What Rick Barnes said after No. 13 Tennessee's 75-62 loss to No. 14 Illinois

NASHVILLE — What Tennessee Basketball coach Rick Barnes said after the 13th-ranked Vols lost 75-62 to No. 14 Illinois Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena, losing for a third straight game:

What Tennessee failed to do in the second half, the last 10 minutes 

“Well obviously Illinois is a very good basketball team. Love Brad (Underwood) and love how they play. I think he puts his guys in positions they need to be. We did too many things when it counted that were just too deflating. You start missing, I think we counted 10 shots at the rim. And are they easy? No, but they were making some of theirs, obviously, putting us in a position where we’re having to go down and help and they did a great job kicking out. We’d like to think that we could do the same thing, but they’re not going to come down until we score at the rate we need to. But just too many things that — we did a great job rebounding throughout the game, really until the last four minutes. 

“And I still think our guys don’t understand exactly what goes into winning, whether they need to. And Bishop (Boswell), I think he always plays hard. He’s trying to do it. He’s trying to. He’s got a voice and I appreciate him trying to let his guys know how hard it is to win at this level and play 40 minutes. And we haven’t done that three games in a row now. We haven’t really done it since the Houston game, where we put together 40 minutes. And the competition that we’re playing right now, they’re going to take advantage of it. Illinois certainly did that.”

What Tennessee doesn’t understand about what goes into winning

“Little details. 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. And when you’re not shooting it well from three — we were six for 20 — and it’s just little things, details. It takes a lot of that to go into it. And execution. And that is coming out out of a timeout. Like anytime we get a rebound 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.”

If those problems are something Tennessee can work on during 10 days off, or if they have to be worked through in game settings 

“I’ll be honest, it’s something that we’ve been working. We’ve worked on it. Again, and I think, to answer that question, I think they know what they’re supposed to do, but they’re not doing it. And that’s the best way I can tell you. Would you agree with that, Bishop? They know what’s supposed to happen. And what 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.”

If Tennessee freshman Nate Ament figured anything out or if the same issues are plaguing him

“Again, I thought tonight he did come out as aggressive as we’d like to see him do. And then he still has to understand the game and he’s got to shoot his shots when he’s open as opposed to going too deep and he keeps driving. I know he wants to get fouled and to impact the game that way. Nate’s going to work at it and it’s all new for him. He’s getting game planned for like he’s never gotten game planned for and he’s learning how to play defense on the perimeter for the first time in his life. Teams are obviously saying we can go after him here, try to get him in the switch situation, back him down, all that. That’s all part of his growth process. But he’ll figure it out. I mean, because he’s such a good kid and he’s unselfish obviously, but we’ll get him going and he’ll get himself going.”

If he’s comfortable with the number of shots Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Nate Ament are taking

“No. We need more balance. That’s a glaring stat tonight, they went 10-for-34 with five turnovers. That’s 10-for-39. But with that said, our post guys got scores some of those baskets. They gotta score them. I mean, we get the ball where we want to get it and guys don’t— it’s the same things. It is inconsistency. Then on the other end, those guys have to guard. You go eight-for-18 from the free throw line. I mean, that’s a problem. That’s a problem. Now we’ve seen guys make some of those and so you play these games for a reason. I don’t think there’s any question from a preparation standpoint our guys tried to— I think they did, I think they prepared the way we’d like them to prepare, but when the game goes on they lose all thought of what we’re supposed to be doing. And that goes back to playing the game instead of understanding how to work it. That’s a very delicate fine line there, but especially older guys should understand that. You get it from younger guys. Sometimes it takes them time. But older guys that have played enough need to understand that and we’re not there yet.”

His impression of Illinois’ Keaton Wagler entering the game, if tonight changed it

“No, again, I thought, again, our coaches just like their coaches— I just told the team, believe me, there’s no secrets in this. We had them scouted. We did, we had them scouted and they didn’t give us anything we didn’t think. I mean you can look at some nights Stojakovic, I think was averaging 16 coming in. Didn’t get it tonight. Other guys step up because they’ve got a good team. And give Brad (Underwood) a lot of credit. I thought he found, I mean they were going after Ja’Kobi. They were going after Nate. They were trying to, they took advantage of some switches but I thought they played really smart basketball going inside out with it the same. They were putting us in a situation where we were having to dig often. We never once said we were going to trap. We never said that. But a couple times. Guys on their own went to do that and we got burnt with it. They’re playing hard. They are, but they’re not playing smart. And that’s where we got away from the scouting report a little bit. But I really like Kylan Boswell. I really like him. I think he really ran the game. I thought he was a guy, you look at his numbers, point guard, what he does and the way he does some things. I really feel like he’s the glue to that team in terms of how they play.”

How concerning the issues are at this time of year, if it’s to be expected with Tennessee having so many new players

“Well, no, I mean, we have 11 new players and some of them have never been in a situation, they haven’t. But is it concerning? It is concerning when you don’t play the way you practice? That’s what’s concerning and that’s what I said. And we still didn’t do it. Bishop is a guy that you watch him practice, he does what he does in practice. He does what he does in game and you don’t want surprises but right now we are who we are, and the fact is we’re inconsistent.

“And I said that to the team the other day and that’s why we need everybody. I mean, Ja’Kobi (is) three games in a row. Nate, three games in a row, where they’ve really struggled. And so it’s not like we’re gonna say we’re gonna count on these two guys every night, but you look at the stat sheet, 45 missed possessions out of how many was it? Out of 65 of them? We gotta be more productive there. We need those guys to produce, we do. We also need, when they’re not doing it, those other guys, we need those free throws, we need those two-point buckets, those point-blank layups and we think we’re getting them. I mean most teams score them. We need to score them. But it is the inconsistency of where we are right now. We’ve gotta get some consistency.”

Barnes on how important Tennessee’s upcoming nine days off are where they can just focus on themselves in practice

Barnes: “I don’t know. I’d rather be playing. I don’t think we need practice. I mean, we’re good in practice. We’re good in practice. Why do you think we’re good in practice?”

Boswell: “We play hard.”

Barnes: “Cause I’m doing it. I’m doing it. (Boswell) can have his voice, but other guys gotta do it. I can stop ’em in practice. I can’t stop the game. You give me 10 timeouts, we’d win this game tonight, but we don’t have that. It goes back to, we’ve gotta play how we practice and you gotta realize every game takes on its own personality and we haven’t been able to adjust to that.

But I’m not looking at it like we got this much time to practice. I mean, I’d rather be playing games. We’ll keep — it’s a long way to go. I’ve been through a lot in my time, obviously. We’re certainly not at our best in November, December now. I know that, and we’ve got a chance to be a good basketball team. We’ve proven that, but we’ve let some things creep in and it’s nothing that can’t be fixed. We gotta get some guys confident and the way — how do you think they get confident, Bishop? Answer that question.”

Boswell: “I think just repetition in practice, like you said. Doing the things we practice, we’re not doing that right now.”

Barnes: “That’s what it gets down to.”

Boswell on if he felt like the defensive issues in the second half were more mental or physical

“Definitely mental, I think. I see it every day in practice. We watch a lot of film and then we go clean it up, but then we’ll get to the game and I think we do it in the first half, and then we’ll just have like seven or eight lapses. To win against a good team like this, we can have those little messed up details. 

Boswell on how he can’t help his teammates learn to win and take care of the details

“Yeah, I think I was blessed to get a good look at it from guys last year who have been a part of it and knew what it took to win at the highest level. I think part of it for me is, as much as I may not agree with some of those foul calls, I gotta make sure that I stay out of foul trouble to be on the court, and even when I’m not, be a voice on the bench.”

The message Barnes hopes Tennessee’s three-game losing streak sends to the team

“Three losses, three wins, (Boswell) will tell you, our message every day is that we got to get better. We’ve got to improve, we’ve got to get better a little bit each day. That’s our whole philosophy (and) what we’re about. Players have to get better, coaches have to get better, the team has to get better. We got, what, 25, 30 more games to go, and we got a chance to do it, but it’s all about getting better.”

Where Tennessee’s vocal leadership is at when things start going poorly on the floor

Barnes: “We don’t have it right now. (Boswell) is out there, he’ll talk some, obviously. You answer that Bishop. You’re out there.”

Boswell: “I feel like I’m trying to take on that role and talk, and I’m talking in timeouts. I mean, we see it from J.P. (Estrella) and I think we see it from everybody through periods. But just consistently, we need everybody to have a voice whether they’re in the game, on the bench. It just takes everybody to win games like this.”

Barnes: “To answer (your question), it’s not there yet, the way it needs to be. You really need it from your guards more than anybody, and we don’t have that yet.”