Rick Barnes shreds officiating in first half of game against Purdue

No. 7 Tennessee is locked in a tight contest with No. 2 Purdue early in the season, and Volunteers coach Rick Barnes is pleased with the way his team has played through the first 20 minutes.

He’s considerably less stoked about the officiating, going off in a halftime interview on the game’s broadcast.

“Well it is a physical game, I just don’t think the officials realize it,” Barnes said. “The fouls, I mean it is what it is. Like I’ve tried to tell them, we’re trying to get fouled in here, they’re trying to get fouled out there.”

Barnes was hit with a technical foul in the first half with 5:15 to play when he was arguing over a foul issued to Jordan Gainey. He disagreed with the call.

Once again, Barnes left little leeway in what he thought about the call at halftime.

“When I got the technical foul I know I was right on that call, we got pushed,” Barnes said.

Tennessee led 24-19 at the time of the technical foul, and Purdue seemed to rally following the call against Barnes. By halftime, the lead had been cut to 31-30.

Perhaps more importantly, several Tennessee players were in foul trouble going against elite Purdue big man Zach Edey.

Forward Tobe Awaka had three fouls in the first half, while forward Jonas Aidoo had two and forward JP Estrella had two. Barnes addressed playing around that foul trouble in the second half.

“The bottom line is it’s the kind of game you would expect,” Barnes said. “Our guys are playing hard. We’ve got to make some shots. We’ve had some shots that we need to make. Got to make them at the free-throw line. But we’ve just got to keep defending and do what we do. We’ve got big guys in foul trouble. We have to go with all guards, we’ll do that if we have to.”

Of note, Tennessee didn’t make a field goal in the final 4:46 of the first half. Purdue, meanwhile, didn’t make a field goal in the final 4:30.

So you can expect it’ll be a scrappy, hard-fought contest in the second half.