Barnes discussed the game of John Fulkerson and Victor Bailey Jr., preparing for South Carolina with uncertainty about who could fail due to COVID, the health of Josiah-Jordan James, South Carolina’s success from the start on the line three points and more. Here’s everything Barnes had to say after the game:
About the play by John Fulkerson and Victor Bailey Jr.:
“In recent days, in practice, we were short. I kept talking to the guys about, hey, you have to get a little bit involved. We can only do so much from the point of view of the technical team. Our offense since Fulky is here has not changed much. If any have changed, it’s because we’ve added to take advantage of some other talent. Otherwise, your position has not changed much. We just said hey, you’re going to have to do this. I thought he did a better job of running tonight than he did all year. He really ran the ground hard. I still think he has to play faster in the post. He’s trying to get it, spin it and do it. He won’t have time to do this unless he really does his job early. And VJ, I think that in the last two days, Santi (Vescovi) was unable to practice, so these three worked together. I thought it probably helped VJ as much as anyone, just the last two days really just touching the point, understanding what we want him to do. I thought he just did a good job with that. “
On what it was like to prepare for South Carolina with the uncertainty surrounding COVID:
“We knew that regardless of the test results, we had to play by the rule. Two days ago, we knew that Josias (Jordan James) couldn’t play. So we did that. Santi did not practice. He hadn’t practiced until shooting today. We really hadn’t done anything, so much today. But we had three guys who were unable to practice. So we started to practice with the guys we had. We try to do a few different things. We obviously knew that we would get the Ticket (Davonte Gaines) early in the game tonight. We would call Olivier (Nkamhoua) if we could. We just decide whatever we have, we have to go and play. That’s how we practice in the last few days. “
On the Josiah-Jordan James wrist injury:
“I think he is fine. I mean, we think he’ll be back on Saturday. We will know more (later), but we think so. “
About Victor Bailey Jr’s play:
“Sometimes, when a player stops thinking about shooting and just playing, getting involved, letting the ball spin and coming back to him, just start the attack and try to lose yourself defensively, it just happens to you. He had some defensive breakdowns tonight. A big problem in a time limit, when I took it out. And I think he was a little tired. Players go through ups and downs. I think we saw more of this this year. I think there is a lot of inconsistency for several different reasons. There is nothing normal that any of us are doing. I can only imagine what South Carolina has been through here in the last few days and what they went through earlier in the year. It is just one of those years when there is no consistency with many things and, in a way, it affects the players ”.
On how important it was for Victor Bailey Jr. to continue shooting in his fights:
“All we really ask of these guys is to do what you do. Do this at a high level. Don’t think that you need to do more than you need to do. Just trust each other, play with each other. Just use your strengths. Don’t try to overdo it. Understand the game. I think he and Keon (Johnson) and Jaden (Springer), even Santi, they have to adjust to changes in defenses throughout the game. Change from team to team, as everyone will play with you a little differently. But overall, over many years of coaching, I’ve seen guys go through periods like this throughout the year. Very few of them can maintain it at all times. As I told them tonight after the game, now is the time to be consistent. Let’s see if we can do this. At both ends. We are reaching the end of the regular season, so we just need to see if we can just be consistent. “
On why South Carolina was successful on the 3-point line from the start:
“Well, the observation report was part of that, but outside of our observation report we gave up three in the early parts of the game because we didn’t run our observation report. It was clear and simple, and they did it. These guys are able to do them. We tell guys all the time that we’re going to play some guys who take first, but even that, anyone at this level can try. We weren’t closing with a raised hand and just letting the guys stand out as if they were playing HORSE. Our ball pressure was not very good at the beginning of the game. I thought they were very comfortable on the offensive side doing what they were doing. In the second half, I thought we did a little better job of defending the ball and trying to make them feel a little more. And they dropped some guys. There is no doubt that the tiredness may have been established because they took down two key guys, and that hurts at any moment. So Lawson suffered two fouls in the first half. I think Frank does a great job. I don’t know if anyone had a more difficult year than his, but it is what it is. As I said, in the first half they hit the kicks. I can say that the last time we left, we had open kicks that we did in the first half and in the second half we didn’t get it. This is just the basketball game. “
If he thinks Tennessee is turning a corner in the attack:
“If we don’t turn the ball around like we did. We had some really bad twists in the second half and, again, they had something to do with some of them, but not others, when we just launched impossible-to-catch passes and tried to hit the ball in a tight game. Santi interrupted and Jaden saw, but he just threw a bullet pass at him, and Santi has good hands, but it was a very difficult pass. These are the things we have to clean. We have to continue to have guys like Yves, he has to continue to be an even more aggressive rebound. And Fulky. But we have to get out and go. It is important that we do this, and tonight, they were mixing it between man and zone, and we just stayed with them and were able to get some of those transition baskets. We are no different than any team in the country. We need those baskets. I think all the teams in the country need them. They caught some against us too, because the transition defense is a really difficult defense to teach and get the guys to execute, especially when there is some crossover going on. Like, our guard has to understand that he’s the man back, and he can’t let anyone get behind him. We let that happen twice tonight, I’m sure I remember, and they missed or missed.
On what he thought of the play by Yves Pons and John Fulkerson:
“We need both to be aggressive and it’s that simple. And this is not just offensive, we need them to be defensively aggressive, we need them to fight for us. This represents two-thirds of our front line on most nights. Offensively, if they want to get involved, they are going to have to get involved. I can tell you one thing, they could probably have done a little more tonight if they wanted to without having to call the sets and get them involved. This position in our attack has a lot of freedom, but you have to engage and play with some strength ”.
On Tennessee’s balanced score:
“There is no doubt that we are better when we have that different score than you mentioned. What we talked to these guys about is that we need them to score. But in fact, we said that we need other guys to have the same kind of attitude that we’re going to score. We told these guys that they are good enough not only to score, but to get some easy baskets for others. That is why some of the passes, they should have shot a pair tonight when they tried to feed him in some tight spots. When we get the score you’re talking about, it’s hard to defend as a team. We know that playing against teams that have this skill makes defense very difficult. “
When leaving the transition, but with control:
“We haven’t been up and down since Saturday. This is something that worried us because we thought we were going to have few numbers and we wanted to make sure we saved legs because we have a quick turnaround for Saturday. Part of it has to do with what you do, I don’t care if you spend six, seven minutes a day just playing that rhythm, it’s important that they stay at that rhythm. At the beginning of the game, the guys were asking to leave two minutes of the game because it was a quick game, which we knew it would be. They are the tenth team with the fastest pace in the country with the pace they play. It went up and down.
“Jaden was not feeling well. The guys were asking to leave, so they had their second breath, which I thought was important. I really felt we were going to fight it so soon just because we hadn’t been up and down since Saturday because of the situation we were in, knowing that we couldn’t afford to hurt anyone. This can happen when you start to open it in practice. I am proud of these guys for the preparation and the unknown. We didn’t know the situation until later today just before the shootaround, just before that what was the deal. I am very proud of these guys being stuck and doing what they did. “
On why he was upset with John Fulkerson for a timeout:
“He made an excuse. There are certain ways, when we are in a gap, to not let the guys, certain guys who shoot a high percentage of the three. The fact is, he just didn’t do it. He made an excuse and that’s when I said no, no, no. You know what you did. He said that you are the right coach. That’s what we want him to do. There is absolutely no reason for this type of breakdown for an elderly person. There is no reason. If tiredness has anything to do with it, I told him that you better get out of the game. We will not rest in defense. If we go to rest, we go to the offensive side. We are not resting and we are not going to give up simple things about Scouting reports. An irrefutable guy, we can’t do that.
“We did it twice to start the game. Santi did it once and he did it once. Those are the ones you can’t give up on good players who do that. I took out VJ after a timeout when he lost Lawson. We had a very good standing position and he turned and started watching the ball and gave up on the three. We can not do that. There are a lot of guys in this league who can burn you by taking a step, just a few inches. Those are the ones that are frustrating because this is mental. Now, I think that at this time of year, mental preparation is very, very important compared to the physical part of it. Physically, we must be able to get up and down on the ground. We struggled a little, but we settled there. We cannot have these mental breakdowns in the defensive game plan. “