Everything Rick Barnes said after Tennessee basketball lost to Memphis

Tennessee basketball had its 31-game home winning streak snapped in a 51-47 loss to Memphis on Saturday. 

Here is everything Vols coach Rick Barnes said after the loss:

ON THE STRUGGLE OFFENSIVELY

“I don’t know. We had some looks that we would love to have every night. We would. But when you’re three top scorers go 6-for-30, it’s tough. But the one thing that I thought was really good, our defense was good throughout. We had three breakdowns at the end, I thought. (John Fulkerson) had the rebound and had it taken away from him. That’s a huge play in the game. They drove baseline Josiah (Jordan James) had great position, I’m not sure who gave up the drift three, that was a big play. Then Fulky had his man covered and I think Yves (Pons) was coming over to block the shot when they threw the lob up there. I get that, because he comes to block shots. In a possession game like that, they matter. They really do.

“Then on the offensive end, it’s tough because when you’re open and have looks at it, it’s tough not to take open shots. We don’t want guys to get hesitant. But we also have to figure out the flow of the game, when it’s time. Some night it’s not going in, OK we’re going to have to change and play. We didn’t get the fastbreak push that we need most of the time. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we’re a good defensive team. We put people in long possessions. And we work at it. We want to go score quick too. When we’re not shooting the ball well, it seems like we play defense for 20 some seconds, play offense for 10 or 12. That’s OK because we’ve worked enough I think on understanding the flow. 

“But it was a kind of game we thought it really would be. We had nine turnovers. Weren’t able to take advantage early in the second half. Gave up the lead because Yves was on the bench, Josiah. And when we had advantage basketball, we didn’t take advantage of it. We were just content to get the ball across and not attacking, the way we talked about.”

ON HOW TO GET MORE CONSISTENCY FROM LAMONTE TURNER AND JORDAN BOWDEN

“That’s a good question and I don’t know the answer to that. I trust them. I have confidence in them. But they’ve moved into new roles and they have to figure it out too. And as a group we’ll have to figure it out. We had some execution breakdowns at the end too. And again when you’re in a possession game like this, we have to be mature enough to understand we have to make them all count. Those guys will have to figure that out.”

ON LAMONTE TURNER’S CONTESTED THREE LATE IN THE GAME

“We came out and he fumbled the ball. He came off (the screen) and he fumbled the ball (to start the possession). But they backed up. He’s made those shots. You have to believe that at some point in time … the one that Yves drove down the lane and hit, I’m not sure what you would call it, (Turner) should’ve shot that shot. As much as you work at shooting, as much as we work at it, again, there are nights it doesn’t go in. But there are certain nights where you’re wide open and it’s in the flow. You have to shoot it whether you’re, whatever, you have to do it.”

“I was really pleased with Drew Pember. I think Drew is going to get a chance. He’s going to change it because he’s a guy that the more he gets out there he’s going to figure it out. He gives enough another ball-handler and a guy that has a really good feel. And I think Davonte Gaines is getting real comfortable. Got to get Olivier (Nkamhoua), he wasn’t very good today. He has to change his body language when things aren’t going well. He can’t let everybody in the building know that he’s down on himself. That comes with maturity and playing but we need him. We need him. But we need him to do the job and play the role that we need him to play.”

ON PENNY HARDAWAY EXPRESSING REMORSE ABOUT LAST YEAR, WANTING THE SERIES TO CONTINUE BEYOND NEXT SEASON

“You know, I’ve talked about it. I’ve said the same thing I’ve said from the beginning. When I got here, we were the ones that initiated to start this series. It started with Tubby Smith and I. It took us two years to figure it out, where we could get it going. Our initial thoughts were we wanted to play in Nashville, divide the building. That’s how we wanted to do it. I’ve said leading up to this, we’ve been able to move our program, I think their program has moved. You have to have flexibility in your schedule. I’m not saying we will or we won’t. But like I said, I’ve got respect for Memphis. I know all about the history of Memphis basketball. Know a lot about Penny Hardaway. I learned this week, something I didn’t know, that he’s not in the Hall of Fame. I was surprised by that. I didn’t know that. But the fact is, every year we look at our schedule, and we play a really hard schedule. We’ll look at it and, again, we’re always going to do what we think is right for us. And I’m not saying we will or we won’t. That’s where we are on it.”

ON IF HE’D LIKE TO SEE JOSIAH KEEP LOOKING FOR HIS SHOT IN THE SECOND HALF

“I thought he turned down (a few), but again, he has worked really hard at shooting the ball. I thought Josiah played his best game in terms of his confidence, his demeanor and how he was playing. I thought he was good today in terms of trying to do everything he could in the overall game. I might feel different after I look at the tape, but I do like the way he carried himself today.”

ON BREAKING THE PRESS

“I thought we didn’t take advantage of advantage basketball when we had it. That’s the one thing we didn’t do a very good job of early. We had some guys on the floor – one time I think we had Jalen, Drew and Davonte out there, and that’s a group that honestly doesn’t play together very much. I think they were trying to protect the ball as opposed to looking to take advantage of the situation.”

ON MEMPHIS GUARDING LAMONTE AND JORDAN

“They were going to make it hard on him like everybody has all year on Lamonte. We don’t really worry about it because we have three guys out there that we think can handle the ball, so if they want to deny it, we’ll go get into an action. Those three guys – Jordan, Josiah and Lamonte – can play all three spots, but teams are going to do that. They’re going to try and get it out of his hands and see if somebody else can play, but we’ve seen that all year to be quite honest.”

ON ANALYZING THE OFFENSE AGAINST THE PRESS

“I don’t think our offense was good at any point in time. A couple of times, we did what we wanted to do and we ran something and did some things, but we didn’t consistently do it. We really like our transition game, but we didn’t get to it as much as we should have. It goes back to some point in time you have to make shots. I don’t care what you do, it’s never pretty if you don’t make shots. Memphis averages 80-something points a game and they struggled to get to 51. Both teams played hard and both teams had a lot to do with what happened on that end for each team. We had a chance to play advantage basketball in the first half. In the second half, they didn’t really trap us like they were trying to do (in the first half), but at that point in time when they made that push back, we had some key guys on the bench.”

ON IF THERE ARE CONFIDENCE ISSUES WITH THIS OFFENSE

“I think it’s tough when you catch the ball and you're wide open. Think about it, Lamonte and a couple of guys had shots where they couldn’t be anymore open. If you want to call it timid, I think doubt creeps in after guys shoot one or two and they haven’t made it. That’s when you have to have confidence in the flow of the game and the flow of the offense, and then as a player, sometimes you have to realize that maybe I’m not shooting the ball well. If you do get into that mindset where you’re not sure if you can make a shot, you should be moving onto the next play quickly so that you can stay in the flow of the game instead of being hesitant. That’s something some guys are going through for the first time, when they are counted on to score points and things aren’t going well and how can they continue to affect the game.”

ON REASONS FOR THE BAD OFFENSE

“Well, I look this. Lamonte Turner, 1 for 11. Josiah, 4 for 11. Bowden, 2 for 10. Yves Pons, 3 for 10. I know that JB is not going to get a lot of great looks at it. Josiah had looks. He was 3 for 6 (on 3-pointers) and probably could have shot it six more times. He was wanting to create and get into the lane and get to the foul line, which we want to do. We want to get into their bench. I think any team would. Lamonte, I think really does try hard. He was out a couple days this week working with his shoulder. I think that is going to get better and better. I think that is going to help him when he gets it right mentally with some of the things. Jordan Bowden and Lamonte are two guys that are being game-planned for and it gets down to believing in each other and doing what we do. A couple sets where we really did execute well, we were able to get baskets that I think anybody should make. Like layups around the rim. You can’t coach making shots, as much as you would like to make every shot. You have to keep your players believing that if you are open, you have to take good shots. I just hope we don’t have any more nights like this.”

ON THE SHOOTING NIGHT

“I will look at the tape and there will be some things. Holding a team to 51 points that is averaging 80-something, you look at it and they shot 33 percent and you shoot 25 percent and are 4 for 26 — I will tell you this, I would say six of those or seven of those weren’t what I would consider good shots at the time. Olivier took a good first one. He caught the ball wide-open on a scramble situation and he wasn’t ready to shoot it, but he shot it. Those are the ones that are tough shots. He is a freshman and he is learning. He was so wide-open. You don’t normally see that. That is where he has to — they were back-to-back plays. I think a little bit of emotion from the young guys. You could think about a lot of different things, but 4 for 26, I would like to see the ball move a little bit more so we can get in better position to rebound the ball. They get 13 rebounds and you look at it, they normally get 13 offensive rebounds and we got 12. It comes down to games like this — we can analyze it all we want. It is a possession game. There are a couple of them, like you cannot lose a rebound. You can’t do it. Those are critical plays. You can’t give a guy — you have a guy come over to make a play and give up a lob. Those are plays and the things I think we will learn from. As good as we played defensively, offensively there’s a lot of things I can talk about. But the fact is I do know we had some looks at it that we did not knock down. That continues to put pressure on you on that end. I don’t think that ever trickled over to the defensive side, I thought we stayed with what we tried to do.”

ON THE ENVIRONMENT

“I think it was a high-level basketball game, I think that. We have gotten used to in this building with our fans — I think we have the best fan base in college basketball. For some of these guys, the is their first time they have been in it (for a big game). But Lamonte, Bowden and Fulkerson and Yves and those guys that have been through a good bit of it. I thought it was a hard-fought game. I thought both teams played really hard. I thought both teams played really hard and were fighting and scratching for everything they can get. I thought it would play like that from the start. I think both teams have a chance to get a lot better. I think we are both young and I think that as the season goes on that we are going to get a lot better from this and I think their team will.”