Rick Barnes Transcript

On if this week has given his team a chance to get healthier before the SEC Tournament…
“Yeah, I think so. We were able to hopefully get some guys on their good side of being healthy, just some nicks and bruises, and some of them weren’t little, but we were hoping so. We needed a good day today and make sure we need back with timing and everything, but we just felt like getting a couple guys healthy was more important the last couple days.”

On what makes the three guards voted to All-SEC honors play so well together…
“I think their speed, their quickness. All three of them play bigger than their size. They make some things happen and all do it in a different way. I think people would look at them and they play hard. They play well together.”

On Josiah-Jordan James being left off the SEC All-Defensive team…
“I think it does matter, in the grand scheme of things, but I think the league is going to have to redo what we do. I think they pick eight players with as many teams as there are in the league. I think we should be doing the same thing on the All-Defensive team. Often, coaches look at the numbers. I get that part of it too, but the best defensive guy on our team is Josiah because of the fact that he guards every position on the floor. I think the league will have to change that because I’m sure it’s hard to pick five guys in this league when it’s good as it is. We know there are more than five good defenders in the league, but if we’re going to pick eight first-team players, we should be doing the same on the All-Defensive team.”

On Santiago Vescovi being first-team All-SEC and if he expected him to be that type of player when he was recruited…
“The way he came in with two days (to prepare), and I remember getting with him and saying for him to get me three things that he was comfortable with, because we knew he wouldn’t be able to learn everything that we wanted him to in that point in time. A couple things that he did, it was really easy to tweak with him what we were doing. The way he walked on that floor his first game, hitting six threes—and obviously he was not in great shape—but just the way he went about it, you knew he had terrific basketball IQ. He has changed his body. Santi is very unselfish, very competitive, and we figured that out really early. To be honest, we have really high expectations for him. I know people think about him shooting the ball, but I think he does so much more than just shoot the basketball. He impacts games a lot like Josiah in things that don’t show up. The way he has been guarded this year; he has gotten some guys some great looks at the basket because they are afraid to leave him, and I think he is the best screener on our team. I am not surprised (about the All-SEC selection) because of the way he goes about his business.”

On if anything stands out or has changed about Mississippi State or South Carolina since last time Tennessee played those teams…
“Both of those teams are 9-9 in the league now and they both have had to really fight and scratch like everybody in the league. I don’t think they have changed a whole lot in what we have looked at in the last two days. Whoever works out, hopefully we will be ready.”

On how the next couple days will work following finding out the opponent late…
“We will get with (the team) after the game. We will get together like we normally get together the night before the game here or on the road. When we go on the road we eat at around 6:30 or 7:00 and then go in and do a meeting. We will obviously back it up and come back in whenever they are done. We know each other but it will be a quick turnaround. That is what we try to do even more later in the year, we talk about being able to get ready on a one-day prep. Knowing it is a lot like where we started the season up in Connecticut when we played Villanova and had a quick turnaround to play North Carolina. We will definitely get together tomorrow night and do what we need to do.”

On if Tennessee is playing its best basketball of the season…
“We did not play our best the second half, I can tell you that, we did not. I will keep saying it, we have to continue to get better. If we want to be the team that we want to be we have to look at that. We could be playing for another month if we can. To do that you have to get better. We have to learn from the other night. We came out, and not to take anything from Arkansas, but we certainly helped them by our mellow approach to it. We got back on our heels and were fortunate. It is the way we did not handle our business that we have to continue to talk about.”

On what he’s looking for in SEC Tournament…
“Same thing. We need those guys. We need both of them. We need them to give us some offense too. I thought they were huge in the game. Arkansas when we were really teetering, they went in and we told both of them that we need you guys to play defense and rebound. And they did through a period there in a high-level game. So they should be ready. In terms of understanding it being in a high-level game. When it matters and when it’s on the line. They really helped us during that stretch. We just needed consistency and I would say the same thing about each player that I would say about our team. We have to ask each one of those guys to get better.”

On John Fulkerson…
“These last couple days have helped him. He had a pretty deep hip pointer that he’s had to deal with. He wasn’t at his best the other night. He was giving up some rebounds there and it gets physical. I know when you have a hip pointer that’s when your using that part of your body a lot to rebound the ball it’s difficult. But hopefully these last two days that he’s gotten overall a good side where he can get back to doing the things we know he’s capable of. “

On Jahmai Mashack and players in similar roles as him…
“He’s been up and down a little bit. That’s a very difficult thing to do as a player. I know that. Every game, we tell players that they have to be ready, because we don’t know what’s going to happen sometimes. You don’t want them to ever think that you’re just saying that to them. When we go into every game, we have no idea what adjustments we’re going to make and what’s going to happen. As a player, you hear it often enough and when it doesn’t happen it’s easy to get down. If you aren’t locked in, and you go in the game and are not ready on one possession, you’re probably not going to play. We know our players well enough to know when they’re locked in. We know their body languages better than anybody. It will start today in practice for every guy that’s in that role. Everything that we do will carry over to our shootaround. We want guys realizing that their body language and their mindset determines before we go into a game what we are thinking.”

On developing underrecruited players…
“I don’t know if we do better with them. I think anybody does better with them when you get guys that have a great work ethic and have something in their DNA. I’ve said before that when you recruit and bring players in, you don’t truly know all that you are getting until the very end and you’re with them every single day. You’re always hoping for the best. I also think our coaches do a great job with their intel trying to figure out what is going to work here. We talk about having a competitive spirit. We always talk about the work ethic. We want all three of them. Two out of three won’t work, one out of three won’t work, but three out of three normally works. All those guys were three out of three on all of that. We do take great pride in our player development program. I think most schools would say that too. I think our coaches do a tremendous job there. You can’t coach somebody unless they want to be coached. You have to give a tremendous amount of credit to those guys that came in and fought they odds and did things that most people think they wouldn’t do. It goes back to their character, work ethic and competitive spirit.”

On little things that are key to a NCAA Tournament run…
“I think the key is not to beat yourself. By some of the things that we did Saturday afternoon. Not being locked in mentally. Turning the ball over. Not rebounding the basketball. It’ll get back to fundamentals but the mental side of it, you have to be locked in. You have to understand that the game changes a little bit. Longer timeouts will start happening. Once you get into the conference tournament, obviously we know each other, so this is a real rock fight because we all know each other so well. The key is that you rely on your training, you rely on what you’ve done up to the point. If you’re not locked in from a mental standpoint and you start doing things out of character where you start beating yourself, that’s how it all ends. You still have to execute the fundamentals of the game. Like I said Saturday, too many mental mistakes, too many mental mistakes, too many turnovers, too many second shots. To be quite honest, as hard as we played in the first half I thought they played harder in the second half. That’s what momentum can do sometimes. Momentum can get you feel like you’re playing in quicksand when you’re back on your heels and you’re trying everything that you can to get it turned around. Some guys try to do too much. It’s really staying together, believing in what you’re doing as a team and knowing that it’s going to be a grind. It’s going to be hard. If you think it’s easy, like you have a 20-point lead at halftime and think things are going to be easy. A 20-point lead with 20 minutes to go in a game is nothing. You come out and in three possessions they take it from 20 to 14 with 17 minutes to go. We’ve been down 16 with nine minutes to go and can win a game. A lot goes into it but it’s about understanding you have to be able to play for 40 minutes.”