Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes met with the local media on Friday morning ahead of the Vols’ SEC opener against Arkansas on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville.
Barnes discussed his team, how strong the SEC has performed to this point in the season, Tennessee’s SEC opener against Arkansas and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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On how much he has paid attention to the SEC’s success in non-conference games
“Well, we get great communication with our conference office, what they send out to us. So we’re up, everybody in the league understands that. And just a great year for the league outside the conference. Just really you think about it, I can only think back to maybe 2004 when the ACC had a banner year like that non-league play. But like I said, after the game the other day, you can throw it all out the window. Now we start over and I think we all know that wins will be hard to come by, but that’s what you want. Ten years ago when I first got here, that’s what the league talked about, trying to get basketball up on par with everything else in the league. And I would say at this point that we’ve been able to do that.”
On John Calipari’s first season at Arkansas after so long at Kentucky
“Obviously it’s always new when you go somewhere else because it takes you a while to realize, what, he spent many, many years in Lexington, just like 17 years at Texas for me, you come here. But what happens, you get so into the job, where your life in terms of the way you do things doesn’t change you just in a different environment. And obviously you went from one great fanbase to another great fanbase. And watching his team, he’s always been a great basketball coach everywhere he has been. It doesn’t matter where he goes. He turns things around quickly, wins games and the teams are all always so fundamentally sound. And you have to beat them, they’re not going to beat themselves. But I’m sure he is still making some adjustments, he and his family personally. But basketball wise, you look at what he’s done, pretty much the same.”
On the importance of Tennessee staying out of foul trouble with limited numbers
“Well, I think going right now in SEC play, the premium is on getting better. We’re in the first week in January, not even halfway through the season yet. But with limited numbers, we’ve never been down this low with players. And so with that in mind, yeah, we got to keep guys one healthy, keep them fresh. We have never wanted to foul. That’s something that we’ve always tried to emphasize. We like want to play hard, but we don’t want to foul. We really don’t want to let people go to the free-throw line and get points that way. So that’s something that we’ve always emphasized and always will.”
On how Igor Milcic has made an impact in games without making shots recently
“Yeah, that’s the sign of a terrific player. When you get a guy that’s not making shots. We know he’s going to make shots. That’s the furthest thing from our mind. But when you can impact a game without doing that, I think it’s a sign of a really a true basketball player. We’ve talked about Jahmai Mashack doing that. ‘Z’ (Zakai Zeigler). Igor has done that. His rebounding has been, we knew he was a good rebounder, we knew he was a really good defensive rebounder, but he obviously surprised us with what he’s done on the offensive boards.
But he’s already made a major impact. And what’s exciting for us as a coaching staff is that we think he’s just going to continue to get better the more experienced he gets at playing at this level.”
On if it’s strange to watch film of Arkansas and see Jonas Aidoo on the floor
“Yeah. We appreciate what Jonas did from while he was here, but you all know the landscape of where we are in intercollegiate athletics. And you’re going to see more of that, obviously, as time goes on, when guys leave and go other places for various reasons sometimes. But Jonas, really, we loved him when he was here, what he did and loved his growth. But he’s there, we’re here and it’s about competition now.”
On what Jonas Aidoo looks like on film this season, how Arkansas tries to use him vs. how Tennessee used him
“Jonas has had to deal with an injury, obviously. So he hasn’t probably been out there as much as that I think they would probably like to have him. But I see him try to do some of the same things that, that we were trying to do with him.”
On how Tennessee will prepare with Johnell Davis dealing with an injury for Arkansas
“You go in preparing for guys to play. I mean, that’s what you expect. And you you never know what’s going to happen, but you always go in preparing for it, and realizing that we’ve seen so many guys that you didn’t think would play come in and play great. So we’ll be prepared.”
On what he wants to see from Chaz Lanier as they prepare to open up SEC play
“I think he’s got to continue to, again, feel his way through this, but doesn’t have a lot of time, really. He’s seen a lot of defenses come at him different ways right now. And I do think he’s already improved. And the exciting part is that he can continue to get even better but he’s going to, again, it all gets ratcheted up once we get into conference play and he’ll have to continue to improve to get where he wants to be.”
On the luxury of having key veteran players who have been through SEC play multiple times
“It is, and again, I talked to Jahmai last night— we talked on the phone a little bit and just that message right there, you guys have been through it, you know what it’s about. Most of these guys haven’t. You’re gonna have to understand that, one, we’ve gotta get better. All of us have to get better, but those guys have been through it. They know what’s coming and the more they can hear it from their teammates that, hey, this is a whole different situation that you guys have never been in and you got to listen and let’s not make the mistake of not listening.”
On if he could tell that the SEC would be this strong before the season
“I don’t know if you, if you ever know how strong you think it’s going to be? I mean, I know this, I have great respect for our league. I have great respect for the coaches in the league. The fact that not only do they know how to coach basketball, but they know how to recruit talented players. And that’s been obviously the last couple years I think is the biggest improvement has been the skill development. The skills of the players that have come into our league. But when the season starts out, everyone’s going to talk about their league and all that as time plays out, just like football season right now going on. You see it in the end of how it all ends up, but so much will go on between now over the next three months. How do you handle the ups and downs of it? How do you stay focused? How do you continue to improve and how do you handle it because we’re all gonna go through a rough spot at some point in time and how do you handle that? But, again, you can’t say enough about what our league has done in the non-league. I mean, it’s really been impressive. And no doubt at the start of right now, you look through your schedule. Someone told me the other day about how we’re starting out. I don’t care what three teams you put up there, you’re looking at it as hard. I don’t care which three you put there, or two, whatever one. It’s hard. And every time we go on the road. Every time we play at home, there are none that you think, Hey, we’ve got a break here because with what’s happened up to this point, I don’t think anybody can think that.”
On the team’s focus following the Norfolk State win
“I think our focus has been good all year leading up. And maybe that’s because of guys knowing they’re gonna play, maybe having lesser bodies out there. But I thought our last two games have been great for us. I thought what Middle Tennessee did was terrific. They did some things that we needed and Norfolk State what they did was exactly what we needed. And so I give our coaching staff credit for, because we know when we scheduled those games what we’re looking for and those teams gave us everything we wanted and more which was good. But our preparation from our players, they were on point with what we needed to try to get done. And so we’ll continue to need that as we keep moving forward.”
On where he’s seen improvement in those two games
“I’m not saying they’ve improved all the way. They’re improving in areas in terms of we’re going to have to guard te basketball. When you think of Arkansas and their talented players, they are gonna drive the ball hard. They’ve got the ability to shoot it. They can score really at three levels. And when we played, say Norfolk State, they were a great driving team and had great mid-range players, great guys that could finish at the rim. But now you had the part of it where you got to guard them further out because you look at Arkansas’s guards, they have the ability to shoot it deep and that spreads floor a little bit more. But that’ll be something we’ll talk about all year about improving guarding the basketball. Improving helping your teammates, rebounding, all the fundamentals. You never, ever think you’re there. And so that’s why I keep talking about every day getting better because you’ve just gotta keep inching forward every day.”
On if he knows what they’re going to get out of Darlinstone Dubar every game
“Probably not totally yet, but we believe in him and being in a low possession game the other night and we were not scoring the ball so we were trying to get a little, obviously get some things out there on the court and Shack not really playing in the second half, but we need he, Igor, Cade and Felix, those guys, we believe in them. And we got to continue to get more out of them. And, and it’s not just offensively it’s—I thought Cade did a great job blocking shots, rebounding. Felix will do that. Igor’s doing it. We want to see Dstone improve in all those areas and with his versatility, obviously the time he missed hurt him a little bit, but he’ll make that up and he, just like those guys, needs to get out there and go at it.”
