What Rick Barnes said about No. 1 Tennessee’s win over MTSU, Cam Carr leaving Vols
Everything head coach Rick Barnes said after No. 1 Tennessee rallied from down six points at halftime to beat Middle Tennessee State 82-64 Monday night at Food City Center:
What he learned about this Tennessee team in the second half
“Well, first of all, I knew we were ready to play because it’s obvious. I mean, I just have tremendous respect for Nick (McDevitt). I think he’s one of the most underrated coaches in college basketball, one of the best kept secrets. Known him for a long time. Knew his team was going to come in. They had good size and drive the ball well. Knew that was going to happen. Knew they had the ability to make some threes. And so our guys knew it, and I thought we had a good week of prep to get ready. Started of the game, they did what I thought they would do it. I think we’re up eight, missed a couple of layups that we need to make, and then we turned it over four or five times in a row. Changed the whole momentum of the game in the first half. But thought at halftime we were locked in and came out and obviously played a lot better. But I told them, I said, this won’t be the last time we would be behind at halftime. Good for us, and let’s see if we can handle it. I thought they did a good job coming out and doing that.”
Zakai Zeigler’s career-high 15 assists, how well he’s playing at point guard
“Well, he is. I told him that I’d rather him have 19 (assists) and no turnovers. But he’s so competitive. He’s just so competitive. He did a good job. We felt we could get some of those over-the-tops. And he wants to do that. And if we ever get post guys consistently running to the rim, they can do that. He’ll be willing to do that. And when we put the shooters out there, it does open up the court. They made some, I think, terrific, in-game adjustments, where they were in the gaps, they were in the gaps. And we went to a side-ball screen early. Got a couple there, they actually turned Zakai over there one time, where I thought he tried to do a little bit too much with it. They jumped out there almost like a hard double team. Just the way he just disrupts everything, even defensively. But when he’s moving the ball like that, he’s starting to really understand his teammates. I think the more that he’s out there, he and Chaz are starting to get a little bit more of a connection to it. And he and Jordan have one. And when we go to that small lineup, Shack (Jahmai Mashack) gives us a chance to play so many different ways. But really happy with D-Stone (Darlinstone Dubar) tonight. He didn’t get in the second half just because of the flow of the game, the matchups, everything we had to go with. And I just know that Igor (Milicic) and Felix (Okpara) nd Cade (Phillips) and D-Stone are really going to be a big part of us going forward. And I tell them every day they’ve got to get better, but we all got to get better.”
If Tennessee, with only nine healthy scholarship players available after Cam Carr’s decision, will consider adding someone to the roster
“I don’t know. We haven’t thought a lot about it. I’m sure we will over the next couple of days, talk about some things. We have pretty much played eight or nine guys all year, right? Pretty much. I tell everybody, back when I first got into coaching, you ask questions trying to learn all I could about this game and talking to some of the old legendary guys. They always told me, ‘you want to play six, maybe seven, eight only if you have to.’ To build that rotation. One of the greatest at it was Bobby Cremins. He’d do it every year. Lou Carnesecca, those guys did it. Every year is different, but every guy we have right now, we’re expecting them to be a big part — I’m really impressed with D-Stone the last week. He’s really made some great strides. We continue to try and use him at multiple positions, but defensively, he’s really had a great week this past week. We’re getting better and we plan on doing that.”
If he’s thinking throughout a season that he needs to get this guy or that guy minutes in order to keep them happy
“To be honest with you I am not surprised. It didn’t surprise me. I actually made that comment to the coaches. That’s all I can tell you. Are you asking if we think about it? We think about it all the time. We are around these guys all the time. We know when guys are locked in and when they’re not. We know guys. We know these guys like the back of our hand. They talk. We talk. If you ask me, I was not the least bit surprised.”
How to not worry about roster movement throughout the course of a season
“It’s like Jahmai Mashack and Zakai Zeigler said a year ago when we lost some guys. They said plain and clear, ‘if they don’t want to be here then we don’t want them here.’ We want guys that want to be here and guys that really care about being part of the team. They said that. That’s how I think we all feel.”
When he expects Bishop Boswell to return
“I just talked to him a little bit. He’s been working really hard with his rehab, and we’re hoping maybe (when he) comes back from Christmas. I know he’ll do everything he needs to do while he’s there to rehab it and do that. He said he’s feeling better, but like I said, we’re playing the long game with him. We know we’re going to need him and once we get into SEC play, it’s really up to him once he gets comfortable.”
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