Everything Rick Barnes said after No. 8 Vols’ loss to No. 12 Kentucky

Tennessee struggled to keep pace with Kentucky in the second half and its comeback bid came up short in a 78-73 loss at Food City Center Tuesday.

The Vols (17-4, 4-4 SEC) attempted a season-high 45 3-pointers but made just 11, shooting 34.7% from the field while the Wildcats (15-5, 4-3) shot 50.0% and led much of the second half.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Following the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes talked about defensive lapses that led to Kentucky’s timely shooting, the Vols’ inability to hit shots, and more.

Here is everything he said.

“We knew (Kentucky) would give us all the threes we wanted. We knew that was going to happen. And we didn’t start the game the way we wanted to, with what we had talked about, trying to move the ball. And we knew we could shoot a three any time we wanted to. Of the 45, I would say 95% were wide open, but that was by design. That’s what they were looking for. And when we obviously weren’t making them, they were going to back up even more. Why not?

“The way we started the game defensively wasn’t good. It wasn’t the same sense of urgency. (Kentucky) can shoot ball, everybody knows that. And the one we got tripped, normally we have somebody fixing that play. And then breakdowns defensively. And we give them credit, I mean, they came in short some guys and sometimes that can play as an advantage, relax your team a little bit. And I thought they played relaxed. I thought Mark (Pope) did a good job doing what he needed to do. Had his guys ready to play. We’re disappointed. We didn’t honestly do the things that we had talked about, what we felt we had to do offensively probably more than anything. And then defensively some of the breakdowns we have, we just can’t have.”

“No, absolutely not. We talked about it. It’s hard to get inside when you’re not making threes, because they’re just going to keep backing up. (Kentucky has) good length. They’re going to play personnel. You could tell they really wanted to try to take away the lob tonight. Make Zakai (Zeigler) go in and see if he could finish enough, and stay with some shooters with that penetration. But it is no different than everybody. We’ve been played the same pretty much all year. And some of the threes at the end, it’ll look different because at the end, when we weren’t necessarily looking for the three there at the end when we were down, they were back in there. And then at the end they were starting to switch it, which you would expect them to do.

“But we had some turnovers, a couple things that we can’t do. We can’t come out of a time out, dribble the ball out of bounds, come out and not execute what we’re trying to do. Little things. But again, give them credit, we’ve got to be better. And again, it’s just, I wasn’t real happy with their mindset defensively at the start of the game. But give them credit, they run good offense like teams in our league do. But I just thought we let them get relaxed and they took advantage of it.”

“We need to throw it in there. But it’s all about space. And when you play Igor (Milicic) and (Darlinstone Dubar), that’s not what they do. But I do think that Cade (Phillips) and Felix (Okpara) can give us some of that. Are they going to make them all? No, but they need to touch it some. And we’ve talked about that enough, too. We didn’t start the game executing. I can’t tell you the number of times we just didn’t execute what we said we wanted to do. That’s on me. Obviously I didn’t get the message to them loud and clear and we’ll fix that. But again, all you got to do is look at numbers.

“And people are going to say, ‘Hey, until they prove they can make them, we’re going to let them have all they want.’ And so if you’re not going to work harder offensively, if you shoot early and quick against a team that is sagging, it’s really hard on you to get offensive rebounds because they’re set. You got to get the ball going side to side and we didn’t do that at all early in the game. And give them credit, because they’re trying to get certain guys take shots late in the shot clock, all those type things. And we kind of settled into that.”

“Really disappointing. And really disappointing because like the first play, I think Chaz (Lanier) tripped coming over to guard a little bit of their action and normally somebody’s flying there to help but didn’t get that, broke down just communication wise. After the effort we put in (at Auburn), not to come with the same focus and especially playing at home coming off a loss is tough.”

“(Zeigler) tweaked his knee a little bit. Obviously, something that bothered him because he would never do what he did, going straight back (to the locker room). It’s sound or he wouldn’t have played. He said it was all sound. I think he may have felt like a sprain or something like that. Stability wise, they checked out while he was back there and it was all fine.”

“Not really because he said he felt like he could go.”

“We’ve had games where we have (made shots), and I’m hoping at the right time, we’re going to knock them down. Teams go through it. I do think we can shoot the ball. I do. But we shouldn’t be a team that thinks we have to rely on one guy or two guys to do it. But I know how hard these guys work at shooting the ball and we want to take our shots but it’s got to be in how we talk about doing it. I mean for no other reason to move the defense to give yourself a chance to be a better offensive rebounding team. If you come down and the first two plays of the game they go under and when we talked about moving it and the shot goes up, we’re not ready for it. And that’s where it goes back to discipline and coaching and like I said, evidently I didn’t get the message across to them loud and clear. Hopefully we’ll learn from it.”

“Our offense would help a little bit of it. Because it puts so much pressure on your defense when you aren’t making shots. You aren’t scoring. But how do you avoid it? Some guys that could, sometimes when the guys have been in it with you a long time and they’re the ones that make critical mistakes, those are the ones that hurt because they know better but a couple times there’s just rules that we have and you guys watch us practice that we didn’t execute. You know, we know if somebody runs a physical action, we’re going to switch it. We didn’t switch it. End up fouling. Those type of things. I mean at the end of the half, those two points at the end of the half at the rim would have been great. It helps you and it gives you a little chance to get out in front. It helps your offense. You get some separation. Guys settle in a little bit. I thought we let them continue to play with the comfort with their lead and some of it obviously was them shooting the ball, scoring the ball but we just got to be better. We got to be better.”

“I thought (Milicic) was relaxed. I liked both he and (Dubar’s) demeanor. I really did. I thought they settled down and played, and I thought honestly, they should have probably taken more threes. I mean, they’re the guys that looked like they were doing it and I don’t think any of them were forced really. A couple of them at the end maybe, when we were trying to catch up and again, we weren’t— at the end of the last two minutes— we weren’t necessarily looking for three. We would have taken a two if we could have gotten it.

“I don’t want to not give Kentucky credit. I really don’t because I thought they probably, from what we thought they would do, I thought they did exactly what we thought they would do. And we didn’t handle it very well.”

“We’ve lost four games. So we’re not that bad, OK? We’re not doing that bad. We’re in the best league in the country, against a team that has had big wins. There’s no given that we’re going to win every game, even if we play well. We want to win every game, but that team we’re playing, they want to win too. And I think in this league there is such a fine line that the details matter a lot. Possessions matter. Coaches always talk about there’s ten four-minute games, you gotta win them. Well there’s been teams, what, a week and a half ago, a week ago, that won nine of those and lost the last one, and lost the game. So to me it’s more about winning possessions and you’ve got to win enough possessions. We didn’t win enough possessions.

“But it won’t get any easier. I know our guys are disappointed. I know how much they care, I know how much they all work. But again, we lost four games against top-10 teams, so we can get better and we’ve gotta get better. And knowing what I know about these guys, I think we will get better because if it didn’t hurt them, I’d be concerned, but I know how much it hurt them.”

“All three-point shooting teams want to get to the lane so they can spray it out. Really good three-point teams, they want those inside-out passes, and I’ll say this, the threes didn’t beat us. I mean, that’s not what beat us. Now, they were timely for (Kentucky) and it keeps it close obviously, but you go back to, backdoor layups. They got some cuts to the basket that we shouldn’t give up. Go in and dunk a ball, get fouled. We fouled a three-point shooter that made two of those. You give us two of those plays, it could be different, but we didn’t do it. But most teams that are really good at it, they want the lane to get those looks. They’re a five-out team. But we’ve played against that all year, too. And again, give them credit. They had shots and they made them. And I would say that ours was probably a little bit more contested because I don’t think they were the least bit concerned about us shooting the ball tonight.”