Tennessee basketball annihilated Western Carolina 84-36 on Tuesday night in its first of three buy games to conclude the non conference slate.
The Catamounts jumped out to an early lead by Tennessee ended the first half on an extended 35-6 and 16-0 run to take control of the game and not look back.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed Felix Okpara bouncing back from a poor week, Darlinstone Dubar having a second straight strong game and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways As Tennessee Dominates Western Carolina With Strong Defense
On what he liked about the play of Darlinstone Dubar in Tennessee’s win
“I think, one, he’s playing the role we want him to play. He’s getting more comfortable. And I just think over time, as he strings together practices and gets time in more games, I think it’s going to help us. We believe that. And he’ll continue to get himself in better shape. That’s what he needs to do right now.”
On Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler finishing with 10 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists
“Obviously he wants to make shots. But what was he, one assist away from a triple-double. Just competitive, like he always is. Pressing a little bit offensively, but he’ll be able to work that out.
“But I thought, early in the game, I didn’t think our post guys were locked in. I thought Felix was locked in, I didn’t think Cade (Phillips) or Igor (Milicic) were at all. And the D-Stone (Darlinstone Dubar) came in and gave us some.
“But Z, I think they shot 20-something threes in the first half and those long rebounds that we talked about a lot still came off in. And I don’t know if I’ve coached in a game where I don’t think they scored a two-point bucket in the first half. But they were just coming in shooting it.
“But just too many turnovers early, kind of self infected. But they’re really well coached, have great schemes.
Obviously our talent was a major factor in the game. But they’re so well coached, the play hard. And they play hard for 40 minutes. So you have be impressed by that, watching the game from where we were sitting. Tough, physical. And we thought really in the first couple minutes of the game, they were more physical than we were.”
On how Cade Phillips is developing as a passer
“Cade can. And he likes to do it. Cade can pass the ball. Sometimes he probably takes too much of a chance. But he sees the floor well and he’s getting to where he’s making the right read most of the time.”
“I thought he started to get back to what we need from him, the physicality. They were obviously very conscientious at the start of the game, really trying to keep us off the glass. But again, I thought he was really locked in on his ball-screen defense, really doing what we talked about after the game the other day at Illinois. And that was a big plus because we talked to him about it, and I felt like he really tried to come out and do the things we talked about.”
On Jordan Gainey finding more consistency
“Jordan has just gotten so much better in so many different areas but one is his conditioning, but he prepares the way that you would want someone to prepare and he knows that we keep telling him that he can do more than what he’s done and we still believe that. That he’ill continue to get better. He does drive the ball well for us. I thought he turned down a couple of shots at tonight that he should have taken.
On the significance of needing Felix Okpara to start playing better leading into SEC play
“Well I think right now at this time with what two games to go until the SEC? We better know what we’re getting from everybody. It’s important to do that. Felix is going to keep working. He’s a worker.He wants to do that right thing. He wants to play well. Again, he’s a very unselfish player. But with two games left to go, and Middle Tennessee, is another really well coached (team). I have so much respect for their staff and how they play. We’ll have to be ready Saturday (Monday). We got to get to where we know what we’re going to get from everybody from here on out.”
On Darlinstone Dubar starting fast
“He knows how to play in those type games. He’s really good when we’re really just trying to play and we’re not trying to run a lot of plays. Trying to use our concepts, and he’s really good in this situation because he’s got a good feel. He obviously can shoot the ball. We all know that that. I thought he tried really hard defensively. I think he was really locked in there. That’s the big thing we’ve been talking to him about. Trying to be more consistent on that end.”
On Bishop Boswell exiting the game with what looked like a shoulder injury
“I think he got bruised. We’ll see tomorrow. We’ll know more about it tomorrow.”
