Rick Barnes spent much of his two press conferences following Tennessee’s loss against Kentucky talking about how he wasn’t panicking and that his team had only lost four games.
From the outside, Tennessee’s three losses in two weeks and the poor offensive performance that accompanied two of them were real reason for concern. That concern grew more serious when Tennessee was down a pair of starters against the same Florida team that beat them by 30 points last month.
But Tennessee chose the best time to play one of its best games of the season. The undermanned Vols drug Florida into the mud and earned a 64-44 win that Barnes raved about after the game.
“I’m as proud of these guys as any team since I’ve been here because of the way that they prepared for it and believed that they knew they could go out and get a win,” Barnes said.
Without Zakai Zeigler and Igor Milicic Tennessee was down to seven scholarship players. All seven gave the Vols good minutes.
Jordan Gainey did exactly what Tennessee needing while largely running the point. He turned it over just once, dished out a season-best five assists and still found ways to score with 16 points.
“We could talk for an hour about Jordan and I thought his cardio toughness really showed up today,” Barnes said.
Chaz Lanier hit big shots on his way to 19 points while Felix Okpara and Cade Phillips gave Tennessee great minutes and physicality in the front court. That duo combined to block five shot while Okpara scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
More From RTI: How Tennessee Used ‘Disrespect’ From Florida To Fuel Its Blowout Win
Both Darlinstone Dubar and Bishop Boswell saw a season-high in minutes due to the absences and while neither did anything special, they both played solid basketball.
“Just loved the way they handled the moment,” Barnes said. “Just really proud of them because a lot of them hadn’t been in a game like this at that level.”
Defensively, Tennessee tormented Florida. Defense is the backbone of Tennessee’s program and it’s let them down in a handful of losses this season. It didn’t on Saturday as the Gators turned in by far their worst defensive performance of the season.
“I think it says a lot about our team, our program and our players,” Barnes said. “I mean, you guys know that we’ve tried to build the program on defense. … We needed a great performance today and we got it.”
Tennessee entered Saturday’s top 10 matchup having lost its last two games. Florida embarrassed them 25 days prior in Gainesville. The already thin Vols were down two of their most important players.
Yet they found a way to not only beat but dominate a top five opponent. Tennessee did it using the program’s bread-and-butter.
“I told them it was one of the great wins that we’ve ever had here,” Barnes said.
