University of Tennessee Athletics
Vol Hoops Media Day: Rick Barnes Transcript
October 26, 2016 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes
Opening statement
"First of all, I would like to congratulate our five VFLs on NBA rosters. I think it’s awesome for them and our program when we have five guys who are active in the NBA right now.
"With our team, I can tell you that every day there is competition at every spot, and I couldn’t tell you right now, truthfully, who is going to start. We will get more into (establishing roles) when we get into talking about (our upcoming) scrimmage and see it and how it unfolds there. I am not even sure who we are going to start (in the scrimmage). We will come back tomorrow and have a good day and get ready for the scrimmage. Tomorrow at some point we are going to decide who is going to start. I think if you ask us after each day, we would have given you a different starting lineup. That’s why the competition is good, and it’s been there at every position and it’s going to help us become a better team. I think our guys know we have to compete every single day.
"When we get to the Battle on Broadway on Dec. 18 against Gonzaga, we need to have a great fan base there. Last year our guys showed me how excited they were to play in the (SEC Tournament) in Nashville, and they feel like that is a home away from home for us. I think our fans were tremendous last year to help us through the SEC Tournament when we were really struggling. We went in there with Kevin Punter being lost for the end of the season, and our guys rallied, and the fans were just terrific—even in the loss to the LSU they were great. We tweeted a link this morning (from @Vol_Hoops) where you can go and buy those tickets, so we need our fans to look out for that and help with that.
"If you look at our schedule, I’ve said it since I got here: we want to compete against a really tough schedule. And if you look at our schedule, you will see that we are playing five teams in the preseason top 15—Kentucky at No. 4 with two games, UNC No. 6, Wisconsin No. 10 and Gonzaga No. 13. And (we potentially could) play Oregon and UConn in Maui, with Oregon being No. 5 and UConn being No. 16.
"And we will play 20 of our other games in the state of Tennessee. I have said it 100 times how excited as a staff we were to last year have a team that played their hearts out, and the fans supported us and stayed with us. The fans stayed with us through some tough times, and that’s why we want to work hard to make TBA one of the toughest arenas in the country and have it full every night."
(On the program’s improvement)
"The first thing being that we have a group of guys that have come together in terms of the culture, and they are working together to help each other and they have good days and tough days. It’s neat to watch the way they encourage each other, and the competition is there. It’s a good healthy competition because they all want to play. We are a better passing team (than last year), and we are more skilled from top to bottom. We do not have a lot of size, but we have more than we had a year ago. There is an attitude with these guys and a willingness to learn. They want to get better and know they need to get better. What happens when you have a lot of young guys is when they decide to drop their guard and really be coached—and we have watched that happen over the last 10 to 12 days—you see these guys realize they are fighting it, and they don’t need to fight it. Some of it has to do with fighting through fatigue; these guys get tired and they just can’t handle it yet. And watching guys get better at this is something that we have seen in the last couple of weeks. Some guys are getting used to the system. We are just overall more talented and have the ability to do more things."
(On his previous underdog teams)
"This team reminds me of my second team at Clemson. We had seven or eight new players coming in there, and we had more size in that group. At Texas we got down to where we had four returning players (one year), but we were able to sign Kevin Durant, D.J. Augustin, Damion James and Dexter Pittman and guys like that. So the talent level jumped to the very top. I think our (current) team, player-wise, has more talent then what people thought if they look at rankings. I am not surprised on where we are picked. Any time a team in the league gets nine new faces, you are going to think that is a whole new team coming into a league with teams with returning players. That isn’t our only motivating factor. It will come from within, and we have goals that we set. We never paid much attention to preseason polls. We could go back last year to see teams that were ranked in the top 25 in USA TODAY or Sports Illustrated that didn’t even make it to the tournament. So preseason rankings are there to hype games, and that’s why you play the games. I would be disappointed if our guys aren’t motivated, as hard as we work to go out and play and compete every single night."
(On questions that need to be answered about the team before the season starts)
"I want to see how we handle bigger teams. We had to do that last year obviously and we did okay with that. We weren’t a great defensive team because I had to say before the jump ball to Kevin (Punter Jr.) and Armani (Moore) that they can’t get into early foul trouble. I do not think I will say that to anyone this year because I expect us to be able to have depth and play hard. Armani was coming over blocking shots and KP had a lot on him, but the fact is we have a lot of depth and if guys pick up foul trouble, it won’t be a big drop off once we go to the bench with this group. It will be important to see how well we handle height going forward, and we will find out about that early and we will figure it out."
(On the true freshmen)
"I think that we have seen them all emerge at one time or the other and then fall backwards. There isn’t one guy that hasn’t gone through some inconsistency and that’s where we are right now. We need consistency. Through the last couple of practices we are getting guys to understand they have to do it every day to build the habit. Again, that is where I am serious when I tell you I couldn’t pick our starting line up. I could pick it on yesterday’s practice, but it may change tomorrow. That is how it’s been all year. The fact is that we as a staff are talking about where we now compared to a year ago. We think we have a team with roles that are more defined and they accepted the roles and a year ago we thought we had that. We think we are further along defensively then we were last year at this time and that will get tested this weekend. Offensively, we are ahead in some areas because we have changed our emphasis in terms of what we put on these guys and we have thrown a lot at them. We really like this group of guys and there isn’t a day I haven’t looked forward to going to practice. I don’t know if they can say the same thing, but we have been very demanding and detailed-oriented as a program. We want them to learn to play basketball the right way, and to have success we want to have it must be a team game. Not one person can do it. Everyone can understand they are a valuable part of it and when they are called upon they must do it."
(On the difference between this year and last year with point guards)
"In terms of natural point guards it would be Jordan Bone and Kwe Parker. If you look at Lamonte Turner, Shembari (Phillips) and Detrick (Mostella), these guys can play it a little bit but that’s not where they are at their best. When Kevin (Punter Jr.) went down, Armani (Moore) had to go play it the last seven games. He had played it some but he hadn’t played it the way that you want a guy to know it with seven games to go in the season. It is different because Shembari had some quality time up there. Our system isn’t complicated, maybe, to younger people figuring out what they need to do. The neat part is watching them grasp what they must do with it. Jordan Bone has had some good days and tough days and so has Kwe Parker. Lamonte has been here a year, but he isn’t a natural point guard, and people thought that was his position. He is a combo-type guard and so is Shembari. We expect Jordan Bone and Kwe Parker to play off the ball too. We want to get to the point where if one of our guys gets the ball they go with it and the other guys know where they need to be when they don’t have the ball. The hardest thing to teach a group of guys is how to play when you don’t have the ball in your hands. There is competition at every position and a year ago at this time we didn’t know who would be the back up guard and this year there are 4 guys who show they can play the position. To some it’s more natural than others."
(On the outlook for Admiral Schofield and Robert Hubbs III this year)
"They are better, but they would tell you it’s a different team because last year there wasn’t competition in practice and now they have competition. It’s a different team because we didn’t have a way to compete like we can every single day and I think they would tell you that it is all different. Every day our guys came in this summer, and to the returning guys’ credit they helped the new guys and they knew that what happened last year was not acceptable. Detrick (Mostella) said one day that he knew one thing and that was Coach is not planning on losing 19 games this year. So the competition has been fierce and the returning players know that it is a whole different field than what it was a year ago. And the adjustment is that the guys may have thought since they were here last year that it will be easy but they have found it won’t be easy and other guys have come in and tried to play. The guys went through a program last year where Robert didn’t practice a lot but he still tried to play, but this year if he is hurt we don’t have to wait for him we can go without him. Our team has learned that we have enough depth to keep going and last year we didn’t have that."
(On employing a different playing style than other teams in the SEC)
"I think we play different than most teams. We are a team that likes to move offensively and we are in attack mode. Not to say other teams don’t, but also defensively we want to be a great team fundamentally. Last year we didn’t have any shot-blockers but because of Armani (Moore) we were one of the top teams in the league. We need to contest shots, challenge shots, contest space on the court. We have guys whose attitudes will get better and we want to be a hard team to play against. Our fans appreciated last year that our guys played their hearts out and our fans really appreciated that. And I think to get where we need to be these guys need to want to win every possession, be on the edge every possession, and take care of the basketball—not just in shot selection—and pass the ball properly. There is a lot that goes into winning and they have to understand what goes into losing. We went through a period where we turned over the ball a lot because at times I want them to make the hard passes, but that does not give them a license to throw the ball away. With a new emphasis on officiating in inter-squad scrimmages, (we’ve had) too many travels and illegal screens and these are things we can control. And the others that don’t get clocked as turnovers are bad shots and these are things that we can control. We want to control this and have the freedom of mind to play the game because you want your players to be in attack mode but be aware of high percentage basketball."
(On the types of shots he is comfortable with)
"For shooting, that is something you need a license for and I think if you are a green light shooter, if you are open, then you are expected to shoot it. We might have two of those guys who have that privilege, but that doesn’t mean a guy can’t earn it. There isn’t one guy on the team that we haven’t encouraged to take the open 3-point shot. If he is open and not contested we want him to shoot. To be a green-light shooter you have to earn it with how you are at practice and how you bounce back when it doesn’t go in. We think that we are a much better shooting team then we were last year.”
