And then late in the game, we adjusted a little bit. We don’t want to give up threes and we want them obviously, to have to fight for tough twos. But it was a really,this time of year, again, we work hard in trying to schedule the right way.
“It doesn’t do us any good to schedule someone on paper that we’re supposed to beat by 40, 50. It doesn’t do it. Games like this help us. Regardless of — even when we were up 27, 28, whatever it was; our guys learned tonight that other teams have a lot of pride, a lot of heart. They’re not gonna stop playing.
“If they had made that push more around the eight or nine-minute mark like that, who knows. And if you think about it, (we) ended up winning by 16. It’s 5 possessions. That’s all that is. Five possessions. So I give them a lot of credit for how hard they fought when they were down. I didn’t think at any point in time they teetered. I thought they kept doing all the things that well-coached teams do. We got the lead and we didn’t play like a well-coached team, and again, that’s my fault.”
On how he felt Tennessee rebounded the basketball
“I thought we had some. And, again, obviously, when you get in there and start backing down, pushing, all that. There’s a lot of balls that break loose like that, but we thought they would be a good rebounding team because we knew they were going to drive it hard, and we were going to have to rotate and have that rotation, get back to try to block out, those types of things. But it’s not up to the standard that we have to have to go where we want to go.”
On if he has an update on senior guard Darlinstone Dubar who missed the opener due to a personal matter
“(The) timetable (for his return is) with him right now. We’re leaving it up to him. He’s around, and he’s still here with us every day, and we just wanna make sure he knows that we’re there for him and everyone around has been. Tough time for him, just personally, that I think he’s dealt with it for a while. But we love him to death and we miss him, but it’s up to him.”
On how much injuries have slowed J.P. Estrella’s development
“First of all, I’m really proud of him because after shoot around today, he didn’t go through shootaround with us. And so that was, you talk about a game time decision, because I told Bob Kesling during the pregame radio thing that we do that he’s not gonna play. And then I come out of there, we’re actually in the film room, we get a text that JP thinks he wants to go, which I think is a major step for him because is he 100%? No. But I thought his minutes were valuable for us tonight. And to get to the shape that he needs to be in, he’s gonna have to do things like he did tonight because it’s not just gonna happen. It won’t just happen. And the longer the train starts rolling and he’s not a part of it, the harder it is for him to catch up. And he can be a real force for us if he can just get healthy, stay healthy. But I’m proud of him because he, again, was not a 100% and he fought through it.”
On why Jahmai Mashack is able to come up with so many deflections on defense
“He’s an elite defender, and he doesn’t get credit for that. I think if more people kept up with deflections, they’d — end the year, everybody wants to probably vote a defensive player of the year based on steals and things like that. But his deflections — we play small ball with him because we think he can guard anybody on the court. He’s got really active hands. We’ve talked about fix-it guys, being one of those great fix-it guys, but that’s just what he’s great at, and he takes great pride in it. He wants to get his hands up, be active. We’ve got to get more people doing it. But that’ll be another great thing from the film that we can show his teammates where we can impact the game by just doing that.”
