University of Tennessee Athletics
RIck Barnes Press Conference
October 03, 2016 | Men's Basketball
(Opening statement)
“For having so many young guys, I think the guys have done a good (so far). Because of NCAA rules, even though Friday was the first ‘official’ day, it didn’t feel like the first day because we had time with them throughout the summer and time with them throughout the fall leading up to this. But the fact is we went longer (on Friday). It was the first time we’ve gone more than two hours, and I thought they did a pretty good job, actually. With young players, you have to get them to understand that when they get tired, how do they push through that wall to get to that next level? The fact is, some guys are doing that better than others. That’s a big part that we’re going to have to continue to work on these next couple weeks. But overall, we’re really happy with where we are right now. We still have a lot to learn and lot to get going with, but we’ll get there.”
(On sophomore forward Admiral Schofield)
“What we need right now is for five or six guys to separate themselves and be consistent every day. And the one guy that I would has done that for us is Robert Hubbs III, which you would expect (with him being a senior). But Admiral is getting closer to being able to do that. He’s starting to understand a bit more how he can be most effective. We’re trying to make him understand that he doesn’t have to make 3-point shots to be an effective basketball player. The more he embraces that, the better he is. We think he should be a great rebounder for us—a guy who’s willing to do the dirty work. He works hard. Admiral is an extremely hard worker. He has to learn to fight through that fatigue factor when he gets tired. But we’re going to need—over these next three weeks—another five or six guys who are going to separate themselves from everybody. We’d love to see them all do it, but we at least have to get five to do it. We’re hoping Admiral’s going to be one of those guys.”
(On comparing this preseason to last year’s preseason)
“Where it’s easier (this year) is we have more numbers and we’re more skilled. Those numbers mean more in depth; we can get a lot more done in practice, move quicker. Some guys understand what we are trying to get done. The summer was good for us to get some things in. I think our coaching staff did a great job through the preseason utilizing that time. But we’re going to be a different team (than last year). That’s simply because I think we’re more talented. But we’re young, and we’ve got to get that young talent to grow up pretty quick. And we’ve got to get guys to understand roles. But there won’t be as big a drop-off when we go to the bench as we had a year ago.”
(On which players have stepped up as team leaders)
“Robert Hubbs III has really had a great off-season. We sat down at the end of (last season) and talked about what he wants to accomplish and where he wants to go, and the whole talk revolved, really, around him being more passionate and putting more time in. And he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. In his own way, he’s leading our team. I think our players respect him because they’re watching him do it. He’s not just talking about it; he’s doing it. That’s why we’re hoping—and we believe—that if he can truly stay healthy, then he’ll have a great year for us. And we need him to, because he’s a guy who’s proven since we’ve been here—and in the past—that he’s got the ability to do some things. We just need him to be consistent with it. But he’s working harder than I think he’s ever worked in his life.”
(On the balance between making practices productive while also still teaching the system to eight newcomers)
“(Pushing without pushing too much) is a fine line. And that’s a great question. The fact is, you can’t coddle them. I don’t think you can. With the schedule we’ve put together… and we’re very honest in our recruiting approach, that we’re going to tell them how hard we’re going to work and what we expect of them. We really have a terrific environment here—and they’ve created it. Because they have bought in. They want to work. One of the things you have to do with young guys is teach them how to work, and what does that mean? And they think they know when they come in here. And I’m not just talking about here at Tennessee. I’m talking everywhere. They think they know what hard work is—they really don’t. And so one of the first things you have to do is teach them that. It’s always easier when you’ve got guys in the program who can lead. And we’ve got some guys like that. I mentioned Robert earlier, but Admiral Schofield is in the gym all the time. Lamonte Turner is in there. Kyle Alexander… even Detrick Mostella has improved that part of his game. So when you get guys who are doing that, it’s easy for the young guys to figure out if they want to play they better hitch their wagons to that and get going. That’s one of the biggest things with a young group when you have so many (newcomers) is teaching them how to work and work effectively. As a program, we’ve done that this off-season.”
(On if any of the newcomers are progressing faster than others)
“I do think that some are probably a little bit ahead of others. Grant Williams has lost 25 pounds since he’s gotten here. He’s learned to channel his energy in a way that I think is going to be good. Jordan Bowden, Jordan Bone—there isn’t one freshmen who hasn’t had a day where you think, ‘This kid is going to be really good.’ And then they’ll go away for a day or two. We’ve got to get more of those freshmen—and I’d even put everybody in that group except Robert Hubbs III. We need them to put together five, six, seven days of consistency where we know that we can count on them. That’s where we are right now. I think we’ve got a good group of players, but we’ve got to get some guys who really separate themselves. So other than Robert, you go back… Kyle and Admiral and those guys are learning what it takes to do it every single day in a consistent way.”
(On his thoughts on Saturday’s football win at Georgia)
“That’s the way they draw it up, you know? (smiles) I’m not sure I’ve seen two teams score like that. I can’t ever remember seeing anything like that in 10 seconds, or whatever it was. You can take games and situations like that and talk about it with our team. You can go back and watch, and without that 15-yard penalty for over-celebration, I’m not sure it could have happened. I don’t know that we could have gotten it to the end zone without those 15 yards. So there are always teaching moments when you watch it. I’ve heard (head football coach Butch Jones) say it—and I think he’s right—we’ve got a football team with a lot of character and resiliency about itself. It’s phenomenal. The SEC is starting to get like the NFL. It’s like whoever has the ball last it seems like is going to win. But it was some kind of a ball game.”
(On if it’s possible to have a better defensive team than last year with so much youth)
“Well I think we’re a better defensive team right now. But that’s not saying a lot, because I didn’t think we were very good a year ago. But I do think this group is working at it. Some of you guys will be at practice this week, and you’ll see that we think we can be a good defensive team. A year ago when we had (Kevin Punter Jr.) and Armani Moore, you were really telling those guys, ‘Be solid, but you can’t foul.’ We couldn’t go to the bench to back those guys up. We’ve got guys now who can go all out, and if they get in some foul trouble, we think we’ve got guys who can come in and we can keep moving on with it. A year ago we were cautious at certain positions because of foul trouble. But this year, we think we’ve got a chance to be a much, much better defensive team.”
(On the point guard and center positions)
“When you look at the (point guard spot), I think we’re more settled there because we’ve got four guys who can play it pretty well. You’ve got Lamonte, who got to work there some last year (while redshirting). He’s probably not a ‘natural’ point guard, but he’s learning how to play that. Jordan Bone is a natural point guard, but he’s learning how to play the game when he gets tired—which is what he needs to do. Kwe Parker has done a good job—probably surprised us as much as anybody. He can play that position. And then Shembari Phillips. A year ago, Shembari didn’t want to play it. He’s willing to take it at times and do something with it. But what we need… it goes back to consistency. When you look at those four guys, it’s pretty much what our whole team is like. I know they’ve all shown us they can do it, but as you can imagine, some days are better than others. Between Jordan and Lamonte is probably what everybody would think it would be. But we’re playing Lamonte off the ball some. Just like we’re playing Hubbs outside as much as we’re playing him inside. Kwe Parker will play two positions. Bone will pretty much play the point. That would be the one guy where that will be the (lone) position he’ll play. And those other three guys are more combo-type guards.
“I don’t like to say ‘center,’ because I think in our system our post guys are interchangeable. Admiral has had some good days. If you’re talking about guys around the basket, we think he can score there. Hubbs certainly can do it. John Fulkerson has impressed us because he does a lot of the dirty work. He’s a terrific rebounder and really has shown that he can block shots. And he can run. No doubt, he can score down there. Kyle has gotten better, as you would certainly hope and expect. Lew Evans is a guy… even he surprised us. The other day he went down there and scored a little bit. (The four and five) positions are really interchangeable. And the way we open up the court, we’re expecting our guards to do a lot for us around the rim as well.”
(On if he considers graduate transfer Lew Evans as a freshman in some ways)
“No, I would put them all in that group. I’m not sure I look at any of them as being freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. I’m looking at what they do every day. I just spoke to Lew as I was coming over here, and I asked him, ‘Is this the hardest you’ve ever worked?’ And he said, ‘Most definitely.’ I think once he gets himself in a little better shape… he brings a little something different than the other post guys because he can shoot the ball, obviously. We want him to be more consistent there. He’s going to have to guard better. Watching the tape after Saturday’s practice, he’s good in ball-screen situations offensively. But he’s going to have to be able to defend a little bit better in terms of what we want. Like I said, Robert has been the most consistent guy. And the other guys have had their ups and downs. And every guy on our team has had some days where you’re like, ‘OK, if he can sustain this, he’s going to be OK.’ But we need to get more guys to sustain it for longer periods of time.”
(On what led to Robert Hubbs III’s increased commitment)
“It started at the end of last season when I sat down with him and told him, ‘Look, we’ve got a lot of young guys coming in here, and you’re the only senior, but we’re not going to wait on you.’ I said to him, ‘I think you should be one of the best players in this league. But you’re not going to do that until you work like one of the best players in this league has to work.’ He said, ‘What do I have to do?’ I told him, ‘You’re going to have to increase your love and your passion for this game. You’re going to have to understand you can’t mistake activity for achievement. Just doing what we ask you to do isn’t going to be enough. You need to understand that if you want to play professional basketball you have to take on the mindset of a professional athlete. What we do (during practice) isn’t enough if you want to separate yourself.’
(On how graduate transfer Lew Evans is fitting in with his teammates)
“Lew is experienced, and he understands how to play. I think right now his big thing is getting himself in the kind of shape he needs to be in. He’s in the gym a lot. Being a fifth-year transfer, his schedule is not that difficult. Like I said, (as I was coming over here), he was in the gym working. He knows he has to get more consistent with his perimeter game. He does understand how to play basketball. He’s got to get better defensively. But he understands what we’re trying to do. He’s competitive. He’s not afraid. He does a good job screening and some of the details that need to be done. We do think his experience is going to help us. As we get ready to embark on games and then on to (the Maui Invitational)—I’m sure we’ll be the youngest team in that tournament—we’re going to expect him and Hubbs and Detrick to make sure these guys are ready for that.”
(On what he’s enjoyed about starting fresh with a new program at Tennessee after such a long tenure at Texas)
“I’ve enjoyed it here a lot. I love the passion of the people here. Great people. I can’t tell you how many times a year ago that (associate head coach Rob Lanier) tapped me on the knee before a game and said, ‘Isn’t this unbelievable?’ And he was talking about the crowds we had at our (home) games. We had years that it wasn’t like that in the past. But the fact is, we weren’t a very good team last year. I don’t think we would have lost 19 games if Kevin Punter hadn’t gotten hurt, but he did. But with that said, our fans were great. One of the highlights was when we were really limping coming down the stretch without KP. And when our kids left the court here (after the home finale vs. Ole Miss), the crowd gave them a standing ovation because I think they appreciated that those guys really did try to give it everything they had. You don’t have that everywhere. This is special and I realize that. I think this program has a chance to be one of the best basketball programs in the country. We have things that we have to do, obviously. I have great confidence in our staff that we’re going to continue to recruit to fit our program. But I can tell you I’m excited about this group, and we’re going to find a way to get it done with these guys and then add to it.”
(On whether or not he’s had a graduate transfer before Lew Evans)
“This is the first one I can remember ever having. I don’t think it’s something that we’ll count on every year. If we get the right guys every year, we won’t have a scholarship at the end of the year. But if you do have a scholarship, (it isn’t a bad option). It kind of helps balance out our classes a little bit. But it would really just depend on our scholarship situation. Moving forward, I’m not sure what will happen with the NCAA. There’s a lot of talk out there about transfers and what’s going to happen, so we’ll just have to wait and see how that landscape changes, too.”
