University of Tennessee Athletics
Vol Hoops: Media Monday Replay
February 27, 2017 | Men's Basketball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes met with reporters on Monday to preview the Vols upcoming game at LSU.
A full video replay of the press conference can be viewed above while the full transcript of his comments can be found below.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes
(On the identity of the team and the way they have been playing)
"I think that this time of year you are very familiar with your opponent. Even in a situation that we are getting ready to play this weekend, where we are playing a team that hasn't seen us and we haven't seen them, I think as year goes on and the season keeps winding down, your team's intensity has to go one way or the other. I do think familiarity and people watching you play affects working through situations with your team. Whether it is guys in the lineup and out of the lineup, injuries, dismissals, whatever it may be, you have to keep your team focused and keep going. I think with our team that our guys are playing hard, but I also think other teams are playing hard too. If you go back to our last two games against teams, every team goes through what South Carolina has gone through, we have gone through it, Vanderbilt has gone through it. Those two teams at the beginning of the year were considered NCAA teams. I think with their experience coming down the stretch that they are really focused. I don't know if it's just familiarity with your opponent and all that, but it's also about guys understanding that you can have no distractions whatsoever."
(On a young team playing in late February)
"I think there is something to that, too. I really do. I think understanding focus and not just focus, but laser focus. You guys have asked me in the past about the rumors of being an NCAA team or a bubble team, all that is there and as much as you try to deflect it and keep guys focused there is a lot going on in the game of basketball this time of year that we really are trying to work hard to keep guys focused on what they have to do and its harder than you might think. I was talking to one of my assistants today, and there are players this time of year, not just in our program, but in the past that their mind is on anything but winning. They are thinking about going to the league, they're thinking about a lot of different things and there are people in their ears and families saying they have to do this and that, and other outside people, it's all real things to deal with. The fact is, when you look at our last two opponents, their experience and understanding where they are and what they are playing for is a factor. It is something our guys are going through and learning that it is not easy and it gets tougher as the year goes on."
(On the point guards)
"Jordan Bone missed the back end of practice the day before the game. He had a shoulder problem he was dealing with. A lot goes into us deciding who we're going to play and some of it has to do with injury and getting guys on the court so they know what we are trying to do in a game. I think teams go through it. Sometimes you have teams that have to deal with that more than others. We need to get some consistency there. We've talked about that all year. Weve a chance today to come back and we have two games left in the regular season and one is on the road. I think its their Senior Night and then we have our Senior Night. We need to get consistent play out of that."
(On status of Jordan Bowden)
"He’s meeting with the doctor at one o’clock today and we will know something after that."
(On state of the program now compared to a year ago)
"Well, I'll go back to what I said when you all were asking me about the tournament: there’s still a lot of basketball to be played and if you ask me to evaluate the season right now, I can’t because we still have two games to play. We’ve got the tournament that we can go play. What we need to do is understand and have our focus on getting ready to go play LSU and I think that’s the key. Building blocks. I’m not naïve enough to think that our guys aren’t learning things and going through things they haven’t gone through before because it is. Most of those guys were done playing this time a year ago. Their high school careers being over because high school playoffs are going on and some teams are finished. I just think that, still, I like our team and we’ve got a chance where we can win two games and finish out 9-9 in the league going into the SEC Tournament. I guarantee you look at other teams in the league and they’re looking at it like that, but you can’t be 9-9 if you don’t get to win number eight first. And so the focus has to be on this next game, and that’s what we’ve been talking about as a coaching staff this morning: what do we need to do to, the process we go through to get our minds right that we need to go in and put together the kind of defensive effort and offensive effort we need to win. I said, again, two weeks ago we just need to win one more game and then be worried about winning one more game and I think that’s how it has to be approached."
(On what he sees in LSU)
"Just like you see a team like Missouri and you see a team and, you said it, when they play hard, I think, to me, that’s real coaching. I mean, because when you’ve lost games -- and they’ve lost some tough games, obviously -- and they keep playing and we know how explosive they can be. I mean, Georgia has been playing. They won here, they can win at Alabama, they go home and have their hands full to beat LSU. I think in this league there’s not a team that can take a night off and think that they’re going to win games. I mean, we certainly can, and I think we know that. We go in there fully understanding that they’re a talented team and they can score points. I think they’re averaging 80-some points a game. So we have to guard and we have to hope that we can be better offensively. I think they’ll play their zone until we can prove to them that we can play against it, make shots against it."
(On Grant Williams’ second-half performance against South Carolina)
"I think Grant’s problem is that he’s getting too emotional about officiating. You know, I told him during the game I wanted him to stop talking to officials because that’s not his problem. You know, he had two block-out fouls where he just, he got called for three fouls and they were all block-out fouls where he wasn’t trying to block anybody out, he was just pushing them out of the way. And that’s not making the kind of effort you need to make physically to make yourself in a position to rebound the ball. It goes back, again, that he needs to be focused and I thought he lost his focus once he had a couple of games where he scored a lot of points, where he got away from rebounding, playing hard, doing the things he needs to do. And that’s another learning block for him where he has to realize that what you did yesterday is over and done with, you have to keep moving forward, but again, now he’s played enough basketball now to know that you can’t let negative emotion get the best of you. You can’t go down that highway because if you do, it’s hard to get back."
(On the pressure facing Grant Williams and Robert Hubbs III)
"Most teams you are going to have your leading scorers. I am really proud of Robert Hubbs. He had to have more work done on his knee on Friday. For him to do what he did on Saturday was something to be proud of. He fought it. I thought that he played his heart out trying to do what he was trying to do Saturday. We had to use him at the point some. When we went zone, we wanted to get a bigger team out there and I thought he handled that well. People are going to game-plan for those guys. Grant (Williams) is learning that it is a little bit more difficult when people start to game-plan for you. That is where he has to start keeping his emotions in check and understand that he has to get better. The harder people play against you, the harder you have to learn how to play. He still hasn’t learned to get over that hump yet. I have heard so much about Robert coming here that he didn’t play hard or he didn’t do this or that. I know what he has gone through physically. He cares a great deal. What he had to get done Friday and then go out and play like he did Saturday. Again, I cannot say enough about him."
(On the status of Robert Hubbs III and the team)
"I think that Robert will be fine. I haven’t heard anything to the contrary to that. I think that teams bounce back. I think these guys have done that. I can tell you that they did some things as a team yesterday. Some were in the gym working and this morning a number of them have come through because they care. They want to be good. It has been a learning process. Like I said earlier, we have had to work through some different lineup changes, but we have a good group of guys. I expect them to come in today and get busy working and get ready for their next game."
