Rick Barnes recaps Tennessee’s win against Cincinnati

On what went into the decision to give Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer more playing time:
“Just us playing. Like I said, the other night was the first night we’ve had our bench together. We didn’t want to put them in a situation right off the bat where we could lose them confidence-wise. As a coaching staff, we’re still trying to fight through this ourselves without exhibition games. Up to this point, we’ve played two games. We just made up our mind that they’re going to go early. Last game, it was me. I’m in charge of those subs. We maybe waited a little bit too long. One thing about when you
get a run like we had the other night against Colorado, the key is if you can sustain it when you get to the bench. I think we waited too long. Tonight, we did the multiple substitution where we put both of those guys in at one time. It’s going to help all of them. We can keep those minutes down around 25, 26 for everybody. When everybody can be productive in those minutes, it’s going to help everybody. It was just a matter of us trying to figure out ourselves as a coaching staff the best way to get some kind of rotation going. It might mean changing the lineup in the future of starting a different way and see if we get guys coming off the bench and playing a different role. I think one of the key positions is that sixth and seventh guy coming off the bench. That first line perimeter guy coming in and that first line on the front line—that first sub. Those sixth and seventh guys are really important in that they come in and take it to another level. Not maintain it but see if they can take it to another level. Again, I thought E.J. did that defensively. I thought his energy and his burst helped us. When the two young guys came in, they did a good job.”