University of Tennessee Athletics
Vol Hoops Media Monday
March 18, 2019 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee Head Coach Rick Barnes
On what elements the team needs to go deep in the tournament:
"Talent is the first one. You have to have talent. I think the fact that you stay focused on what got you there. You don't go away from it. You have to enjoy it. There are times that I think in the past, especially when I was a young coach, I probably compounded the pressure of the tournament by the way we approached it. I have learned you have to go after it just like you would get ready for the SEC Tournament. Hope we get our legs right under us and go back at it again. At some point in time, if you really get deep into it, luck comes into it at some point of time too. But you continue to do what has gotten you there."
On what led to the turnovers against Auburn and how to avoid that again:
"I think what led to a lot of the ones where we were fumbling the ball was because of us playing Mississippi State and Kentucky too hard. But when I see our guys uncharacteristically just losing the ball, you can put whatever you want on it. But we went on that stretch where we had seven straight turnovers, and we just fumbled the ball. Guys weren't catching it, guys were dribbling it and just losing the ball. Whether it was fatigue or whatever. And we have been a team that has taken care of the ball for the most part. And when you do that (take care of the ball) and certainly you hope you can do that, but if you don't, you lose like we did yesterday."
On how he feels about the team being defined about how they do the next few weeks:
"We have had a terrific season. There is no doubt about it. When you look at where we are right now, we have had a terrific season, but we want more. And I think everyone that is in this tournament wants more. Whether that is how you are defined or not, it is what it is. The fact is that you are one of 64 teams that get to play in this tournament. And that by itself is not something you ever take for granted. I have said that every time that I have been in it. You never, ever take it for granted. Then when you get there, you want to win it. Whether you're defined by that I don't really know how to answer that question. The fact is that we, along with all these other teams, have a chance to do it, and you hope your players step up to it and can make the most of it. It is a once in a lifetime experience."
On how to keep the team loose this time of year with also stressing how important every possession is:
"That is a key, you just want the players to go in and play. You want them to just lock in. We have played 34 games, and we have been in a lot of hard fought games where possessions are important. You don't have to be perfect. There aren't going to be any perfect games played in this tournament. You go back in my lifetime and probably closest to perfection was when Villanova beat Georgetown. And that wasn't a perfect game. So you don't have to play perfect. Neither team has to play perfect to win. You have to be good, and you have to be sound. You have to minimize your mistakes and take care of the ball and not give up extra possessions. It is what you have played the whole year for is to go out and have a chance to play in this tournament."
On how he has changed compounding stress compared to when he was a younger coach:
"What we do during the regular season, we are going to do it now. I would do things just to keep people away from our teams, but we are just going to do what we have done. It has worked for us for the most part, and we will just continue to do what we do and expect the players to do their part. They have to knock out all the outside noise that comes with it. But now, we deal with it throughout the year more than ever because of the social media and media stuff. It is not like they are not used to having cameras around, but the fact is that you embrace it and enjoy it. It is something they have worked for and you have to enjoy it. The enjoyment is that you keep playing and you keep going game-by-game and hope that you continue to advance."
On the transition points in the last few games:
"I think bad offense always leads to bad transitions on defense like when you turn the ball over or take quick, bad shots. A lot of that you have to give respect to our opponents. You have to go back and look, but I don't think we have lost to a team that isn't ranked. We played against good teams. Teams that are capable of winning. Our losses, I promise you, are to teams that have a chance to go as deep into this tournament as much as anybody. Some of it goes to credit to the opponent. I think when you're given transition baskets, it's usually off of turnovers and shot selections because you can't get your defense set. And if you cant get back to guarding five-on-five, there are some things you can't guard."
On what lessons were learned after beating Kentucky followed by losing to Auburn:
"Well, we're not going to have to play three games in three days. The Kentucky game was like a national championship game. The second half of that game was brutally physical, and it was a hard-fought game, and then you have to turn around and play less than 19 hours later. It's tough, and we're not going to have to do that anymore. The fact is, we turned the ball over and didn't play well. I thought Grant Williams looked very tired. I looked at the coaches and said, 'We're going to have some trouble here.' When we turned the ball over like that and got down, we weren't able to use our bench. We had to try to get the score down to a manageable number, and we just couldn't do it. The turnovers, that's what cost us the game yesterday. You cannot turn the ball over six, seven or eight times without getting a shot. In that situation too many guys tried to do it by themselves, and that's the lesson to be learned, and the night before, we didn't do that. If you ask me how 19 hours later you can go from beating one team to another team, I can't answer that. We were down eight with less than three minutes, we stuck together, and executed. When we were down 10, 12 everybody thought 'Well, I have to go do something,' and it compounded the problem."
On the others teams (Cincinnati and Iowa) they may see in Columbus:
"I don't know anything about them. I haven't watched them. Each one of those coaches are already working on those scouts. If you're in this tournament, you've earned it; you're a good basketball team, you're capable of winning, and I bet if you go back and look at their schedules, which I haven't yet, they both have big wins. We'll have the scouting done before we get there, and we'll be able to watch that game live and in person, and we'll be able to do what we do in between games. We'll get more time in the arena than we do during conference tournaments and all those type of things where you'll have more time to prepare even though it's a day off. It gives you plenty of time to do what you need to do."
On any difference in response from his teams when they lose/win any conference tournament games:
"Through the years, I'll never forget it, we got beat by Texas Tech and Coach Knight in Dallas. I remember he shook my hand and said, 'Now go win a national championship,' and that was the year that we went to the Final Four. At the time, I didn't think it was good for us because we always want to win regardless. We went to win a conference championship at Providence. The next day, when we had to play again on Thursday, I remember telling the coaches, 'We're in trouble here,' because it was such a big deal about us winning when we won the big east championship, to get our guys to really settle back down. We were in a matchup with Alabama, who had a good basketball team; you could tell the emotion winning that was something big for them. I've seen a lot of different things happen, and I've seen teams who, at the time, were struggling, go in and play into the elite eight. There's no rhyme or reason to it, you just hope that your guys are locked in, and they're playing their best and you can keep winning."
On if its concerning how well Colgate has shot the ball in conference play:
"I mean they're good. You look at them, they're a skilled team, high percentage of shooting, and they've got great size. Across the front, they're as big as we are or bigger. They're well coached, they run, they' re not afraid to push the ball, they run some ball screen stuff, they mix up their defenses, they show multiple zone defenses. They wouldn't be here, they're got a very good basketball team. They're a very skilled team, and I think they've got the player of the year, the freshman of the year on their team. They're just very skilled at every position. You would expect, whoever you're playing at this time of year, you've got to be ready to play. Believe me, they're going to be excited to play and we're going to be excited to play. It should be a good basketball game."
On how they remain humble and remind themselves of what got them here to this point in the season:
"If you go back to the game against Mississippi State, we defended well. The Kentucky game we defended well enough. When I was watching the tape coming back last night, we can't give up 21 points off of turnovers, there's no defense for that; those are free shots. I think that their percentage yesterday was lower than ours. When you shoot a higher percentage than the other team, but you throw it away like we did, you don't have a chance to win. Defensively, once we got our defense set, we defended okay. They're going to jump up and make some of those threes, but that's not what's going to beat you. What's going to beat you is turning the ball over like we did."
Tennessee Forward Grant Williams
On the experience of being selected into the NCAA Tournament as compared to last season:
"Any time you're selected into a tournament like March Madness, a prestigious event, you're excited. For us, it was kind of similar to last year. We were coming off of a loss and it was kind of a pick-me-up and we were excited to see our name on the board and see our first matchup so we can get back on the court."
On if the Kentucky win caused the team to be tired during Sunday's game:
"It was definitely draining. It was a competitive game and coming off of a game like that, you have to do a good job of taking care of your body in the hours that follow. I think we did our best job trying to do that. You can't discredit Auburn in any way because they played four games in four days, so even if we were tired or sore in any way, they were probably feeling the same. So they came out and played hard and we tried to compete and just didn't get it done."
On the emotional and mental fatigue compared to the team's physical fatigue:
"Coming off of a game like the one we had against Kentucky and the March Madness feel, it's a little draining mentally if you don't prepare yourselves and I think we did everything that we could. We got our sleep that night and we tried our best to condition our bodies in any way possible, mentally, physically and emotionally — everything. It was just a tough day the next day and we have to move on from it. We have to learn from it and understand that we have a game coming up against a tough team that won their league and has a lot of talented players."
On rebounding from a loss heading into the NCAA Tournament:
'You focus on the next game. You put all of your efforts into understanding the scouting report and getting prepared because from now on it's one and you're done. We have to focus in on each other and understand that we're best as a team that plays together and we're going to be a hard out for any team. We're going to give 100% effort and we're going to fight all 40 minutes. For us it's all about focusing on the next game, coming into practice with the right mindset and playing from there."
On how far Tennessee needs to go to consider it a successful run:
"For the success, I want to go all the way. I think we've been successful this entire year. Just because two games didn't go our way doesn't mean that this year wasn't a success. People always try to say that because there wasn't a banner, you look back on a team and say that they didn't accomplish what they should have. I think we've done a lot this year. Not many teams get 29 wins in a season. Not many teams produce the talent through development the way that we have the last few years. You look at guys like Admiral Schofield and Kyle Alexander, where they were as freshmen compared to where they are now, how many programs can say that they've done that? That's where respect comes in and understanding that this team has a lot more that they can do, but don't discredit anything about us from the past because we're doing our best to play hard."
On how this team is better equipped to make a run as compared to last season:
"A year ago, we weren't the best offensive team, we relied a lot on our defense. So when we played a team like Loyola-Chicago and our defense wasn't doing their job, we were having a difficult time scoring and it was more competitive of a game. We played well, but just didn't get it done. This team is more equipped because we guard and we can score many ways now. We have a lot of players that have developed their games and are able to shoot the ball as well as go inside and finish over length. So I think we're more equipped in that aspect and also mentally because I know a year ago if you told us that we were going to win 19 games in a row and all of this stuff, we probably would have shut down or cracked under some pressure, but I think now we're mature and coach Barnes has done a great job in developing us as people. We've learned how to deal with success and with tough losses."
On what elements the team needs to go deep in the tournament:
"Talent is the first one. You have to have talent. I think the fact that you stay focused on what got you there. You don't go away from it. You have to enjoy it. There are times that I think in the past, especially when I was a young coach, I probably compounded the pressure of the tournament by the way we approached it. I have learned you have to go after it just like you would get ready for the SEC Tournament. Hope we get our legs right under us and go back at it again. At some point in time, if you really get deep into it, luck comes into it at some point of time too. But you continue to do what has gotten you there."
On what led to the turnovers against Auburn and how to avoid that again:
"I think what led to a lot of the ones where we were fumbling the ball was because of us playing Mississippi State and Kentucky too hard. But when I see our guys uncharacteristically just losing the ball, you can put whatever you want on it. But we went on that stretch where we had seven straight turnovers, and we just fumbled the ball. Guys weren't catching it, guys were dribbling it and just losing the ball. Whether it was fatigue or whatever. And we have been a team that has taken care of the ball for the most part. And when you do that (take care of the ball) and certainly you hope you can do that, but if you don't, you lose like we did yesterday."
On how he feels about the team being defined about how they do the next few weeks:
"We have had a terrific season. There is no doubt about it. When you look at where we are right now, we have had a terrific season, but we want more. And I think everyone that is in this tournament wants more. Whether that is how you are defined or not, it is what it is. The fact is that you are one of 64 teams that get to play in this tournament. And that by itself is not something you ever take for granted. I have said that every time that I have been in it. You never, ever take it for granted. Then when you get there, you want to win it. Whether you're defined by that I don't really know how to answer that question. The fact is that we, along with all these other teams, have a chance to do it, and you hope your players step up to it and can make the most of it. It is a once in a lifetime experience."
On how to keep the team loose this time of year with also stressing how important every possession is:
"That is a key, you just want the players to go in and play. You want them to just lock in. We have played 34 games, and we have been in a lot of hard fought games where possessions are important. You don't have to be perfect. There aren't going to be any perfect games played in this tournament. You go back in my lifetime and probably closest to perfection was when Villanova beat Georgetown. And that wasn't a perfect game. So you don't have to play perfect. Neither team has to play perfect to win. You have to be good, and you have to be sound. You have to minimize your mistakes and take care of the ball and not give up extra possessions. It is what you have played the whole year for is to go out and have a chance to play in this tournament."
On how he has changed compounding stress compared to when he was a younger coach:
"What we do during the regular season, we are going to do it now. I would do things just to keep people away from our teams, but we are just going to do what we have done. It has worked for us for the most part, and we will just continue to do what we do and expect the players to do their part. They have to knock out all the outside noise that comes with it. But now, we deal with it throughout the year more than ever because of the social media and media stuff. It is not like they are not used to having cameras around, but the fact is that you embrace it and enjoy it. It is something they have worked for and you have to enjoy it. The enjoyment is that you keep playing and you keep going game-by-game and hope that you continue to advance."
On the transition points in the last few games:
"I think bad offense always leads to bad transitions on defense like when you turn the ball over or take quick, bad shots. A lot of that you have to give respect to our opponents. You have to go back and look, but I don't think we have lost to a team that isn't ranked. We played against good teams. Teams that are capable of winning. Our losses, I promise you, are to teams that have a chance to go as deep into this tournament as much as anybody. Some of it goes to credit to the opponent. I think when you're given transition baskets, it's usually off of turnovers and shot selections because you can't get your defense set. And if you cant get back to guarding five-on-five, there are some things you can't guard."
On what lessons were learned after beating Kentucky followed by losing to Auburn:
"Well, we're not going to have to play three games in three days. The Kentucky game was like a national championship game. The second half of that game was brutally physical, and it was a hard-fought game, and then you have to turn around and play less than 19 hours later. It's tough, and we're not going to have to do that anymore. The fact is, we turned the ball over and didn't play well. I thought Grant Williams looked very tired. I looked at the coaches and said, 'We're going to have some trouble here.' When we turned the ball over like that and got down, we weren't able to use our bench. We had to try to get the score down to a manageable number, and we just couldn't do it. The turnovers, that's what cost us the game yesterday. You cannot turn the ball over six, seven or eight times without getting a shot. In that situation too many guys tried to do it by themselves, and that's the lesson to be learned, and the night before, we didn't do that. If you ask me how 19 hours later you can go from beating one team to another team, I can't answer that. We were down eight with less than three minutes, we stuck together, and executed. When we were down 10, 12 everybody thought 'Well, I have to go do something,' and it compounded the problem."
On the others teams (Cincinnati and Iowa) they may see in Columbus:
"I don't know anything about them. I haven't watched them. Each one of those coaches are already working on those scouts. If you're in this tournament, you've earned it; you're a good basketball team, you're capable of winning, and I bet if you go back and look at their schedules, which I haven't yet, they both have big wins. We'll have the scouting done before we get there, and we'll be able to watch that game live and in person, and we'll be able to do what we do in between games. We'll get more time in the arena than we do during conference tournaments and all those type of things where you'll have more time to prepare even though it's a day off. It gives you plenty of time to do what you need to do."
On any difference in response from his teams when they lose/win any conference tournament games:
"Through the years, I'll never forget it, we got beat by Texas Tech and Coach Knight in Dallas. I remember he shook my hand and said, 'Now go win a national championship,' and that was the year that we went to the Final Four. At the time, I didn't think it was good for us because we always want to win regardless. We went to win a conference championship at Providence. The next day, when we had to play again on Thursday, I remember telling the coaches, 'We're in trouble here,' because it was such a big deal about us winning when we won the big east championship, to get our guys to really settle back down. We were in a matchup with Alabama, who had a good basketball team; you could tell the emotion winning that was something big for them. I've seen a lot of different things happen, and I've seen teams who, at the time, were struggling, go in and play into the elite eight. There's no rhyme or reason to it, you just hope that your guys are locked in, and they're playing their best and you can keep winning."
On if its concerning how well Colgate has shot the ball in conference play:
"I mean they're good. You look at them, they're a skilled team, high percentage of shooting, and they've got great size. Across the front, they're as big as we are or bigger. They're well coached, they run, they' re not afraid to push the ball, they run some ball screen stuff, they mix up their defenses, they show multiple zone defenses. They wouldn't be here, they're got a very good basketball team. They're a very skilled team, and I think they've got the player of the year, the freshman of the year on their team. They're just very skilled at every position. You would expect, whoever you're playing at this time of year, you've got to be ready to play. Believe me, they're going to be excited to play and we're going to be excited to play. It should be a good basketball game."
On how they remain humble and remind themselves of what got them here to this point in the season:
"If you go back to the game against Mississippi State, we defended well. The Kentucky game we defended well enough. When I was watching the tape coming back last night, we can't give up 21 points off of turnovers, there's no defense for that; those are free shots. I think that their percentage yesterday was lower than ours. When you shoot a higher percentage than the other team, but you throw it away like we did, you don't have a chance to win. Defensively, once we got our defense set, we defended okay. They're going to jump up and make some of those threes, but that's not what's going to beat you. What's going to beat you is turning the ball over like we did."
Tennessee Forward Grant Williams
On the experience of being selected into the NCAA Tournament as compared to last season:
"Any time you're selected into a tournament like March Madness, a prestigious event, you're excited. For us, it was kind of similar to last year. We were coming off of a loss and it was kind of a pick-me-up and we were excited to see our name on the board and see our first matchup so we can get back on the court."
On if the Kentucky win caused the team to be tired during Sunday's game:
"It was definitely draining. It was a competitive game and coming off of a game like that, you have to do a good job of taking care of your body in the hours that follow. I think we did our best job trying to do that. You can't discredit Auburn in any way because they played four games in four days, so even if we were tired or sore in any way, they were probably feeling the same. So they came out and played hard and we tried to compete and just didn't get it done."
On the emotional and mental fatigue compared to the team's physical fatigue:
"Coming off of a game like the one we had against Kentucky and the March Madness feel, it's a little draining mentally if you don't prepare yourselves and I think we did everything that we could. We got our sleep that night and we tried our best to condition our bodies in any way possible, mentally, physically and emotionally — everything. It was just a tough day the next day and we have to move on from it. We have to learn from it and understand that we have a game coming up against a tough team that won their league and has a lot of talented players."
On rebounding from a loss heading into the NCAA Tournament:
'You focus on the next game. You put all of your efforts into understanding the scouting report and getting prepared because from now on it's one and you're done. We have to focus in on each other and understand that we're best as a team that plays together and we're going to be a hard out for any team. We're going to give 100% effort and we're going to fight all 40 minutes. For us it's all about focusing on the next game, coming into practice with the right mindset and playing from there."
On how far Tennessee needs to go to consider it a successful run:
"For the success, I want to go all the way. I think we've been successful this entire year. Just because two games didn't go our way doesn't mean that this year wasn't a success. People always try to say that because there wasn't a banner, you look back on a team and say that they didn't accomplish what they should have. I think we've done a lot this year. Not many teams get 29 wins in a season. Not many teams produce the talent through development the way that we have the last few years. You look at guys like Admiral Schofield and Kyle Alexander, where they were as freshmen compared to where they are now, how many programs can say that they've done that? That's where respect comes in and understanding that this team has a lot more that they can do, but don't discredit anything about us from the past because we're doing our best to play hard."
On how this team is better equipped to make a run as compared to last season:
"A year ago, we weren't the best offensive team, we relied a lot on our defense. So when we played a team like Loyola-Chicago and our defense wasn't doing their job, we were having a difficult time scoring and it was more competitive of a game. We played well, but just didn't get it done. This team is more equipped because we guard and we can score many ways now. We have a lot of players that have developed their games and are able to shoot the ball as well as go inside and finish over length. So I think we're more equipped in that aspect and also mentally because I know a year ago if you told us that we were going to win 19 games in a row and all of this stuff, we probably would have shut down or cracked under some pressure, but I think now we're mature and coach Barnes has done a great job in developing us as people. We've learned how to deal with success and with tough losses."
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's BasketballMBB | Rick Barnes, Ja'Kobi Gillespie, Grant Hurst & Felix Okpara Postgame vs. Michigan (3.29.26)
Sunday, March 29
MBB | Rick Barnes, Nate Ament, Bishop Boswell & Ethan Burg Media Availability (3.28.26)
Saturday, March 28
MBB | Rick Barnes, Jaylen Carey, Ja'Kobi Gillespie & Felix Okpara Postgame vs. Iowa State (3.27.26)
Saturday, March 28
MBB | Rick Barnes Media Availability (3.26.26)
Thursday, March 26
