On his biggest takeaways from Saturday’s exhibition win over Lenoir-Rhyne…
“The biggest takeaway would be that we still have a lot of work to do, especially defensively. This was the first time that we played a team that, oftentimes, felt like we were playing against five guards and having our post players out there as much as they were. Lenoir-Rhyne ran some really good actions. They did a lot of really nice stuff on the offensive end. As much as you practice against each other, you get to know yourself in practice. But when you’re dealing with someone else and doing things differently (it’s different). Even how you guard a player one-on-one is different. We’ve still got quite a bit of work to do on the defensive end. Offensively, we shot the ball pretty well. Some guys that we can count on shooting maybe better didn’t shoot it as well. But the way they were playing, those opportunities were there and we tried to take advantage of it.”

On if he expects John Fulkerson to be ready for Tuesday’s season-opener…
“He’s questionable. He’s been doing everything he can with us. Obviously, he’s not in contact with us right now, but otherwise he’s doing everything he can to keep himself in the kind of conditioning he needs to be in.”

On Jonas Aidoo’s status…
“He practiced the other day. He looked okay. As you would imagine, stamina is still a concern, which we knew that going in. He wasn’t able to go through the whole practice, but we were able to spot him throughout practice. He looked like he enjoyed being back out there, which is a good thing, but it will take some time to get him back up to where he needs to be from a conditioning standpoint.”

Vols HC Rick Barnes / Credit: UT Athletics

On working on the team’s defense as the Villanova matchup approaches and if they’ll have to grow on defense as the season transpires…
“Forget Villanova. We better be ready to play Tuesday night against UT Martin. They’ve got a new program there and really a terrific new basketball coach. He (Ryan Ridder) does a great job. If you know anything about his past, his teams execute extremely well and they do good things. Obviously, before Villanova we have East Tennessee State. We have great respect for Coach (Desmond) Oliver and what he does. It’s about what we can do today and leading up to the opener against UT Martin where we’ve got to get better. We do expect to build from start to finish. Do we think we’re going to be as good as we are right now defensively? No, but we know we’ve got to keep making strides every day.”

On Brandon Huntley-Hatfield has followed up his performance in the exhibition during this week’s practices…
“He’s had a really good attitude, a really wonderful attitude. He’s really active with his hands. He has really good feet. He has soft hands. He gets his hands on a lot of basketballs where he pokes all the time trying to break things loose. He’s at that point where he’s trying to accept the things that we’re looking for him to do on both the offensive and defensive ends. It’s going to be a matter of—and not just for Brandon, but everyone and especially the younger guys—consistency. How much can we count on you, especially when you get fatigued? Can you fight through fatigue and make good plays when you’re a little tired?”

On his confidence level with Uros Plavsic and Olivier Nkamhoua and how their consistency has improved…
“I think we have to be confident with them because they have done the work we have asked them to do. We expect them to continue to get consistent so we know what to expect. We know defensively it is non-negotiable there. They need to give it to us on that end first and foremost. They need to earn and pay for their space on the floor to and do the things we ask them to do within our offense. The biggest key for us, the coaching staff, is can we count on night in and night out to play defense the way we want to play and rebound the basketball.”

On Kennedy Chandler’s ability to run the offense…
“We have confidence in Kennedy. He shot the ball well. Had a couple of nice plays where he fought for space to get inside the lane and dropped off some passes. We have confidence in the fact that we watch him and Santiago and Zakai go at it every day. With Kennedy, I would say the same thing about the younger guys learning how to compete at the highest level and fight through fatigue when you’re tired. To be an elite player, you need to be in elite shape. I think he is there physically, I do not think he is there mentally and I think that is the next step for him. No one is going to work any harder with it than he is but it is just a matter of him breaking through that and how quickly that will be. We’ll see.”

On Kennedy Chandler being a vocal point guard…
“He is getting better. He is. He has to learn to say what needs to be said as opposed to just talking to talk. The fact that he is willing to talk is a major breakthrough for any player because when players get here in general they do not talk a lot when they are playing. The fact is I think our players look to Kennedy, Santi, Zakai, the guys that have the ball in their hands most of the time. Those to me are vocal leaders.”

On if he knows what his player rotation looks like…
“I really don’t. The players will decide that. I actually think we might have played 11 guys at Texas when we went to the Final Four. It was a group of guys that totally sold out in their roles and the time on the court was where every possession mattered. We could not take time off defense and it was a tag-team mentality. There is not a guy on our team we don’t think can help us. It is just a matter of consistency. Can they truly comprehend and grasp the role we need them to play. And when they go on the floor, we know exactly what we are going to get from them.”

On player consistency in practice and earning a role in games…
“It starts every single day in practice and listening is a big part of that too. As much time as we do spend with our guys with every facet of our program, and with film study, it’s asking them to carry it over right now and then showing us that they understand what we need. But then again when the lights come on, it is a little bit different of an arena that they are in and it’s not like we can stop them and correct them, so we hope our daily routine of what we do, with repetition, is what’s going to carry them when we get under the lights.”

On UT Martin and how they will challenge Tennessee in upcoming matchup…
“They have had a scrimmage and we haven’t seen them yet. I’m willing to exchange film with them. Again, I had a chance to meet coach (Ryan) Ridder and he is really a wonderful person. I know Dr. (Keith) Carver there and when he went through that process, he talked about his character which is evident once you meet him. Ryan was a guy that as soon as I met him, and hearing him talk on Coaches Versus Cancer, you just knew that he had a lot of confidence and knew what he wanted to get done. He is a coach that is going to build a great program there and they are going to play hard and work hard defensively. Again, once it starts for real, we know none of the games are easy.”

On the cancellation of the UT Martin game last season due to Covid…
“I don’t remember if we were going to open against them last year or not. When Covid hit, we were scrambling for games and they were too, but again the relationship we have with them being in our system and the fact that Dr. Carver is a wonderful person and a person that I would call my friend, and in the way that he has built that university and what he is looking for in his basketball program and his athletic department is something that would have worked out last year if they would have been here. But also, through talking through that we wanted to see if we could follow up with it this year.”

On how much you see the offense have an in-and-out game balance…
“We need it, there are nights when you get great looks and they don’t go in, and there are nights when you get the ball inside and those don’t go in either. We want balance, we want to play inside-out as much as we possibly can, and we want to continually put pressure on the rim. We want most of all, each guy to play to his strengths, and do what he does best to help us win. It’s our job to try to put them in positions to be able to do that.”

Olivier Nkamhoua Quotables

On the evolution of his game and his mentality…
“I think you can gain a lot of confidence in an offseason just knowing the work that you put in and the time that you put in. The biggest confidence comes when you get in the game and when you see the results play out. That’s what you have these preseason scrimmages for. There are many ways to see the progress that you’ve made and I think those moments help a lot.”

On what he did during the exhibition that he liked and what he wants to correct…
“I liked how we were able to offensively do well as a team. Defense is the main thing though. We need to be more intentional and more intense. Myself personally, I need to be more intentional and more intense on the defensive end.”

On the aspect of his game that has improved the most since last season…
“Just understanding the game and learning the game, purely the mental aspect of it. I think physically, I work on all of my skills all the time and those will always keep getting better, but mentally is the part where I need to keep getting better, and I think I’ve taken the most strides there.”

On having fans back in Thompson-Boling Arena…
“It’s great. It’s always great to play in front of our fans because the environment becomes that much more electric. Playing basketball is playing basketball, but when you have your fans involved, the energy that comes into the building is completely different and on a different level.”