University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Vols 75, Ole Miss 66
February 08, 2017 | Men's Basketball
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Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes
(On winning with a gutsy performance)
"We won a game against a team that I have as much respect for as anyone in the league because Andy (Kennedy) does a great job. They play hard. They execute. They do a great job of attacking everything downhill and getting to the basket. I thought both teams played hard the entire time, but I though they had more emotion in the way they were playing. You can tell when your team is a little uptight when they are not talking to each other. They, on the other hand, were talkative, knowing what they need to do. In the second half, we flipped it around. Our defense coming down the stretch in the last 4 minutes was really good for us."
(On winning games down the stretch where there is a lot to play for)
"Well it’s February. It’s February. Every game is going to be a grind. If you expect to be a good team that finishes the season well, you’re going to have be able to find ways when it is not going. We missed some free throws. We gave up 20 offensive rebounds. That’s a credit to them. They do a great job of driving the ball. We have to rotate over with our big guy and our guards are having to take on guys like (Sebastian) Saiz, who is a terrific player. Coming down the stretch, I thought Grant (Williams) did a great job. We started trapping the ball, then going to a soft trap, then letting him switch where had to play the point guard. He stayed down and had a couple blocks. I thought Robert Hubbs' play when he went to the baseline and saved it to Grant was a big play. After we called a timeout, we didn’t really get what we wanted. Lamonte (Turner) made a terrific play where he drove and kicked it to (Jordan) Bowden. That was a big play in the game. The difference was that we were much better in the last little bit of the game with our defense."
(On the effort from Robert Hubbs III)
"He’s struggling. He has been struggling. You’d never know it. The difference between him now, and a year ago, he would have said it is what it is. But he is trying so hard to fight through it. Then with all that, he didn’t do a lot in practice yesterday. He did more than what he had been doing. I get a text early this morning, he feels like he has the flu. I thought he fought through that tonight. Not that he does have the flu, but he wasn’t feeling well. He is trying and that’s all we can ask him to do."
(On how big of a shot Bowden’s late three was)
"It was big. They have some guys who can raise up on you even with good defense and knock down threes. They get to the free-throw line. They were 13-of-16 from the free-throw line, so you don’t want to put them there. We were looking to do something with Grant (Williams) and Robert (Hubbs) across the baseline. Lew (Evans) waited and he got the ball to Lamonte (Turner) and Lamonte made a terrific play. That was a big play for us, certainly offensively."
(On the difference in the defense in the second half)
"They were getting downhill with us. Our tag guys on the back line weren’t doing the job. But it’s hard. They do a great job of getting your point guard into the screen. He has to work to get around as hard as he can. Now you have the post man playing against the two for a little bit. Our wings weren’t helping as much as they should have. Grant (Williams), the last three possessions, stayed in front and blocked a couple shots. He stayed down; he didn’t jump into the offensive player. Those were obviously big plays. We knew we were going to have to keep guarding that because they have so much success with it."
(On what it means to have freshmen making those plays down the stretch defensively)
"Grant (Williams) still makes too many mistakes. Think about it, he missed two rim shots. He’s a better free-throw shooter than he (appears to be). These guys are still going through some things for the first time. They’ve never been in this situation in February. Most of them are starting to wind down, probably, and now we are just getting going, so to speak. He came out and set an illegal ball screen. He can’t do that. Where he is still young minded at times is when his offense isn’t going well, he misses some shots he thinks he should make. He lets it affect him on the other end. He can’t do that. He has to play from the other end first. We all do. We cant let what has happened on the offensive end affect us."
(On Lamonte Turner’s play in the second half)
"I thought he was much better in the second half. He had two turnovers in the first half where he was trying to feed the post and do the right thing, but they were just bad decisions. Second half he still didn’t attack the 1-3-1 like we wanted him to in order to make the pass down the sideline. I think that his composure and the way he handled things were better but more importantly what he did on the defensive end, trying to fight that ball screen and trying to do his job the best he could. It’s not an easy thing to do, but I thought he had composure and he was really locked in. I thought he was really involved in the game and the play he made to Bowden might have been the play of the game offensively."
(On Jordan Bowden’s ability to be resilient)
"He is a little bit cold-blooded. He has a short memory, which most good players do. Good players have real short memories. I know one thing and that is he is one guy we don’t have to talk into shooting the ball. Shembari Phillips isn’t shooting with confidence and you want guys shooting with confidence. Jordan Bowden will do that. He has that attitude where he can’t make the next one if he doesn’t shoot it. He is drawing the other team’s best offensive player now so he has had to work harder than he has ever had to work offensively. He gave up one in the first half. It was a three where he fell asleep and he relaxed for a second and they burned him on it. Coaches felt like he needed to come out of the game and I asked, 'How are you?' and he gave me a thumbs up so he stayed in the game and finished it."
(On what this game means)
"We tell them during the game and we tell them all of the time that it shouldn’t be easy. It wouldn’t be fun if it were really easy even though sometimes you wish it was easy. The fact is that you are going to have to win some tough games. We are going have the same battle here Saturday. We could tell the first half that we were back a little bit. Maybe they felt pressure because we lost Saturday and thought we had to win this game. What we have to do is execute the game plan. If you win, you win. If you don’t, you don’t. I will say this: that I think the schedule that we have played all year has helped these guys get to this point and we have to see if we can keep building on that."
(On what was different from the Mississippi State game)
"All of it was different. We had much better defense. I think we were poised. I think a great example is the play that Lamonte Turner made, not rushing that shot and making the extra pass and being aware of the clock. We tried to make adjustments with our defense and they made them. I think the biggest difference is that we played to win tonight. They kept trying to make plays. Offensively, some guys tried to make shots and we went to our movement offense and Robert Hubbs made two terrific plays off of some pin downs. He got it turned up going downhill and I think he made a left handed shot which was a terrific shot. Just that trying to play through him or Grant Williams on the backside with him, but we did execute our offense in the last part of the game. I think it was a little bit of all of it. The way we ended the game there is sort of how we started the game here, back on our heels looking at what is going to happen here instead of playing like we need to make something happen."
(On what was changed defensively in the last five minutes)
"They were hurting us early because our wing on the ball side wasn’t doing his job enough. He was kind of in no man’s land. He wasn’t defending the three or stopping the split. We were going to try to deny the reversal so the guy in the corner had to be in the lane and he was outside of the lane so the two wings weren’t doing their jobs as much as they should have. We were getting clipped on the ball because they do a good job clipping you. They set the screen and make you guard it. We trapped it one time and created a problem and then we started soft trapping it and then it ended up switching a little bit where our post guy wasn’t squaring the ball off. So that is where we were giving up offensive rebounds because our ball guard was having to take on Sebastian Saiz and that is no contest. They still got it at the rim and instead of shooting over a guard he is shooting over a guy with a [big] wing span. Grant did a great job of not fouling."
(On Grant Williams’ play in the second half)
"I still think Grant Williams can be so much better. I think it goes back having appreciation of what it takes to be a high-level player every single night. It goes with preparation every day in practice and I have been after him in practice the last two days because he is important and he should never be illegal on the ball screen. You know he can score the ball, but he let two missed lay ups affect him then he had a big finish on the other end. I think it goes back to him knowing what he can be, but to do it he has to demand it from himself more often than he does. Defensively we took him out early because he did not help in transition, which we talked about that and he didn’t get back."
Tennessee guard Robert Hubbs III
(On playing through recent pain)
"Recently, the past couple of days, last week, I didn’t feel 100 percent. Now, I’m back to myself. Everybody is feeling good. I think it showed tonight. I ran the floor pretty hard tonight, and I did some nice things."
(On getting another shot at Ole Miss)
"We knew they out-toughed us last game. So, we had to come out, and we knew they were going to bring the intensity. It was a must-win for us. We had to come out and just do everything right. We won the game in the last four minutes. We executed, got the ball in the right spots, and made big time plays."
(On playing tough down the stretch)
"We just had to stick to our game plan, stay poised, and get the ball to the right spots and right people, in the right situation. We did that. We executed. We played unselfish and made big time plays."
Tennessee forward Grant Williams
(On if he’s figured out what it takes to be a high level player)
"According to Coach (Rick) Barnes, not yet. I don’t think so, either, because at that level, you have to bring it every night. I didn’t do that in the Mississippi State game and I know that. I felt like I didn’t do that in the first half either. I felt like I did a better job responding in the second half. Hopefully I can keep it going."
(On getting three critical blocks in the last 75 seconds of play)
"It energized me a little bit. I got emotional on the court when it happened. I think the last block, I even pointed out that it hit his (Breein Tyree) head, got excited, and went down the court. It was motivating. It helped me, and it helped the team confidence-wise and had me feeling pretty good."
(On playing well while in foul trouble)
"Yeah, I get a lot of cheap fouls. I do a lot of things that I shouldn’t do. The screen, and the first foul I got, I reached out on (Sebastian) Saiz, on a hook shot, when I knew I couldn’t get there. I just smacked his arm, softly. That’s a touch foul that I shouldn’t get. So, when it comes to me, I have to be smarter to know that fouls are valuable. You get five of them, so you might as well be smart with them."
Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy
(On what the key was down the stretch)
"Tennessee made the plays. I thought, honestly, it was the antithesis of our first matchup. Not that we were in control like they were in game one, but if you look at the stats we were up for 29 minutes. Our first half was reminiscing on our last outing at Vanderbilt. We kept a lot of charge, and one of the things that we do is we turn and take clean looks. The definition of a clean look is the shot we want, by the player we want, at the exact same time. Obviously, they are not all wide open, but there are looks that you are going to have to make in SEC play. I think for the first half we were 5-for-14, and we were up at the half. We had more turnovers than assists, which is a recipe for disaster for us. We were down two on the glass at half. So we felt fortunate because we did not play that well. I thought in the second half we were hanging around. We were up by two with the ball with around 3:50 to play in the game, and then I think we finished like a pinball. If you drop it in their real hard and shoot it off the underneath the black pad you get a point like a bumper. That must have been our strategy. I promise you that was not the intended game plan because we had about four or five of those at the end. That is where I will give Tennessee credit. They had big shots. I thought with seven seconds to go they had a side out. We zoned them, and they turned it. I think it was number 23, Jordan Bowden, knocked down a huge wing jumper. I thought (Tennessee guard Robert) Hubbs made a big play. They dove on 50-50 balls. Tennessee just made all of the effort winning plays that you need to make down the stretch."
(On Grant Williams)
“He is just so active. I think he is always around the ball. He uses his body well. We have the size advantage for the most part when we had Sebastian (Saiz) on him, but when you play behind him he negates that because he puts his body on your body and negates any size advantage you might have. I thought he was big with blocked shots. He is a terrific player."
(On poor free throw shooting in the second half)
"There are a couple stats that will hold true regardless of whether you’re watching junior high girls' basketball or the NBA. If the opponent makes more (free throws) than you attempt it’s probably going to be a long night, especially on the road. They were driving on us which was obviously their strategy. They did not shoot a lot of threes; I don’t think they made one until the second half. They were driving us off the bounce. We were not as disciplined at the end. We fouled. We had a good crew here tonight."
