Rick Barnes recaps Tennessee’s win against Cincinnati

On how happy he was seeing the team lock down defensively late in the game:
“I told them that tonight it’s proven to you guys because we are better shooting team than we shot tonight, but there’s nights when we don’t shoot it well we still have a chance to win it and we will play that kind of defense without fouling. We will be aggressive and get to the free throw line, but two games in a row now coming down the stretch we have defended very well and on the other end offensively, for the most part, we’ve executed and played through the person we need to play through. We’ve made some good plays there, got the ball to the right people at the end of the game that are going to get fouled, but two games in a row our defense has been stellar in terms of getting the kind of stops we need. We want to get those consecutive stops at the end, but if you can do it without fouling it is obviously what you want to do. Knowing that you’re wanting to be aggressive, you’re trying to work hard to not give up those straight-line drives and you don’t want to give up one-pass threes. They do good stuff, the two teams that we have played run really good offensive sets and different things they do put a bind on your defense.”