KNOXVILLE — Tennessee (16-13, 8-8 SEC) enters its final week of the 2019-20 regular season before Southeastern Conference Tournament play takes place March 11–15 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
The Vols will travel to No. 6 Kentucky on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET, ESPN) and host No. 17 Auburn Saturday (noon ET, ESPN2) for Senior Day to conclude the regular season.
Ahead of the Tennessee-Kentucky contest, UT head coach Rick Barnes met with media to discuss the week ahead.
UT press release:
On Kentucky and his expectations for the game tomorrow:
“I think Kentucky is the most underrated and underappreciated team in the country right now. I think them, and Kansas are the two best teams in the country. They (Kentucky) haven’t lost since their game at Auburn, and Kansas I don’t think has lost since their game at home against Baylor. Right now, those are the two best teams in College Basketball. They have two players, Immanuel Quickley and Nick Richards who are two guys that are player of the year type candidates. there’s a lot of terrific coaches in our league and nobody has done a better job than John Calipari. So, with that said they’re playing terrific defense, they get out in transition, they are as lethal as any team you will play against. They’re going to get into their sets and execute. They’ve improved since we last played them. I think we have improved a lot as well. That game we started a bigger lineup, because Josiah didn’t play. So, we are going to have to continue to get better and our guys coming off a game against Florida should feel good, but we know that we are going on the road to play arguably the best team in College Basketball right now.”
On why he thinks Kentucky has been able to win a lot of close games:
“The free throw shooting and great defense for certain. They do make free throws. They made a lot of free throws down the stretch when they came here to play us, and we got behind and had to foul. John’s (Calipari) teams always defend. They aren’t going to give you anything easy. I think they have definitely improved. We talked about it last time, how much Nick Richards has improved. You look at their backcourt play all around, they have improved as well. His teams always get better around this time of year. This is always when they play their best basketball. I wouldn’t say what I just said about them being one of the best teams in the country if they didn’t have the whole package. I think both them and Kansas are built for close games and the fact is, that they take care of the ball, make free throws and they are going to make you earn everything on the other end.”
On if playing against other highly touted freshman is a motivating factor for Josiah-Jordan James:
“I don’t know if playing against other high rated players is what motivates him. He’s had to fight through a lot of injuries and those type of things. He’s feeling better then he has at probably any point this year. He came out and set a great tone for us against Florida and we need him to continue to do that. I tell all the guys that are playing minutes that they are closer to being sophomores then freshman. Again, he’s been hurt and he’s feeling much better now than he has in a long time. So now it’s a consistency thing, can he continue to do that and get better?”
On Fulkerson attacking more on the offensive end:
“I do think he has but I think a lot of it had to do with the growth of this team and for our other players to understand it. Just to understand the game. Understanding the importance of getting fouled. Understanding what goes into it. Again, when we talk about getting the ball inside, it doesn’t have to be to throw it to John Fulkerson every time. It can be driving the ball, just attacking to at least give yourself a chance to get fouled. There’s no doubt his mindset has changed. I do believe that. I do think that he understands what he needs to do. He’s had to learn it; I will say that. It’s not in his nature to play the way he’s been playing. The way people game plan for him, he gets pushed, he gets shoved around more than any player I’ve ever coached. He gets shoved a lot. People think he’s flopping out there, he’s not. He’s light, he’s quick and his motor is what makes him different. He gets pushed off position a lot and gets walked under more than people might think. He never complains about it. When he’s talking to an official something has happened, because he never does that. His mindset has changed where he realizes that we need him to be aggressive. I go back to he and Yves. Not only do they have to do it on the defensive end, both of those guys are trying to get it done on the offensive end. No one has got more of a load to carry than what Fulky has been carrying in the last couple weeks. That’s for certain.”
On Lamonte Turner’s senior day and what he’s meant during his time at UT:
“I’m planning on him being here. He should be because he was our very first player that we actually recruited when we got here. He’s meant a lot to our program. He still means a lot to our program. I don’t know if there has been a more difficult and sad ending than what he did, because this was the year in his mind that this was going to be his year. He came in and had to wait a year while other guys played and then dealt with injuries throughout his career. The one thing he gave us and I can say he’s arguably as competitive as any player we’ve had since I’ve been here. And to lose that was a big loss. That alone was a big loss. Obviously, he gave everything he had. I can’t explain to you what it’s like not to have feeling in your hand and not be able to get the ball up and shoot it the way you want too. He came in one time before the season got going and he spent three and a half or four weeks trying to shoot left handed. That’s how much it was bothering him at that time. And even though it was his left arm, he couldn’t bring his left arm across him and I think that just shows you the commitment he tried to make; but he knew he couldn’t do that the way he wanted to. Obviously, it got to a point to where he just felt like he was helpless and he felt like he was hurting us more than he was helping us which I’m not sure I’d say that. I think in his mind he felt that way. He should be recognized here as much as any player we’ve had for what he’s given to our program.”
On if Josiah’s injury and rough stretch impacted his confidence:
“I don’t know how it can’t. Josiah is a really hard worker. He’s been a hard worker for a long time, and he doesn’t have any false sense of him being something that he’s not. He wants to get better every day, he’s not one of those guys that thinks that he’s already there and all that. That is not even anywhere in his mind. So, I’m sure frustration and not being able to move and do some of the things that he’d like to be able to do, those can’t help but to affect your confidence at times. Plus, you’ve got a lot dropped on you when Lamonte (Turner) goes, down. There’s a lot on him, and think about it, if Santi (Vescovi) wouldn’t have gotten here, our lone guard would’ve been Jordan Bowden through those games. There was a lot that came down on Josiah and Jordan Bowden at that time and then Santiago gets here, and he has meant a lot to us. But I think Josiah and Jordan Bowden both have had a lot thrown at them this year and I think both of those guys have handled it in a great way.”
On how Uros and Santiago have adapted to the team after coming mid-season:
“Santiago is a guy whose story is incredible. In college basketball, I don’t know of anybody that has ever had three days of practice and then has started every game as a freshman, when his first game starts in conference play. Really, it’s an incredible story, and it’s pretty neat thinking about right now, everybody we play is trying to figure out how to guard him in different ways, and all that is showing him the things he needs to continue to improve on. So, when he has to face that adversity, like anybody, it’s good because it reveals, hey, this is where I’ve got to get better, and the fact is, he’s one of those guys, and I would say that about Josiah too. Those guys realize that. ‘Hey, this aversity could be good if you turn it into a good thing for yourself,’ and I do think Santiago has done that. Uros, we feel for him as a staff because he didn’t get those November or December games where you can get to play through some mistakes. Our job is to develop these guys, but we also need to win games. So, sometimes it’s tough putting him in a situation where there’s a lot at stake. But overall, if you watch him during the game, he’s as a good of a teammate as we’ve had, and he has gotten better. There’s no doubt he’s gotten better. I think the fact that he’s gotten to play this year just with what he’s done, is really going to help him tremendously going forward because he knows the things, he has to do to get better. But it is hard, not only for your team, but for him to be integrated at the time that he was. But, you have to believe that it all happened for a reason, and it’s a good thing. He has struggled with it, but he’s never wavered in terms of his attitude and wanting to do everything he can to help our team.”
On Lamonte being around the team since his injury
“Well he’s been in and out because he’s rehabbing. He still wants to pursue basketball, and so he’s been in and out. From what I understand he’s gone to part-time status, so we don’t get hurt academically that way. He’s around and when he’s around he’s certainly a positive influence on our guys, but he still has had to do rehab and he still had to go back and check on things with the people that have done the work on him, but the last time I saw him was last week and he said he thinks he’s ready to start getting back in the gym.”
On coaching Jordan Bowden over the last four years and the impact
“You know I’ve never seen him have a bad day as a person. To me he is as consistent a human being as I’ve ever been around. Even when things aren’t going well he hides it. He’s one of the funniest guys around. He’s really a funny guy, he has a great personality, but watching his growth I mean you think about it, and Tom told me last week I think he’s now in the top-25 all-time in leading scorers here. His impact has been the roles that he’s had to play. I say the dirty work, but he’s been willing to do all the dirty work. He’s always been a guy that we thought he’s going to be the matchup to guard the other teams’ best player. This year he’s had to take on a different role obviously, and he’s had to play out of the position that he had normally played here. He got put in a situation and he struggled, but he never blamed anyone shooting the ball. I can say in some ways what he’s done defensively has been as impressive as anything he’s done since he’s been here, because when he was struggling—and he was pressing there’s no doubt about it—but he never gave up on doing his job, in terms of defensively and trying to rebound, and being as good a teammate as possible. I think if you ask the guys over time he could probably be voted the best teammate, because of the way he is every day with those guys and he’s a very unselfish person maybe to a fault on the basketball court. It’s hard to believe now that he’s a senior and I can still think of the day when we sat down with his Mom and Dad, they wanted to know why we weren’t recruiting him, and I’m just glad Steve Diggs made that connection for us. We sat down and went down to see him and he made the decision to come here. It’s been good for all of us, and I think it’s been great for him too.”
On gaining confidence in Vescovi late in games and throughout the season
“His first shot against LSU, I mean you saw the confidence he played with. For one thing, he’s fearless. He hasn’t been perfect by any stretch of the imagination and is turning the ball over. I can go back to those November/December turnovers that you wish he had a chance to make. He didn’t get that opportunity. He had to make it in high level conference games. He took it personal, and he does take it personal sometimes, but he’s a competitor and he has a great mindset toward the game. There’s no doubt that he’s given his teammates and all of us confidence. Once he settled in, there’s not a guy in this program that wanted to have the ball more at the free-throw line at that point in time.”
On the two timeouts called during Florida’s run and what he saw differently in comparison to the Auburn game:
“One of them we called because of the rule’s situation. We only had four seconds to get the ball across half court. If you call a timeout in that situation then the clock resets to 10 seconds. That timeout had nothing to do with anything other than that. I thought, since we hadn’t gotten the ball across in six seconds then we weren’t going to get it across in four. So, we got a reset on the clock and that’s why we called those timeouts back-to-back. If you go back to the Florida game, we turned the ball over twice (in quick succession). For 25 minutes the game was going along at a smooth tempo and all at once when you’re down like they were they’re going to change. They’re not going to stay the same. They’re going to start taking more chances on defense, they’re going to start heating the ball up more, they’re going to start driving the ball more and that’s where we’ve struggled to adjust when we’ve had leads. When you go back and look at it we turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions and we missed two one-and-one’s and Santi missed one-of-two. That stuff turns the game around. You only have so many timeouts. If I could stop it after every turnover I would. But, you can’t do that. Like I said, if we wouldn’t have saved timeouts at the end of the game and you ask why. Santi got the ball in the corner and had to bun a timeout. If you use those timeouts at different times, when you’re in close games you don’t have those timeouts and this team needs timeouts at the end of the game.”
On playing the starters for 36+ minutes each:
“It goes back to what I was saying early. These guys have worked really hard and we would’ve liked to have eliminated those two turnovers and knock down those one-and-ones so you can get guys out and get some of those other guys in to let them get some of those minutes. But, when the lead gets down to four and five points it’s hard. Fulky was tired, but he didn’t want to come out of the game. That’s how critical each possession can be. But, in that situation when they come back from 19 points down and cut it to one point, you have to go with the guys that have been in the game. They have to gut it out and gut it up and they have to do whatever they have to do to make plays. We got lucky on Fulky’s three, but when you work hard those things happen. The biggest play of the game was when we came across half court, we ran a quick hitter for Bowden to get to the rim instead of holding the ball down. We planned to go two-for-one, they rotated late on the box out and Fulky dunked the ball. That was as big a play as any of them. We told them we were going to be aggressive and Bowden came over, we ran a little set for him, he turned it up and missed the layup, but thankfully Fulky was there to clean it up.”
