University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Vols 84, Marshall 74
November 19, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2015
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Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes
(Opening statement)
"(Devon) Baulk(man) was the guy who made the difference in the game. His energy, flying around, coming up with some offensive rebounds.
"We have such a small room for error. I think right now guys are still trying to figure out what they want to do as opposed to what we have to do as a team to win consistently. The one thing is I told them they got themselves in that hole but they also found a way to get themselves out of it.
"We still haven't executed at all the way we need to. During that spurt is more of the way we practice but we don't get to that early enough and often enough. We still have to learn to manage the clock at the end. We had the lead and should have worked it more than we did. That's part of the game, trying to get KP (Kevin Punter) to understand that position and we have to do."
(On the game being call different after the half)
"No, we didn't put any pressure on the high-percentage area of the court and we were just sitting. I don't mind if we taking rhythm threes, I really don't. I think we have guys who can do it. I think we started the second half and Armani did it, that's a three that we practiced. We had too many guys drive in and get fouled, and taking bad shots, and not seeing it. We had a couple we wanted to try get into long close-outs, and we didn't do that. It'd be one guy put his head down and try and score. That's what we are trying to explain, that's were you have to play. You have to rely on your teammates to share the ball there. We didn't attack, we just settled. And then when we did attack is was to shoot the ball and not read the defense."
(On what you told Kevin Punter at halftime)
"I told him at some point in time you have to accept the role that he is in. You're the guy we have to put there. I said, `If you would just do what you practice, you would surprise yourself. You haven't done that yet.' He did it. When he got going there, that's the way we work in practice. I said, `I don't know if what we do works or not because you don't ever get us in it. Do what we've asked you to do,' and I thought he did. I thought he came out, he had great pace. I thought he had his head up looking around. I thought he made some nice passes. He got in the lane with it. He played with a little pace. Where he has to get better, we came out of a timeout one time and they had a player with four fouls. We went after the guy we wanted to go after and we got him out of the game. Then he keeps doing the same thing, where when we call something he doesn't go back to it. We have to listen better. We have to execute what we're doing.
"The difference in the game we were sitting on the bench and we were down 15, and the coaches said `We need to change it up on defense,' and I said `No, we need to score.' The way we are going to do that is by getting some stops and getting out and going. We started rebounding the ball, and they turned it over. We broke it loose a few times. I still thought we stood around and just watched the ball too much, as opposed to attacking it. Those 50/50 balls, when you're undersized like we are, we have to come up with all of those. We can't get 50 percent of those, we have to get them all."
(On being more concerned with falling behind 16 or more pleased by coming back from that)
"It's funny you're sitting there and I hear someone yell `timeout'. And I'm thinking, `We just came out of the locker room. What else am I going to tell them?' At some point in time they have to figure it out. I don't want to be a joystick coach. At some point in time they have to figure it out. I could call timeout after timeout. What am I going to tell them? `Will you listen to me for the 15th time.' At some point in time they have to figure it out. If it takes getting down 15 for them to do that. And they decided they were going to figure it out. And they finally started doing some of the things we practiced, and some of the things we want to do.
(On Derek Reese's night)
"I like the 13 rebounds. I want to see him bring energy. I want him to be energized out there. Like that dunk, I want him to get mean right there. That's all that is. You don't get that shot blocked. You just say, `I'm either going to dunk this, or I'm going to get fouled, or I'm going to charge somebody, but nobody's blocking that shot."
(On Robert Hubbs III)
"Maybe we shouldn't practice him. Who knows. He's done a pretty good job without practice. Or maybe he should get the stomach flu every day. The fact is [Devon] Baulkman was the difference. He was the guy who brought the energy. We need everybody to doing that. Early in the game, we tried getting some of the freshman in to try and get them some time. Shembari [Phillips] didn't do a very good job doing what we asked him to do. The very first play he go driven by. On offense, I can't tell you what he was thinking. Whatever he was trying to do is something we don't do. You can understand that with freshman a little bit, maybe it's stage fright or this or that. The fact is the way we started the game, seniors can't be that way. They have to get out of themselves and get into the team, and that's the biggest thing."
(On Robert Hubbs III attacking the rim)
"Well, he took a bad three tonight, and then he compounded it with a drive. He gets in there, I think he's going to do something. I think he's a really good [driver]. I think he can shoot threes when he's not dying to shoot it. I think when he's just like 'I've got to shoot the three, I haven't made one,' I don't think many guys can shoot it like that. I think he can shoot it when he lets it come to him in the flow. But I think he's a terrific player fifteen-to-seventeen feet in. Again, I think he can do that. I think he's got to want to do more of that. But he can be a weapon down there. He really can. And then when we had the lead, I can't remember what it was, ten or twelve, [Kevin Punter] was feeling pretty good and he took a bad shot. That's when Hubbs missed it short, came out, [Punter] took a deep three. We don't understand, and what I just told him, we win this game by ten points, that's a five possession two-point game, or three-and-a-half possessions otherwise. That's how fine a line this game is. Possessions. It's a fine line. We have to understand that, that every possession counts."
(On if Kevin Punter was overthinking in the first half)
"I don't believe [that], and I said that. I said 'No, you're not thinking. If you're thinking, you'll do what you've done for three months now.' It'll all just come natural to you. You're not overthinking the game because you're coming down the floor and he's confused whether I'm supposed to score the ball or run the team. If he understands 'I'm going to run this team,' he will score. He got to the free throw line tonight 10 times. Again, I think he's doing a terrific job really, for a guy that doesn't know how to do it. But if we're not running offense and he's not getting us into our offense, he's not thinking. He's the guy that's got to run it. I thought actually, and we're playing with Armani [Moore] back there too as a point guard, Armani in the first half did a better job of actually running our offense than [Punter] did. He was basically becoming the second point guard on the other side. I told the team at halftime, we'll go back in when this game's over and look at the first half and you guys will look and say, 'What are we doing? What are we running,' because it was no semblance of anything that we practiced. The second half was more like what we practiced. We're athletic and we should be a terrific -- I mean [Baulkman] should have rebounds. I think Armani's got to get on the glass more. He had one offensive rebound. [Derek] Reese had three. [Baulkman] was huge. Hubbs should be a great offensive rebounder. Detrick [Mostella] did the other night, but he didn't get any tonight."
(On Devon Baulkman getting loose ball rebounds)
"They're great plays and again, you want to be able to affect the game in more than one way. Starters are supposed to be able to affect the game, not just be a guy that can stand and shoot threes, or a guy that can do this. You want to be able to make plays. That's how you break people's back. We've told him, he should be the guy that when the other team is scouting us, they should say this guy and Hubbs are guys that when you least expect it, they break your back. They're going to get an offensive rebound, they're going to come up with a deflection on defense. You've got to have guys like that. You watch our team right now, you know they're game-planning for [Punter]. You know they're game-planning for Armani. You know that. They have to because there guys on the ball. And then those other guys are guys that can say, 'Hey, I've got a chance to really impact this game as opposed to just standing in the corner and being a spectator or whatever.' You make winning plays and I thought he did that tonight."
(On ball security)
"Silly, silly turnovers. Just coming down the floor and not being organized. Not getting where you're supposed to go and getting the ball there. But it goes back to, in a couple of those situations, [Punter] should have demanded the ball and he just let it be, like 'You got it, you take it.' That's not how we play. People with the [shortened] shot clock are going to push you into the backcourt, which I'm telling you should be a huge advantage for us. If people want to open the court up for us, we're smaller, our eyes should light up. We should want that. The court's open now, let's attack it. But we didn't. We came down the floor too casual and not attack. You have to attack space on that court. We don't do it. We just get to a spot and mechanically do this, do that, as opposed to attacking space and making plays."
(On what he remembers from Tennessee's comeback win over Texas in 2006)
"The referee counted to three and called a five-second count. That's what I remember. I can tell you exactly where it was over there. I can tell you exactly who the official was. I can tell you after the game, the supervisor of officials came in and apologized to me. That's what I remember."
Tennessee guard Kevin Punter
(On difference in his play in the second half)
"I began to attack a little more, the hole opened up, and I wanted to capitalize and get to the hole."
(On what the team changed after going down by 16)
"We got focused on defense and locked in much better than the first half. We started getting stops, and our offense started hitting some shots."
(On adjusting to point guard)
"I feel comfortable. My biggest improvement is just controlling the team, making sure guys are in the right spot and hitting guys that are open."
Tennessee guard Robert Hubbs III
(On the impact of Kevin Punter)
"He's our leader, we feed off of him and Armani [Moore]. When Kevin gets going, everyone gets going so we play off of him."
(On how altering his approach of the game)
"I just try to be aggressive. I consider myself a veteran now since I've been here for three years. I just try to attack and take advantage of smaller guys and just try to get into the lane anytime I can."
(On mentality going into the second half)
"We have to know who we are. Times will get bad sometimes but we just have to keep our heads up and keep playing. We had to pick ourselves up a lot. The leaders Armani and KP kept telling us that we have to find a spark because this was the wrong ball game. So we found the spark and we just starting playing off of that with our energy."
Tennessee forward Derek Reese
(On his role as a rebounder)
"That's my job and that's my role. It's funny, me and coach made a deal he said, `if I get 10 rebounds I can shoot a three -- or I can ask him to shoot a three; I can ask him. Coach told me at the beginning of the year, `I want you to focus on defense and rebounding.' That's what I want to do to help the team."
(On needing a 26-2 run to take control of the game)
"We talked about that after the game. Coach said we put ourselves in that position. We can't take anything away from Marshall -- Marshall is a good team. We've got to come ready to play each game. You can't just come lackadaisical or come lethargic during the game and just expect things to happen. Coach told us we have a small margin of error. We've really got to focus on that and come better ready to play from the beginning and the beginning of the second half."
(On the sense of the team being down 16 in the second half)
"You know we need to make one or two plays or just bring energy. [Devon Baulkman] really started it. He grabbed offensive rebounds. We started picking it up from there. [Kevin Punter] hit some shots, Armani getting to the basket, Hubbs getting to the basket; everyone was getting rebounds. We were getting a lot of energy. The fans were getting into it and everything was coming back to us and things were going great."
Marshall head coach Dan D'Antoni
(Opening statement)
"I guess the biggest thing is we played pretty well in the first half and got a 16-point lead. Then they stepped it up a little bit more. We fouled too much in the second half. They shot 28 free throws in the second half. We have to watch how we foul. That is one of our goals. We needed to limit their threes and free throws and make them take contested twos. They outscored us by 14 from the free throw line and won by 10, so that was a big part of that. We don't have our rotation set. They've already played three games. They were tested at Georgia Tech. We have to find the right rotation, and it is going to be a work in progress to have a rotation we can count on.I thought the biggest thing was us fouling too much in the second half, and we have to get our rotation set. I think we are a lot further on than we were last year in our first game. This team has a chance to solidify as the season progresses."
(On if he believes in moral victories)
"Never. We want to win, one game at a time, every game we play. I expect to come in here and win. I don't expect to come in here and lose and say, `We played good against a team bigger than us." They aren't bigger than us."
(On what Tennessee did to get back in the game)
"Right when we got to 16, we had to do our rotations and subs, and we hadn't gotten that down. It just takes one or two plays. They played hard, and I don't want to take anything from them. Rick Barnes does a great job. They played well and stepped it up. You have runs in games, and you have to be able to counter. We started rushing our shots from our makers, and you can't do that."
