Rick Barnes: Tennessee's players 'don't understand exactly what goes into winning'

NASHVILLE — Rick Barnes put the blame on his Tennessee Basketball players. The three-game losing streak over the last week and a half comes down to the Vols not knowing how to win.

Or, as Barnes put it: “I still think our guys don’t understand exactly what goes into winning.”

Following No. 13 Tennessee’s 75-62 loss to No. 14 Illinois Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena, the veteran head coach went down a long list of what has gone wrong in the three straight losses.

“Little details,” Barnes said. “Not listening coming out of timeouts. Not doing what we say we’re going to do. Mistakes. Taking the ball out of bounds when you’re not supposed to. Free-throw block out when it’s still a nine-point game. Giving up when you’re dominated there. 

“Finishing plays. Free throws. You think about it, we were 8-for-18 from the free-throw line.”

‘I think they know what they’re supposed to do, but they’re not doing it’

The Vols weren’t any better shooting from the field. 

Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 15 points for Tennessee (7-3) but needed 20 shots from the floor to get there. And he was the only player that scored in double figures. Five-star freshman Nate Ament’s struggles continued as he scored nine point on 4-for-14 shooting.

The Vols added another 13 turnovers, too, giving them 30 over the last two games.

“It’s just little things, details,” Barnes said. “It takes a lot of that to go into it. And execution. And that is coming out of a timeout.”

For example, Barnes pointed to failed attempts at transition offense when the Vols want to run — they had five fast-break points against Illinois, after having zero at Syracuse — and not doing what’s supposed to be done when the offense gets stopped in transition.

“Like anytime we get a rebound,” Barnes said, “and we’re going to push and we’re going to try to get something before defense gets set, we’re going to try to do that. But if not, we talk about what we’re going to do, but we don’t get to it. And that’s a problem that we’ve got to get fixed.”

It’s not that Barnes and his Tennessee coaching staff haven’t been trying to fix the problem. 

“I’ll be honest, it’s something that we’ve been working,” Barnes said of the struggles. “We’ve worked on it.”

Up Next: No. 13 Tennessee vs. No. 6 Louisville, December 16

The product looked more than good enough in a 76-73 win over then-No. 3 Houston in Las Vegas on November 25, but it fell off the next day with an 81-76 loss to Kansas, which featured a 12-point lead in the second half given away.

It continued in the 62-60 loss at Syracuse on Tuesday, then against Illinois on Saturday night.

And now the Vols have nine days to continue to work on it, before hosting No. 6 Louisville at Food City Center on December 16.

As his postgame press conference continued Saturday night, Barnes tried to boil it down even more.

“I think they know what they’re supposed to do,” he said of his players, “but they’re not doing it. And that’s the best way I can tell you.” 

“They know what’s supposed to happen,” he added later. “And I think what happens is some guys play the game, other guys know how to work the game. And we’re not at that position yet with all five guys understanding how to work the game. 

“And some guys are just playing it with no point of focus in terms of what we need to do to win the game.”