University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Arkansas 82, Vols 78
January 03, 2017 | Men's Basketball
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Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes
(Opening statement)
"I just still don’t think we value winning enough. I didn’t think we were very sharp today during our shootaround. It’s hard to win, and it’s hard to win at the level I want this program to be. Obviously we’re playing a team in Arkansas that’s off to a great start, a team that’s picked to finish in the top five or six in the league, and you can’t play to win when you’re behind like we were. We had a 13-point lead and then made some really poor decisions on the offensive end that led to them turning it around and getting on a big run against us. Jordan Bone is learning, and I thought for a guy that really hasn’t played a lot, his speed did change the game a little bit, but then he made some tough decisions. His jump shot right when he came back in the game wasn’t a good play. They went down and hit a quick three, and when Shembari (Phillips) drives down the baseline, throws up a bad shot, fouls, they go the free throw line, and within what seemed like five or 10 seconds, the 13-point lead went down to eight because of poor offense. I thought the momentum changed right there. From that point on, we were fighting uphill. Then we came out of halftime and turned the ball over three out of the first four possessions. And at the end of the game, defensively, we didn’t do a good job. They shot 50 percent, which how we were even in the game was pretty amazing. But we just don’t value winning enough. We don’t make enough winning plays, and we have to get our guards to understand that we don’t need volume shooters. There were too many shots taken by guys that don’t understand that a guy like Grant Williams only gets five field goal attempts. Obviously he got fouled, but he still needs to touch the ball more. Our shot selection is just still not very good."
(On the swing from the Tennessee run to the Arkansas run going into halftime)
"It’s frustrating because I truly don’t think we’ve done anything. We were picked to finish next to last in the league and we go on the road and get a nice win, but it’s never easy. I tried to tell those guys, like I said, that I wasn’t happy with the shoot around today. It’s hard to be a team that wants to be a postseason team and play in the tournament. You can’t give away something that you didn’t have. You have to earn it. You have to win it. We didn’t make enough winning plays to do that. I was proud with the way our guys had a little fight to them and went after it. We got a great trap, I think the guy traveled to get out of it, but that’s part of the game. But I do like the fact that we fought back into the game that way. Again, we need everybody, and we still haven’t gotten it yet. I thought Robert Hubbs was really good. Robert’s had two great days of practice, but he forced a couple things that he didn’t have to force. Again it goes back to having to believe in each other. And we’re not there yet."
(On what he felt was missing during the shoot around)
"Focus. Really being on edge. Understanding that for winning there’s a price to pay. And you can’t just think that you’re going to turn it on at the end, and come up short. That’s what happens. You have to play strong from start to finish. Like I said, they went on a 14-0 run. At the end of the game, we did some good things, but not enough. But you have to give them credit, we pushed at them and they made their free throws and I thought today was one of the worst days we’ve had shooting the ball from the free throw line, but I don’t think they shot it particularly well either—a little better than us. We just had too many bad shots that led to easy baskets for them."
(On defending Arkansas’ Moses Kingsley)
"They didn’t do one thing that we didn’t think they were going to do. We had a couple of breakdowns with our guards. They went right at our guards. That is what they do. They can drive the ball well and do a lot of curling and cutting. We weren’t finishing the possessions. On the first possession of the game, we were playing great and then Lamonte Turner fouls a 3-point shooter to start the game. We had a great possession going one time and then Detrick Mostella let a guy rise up and hit a three. We told them we had to finish possessions and that they were going to rise up and do those things. We didn’t guard well, so they kept cutting. We didn’t focus on double-teaming Kingsley. I thought Grant did a good job there, but our guards did not do a good job defensively."
(On learning to earn wins as a team)
"At the end of the game, there were a group of guys on the floor that were being competitive. Throughout the game, some guys weren’t. Players have to talk. If you are a player out there and a teammate says something to you and you always have an excuse, those are the guys that will weed themselves out. Over time, you will find out the guys who truly want to win because they know that if a teammate gets on them, they need to take it to heart. They don’t need to be insecure or defend themselves. We still have too much of that. Guys want to point fingers instead of manning up. We have to earn it because nobody is going to give it to us."
(On the play of Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone)
"Admiral did some good things. He is playing hard and we need that. He still has a long way to go, though. I think the three seconds call on Grant (Williams) should be Jordan’s turnover. He brought the ball past midcourt and then just stood there. Nobody knew what he was doing. Those are the kind of plays he has to get out of. The other plays are where he is throwing the ball away at the end of the game. With his speed, he has to get to the rim. For a kid who had only played four games before tonight, I thought his conditioning was fine, and I don’t think those decisions were because of fatigue. When he came off the bench and shot the three, that might have been his worst play. That was not what we needed."
(On Kwe Parker being an energy guy)
"What I like about Kwe is that he is competitive. He isn’t afraid to lay it all out there and compete. At the end of the game, he gives me confidence because he is going to fight and play. We need that. He will keep getting better. We will take that grit and toughness over anything."
(On if Jordan Bowden is stuck on his "freshman wall")
"He made some freshman mistakes tonight. He turned the ball over by being too lazy with it. He needs to learn to protect the ball. Bowden, Bone, Mostella and Turner have to understand that poor shots are just as bad as a turnover. They get too excited. They want to win, but I just don’t think they know what goes into that yet. I want to see guys play high-percentage basketball. We certainly didn’t do that tonight."
Tennessee guard Robert Hubbs III
(On the team not being ready at shootaround)
"We weren’t focused. We won the game at Texas A&M, but we’ve got to move on. We’ve got to have everyone locked in; pregame shootaround is like a rehearsal, you rehearse what you are doing for the game."
(On whether the team will be down after the loss to Arkansas)
"No, I’m going to make sure our guys are ready, on edge for this weekend. We’ve got to put it behind us. We can’t do nothing about it. We lost. We’ve got to move on, got to be better, got to take care of the little miscues we had and just go on."
(On having the will to win)
"It’s just the will to win. It’s all in your heart; either you have it or you don’t. We’ve got to take care of the ball on offense and know personnel on defense, just little things like that. Those things right there can go a long way."
Tennessee forward Grant Williams
(On his willingness to battle on the glass)
"When it comes to that, it just comes from playing hard and knowing that in order for our team to be successful, we have to have a presence on the inside and also on the glass. So I had to do a better job with that than I did in the first half, because I think in the first half I was out of it, it didn’t look like I was engaged. The team got on me about it and I think I did a good job of responding, but it didn’t turn out the way we wanted."
(On the team’s 14-0 run in the first half)
"I think we were just working the ball, trusting each other, working the ball inside and getting it out and knocking down shots. I think that’s how we should play a lot because we are successful with it. We just know that when we drive and get everybody involved we are a lot better as a team. We didn’t in the four-minute stretch (to close the half). We had a lot of one-on-one games and we didn’t do a good job in the last four minutes of the first half."
(On how the freshman stick together)
"We talk very often; we have our own group chat. We try to pick each other’s spirits up. When (Jordan) Bowden was going through that stretch, he was down and we just needed to be there for him. I think we’ve done a better job of that, but we just have to keep it going because he’s confident in shooting the ball. We’ve got to keep him there because we can’t have him not wanting to shoot, that’s what he does. He’s really good at it, so he’s just got to keep going."
Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson
(Opening statement)
"Well first, I’m proud of our guys. The effort and intensity they played with – the poise they had – in a tough environment. Rick (Barnes) has his team. As young as they are, they are playing well. Robert Hubbs, we all know about him. We’ve seen him for four years. Detrick Mostella and those guys never quit, especially the Williams kid. They have got some very good, young players. We were fortunate tonight that they took a big lead in the first half. We were fortunate to just hang in there and get it to a two-point game at halftime. I thought the guys that started the second half really set the tone. They enabled us to keep the lead. Of course, it’s a game of runs. They played with a game of runs as well and we were very fortunate to make some stops going down the stretch. We hit some big free throws. Daryl Macon made one field goal, a three point shot, but he made his free throws at critical moments. The (free throw) that Moses (Kingsley) made was big. And I thought Jaylen Barford was really big for us. He was big at the turnaround for us, especially the first half as well as the second half."
(On Macon’s foul shooting and play)
"He’s gifted. He’s got a feel to get the ball in the right position. He can create and has quickness with the basketball. He plays strong. He ran down some loose balls. That big tip that Moses (Kingsley) hit out there, I thought that was big. They missed the shot, he tips it out and Daryl comes up with it. I just think about all the guys on the floor and Macon comes up with it so (Kingsley) enabled him to get to the free throw line. That tells you he’s active and he’s getting better."
(On Tennessee’s first-half run)
"We were turning the ball over. I thought we were playing in a hurry. We weren’t scoring and when you don’t score that happens. We would get to the free throw line. I think we went 0-4 from the free throw line. You’ve got to stop the bleeding somehow and it took a while. I think Anton Beard got to the line for us and made a couple of free throws for us. Once we did that we were able to get in our defense ad make some stops."
(On Tennessee’s Grant Williams)
"Relentless. He’s strong and uses his body to rebound real well. When he posts up he may be undersized but I tell you, he plays big. I thought he was really active. He was a great pickup for Rick (Barnes) and with the way he plays. Even going down the stretch we had to box him out on the free throw line because somehow he came up with it. He never stopped. I love his motor. He has a big-time motor."
(On piecing together key runs in games throughout the season)
"I think our bench is a big key. I think the guys that start out really get us in a rhythm but you saw it when they (Tennessee) were up 39-26, it was guys that came off the bench. Dustin Thomas, a guy that hasn’t been starting for us came off the bench tonight. Anton Beard, Dusty Hannahs, Jaylen Barford and Moses Kingsley, that group finished the run. I started them in the second half and I thought they set the tone. Our bench is the strength of our team and we saw that coming to play. We scored 38 points and (Tennessee) scored 35 which won us the bench points. That probably enabled us to win the game."
