Tennessee basketball passed its toughest test of the season to date, knocking off Illinois 66-64 in Champaign on Saturday night.
The Vols were far from their best with a number of top players struggling to score and stay out of foul trouble. But Tennessee’s bench, led by Jordan Gainey, kept punching and the Vols held on for their best win of the young season.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed Gainey’s big second half, the final play of the game and much more.
More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways As Jordan Gainey’s Heroics Lift Tennessee Past Illinois
On Tennessee overcoming foul trouble and a tough environment to win that kind of game on the road at Illinois
“First of all, I got so much respect for Brad (Underwood) and the way he coaches his team. We knew when we got this series (against Illinois) that we’d get better one way or the other, and I just got so much respect for him and the way he does things. And that was a high-level game, man. Hard fought, hard to get a basket, hard to guard, whatever. But obviously proud of this guy (Jordan Gainey), stepping up when we did get in foul trouble. They give a lot of attention to Chaz (Lanier). Zakai (Zeigler) wasn’t having a particularly great day. But when those guys were out, we turned to him (Gainey) and he got it done. And we worked through a lot of different situations with the fouls, but just a high-level game.
“And they’re really good. I mean, Illinois is a really, really good basketball team. And I know Brad’s going to continue to continue to get them better, just like we’ve got to continue to get better. But to be in December, to play a game like that, shew boy. It’s high level. But just so much respect for Brad and his program. I’m amazed at how quickly he rebuilt this with what he lost. But they’ve got so many weapons and the way they do things. And really, I’m excited to see the tape because I’m shocked that we were able to get it done, with all that foul trouble. But these guys found a way to do it.”
On year two transfer jumps like Jordan Gainey’s
“When his dad works for you, it’s not hard to get him. Actually with Jordan, and he will tell you this, his dad said, ‘I can’t recruit him, you guys will have to do it. And the reason being, when Jordan was maybe just before he went off to school to (USC) Upstate, he was in a gym consistently with Lamonte (Turner) and Jordan Bowden. And they actually told me, and two guys that had a great impact on our program, said if this guy ever wants to transfer coach, you want him. Said he is one of our guys. And we kind of, I thought about it. But I think loyalty to Dave Dickerson and the way Jordan felt about Upstate, he felt like he needed to stay there for two years. But there was no doubt, honestly, personally I wanted him because I remember watching him play, and actually, I first time I saw him play, he hit the game winner. Remember that shot? That was in the tournament, I think? He hit a game winner, but a three-point bank shot off the side of the basket that went in. But his demeanor. But really the reason was because of Lamonte and Jordan Bowden, really is why. And he came in, he’s worked really hard, does everything that you want to do. And I thought, I thought tonight’s big thing for him, because we said, ‘hey, man, we got to come through. You got to do it,’ and he worked really hard. And they guard. I mean, it was a physical game. We knew coming in, they’re going to hit us with a lot of ball screens. Just screen, screen, screen but that was a high level game, but proud of Jordan, because everything he gets, he’s worked for it. He’s earned it, and just so glad he’s with us.”
On what he learned about this Tennessee team in this kind of road game
“Toughness. Really I’ve only been here one time in my career and it was back in 1985 or 1986, when I was at Ohio State as an assistant with Coach (Gary) Williams. And I remember being a pretty rabid place. But just respect. And I’ve known Brad for a long time. He and I share Bible scriptures every morning. And I got so much respect for him, and not just as a basketball coach, but as a person. And I know how hard he coaches his guys. I know how fundamentally sound they are. He knows how to put together a team, to build a roster. We knew early. I thought it was great that when we came up to shoot around, people already lined up around the building. They came out of the restaurant last night, there were some people, a group of students, waiting on us from the Illini. So I think our guys knew that the atmosphere was going to be what we expected to be, but they got a taste of it 24 hours before it even started happening. But again, both teams played their hearts out. I’m telling you, we’ll learn from it, they’ll learn from it. And I told Brad, if we can both keep getting better, we got a chance to both have pretty good years.”
On the significance of Darlinstone Dubar making plays in the second half
“If I thought about three plays in a game, one would be Dstones little floater because we were hemorrhaging right there. I mean, he had that little floater. I thought Igor, still on the side, was a huge play, because I know about what good a coach Brad is coming out of time outs. That was a big play. And then obviously Jordan at the end. But I thought that floater at the time we were, I think they might have been up six, and that was a huge play because at that point in time we were teetering. But he made that play and then rebounded the ball again, and he hasn’t. Yesterday, he practiced a little bit. He was released out of concussion protocol yesterday, so again he— I thought Bishop helped us. When he went in the game, those guys helped which is good because we’re hoping when we get Cam back that we can get in to have a 10-man rotation, if we can get there but I thought those guys coming off the bench were obviously very important. I mean, Jordan, he comes off the bench but we know Jordan’s a starter. It’s hard for anybody, but we don’t look at us having five starters, not that we put a lot of the emphasis on that. He’s been just terrific coming off the bench.”
On if it would have been possible for Gainey to come off the bench in the second half a year ago and play 15 minutes at point guard without turning the basketball over:
“I think one, he works. He’s worked at it. He plays multiple positions, but where I think Jordan’s improved the most is defensively. I mean, offensively, he’s one of those guys, really, when he gets his feet set and shoots it, I think it’s going in, and he’s become a terrific downhill driver. He’s been able to start scoring at all three levels. But defensively, he’s gotten better. But he said it, the competition that he and Shaq, and Z, and we’re getting Chaz there, that every day in practice, they honestly, they play the way they practice, and that’s why they’ve gotten better.”
On the final play
“We’ll give you a little history lesson on that play. I was an assistant coach in 1980 at George Mason University. We didn’t have a big recruiting budget, so we decided — Joe Harrington, the head coach — we need to put out a monthly newsletter to all the coaches within a 250 mile radius and try to get George Mason on the map. And so I worked with our SID, and we came up with a segment of it where we were going to call it ‘Coach’s Corner,’ where we want to ask different coaches around the D.C. area or wherever, to put together their favorite play. And so my first time, I drove over to DeMatha (Catholic) High School and asked Morgan Wootten — legendary coach at DeMatha — I said, ‘Coach, you’ve been doing this a long time. I need you to give me your favorite play.’ And he said, ‘okay,’ and he gave it to me. That’s the play we ran today. So that plays been around a long time, but Morgan — God, rest his soul — I mean, again, it was his play and the first one we put in that newsletter that year.”
