Tennessee defeated Georgia, 89-81, Wednesday at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Freshman Jaden Springer scored a career-high 30 points in Tennessee’s win. Reigning SEC Freshman of the Week Keon Johnson finished the game with 11 points.
Following the Vols’ win over Georgia, UT head coach Rick Barnes met with media to discuss his team’s performance. Below is a transcript provided by the University of Tennessee.
On the frustration of all the turnovers in the last few minutes of tonight’s game:
“It is frustrating, but I think you have to give Georgia credit. They got up there and they got their hand on it and would break it loose. But we did not make an adjustment when we went to our drive game. We said you’re not going to be able to drive and spin back and toss the ball like that. But it’s the ones out front where you’re just standing very casual with the ball, and they break it loose and go down and get those. But I think you have to give Georgia credit for that; they got aggressive and they took the ball from us in those situations. So you have to give them credit for that, but otherwise, there were a lot of good things tonight. A lot of guys had some heavy minutes, and maybe fatigue had a little bit to do with it I do not know. Jaden (Springer) I think played the most minutes that he played in his collegiate career. He had a nice night, and Josiah (James) had a lot of good things. But what you said the frustration part is the turnovers. Our three guards had 14 of those turnovers. That’s the frustrating part, but otherwise, it’s never going to be easy. Games are never going to be easy when you play anybody in this league. When they are down, they are not going to stop playing. It is a long time over 40 minutes, but we can’t give up 55 points in the second half. And some of those we had no defense for because of the turnovers.”
NEXT: Rick Barnes postgame continued