Tennessee basketball fell to Indiana 66-62 in a charity exhibition on Sunday afternoon at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
The Vols offense struggled to get anything going offensively while Indiana used a 9-2 run to take control of the game just under eight minutes left of the game.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes met with the media where he discussed what went wrong offensively, Chaz Lanier not starting or playing the final seven minutes and much more. Here’s everything Barnes said.
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Opening Statement
“The one thing I told our guys, the biggest thing I want to see was the effort we put on the defensive end. And I think the effort was there, for the most part. We just gave too much with bad offense. Early in the game, again I think it’s really important for this team to establish type of defensive team that we need to be. We told them on one end that we’re going get good looks, which we did early, but they’re not going in. And then we forgot about Felix (Okpara). And we wanted to still play inside out. We wanted to really deflate the defense and then come in and out, and maybe back in. But we didn’t do any of that. . Then some of the long shots and turnovers, that’s when they got out in transition. And that’s hard to defend because they got a nice team with good players. And when you give them space, they going to finish shots.
“But defensively, that was our main focus going in. And for the most part, I might have a different mind say after seeing the film. But offensively not very good, had shots to start with and to be honest with you, shots that we need to make. But, with that said, if we’re not making them, our defense kept us in the game. And it makes it always harder when you’re not making shots, but you got to have something that you can count on every night. And that’s why coming to this game, my main focus with our guys was can we guard and sustain it.
“The end of the game, we did not execute well at all in terms of what we needed to do. We put a line up out there right around the nine-minute mark that, honestly, it was a tough lineup, but we wanted those guys to have a chance to be in a moment like that. So we got to get it on film, we got to look at it. That’s what these games are for. And again, I love playing Mike (Woodson’s) team because they’re good, they’re well-coached, they do what they do.
But it was important that we did put some guys in some situations to see how they’re going to respond. And coming down the stretch, we were too slow getting into some actions. Actually didn’t get into some actions that we wanted to get into.”
On Chaz Lanier not playing the final 6:54 for Tennessee, if it had to do with his defense or not making shots
“It has nothing to do with making shots. His job, if he is open, we want him to shoot the ball. You use these games to sometimes let guys understand, hey, we have talked about it, we have done it, you have got to play hard. At the end of the game, we went with our team that we thought gave us the best chance defensively. Because teams can do some different things. We knew if we played defense the way we wanted to, we are going to put them deep into the clock. With that said, there are going to be some things that happen that you can’t control and you’ve got to have guys out there that know how to fix it and come out of their area and make a play if somebody gets screened, which they do a good job of, too. It gets down to, again, I think a lot of our guys that played today — and I just talked to them about it — they have to understand they have to do the basic things for us to to get to where trust becomes a factor, but it is about a role we want him to play. We want him to shoot it. It has nothing to do with missed shot. It all comes down to how can you impact the game if you are not making shots.”
On Tennessee only taking 13 shots at the rim, needing to do more to put more pressure there
“Well that was the whole game plan coming in today. And we didn’t do it. We wanted to get the ball going side to side, move it. Because they get entrenched in the there, if you don’t do it. And I thought early, guys, I mean, the very first play of the game, we turned down the shot that we practiced, getting it where we wanted it. And if you start doing that, it doesn’t end well because it goes back to trust in what we’re trying to get done. We knew it, just like they knew us. We knew the shots were going to be able to get. Then the first possession of the game I think we turned down three shots that we’ve got to take and then it just ends up not being what you want at all. We just didn’t move them the way we needed to. And that’s what we talked about really for, whether we’re playing Indiana or anybody that plays that type of defense, and just didn’t do a good job with it.”
On if Jordan Gainey starting was more about Jordan or Chaz Lanier
“It is more that, Chaz has not practiced as much. He’s had an injury that he’s been dealing with and so I’ve said it before. What we do in practice will determine who’s going to start and who’s going to play, I tell the guys all the time. The film is going to decide who’s gonna play. And we watch it constantly. We show it to them and there’s certain things that we just have to get from guys. And if they’re not willing to do that, you hope that they will, but if not you just got to put the guys out there that’s really your most consistent guys and that’s what we’re trying to figure out. But we know we need them all, we need everyone. Our goal coming into this year was we wanted to play 10 guys, didn’t want to play Z as many minutes as he played. But that was our mindset as a coach. But our players haven’t let us do that because not buying into what we need them to do for a minute and a half, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes at a time. That’s what we need them to do. And then the way we— defensively, we want to sustain that. We want to play 94 feet, we want to run it. We do want to shoot the ball quick, but we gotta be smart enough to know if you’re not making shots. Especially when we talk about getting, we had a lot of time instead of made one more by getting to the lane, put more pressure, trying to get the foul line and all those types of things. But the turnovers— the ones that were smart. We told them it’s not going to be a two dribble gap game, the way they gap it. But we played too much really not downhill. Too much, kind of east and west. But am I surprised? I’m not sure I am because I’ve been watching it and we need more of these games. We do. Now, we only got two, so we got to be ready. We got a lot of improvements to do before we open up.”
On Zakai Zeigler taking a contested three-pointer down three points late
“Well, I told him that he’s got to call timeout. We didn’t execute the play. We didn’t. That’s why we talked about everybody told him they knew what was on but we didn’t execute it. It goes back where I think guys are too, they’re either letting anxiety or too uptight or they’re not listening and they’re not able to function in that situation which sometimes you find that out too about players. And we had a play on, but I told him and he saw from the beginning that it didn’t develop right. I told him, I said, ‘you knew we had timeouts. You got to call timeout.’ That was a big possession there.”
On Darlinstone Dubar only playing five minutes
“Again still trying to learn what we need defensively, consistency. And if you look at the guys that have fewer minutes, it gets down to what we see every day in practice. What we want them to do and understand exactly what he’s got to do when he’s out there.”
On if he would like to see Jahmai Mashack be more aggressive on offense
“Yeah, he does. I think he’s a perfect example of knowing who he is and he’s not going to go searching them out, but he knows if he’s there, he’s gonna take them. He’s a guy that’s bought into his role. He’s a star in what he does and he has improved his shot. And again, when he’s open, we expect him to shoot it. But he’s also become a smart player in the fact he knew early we’d been missing some three’s, and he was the guy trying to get some paint touches. And early in the game, I think we had eight at one time early — I think at one point in the game, we had 13 or 14 paint touches, but we only had scored on two of them. We just weren’t very efficient on the offense end.”
On what went wrong during Indiana’s 10-0 run midway through the second half that proved to be the difference in the game
“A lineup that I’m not sure we’ll play a lot, but we wanted to put ’em in that situation at that time. We wanted to see how they would respond with it and that’s why they were out there. But we wanted some guys, that they want to play, but sometimes as much as you talk to ’em about what they need to do, you gotta put in those situations when we’re playing a different opponent, let ’em realize it’s a whole lot different than what they might think. It’s a whole lot harder than they might think. But that’s the reason we took (Zeigler) out, went with that lineup at that time because I felt those guys out there at that point in time, without (Zeigler) and Jahmai on the floor, we wanted to see if they could maintain the level of intensity, if they could defend the way those guys defended when they’re on the court, and then see if they could play together on the offensive end.”
On how he felt Igor Milicic Jr. performed tonight
“I thought he rebounded really well. He’s a guy that can give us a lot more, but he’s gonna have to slow down. He’s gonna have to really have a great awareness of who he’s playing with and know his teammates inside out. I think he made the effort. He made some plays. He got blown by, 50, I mean what, 70 feet from the basket, which he can’t do. We’re not asking anybody to, other than Zakai and Jahmai, that can really puff up the guys and make them work. And we wanted him to contain the ball, and at the end of the game, his execution, not knowing what we were in, all those things, are fixable things, but he’s played enough basketball, he should already be there on those things.”
On what he wants to see more of from sophomore guard Cameron Carr
“Consistency. We need Cam to really help us, but he’s gonna have to — the one thing I talked to him about is defense and we went through it yesterday — well, not just yesterday, we do it a lot. He has a tendency to stand and stare at the ball and he got back cut. And that’s the one thing I said to him before the game, ‘I don’t want you to get back cut.’ Show me you’re not gonna get back cut. He went in and he got back cut. Now this being the first game in front of people and all that, you expect a little jitters and all that. But to me, we’ve played enough, he’s played enough basketball, you say one thing, ‘Hey, we’re not gonna get back cut. We gotta be there.’ And then offensively, if he’ll just settle in, we really need him to help us because he can.”
