Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes didn’t mince words following the Vols’ exhibition loss to Xavier.
Barnes expressed frustration with Tennessee’s defensive effort, rebounding, shot selection, and inability to respond when Xavier seized momentum.
Despite the disappointing performance, Barnes believes the early setback could serve a purpose for a team still learning how to play together.
“I’d rather get exposed right now than in a week, two weeks,” Barnes said. “Because we did not respond to the adversity at all.”
Barnes also emphasized that Tennessee cannot rely solely on its offensive talent to win games.
Below is a transcript of Barnes’ postgame comments, lightly edited for clarity.
On whether he expected a performance like this
“I did. I told the coaches because I think these guys heard so much about how good offensive players they are in school, production, and all that. We’ve been telling them all summer … the fact is, nights we don’t shoot the ball, we’ve got to [find a way to win]. But it’s good. I really told the guys, I said, because maybe now you’ll realize what we’ve been harping on since you guys have been here. We’re going to have to learn to guard at a high rate. And first half, you know, we thought we’d be a little jittery, which we were. You know, DeWayne missed some shots at the rim that I think he’ll make, free throws. We really could have got out to maybe change our psyche a little bit, but that might have been a little bit of false confidence or whatever. Because I like the way it played out when they came back, got in the game, and when they came back, I think, 11-12, [unanswered], we didn’t respond well. We took too many bad shots. They got too many [easy baskets]. And then we came out of timeouts, talked about things we weren’t going to give up, we gave them up. Got to listen better. But now maybe they realize, hey, we’re not going to score our way to wins. Xavier and Richard does a great job with this team. … I actually told our folks, you’re going to hate me, and I hope they really beat us, so maybe we can really get your attention.”
On whether Tennessee’s defensive issues surprised him
“Yeah, because guys, bad habits. Guys are switching to switch because it’s too hard to fight through and do the things that we talk about. Even on offense, it’s too much one-on-one stuff. Guys just coming off looking to shoot the ball. And like I told them, you look at some numbers and some guys have some good numbers, but we were a bad basketball team tonight. And so you look at the point total. That’s not what’s indicative of how you impact the game.We just had no fight at all when they got back in the game, and we weren’t making shots. We just didn’t guard it. Some of the baskets we gave up, I mean, I think anybody would make those baskets.”
On balancing individual scorers with team shot selection
“I mean, we’ve talked enough about that. Again, even offensively, I get to talk about the shot selection now, but if you don’t have any fight, any want to defend somebody, to rebound, you’re not going to do it. And that’s the thing we knew with this team coming in, that we’re going to have to rebound. I like the fact they had some size. We knew they were going to get after it on the glass. DeWayne had 10. Miles [Rubin] had one. He’s got to do more than that.
“You know, Miles came out early physically, he wasn’t ready for it. But we’ve got to rebound the ball. Now they were [on the] glass. Can’t happen until guys understand what goes into winning. Well, first of all, tonight, the good thing about tonight is they’re going to see, once we break this film down with them, they will now know what goes into losing. Sometimes you’ve got to figure out what goes into losing before you can figure out what goes into winning. And so we’re going to have to, again, so many mistakes that we made tonight, just some of them forced, some unforced. But again, the attitude when we got in a close game wasn’t good.”
On whether defensive mistakes were related to Tennessee’s switching
“Switching for no reason. I mean, how many times are we going to switch out just to put a guard in the post? They were slipping every screen. All we had to do was try to guard the basketball. We didn’t. We didn’t guard the ball. We’re looking over our shoulder. We didn’t guard it. And I think another thing this team better realize, we didn’t have a real extensive scouting report. We didn’t want to do that. We wanted to see if our guys could do some things on the fly. And obviously after tonight, they need a scouting report because, again, I thought some guys would let offense dictate the effort mentally on the defensive side. But we just did some uncharacteristic things that we’ve talked about for too long. I don’t care if these guys have ever played together or what.
“Just too many breakdowns. Too many breakdowns offensively, not listening coming out of timeouts. There was a lot of it, which you expect some of it in the first [half] because of, you know, just maybe jittery early. But as it went on, we just made so many terrible mistakes. And Xavier is a good basketball team. I mean, they’re a really good basketball team, and they put it to us.”
On Tennessee’s biggest priority before facing Duke
“I want to be able to guard somebody. I want to have a different mindset. And we’ve talked about it, talked about it, talked about it. But maybe now these guys … look what happened. There’s going to be games like that. I talk about it every year. We just want to get to the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Tournament is single elimination, and you don’t shoot the ball well, you better find a way to win. We’ve done that many, many times here with our defense, and maybe this will be what wakes these guys up and makes them understand [what it takes to win].”
On what stood out beyond Harrelson’s rebounding
“Again, I just saw too many guys just stop playing defensively. Trying to go for steals. And [on one play], he comes down, goes for a steal. We don’t do that there. They go down and get a three. Those are momentum changers and just undisciplined. We’re just, and again, that goes back to coaching. It goes back to all that. But we just got to continue to coach them up. But this might, hopefully, is what’s going to wake them up.We’ve talked about it long enough, and now we’ll see.”
On Tennessee’s inability to respond to Xavier’s run
“Was I? I didn’t know. I’ve never been in a game like that with these guys like this. You know, that’s what you hope to see. I mean, disappointed that we didn’t, but we went about it the wrong way. You know, at that time, at some point in time, we had nine offensive rebounds. They had 13. And when they were getting back in it, they were, first of all, they got a lot of easy baskets. That’s ridiculous. They had how many points off turnovers? Eighteen. How many second-chance points? Seventeen.
“Free throws. I mean, we could have again maybe changed our mindset. But even if we would’ve been perfect in the first half and had a 10-, 12-point lead, we’re going to be in games where what happened tonight is going to happen. I’d rather get exposed right now than in a week, two weeks, because we did not respond to the adversity at all. If you ask me, I can’t tell you that I would know because we’ve never been in that situation before.”
On concerns about Tennessee’s size
“We are, you know. I mean, but still, there’s different ways to play. But when it gets down to competing for rebounds and playing defense, guys have [to compete]. I mean, I’ve seen [smaller] guards, but it’s a mindset that we’ve got to develop.”
On whether he’s disappointed in Tennessee’s lack of fight
“Well, I don’t know about that, Graham. I mean, because these guys are coming into a new system and trying to figure out some things. But we’ve talked about it long enough. I mean, that’s the disappointing thing.
“All the things that happened tonight, we talk about what goes into winning: playing defense, rebounding the basketball, taking care of the ball. Those three things. And we just didn’t [play] hard at all. Too many easy baskets, and they didn’t do anything really that we hadn’t talked about. Just guys not being on edge, waiting for the ball, somewhat la-la land, like, you know what, something’s coming. Something’s coming. I mean, believe me.
“And too many guys are standing around and then thinking, well, they’re making a great play. Try to switch out, they slip it, and there’s no communication. But I don’t like the fact that guys are just switching out of convenience because, to me, lack of toughness, fighting through. And, you know, we kind of make a little bit of a push to get a little momentum, and we don’t chase on a shooter, the best shooter.
“Just let them try to go through and screen them. Couldn’t get there. Even tonight, how guys need very little room to get shots off. But rebounding really disappoints us.”
