Tennessee basketball used a massive second half to knock off Vanderbilt 75-62 on Saturday night in Nashville. The Vols trailed by nine in the final 90 seconds of the first half before cutting the deficit to five at halftime and storming to a victory in the second half.
Vols’ ninth-year coach Rick Barnes met with the media postgame and discussed Jordan Gainey’s crucial perimeter shooting, the defense tightening up in the second half and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said postgame.
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On Dalton Knecht being able to go single handedly go on runs for Tennessee in these kind of games
“Well, he did. And you think about the night he had, 13 buckets on 21 attempts, pretty good night. And if he made his free throws, which he should be making more than he did tonight. But it’s just not what he did. But you ask, is it good? It’s good. His teammates know what he’s capable of doing. They obviously start looking for him. But we got a lot of production from, I thought JP Estella’s minutes were big tonight, but I thought what Jahmai Mashack and, when you looked at the stat sheet, and Josiah James, won’t show up with (what) they scored, they made some big plays out there. Santi (Vescovi) was solid, like he always is. They did a good job on Zakai (Zeigler) early in the game, he was rushing. But I thought everyone that went in gave us good minutes.”
On what was different in the second half other than just Dalton Knecht, with Tennessee outscoring Vanderbilt by 18 after halftime
“Well, you go back, I mean, I’ve said (Vanderbilt’s) tandem there in the backcourt is as lethal as any we play. They’re quick, they get down the court and I’ve told you guys, I mean, Coach (Jerry) Stackhouse has great schemes and he’s got them where they really execute. We knew they were going to play at their pace. We knew that. And they’ve got guards that they got that wiggle to them, And they were really twisting us up. We were not great with our ball screen, but they made that play. I mean, we were trying, they just made some good plays. And then finally we got where we were doing a good job of showing us coming over, making plays and were trying to peel off and help that way. And again, trying to shut down the backside. But it took a lot of guys to do it, believe me, because they are a very difficult team to guard with the schemes that they have.”
On the comfort he feels with having a scorer like Dalton Knecht who can take over a game
“Oh yeah. I mean, I’m not going to tell you (it’s not). Yeah. I would say tonight, the game, the guy that I thought blew the game up was Jordan Gainey’s three, when they went 1-3-1, in the corner. I thought that was a huge play, huge play. Jahmai Mashack came in and got two rebounds. I thought that’s when the game kind of tilted our way. But the fact is, Dalton’s teammates, they have confidence and we all do. And but we still, honestly, we think he can get better and the more we play the better he’s going to get. Like, it wasn’t real good, and it was on me, that you don’t want to isolate him out front with a guy like (Ezra) Manjon guarding him. I mean, it’s hard on him and for anybody that size with a guy that can guard like he guards. But he backed down one time and I think (Tyrin) Lawrence took it away from him. Those are the plays he’s got to clean up.”
On how nice it is to have JP Estrella giving Tennessee good minutes off the bench
“I thought big minutes. And again, he’s earning it in practice and those are big minutes. We need to Tobey (Awaka) to stay out of foul trouble. But Jonas (Aidoo) was good. They were attacking him every time he got a rebound, they were. obviously the game plan was to be physical, not let him get his space and, uh, uh, heavy gap. First half we should’ve shot 13 threes. We shot eight, we turned down too many shots, uh, in the first half and we should have shot it and tried to rebound, even though I thought they were good game plan, they were working hard not to let us get to the glass. But we didn’t move the ball. We didn’t move people enough in the first half.”
On if shooting more three-pointers was an emphasis in the second half
“We said we got to shoot the ball, but we knew they were going to be heavy gap. I mean, we knew that and we knew they didn’t want us to get in the lane off penetration and look to post the ball. We knew that, but we were starting out. What we don’t want to do is just trying to dribble penetrate without moving it side-to-side and try to get some downhill runs. But the second half we played fast, but then we slowed down in half court. We got to keep the flow going and when we do that, that’s when we are really at our best.”
On if Dalton Knecht hitting shots loosens up the rest of the team on the road
“Well, I would not only say Dalton. I would say Jordan and Santi. I mean, those guys start hitting it and, again, Josiah’s capable of doing that. Obviously you guys have watched Dalton and he’s not afraid to go with it. I don’t think he certainly— we got some guys that aren’t afraid to shoot the ball and the first half we were just turning down shots because we kept wanting to be aggressive. But they were back in there so far and they were heavy gap and we were trying to get through those gaps without any type of movement with the ball or players.”
On if he got any explanation on his technical foul
“No. Give them kudos, you know, I mean *shrugs*. I don’t know if I’ve ever had one when I was talking to another referee and another guy did. But he thought I deserved it and give him credit for it.”
On how Jordan Gainey is different from a few weeks ago
“Well, I think all players go through shooting slumps and I think when he was struggling, he was really fast pulling the trigger when he really wasn’t set. And then that starts playing with your mind. I thought when he got back to being a player and knowing that he doesn’t have to make threes to impact winning because he drives. He’s learning here at this level now he gets in there, he’s going to have to get it higher off the glass. But he’s had, like yesterday in practice, I honestly, the whole time practice, I said I hope he hasn’t used them all up today. Because he was spectacular in practice yesterday. And I’m like, man, I just hope he hadn’t used them all up.”
On describing Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi as comfort blankets, if he’d describe anyone else like that
“Obviously Zakai, he got a tough matchup and they were screening him. They were really going attacking him on ball screens. He wasn’t getting his space. We weren’t fighting to get the ball. Kept getting locked into the sideline. We’re not particularly do a lot of side ball screens, but we’re getting over there and they did a great job of going to attack the ball and get him locked into the sidelines. It’s almost like he’s playing against three guys over there. But we talk about fix it guys, the older guys are the ones that do it. I mean, there’s no doubt that even Jonas at the end when he really started going down, we said, ‘Hey, they get down here, which it’s hard to keep from getting there. He’s going go make a play on the ball.’
The other guys, (Ma)Shack’s got a peel back in and get his guy on the backside because they do a great job of hammering that backside and looking for those corner threes and extra passes. But our older guys and you guys have watched them, they have a great way to help each other and fix things on the fly. We told them coming in today because we’ve got so much respect for Coach Stackhouse and his team that, Santi actually said to the guys today, if you lose concentration for a half a second, they’re going to take advantage of it.’ And I think that’s the respect our guys have for this program here. And they knew they were going to have to be on edge and try to help each other.”
Examples of veterans making plays that don’t show up in the box score
“Well, a simple one was, you know, when we said Jonas (Aidoo) is going to make a play on the ball when he gets down there. He’s gonna go try to block it. And it’s so important that those other guys, like I said, peel off. Somebody’s gotta get the guy rolling to the baskets. Normally a guard there, and on the backside the screen being able to switch it out, knowing your scouting report; if I got two, who do I want to bluff at and stay? Who do I want to fake at and hope they make the pass and I can guard it? But it’s on ball screens, off-ball screens where they talk. Like today, they got downhill once on Z (Zeigler) where Dalton didn’t switch out ’cause he’s not at that point yet. We gotta get him there. But, scouting report — some of that can be fatigue, but it’s just, there’s so many little things that go on out there that those guys do that where I know the older group is really connected.”
On how much Jonas Aidoo has improved when he is doubled with the basketball
“Well, he has. He knew that he should have sprayed it. I mean, Jonas normally makes his free throws, obviously, but Jonas can pass it. We don’t mind letting him be a playmaker from there. We’re going to come hard. Obviously, the key is getting it out of there quick, especially when they hit it quick. But he’ll make the right play. And I thought he was aggressive a couple times going in to dunk the ball and play it.
“I give a lot of credit to ’em because when they saw what was going on, they started talking to each other. Like Dalton said, next time we do this, I’m cutting to the basket. Look for me on a lob. When you get players starting to talk like that, you know they’re locked in to what’s going on out there. And honestly it’s fun to watch ’em do that.”
On when players get timid and turn down open shots
“I think you gotta give them credit. I mean, they came out exactly what we thought, you know, being aggressive and moving the ball and we knew they were gonna get downhill. We figured they would, if you went back and looked at last year’s tape, they really did a lot work on our five and four’s where they heard us a lot. We talked a lot about that this week. And when they changed the lineup, we were concerned about some things and thinking, ‘okay, this is what’s coming.’ But again, Coach Stackhouse makes so many really good in-game adjustments. That goes back to what Santi said. You gotta take pride in wanting to guard your own man, but more importantly, want to understand over and over, we say play our principles and we’ll find a way to work through it. And we were able to do it against a team that has been in other than maybe one game this year. They’ve fought everybody that’s come in here.”
On what allows Knecht to be effective on the road
“Dalton loves to play. He loves the game. The time he puts in, it’s rewarding to him. But again, I think he’d be the first to tell you that when his teammates are out there, they make it easier for him.”
