University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Vols 92, Lipscomb 77
December 15, 2016 | Men's Basketball
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Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes
(That must have been one heck of a halftime talk)
"Not really, we didn't do a great job making the adjustments coming out after the eight-minute mark when we tried to change our defense. That goes back to where we were so locked in to helping inside. They were doing a great job skipping the ball, and we talked a lot about it coming into the game but they did a great job. They were making shots; we weren't getting there nearly quick enough. What we really did, we were just going to stay at home more. We still didn't do a great job of guarding the basketball. Overall, in the second half I thought we came out and probably played as well in the second half as they did in the first half. They're a good basketball team, (associate head coach Rob Lanier), during the scout, he told me a week ago, he said, `Coach, Lipscomb is a really good team. They're record is not indicative of where they are, and they've got the ability to score a lot of points because they're so well coached.' When you watch them on tape, they do that. Even with the fact that they made a bunch of threes in the first half, I thought the game really turned in the last 90 seconds of the first half. I think we were down 15 or so and we got it down to nine. Then we came out in the second half and went on a pretty good run right there. Robert Hubbs did a lot of good things tonight, played every position on the floor. I thought that Lew Evans played his best all-around game all year. Grant Williams, for a freshman, somebody told me that's the most points a (Tennessee) freshman has scored since Chris Lofton. But Chris Lofton was a gunner and took 20 shots as opposed to Grant's 12. Chris is around here, so I can get after him tomorrow because he's getting ready to go play (in Turkey). But Grant did a good job, he did. He did a really good job; he did some good things defensively. I thought Detrick Mostella was locked in pretty good, too. I thought his defense in the second half was really key. We still didn't have really good point-guard play defensively--too many fouls and too many blow byes. There're a difficult team to play against because (they've got) terrific spacing and shoot the ball. They average nine threes a game, but the second half we did obviously a much better job. Good win for us."
(On why was Grant Williams so effective tonight)
"Well, we kept telling our team... watch North Carolina, watch these guys, (Lipscomb). We talked about we haven't figured out the concept of playing inside-outside yet. It's tough when you're a post guy and you alone get one or two shots a game. Coach Lanier made a great point to them last night he said, `Hey let's let the post guys miss some shots, let's let them have some. Let them miss it.' Tonight, I thought we could have put it in there even more. When it goes in there, it doesn't necessarily have to mean a shot is going to take place. You can get some great looks off inside-outside passing. Tonight we did a really good job putting it in there."
(On who stood out on defense)
"Again, I thought a lot of guys did some things well. I thought our post defense... I don't think they scored that much down there. Sitting here, I'm think that they hurt us on some dribble drives from the point-guard position. I thought Detrick Mostella was really good when he came into the game. Again, Shembari Phillips fouled too much. I know it's probably the most minutes Kwe Parker has played. I know he shot his first free throws tonight, but the fact is, he fouled a 3-point shooter with the shot clock going down. But the second half we switched some; we did start switching to change it up. Overall, I thought we were more on edge, and we were. Why we weren't to start? I don't know. But again I think you've got to give Lipscomb a lot of credit for the first half. It's been a long time since a team has... shoot, that looked like an NBA score at halftime. They made some shots, they banked a couple of them in, but they also scored in a variety of different ways. They were feeling good, they were confident, you could tell it by the way they were playing. And again, like I said, I thought the last minute of the first half was big for us."
(On when Detrick Mostella began affecting the game)
"Last game, I thought he really tried. I'm glad he wasn't happy with the fact that he didn't play a lot of minutes at North Carolina, and we talked about it. He's going after the ball rebounding-wise. He's trying to do that, and he's really working defensively. He can impact the game without shooting. I did get upset with him tonight. He took two bad shots. We made the call to put the ball inside and he made a bad shot. He didn't execute those situations, but he's trying to be more of a complete player."
(On Lew Evans' performance)
"The last couple of games I thought that he was giving up on our cutting game too soon, and he was more patient tonight. He went inside. He hit a three. His post defense was good. I thought his post defense was really good."
(On the status of freshman forward John Fulkerson)
"He has a right elbow injury."
(On Robert Hubbs III improvement since last season)
"His attitude has changed. A year ago, he wasn't the best practice player, and in the spring he changed that. You see it happen in college basketball, guys that come in with a rep and before they know it, they're here today and gone. I think he's a guy that truly wants to make this a great year.
"He was devastated... I was really proud of him after the North Carolina game. He was really hurting. He wanted to win that game as badly as any player I've been around. He really did. He should have gotten the ball at the end of the game, and that's another point we told our guys. At some point in time, he, Grant and those guys need to be taking as many shots as anybody on the team. He's become a leader in his own way. He's much more vocal. I don't know if he ever said a word last year. I think he knows that it's his responsibility to do that. We need to keep moving forward."
(On the strategy if John Fulkerson is out for any number of games)
"I don't know. We'll just play whoever is available and figure out how to get through games. Kyle can do it. We need him to keep doing what he's doing. We can play four guards. We did it a year ago. We could play five guards. We can do a lot of different things. I hope that we get him back, but we probably won't know until game time."
(On Grant Williams' performance in practice and his confidence during the game)
"I talked to him yesterday. We sat there and I don't think he would call it a pleasant conversation. I basically said to him that he's disappointed me. I can tell there are games where he wants to shoot the ball from the perimeter, and I said that will come. But what this team needs is for him to be a factor inside. I said that we need to have somebody in there that wants the ball, that's demanding the ball. He has great hands, a nice touch and he knows how to use his body. But he doesn't demand the ball. Tonight, he did what we expected and what we wanted.
"Like Hubbs, (Grant) should have eight or nine rebounds. He should be like John Fulkerson. I think he should get more rebounds than six. He's strong. He's hard to move. He's getting better at understanding the college game, what he can and can't do. He's never been allowed to bar somebody up. He's much more explosive than he's shown. You saw him the other night. He dunked the ball. He needs to be playing above the rim much more than he is."
(On the passing of Craig Sager)
"He was always a great guy. I remember being around him during the NCAA Tournament games and he was one of those guys from the first time you met him and talked to him, you thought he was your best friend. He's meant a lot to basketball. We lost him at such a young age, but he will have a legacy that will long last. He was truly a wonderful person."
(On the Battle on Broadway matchup versus eighth-ranked and unbeaten Gonzaga Sunday in Nashville)
"Last year, we went out and played Gonzaga in Seattle. It was a great game, great atmosphere. I have a lot of respect for (Gonzaga head coach) Mark Few, and I'd like for him to come in and see the kind of crowd that we saw out there last year.
"They're a terrific team. I've known Mark for a long time and this is as good of a team as I've seen. They're always good, but people that see them a lot tell me that they're `Final Four' good. It's a good opportunity, and we'll see what we can go out there and do."
Tennessee guard Robert Hubbs III
(On his play this year compared to last year)
"I just want to win. Plain and simple. Whatever I have to do. Whether I have to bring the ball up the floor, like I did some today, I want to do it. I don't want to look back and say, 'I wish I could have done this or that.' I just want to win each and every game."
(On Grant Williams' play)
"We need to get him the ball more. We have to feed those guys. They worked all week in practice and in the other games; they deserve it. A guy like Grant can score. He's got a big body and gets the work done. I'm very proud of him. We need somebody like that to score night in and night out."
(On the defense in second half)
"We needed to bring some energy. I told our guys we've got to step it up. Lock in on the defensive end and the offense will take care of itself. We started right off the bat where we got some easy buckets and they called a timeout, then we just kept on going and applying pressure. That's what we need to do."
Tennessee forward Grant Williams
(On Tennessee's play in second half)
"I felt like I was more confident coming out in the second half. We got on a good run to start. It was about being able to be consistent and have fun. We were hyping each other up. It was a nice night."
(On moving forward after a tough conversation with Coach Barnes)
"I wouldn't say it's pressure. I would just say he expects more out of me and I should do a better job of that. It's a standard. Bringing it every night is something I should be and need to do a better job with."
(On what changed in the second half)
"I would say more communication. We knew we had to get stops in order to win the game because we allowed them 58 points in the first half. I don't think anybody has done that on our home court. We knew we had to play defense and we came out, got a nice scoring drive, and went from there."
(On feeding off of Hubbs)
"He's doing a great job this year, especially being a vocal leader. That's all of us coming out and putting our hearts on the court. He's been here for four years and he understands what it takes. Coach Barnes puts a lot of pressure on him. He expects a certain level from us and if we aren't doing it then he's going to be vocal about it. That's what we need."
(On his offensive success)
"Just using my body, understanding what the angles are and being able to score over top of people, on the inside and out. If guys are doing a good job on the outside then take them in, and if guys are doing good on the inside, then take them out."
Tennessee forward Lew Evans
(On his performance)
"Doing the things coach is asking me to do. What I'm most proud about is getting a win against a good team after what happened in the first half."
(On feeding the post men)
"We wanted to go inside-out. Watching North Carolina and Lipscomb on tape, they had an emphasis on feeding the post. Getting it inside, then kicking it out to their 3-point shooters. We saw how effective it was for them, so we wanted to do that as a team. We wanted to demand the ball inside and cover the game inside and kick it out to our shooters."
(On Lipscomb's first-half shooting)
"We knew coming into the game they were good shooters. I think it was all us. We were helping to inside the post and letting them skip out and shooting threes. Making those adjustments at half time, we tried to get them to run off the line and put the ball on the floor. It was effective and it helped. It showed."
Lipscomb head coach Casey Alexander
(Opening statement)
"I'm disappointed that we didn't play better in the second half. We told our guys that if we didn't defend better we'd lose by double figures. So, we never defended better and lost by double figures."
(On his team's play in second half)
"Shots may have been incrementally more difficult to come by. They didn't drop for us early (in the second half). They scored early at an amazing clip, then we let it affect how we played. When things aren't going your way, the responsibility is to rely on execution, doing what you do, and letting that produce good shots by the right people and let you get out of the mud, but we didn't. We pressed a little bit. We tried too hard to make things happen. We just compounded the problem, meanwhile never getting ourselves settled in defensively. Never giving ourselves a chance to stay in there when we weren't scoring offensively. We're not going to get 50 points, or whatever, like we did the first half. We knew that going out there but we just didn't play very well."
(On his team's defensive play)
"We had been a pretty good defensive team recently, so I'm disappointed that we didn't fight a little bit harder on that end. Tennessee is hard to guard. They've got more quickness and more athleticism than us. Williams played great in the second half and that bothered us. I didn't think we were determined enough, on that end, to really suck it up and do what we could to win our possessions defensively."
