University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Vols 90, Presbyterian 50
December 06, 2016 | Men's Basketball
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Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes
(On his team's 3-point shooting)
"Well, I think we can shoot it, but you guys know it's a game of makes and misses. Sometimes they fall, sometimes they don't. I thought we got a little bit too happy with it early in the game. We wanted to play inside-out, but that works both ways. Our post guys still haven't made themselves a presence in there, in terms of demanding the ball. They're floating around, hopping around, and not really demanding the ball (in) the way they speak with their hands and their bodies. It's easy, because we want to attack. We talk about shots in rhythm and shots within our offense. But when you're Presbyterian, they would love us to shoot it quick and hope that we're not having a great night shooting the ball. The worst part of the game for us is the way we played the last four minutes down. I think we hit two threes to close out the half in that four-minute period, there. The last minute, we weren't very good. That was my fault. I didn't have a good unit on the court at the time. That really had a chance to have that kind of presence inside, but the rhythm shots, they get going. I think we've got guys that can shoot the ball, when they don't force it, and when they let it just come to them. So, tonight, it was going for us."
(On the right guys taking the 3-point shots)
"We talk a lot about that. Shots within the flow of the offense, that's why they ran their little matchup zone. In the second half, we just decided to do something that our guys were comfortable with. You know, running the matchup cuts that they're familiar with, areas they know they're going to get shots, areas where they know to pass the ball to. We've talked a lot about rebounding. That gives them a shot to go rebound it, because they know where shots are coming from. But one thing is, when you do these "buy games," you always want to buy them with coaches who do good stuff. Gregg Nibert does that. We told our team that this team (Presbyterian) is going to. I told the team at halftime, I thought they had executed what they wanted to do better than we had. Obviously our depth wore them down eventually. The fact is, we have to guard some really good actions. They spaced the floor very similarly to the way North Carolina is going to space the floor, where they take away. They actually run a version of what Carolina can do with their offense, where they raise you up and take away the backside defense, which we need to be effective against bigger, taller teams. Again, they ran their stuff. From their perspective, when they look at it, they turned the ball over some. But, they missed some shots, too, where they really executed their offense, and we didn't guard it very well. Our defense did get a little bit better in the second half, much better, actually."
(On the potential of Jordan Bowden)
"Well, it's interesting in recruiting. Everybody gets so caught up in rankings and ratings and all that. I've told this story, I think, when we got here. Everywhere I would go around town, people would say to me, 'Are you guys going to recruit Jordan Bowden?' I'm like, 'I don't even know who Jordan Bowden is.' Then one day his folks came in to see us. I remember Steve Dicks, from Emerald Youth told me, 'He's a great kid.' I remember his folks wanting to come in and meet with us. We did, and his mom asked a question. She said, 'I don't understand this process. Why would the University of Tennessee, right here, not recruit a local guy?' (Associate head coach) Rob Lanier said, 'To be quite frank, we've checked on all the kids here. We checked, and the comment we got back from a guy was `He's not good enough.' She said, 'Well, that guy needs to be shot.' And based on tonight, I would say that I agree with her. But we promised we would go down and see him play. When we went down there to see him play, one the schools that was involved was Tulsa. A guy that was recruiting him was (assistant coach) Mike Schwartz, who's now on our staff. Mike actually thought they were in a position, and he said, 'We truly thought we were going to steal a guy that one day could be player of the year in the league.' When we got him, he never changed. He doesn't flinch. If you talked to the guys on the team, they'd tell you he's the funniest guy on the team, but you wouldn't know that just talking to him. But he's hilarious. He won't let me see that side of him yet, but he's got a chance to be as good as he wants to be. I got on him at halftime because (he wasn't shooting and) I think he needs to show the fact, because he can do it. You saw his little touch around the basket on the little floater. I mean, he can drive the ball. He can play off one or two bounces. But when he gets it going like that, he's a shot maker. I told him he has to be able to impact the game when he's not making shots, and he's a good enough player to do that, and to not be known as just a guy that can score in bunches."
(On the Vols' 23-0 run in the second half)
"We fought defensively. It broke loose quick there. Remember, we were in the back court, more or less, just really being a nuisance back there. I actually didn't see what happened other than the fact they threw the ball away and we picked it up. I think that's when we skipped over. I think Lamonte (Turner), or maybe Detrick (Mostella), hit a three after we just hit a three. That's a quick six-point swing. Again, we didn't do a good job in the first half. We wanted to defend the 3-point line and I think they shot 40 percent in the first half because we were in some scramble situations and we just didn't run guys off the line. We gave up three threes and if we hadn't have done that there's a difference in being up 40-29 or 40-21. You've got to give them credit. They're well-coached. What we didn't want to do, as we normally would do when the ball goes to the side, is dig down and give up the three. We didn't want to do that because they do shoot the ball really well from the three so we were leaving our post guys down there by themselves. Our defense wasn't where it needed to be in the first half. In the second half, we got them playing further from the basket a little bit. I know we took two bad three's. Detrick's first one was a bad three, it was a forced three. Robert Hubbs III came out and started doing what we needed him to do, taking the ball to the rim, and then he just settles for a three. He doesn't need to do that. I don't mind him shooting a three but we talked about the ball has to go into the lane before it goes up from out there."
(On his team not overlooking Presbyterian for Sunday's matchup with North Carolina)
"I don't think they thought about that. I really don't. I think that these guys are becoming a team and that understands practicing with purpose. One time during a timeout tonight I said, 'Lamonte, you coach them.' We talked about before the game we'll be the kind of team we want to be. We see a set developing during a game and the bench is up yelling. They got calls. We ran a play called Cyclone and then their team is yelling it out and their team's engaged. That's what I want our guys to do. Shembari (Phillips) is getting to where he's talking more. Grant (Williams) is a talker. The best teams are the ones that can talk and communicate. For a young group of guys--we aren't doing it great yet, all around, but the fact is the focus was good. We practiced a little bit longer yesterday, probably more than I would have liked. The one thing I've noticed about this team is after a day off they're not as sharp as they should be. I think that's a sign of a young team too. Whereas older guys they come back, and especially a day before a game, realize we have got to be sharp and get the work done to get in and get out. We haven't been very good at all when we take two days off. That's still being young but that's where I hope we'll grow that way."
(On Admiral Schofield's return)
"I think he came out, he's gotten himself in a stance, and we played him on the perimeter tonight which is something he hasn't done. We actually started working him there yesterday. Again, they ran some good stuff where he got ran him off a couple of double screens, stagger screens, that he had to deal with but he made the effort. He's making the effort to do it. I still want him to slow down because he's a good offensive player if he'll just slow down. The plays they know they are going to come out for are the ones in the low post, and he didn't even look to score and he tried to throw a rocket pass. Robert (Hubbs) did what he was supposed to do diving to the rim and it goes back to where he is too amped up on the offensive end. His personality kind of works against him on the offensive side, whereas defensively he's willing to go. The biggest emphasis is blocking out and I'm curious to see how we grade on blocking out and getting to the offensive glass because we were very mediocre against Georgia Tech."
Tennessee guard Lamonte Turner
(On preparation for the Presbyterian matchup)
"Coach has been talking to me more about giving my teammates the ball and scoring in the flow of the offense. I listened to him and everything came into flow."
(On Jordan Bowden's skill set)
"He can really do everything. Coach is just on him a lot about driving the ball because he can drive the ball really well; he's one of the best drivers on the team. I think sometimes he just kind of shy's away from it but when he gets it all together he's really good."
(On newfound confidence level)
"I'm definitely getting more comfortable. Before this year, I hadn't played in a real game probably in like a year and a half. I'm really just getting used to the game and being used to just being out there."
(On competing against non-Power 5 opponents)
"Last year sitting out I learned that we should play every game and not overlooking anybody. Coach has been on us about overlooking people. This team was a good team, as you all saw. Offensively they can score the ball and they had a lot of weapons."
Tennessee guard Jordan Bowden
(On the upcoming matchup against No. 7 North Carolina)
"We're going to compete. We're ready and we just have to have a good practice and be prepared to get down there. I think we'll be ready for them."
(On Lamonte Turner's 3-point shooting)
"Lamonte Turner was on fire tonight. He was feeling it and we know Lamonte can shoot the ball so we were confident in him."
(On improvements made during the offseason)
"In high school I wasn't that consistent at shooting but coming here, they helped me on my shot and a lot of reps. I feel more confident now than I did back then."
Presbyterian head coach Gregg Nibert
(Opening statement)
"There was a barrage of threes. It seemed like when we made one and you want to go down and get a big stop, they just answered the call. We had a couple of bad turnovers, they got back-to-back threes. The momentum was just too much for us. I have got to hand it to them, their 3-point shooting was tremendous."
(On Tennessee's 3-point shooting)
"Like I said we had a couple of bad turnovers, and letting guys just shooting wide open threes. We knew they could shoot. Phillips could shoot, Turner could shoot, these guys are big-time players. To shoot as well as they did surprised us a little bit but they've got the whole gambit. We needed to play. We were right in there but couldn't keep it going."
(On Tennessee's defense)
"They did a good job of guarding us and taking us out of our offense. We had a tough time getting it inside and guys were trying to do too much one-on-one. We are not a one-on-one team. One of our best players, Jo'Vontae Millner, had a rough night. He's one of our best drivers and he didn't play a whole lot so they did a great job on him. I was really proud of our guys for 30 minutes. We did about as well as we could. As I talked the guys two-to-four minutes before the half, it was a six-point game that became a 12-point game. We had a bit of a rough start. It was a 10 or 12-point game with 10 minutes to go. We have a young team, too, and they get a little frustrated to rather than knowing how to fight back. We have got to fight back defensively. You can fight back on offense; you have to fight back on defense. We didn't really do that."
