University of Tennessee Athletics
Rick Barnes Media Day Press Conference (10.12.15)
October 12, 2015 | Men's Basketball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee head men's basketball coach Rick Barnes spoke with the media on Tuesday as part of Vol Hoops' 2015 media day. His 25-minute presser at the Ray & Lucy Hand Digital Studio previewed the 2015-16 season and covered offensive system, coaching philosophy, and team personnel.
(Opening Statement)
"Thank you all for being here. I'll try to give a really quick update of where we are. We've been at practice a week and a half, and we're happy with our guys. We think they're really working hard. We've got a long way to go, like any team you could imagine this time of year. These guys are still trying to do the right thing. We have some habits that we've got to break, along with trying to build habits as you would at the start of every year for every team you coach. Overall, it's been some good things that have come out of it. I like the fact that we have some good camaraderie on the team with our guys. I like the improvement that some players have made. There's not a guy on our team that hasn't improved from the time that we've gotten here to where we are today. We certainly have a long way to go in some areas, but when you've got a group of guys that you know are willing to work, it makes it a lot more fun to be around them and coach them every day. Questions?"
(On where his coaching philosophy came from)
"As a young coach, back when I first got into this, I was a young coach in my first year at George Mason. The system that I put in there was the system that we used at Ohio State under Gary Williams. I've learned a lot from every one of the coaches I've worked for. I could go through the whole list of everybody I worked for, what I learned from them. I took a lot from all of them.
"Going to the Big East as a young coach, you still try to continue to learn and pick up some things. I had a chance and was fortunate to be around a lot of great places where it was easy to get access.
"Another thing that really has helped me through the years was [when] I was an assistant coach in this league, the Southeastern Conference. Coach [Wimp] Sanderson was a terrific coach, and you're watching Hugh Durham, Sonny Smith, C.M. Newton, Don DeVoe. You're watching those guys, and through scouting you learn from those guys. You're watching them, and you're trying to learn everything you can to give it to your team.
"I was an assistant the following year in the Big Ten. Gene Keady, Bob Knight, you go down the line. You have a chance to learn as an assistant coach, and I think that's a key, is that you're always willing to learn. Even when I got started, my first year at Davidson College under Eddie Biedenbach. Bob McKillop was on that staff. Jeff Bzdelik, who's now an assistant with the [Memphis] Grizzlies, and John Kochan, guys that all went on and have had very successful careers. You know, Les Robinson, I could go down and name [a lot more]. When I was a head coach in the Colonial [Athletic Association], Dick Tarrant. Just tremendous coaches that you compete against, and you really do learn from them.
"I think that as coaches, if you love the game, you're going to always find ways to continue to get better. That's something I've tried to do, and I've picked out people. I did have a chance to go out [when] I was in California recruiting, and I actually went by and met with Paul Westhead the year everybody was scoring those type of points. He told me it will take all of about five minutes to show you what we do, but it was a commitment. I think that's a key to coaching. There's a lot of different ways to play this game, but once you decide how you're going to play, you're committed to it. I think at one time, as a young coach, I was very rigid. But now, I realize that you do have to make adjustments.
"I've learned too, through the years, that you cannot ask players to do things that they're not capable of doing. Players need to understand that there's a role that they have to play. Roles can change throughout the year, throughout their careers, but as a team, everybody's got a role to play."
(On the importance of player development)
"I think it's the most important thing. We've always been taught, all of us in sports, that players are made in the offseason. To some degree, I believe that. I still believe that. One thing that's great about college basketball is that we graduate [players], we lose guys to the NBA, but there's always somebody else who's waiting to have a chance to showcase what they can do. Every year, there's someone, or some ones, that come out of nowhere, [and you're] like, `Where did he come from?' It's because of an all-season improvement program. Whether they do it themselves or [not], it can be losing weight, it can be a physical [area], it can be a mental area that they work on.
"I think as coaches, we have an obligation to teach our guys the fundamentals of the game. You've got to be able to pass it, you've got to be able to catch it, and hopefully [be able to shoot]. Some guys we know are better shooters than others, but you've got to help guys. With that being said, there's certain things that you can't help them with if they don't want to be helped. If you get a group of guys that really buy in, it's great. When you've got someone on your team that does buy in and his teammates see the drastic improvement, it makes it a little bit easier to communicate, and you have someone there that you can say, `Here's an example of someone that has put the time into it.'
"There's no secret to any of this player development. The best players we've coached are the ones that are passionate. They love the game, and they love being in the gym."
(On what area needs the most improvement this season)
"Every area right now. I think that we've got to certainly get much better defensively. We've got a long way to go there. We know we don't have a lot size, but we've got to get better there.
"We still have to understand the importance of rebounding the ball every possession, and doing our work early and knowing that we're going to have to gang rebound as a team. We're not going to be allowed to rely on one person to go get all the rebounds.
"We have to do everything as a group. We're going to have to take care of the ball better, our shot selection. We want our guys to have that freedom to play and shoot it, but they have to understand the difference between a good shot and a great shot, and making the extra pass.
"I've always believed that guys that take quick, bad shots are guys that don't have a feel for the game. We're still learning that feel. They have to learn that feel and understand how it meshes with what we're trying to do."
(On Kevin Punter and Armani Moore adapting to the point guard role)
"First of all, there aren't many pure point guards, so you get caught with teams, and you get caught with that combination guard. It's something that you work on, and you're getting back to a lot of vision and understanding the game -- you know, time, score, the situation you might be in, communication, making sure that you know what's [happening] on the floor. That's something that as a team we've got to improve on in general.
"The one thing I would say is with Armani, he gives us something that we haven't had in long time. We feel like right now we're playing with two guys on the floor that can handle the ball. Those two guys have great motors. We're going to count on them to play a lot of minutes. They know that. That means they're going to have to keep themselves out of foul trouble. They're going to have to learn how to -- I don't want to say pace themselves because that makes it sound like they can take plays off -- it's not that at all. They have to learn how to be very efficient with their movements."
(On his perception of this job since being hired in March)
"I don't know if I'd say that it's changed any different. I think wherever you go, you really want to find the positives, and you want to look at that. I really do like these guys. I will say this: the last couple days I think they've realized that I've turned it up a little bit more, because what I don't want to do is keep saying the same things over and over to them. We do want to stress the details. We want to take care of the details.
"I do think that we've got to give credit to the previous coaches, because we walked into a [good] situation. I think we've got a group of guys that are going to compete. That's something that you don't take for granted. The one thing I do think is that they will compete. Our job is now to teach them to play the way we want them to play. I do know, through the years, you don't take competing for granted. You have to teach that sometimes. As a group, I think this group had been taught that."
(On how quickly he noticed Kevin Punter's ability to be coached)
"I can tell you this. Everywhere I've ever gone, whether it was going to my first head coach job at George Mason, or Providence, Clemson, Texas, and now Tennessee, I can name one player at each place that would be the first one that bought in. Kevin Punter was the first guy that truly bought in from the time that we got here. We had talks with him, and you think about what they've been through. We've talked about it. It's not easy for a kid to have to deal with three [coaching] changes, or for these guys to deal with three different systems in three years.
"The fact is, he's a senior. I've asked him that question before; I said 'What made you wait to do it this year?' What happens so often with many guys is they say 'Well, it's my last year. I've got to do it.' I've asked him the question, `Do you wish you would have done it four years ago?' and he said, `Absolutely.' That's one of the hardest things in coaching, is to get your players to realize that life is such a vapor that if you don't grasp it right now, that window closes more and more each day. When I look back here, I will say that Kevin was the very first guy that bought in to what we asked him to do."
(On development of pipeline between Canada and Barnes' programs)
"Assistant coaches. Right here in particular, Coach Lanier. He and Desmond [Oliver] both grew up in Buffalo. Rob was recruiting both of the Canadians for Texas because we knew we were going to lose our front line. These were two guys we wanted to bring there. [Lanier] had developed such a great relationship with the people that once we got the job here, we told them we wanted them to come here. [Coach Lanier] did that. You have to have great assistants that are out there. We want our staff to be where every guy feels -- I don't like to say pressure -- but feels like he has to get out there and get guys. If you have three guys out there really battling to get it done, you are going to end up with some good players every year. We are fortunate that we have some guys that will really grind it out. Tough guys. We talk about players being tough, I think you have to have assistant coaches that are really tough and understand our recruiting. I think we have that here."
(On using Armani Moore this season)
"We are going to use him everywhere. He came as a point guard. He does see the floor and pass the ball well. We will still use him, I don't like to say the word undersized, but really another four-guard. He is a guy we are hoping to create mismatches for. One thing about Armani is he is very competitive. His number one talent is he is a big-time competitor. He likes to compete. When he gets on the floor, he wants to win. He has good basketball IQ. We are going to put him in positions where we will expect him to create for us often, as much as we would ask of a point guard. We are going to allow him to do that some along with Kevin."
(On Jabari McGhee)
"Jabari knows what we expect from him. He has to be relentless. If we could describe him with one word, that would have to be the word. He has to be relentless in what he does. Obviously, he is an undersized post player. He needs to be a guy that understands totally our schemes. He has got to work hard. He is going to go get rebounds because that is what he likes to do. We are going to need him to really work hard defensively, so we are going to ask him -- like anybody else, by a committee -- where we are going to play four or five different guys in what would be considered the post area. He has a role that he has to play for us."
(On starting new at Tennessee)
"Except for teaching the mundane drills over and over, it has been great. We have had to do all of that. In the past, I could yell out, 'Two-on-two, double contest,' and the players could get right into it. Now, we are teaching everything that we have to do. I'm very fortunate that I have a great teaching staff. Rob Lanier, Desmond Oliver and Chris Ogden -- they know how we want to play. They are totally invested and are great teachers. We have spent a lot of time teaching, but we have to teach everything. The job is the same job. We still have to recruit. Obviously, you have to focus on a different region where we are right now. We are going to coach the way we have always coached. We are not, maybe, going to play the way we played at Texas the last year, but we played different ways there through the years based on our personnel. The fact is everything that we do right now is being heard here for the first time. We have to do our job. Everyday we look back and say, 'We probably need to do a better job teaching than we did yesterday.' I believe if they don't have it, we have to give them the benefit of doubt and say we have to teach it to them. It gets to a point where there are certain things they have to do before we can move on. We haven't gotten quite past that yet. We are repeating, 'Get to the corners,' 'Get our spacing.' We have to make them understand that those smallest details are very important."
(On Robert Hubbs III and players going through three staffs)
"I would say with Robert, and I might put the majority of the team in there, I think it is getting out of their comfort zone. When you are in a comfort zone, it is comfortable, feels good. But, nothing good ever comes from that if you want to get better. If you are going to grow, you really have to find a way to push beyond where you are. When you are young -- and these guys are young -- they have to realize there is so much more room for improvement, but when that fatigue factor hits, some guys are able to fight through it, almost knock it down as opposed to hitting the wall and taking a step back. Some guys hit the wall and fall from a 10 to a three, which can't happen. You can't go to the next level until you fill the level below you. We need [Robert]. We aren't just asking him to shoot threes. I don't want him to feel like he is pressured to shoot threes. We are hoping all of our guys, if they can take rhythm threes, can shoot it. One of the things we have tried to get him to understand is there is so much more to him than that. We need him to rebound, need him to run, need him to defend. We need them all to play the way we need it played."
(On developing a third ball handler)
"I think all of the guards. Robert Hubbs -- he has the ability to bring the ball down the floor. Devon Baulkman, Shembari Phillips, Detrick Mostella -- they are there. We are not going to stop trying to develop their skills -- passing, drilling, shooting the ball, handling the ball. You always have to plan for Murphy's Law. You have to plan for it. If it can go wrong, it can go wrong. We can't think it is going to go smooth, so we have to have a lot of guys continue to improve every day."
(On development of Kyle Alexander)
"Physically, he has put on 15 or 20 pounds, maybe more. Physically, he has gotten stronger. He is another player that has put a lot of time in the gym and a guy we expect a lot from. We expect a lot from him and from Ray Kasongo as well. He gets better everyday. Now, he has to understand what we are doing. He is very mechanical right now, very robotic in just trying to make sure he is getting one thing done as opposed to flowing and going from play-to-play. You guys are going to enjoy watching him grow as much as we are."
(On Devon Baulkman's shoulder and expectations for team)
"He missed a day or so a couple weeks ago where he had a little problem with it. I think Garrett Medenwald, our new strength coach, works everyday along with Chad Newman. Those two guys could very well be the two MVPs of our staff because their job is to keep these guys healthy and keep them where they are in a position to practice everyday. They do a lot with [the team]. I think those two have really worked out a plan. One day, [Baulkman] hit the floor pretty hard. I think [the shoulder] popped out a little bit. He thought he was dying. It was really kind of funny. He got it back in. He is a tough kid. He was back out there. Those two guys are doing a good job really trying to manage that for him."
(On importance of football games to showcase fan base, campus to recruits)
"It can only help. I have been fortunate to be in a lot different arenas and stadiums, I have never been in anything like what I witnessed the first football game here against Oklahoma. It was incredible. What impressed me was knowing that our team played their hearts out, that our fans stayed in the game from start to finish, and they have shown that that is what they are willing to do. I think when you have recruits here, they can't help but feel the spirit, the fight and love for this university and this athletic program. It is important to us. This time of year, we try to utilize the football weekends as much as we can like every team on campus. I have been in Thompson-Boling with Kevin Durant and that crew and saw the place sold out. I know what it can be like. Our goal is to have that same type of passion. I think it is easy for your fans to stay with you when they watch the guys play their hearts out. When you look at our football team, they have played their hearts out all year. When you see a bunch of guys doing that, you want to help them. You want to give them that little push -- the home field or the home court. I want to see our guys play with the same type of passion that our football team has been playing with."
(On difficulty of implementing drills with a new team)
"That is part of teaching. I don't think it is hard. You have to teach it, then get the speed that you want from it. The biggest thing you want to get -- and the hardest part -- is to get the players to understand what you are breaking down, why you are breaking it down. Then, can they carry it over to an actual game? A simple drill, just talking, getting to understand they have to call the ball. Get them out of their comfort zone where they can communicate. It is one thing doing it in a drill when everybody is standing there -- a lot of enthusiasm, lot of fire going on, guys are talking. Then, can they transfer that from a drill to the actual game? That is the hardest part."
(On his vote for NASCAR champion this season)
"I didn't get to see the race yesterday because we had practice, so I was disappointed that it rained Saturday in Charlotte. It would be hard for me to go against Kevin Harvick, but if you ask me who I would like to see win, I'd like to see [Dale Earnhardt] 'Junior' win it. If I had to pick -- and I use the word pick, not bet -- I would at this point probably pick Harvick."
