What Rick Barnes said after No. 18 Tennessee's season-opening win over Mercer

What head coach Rick Barnes said after No. 18 Tennessee opened the 2025-26 season with a 76-61 win over Mercer Monday night at Food City Center:

What led to Tennessee’s 19 turnovers

“Sloppy. Sloppy in practice. And I told them that, again, we want to play quick, fast. But again I think some guys are playing not seeing the court the way they need to. The decisions on the passes weren’t very good. We proved in the first half that we can end up being a good defensive team. Second half I thought we let down because of fact that too many guys turned the ball over. And I thought their whole mindset shifted to trying to think I got a school to do something, and we lost our mindset there defensively. But 19 turnovers, (Mercer is) a well-coached team. A lot of respect for Ryan (Riddle) and what he does in that program. We knew they were going to be scrappy, try to drive us and all that. But still, those guys, I mean you’re 7-feet tall, you don’t put the ball down by your knees at any point in time. Those type of things are really just unacceptable.”

If he’s more concerned about Tennessee’s 19 turnovers committed or forcing five Mercer turnovers 

“No, I mean they keep the ball in playmakers hands. They do a good job of that. We were switching a lot. I thought our post guys did a good job. We knew they were going to try to drive us, and so we had to contain the ball first. And when you do that, you give up a little bit of the ball pressure. Again I thought they did a good job keeping the ball in the hands of the guys they wanted it in.”

If there are any other tendencies he’s seeing that are leading to the turnovers

“Well, I think some of the pass decisions are not what it needs to be. But again we got the ball inside and I think those guys have got to do a better job. Too many point blank shots and we weren’t close. And we’ve got to do that. We need those guys to get fouled and go to the free throw line more. If you look at again tonight, … fouls drawn, I think Nate. How many did he draw tonight? Seven. I mean our post guys should be doing some of that, you know they should be getting some of those. Nate had 7 or 8 last game. We need our post guys on those to get fouled or give us a better result.”

If he’s seen enough from Tennessee freshmen Troy Henderson and DeWayne Brown to think they will play consistently

“They’re going to be in there. They’re going to be in there because one, they’ve earned it. And again, the more they play, the better they’re going to get. We got a chance to have the depth we want, but if you just think you’re going to play, it won’t happen. It won’t happen. Some of the older guys, I thought they’ve got to be better than they were tonight in terms of coming in, doing what we need to do. Ethan’s just got to slow down. He’s playing, trying to do too much offensively, but again, he’ll get there.”

Bishop Boswell’s eight rebounds

“I thought Bishop came out again, had his mindset right defensively, and he’s been the most consistent guy, really. But you look at the numbers. I mean, we shot 49% (from the field), 41% (from three) and free throw line didn’t do a good job. You think about it, we gave away 19 opportunities. Who knows what we could have done? We just give them away.”

What JP Estrella gave Tennessee offensively

“JP can give us. JP can give us the force down there that we need. He got fouled on the turnaround jump shot. He did. He got hit on that we needed because he can make that shot, but we just can’t get stripped in there. We got to be strong enough to put it there those guys have got to play quicker. They’ve got to know that if they can’t get it off, we’ve got guys that can shoot it. It’s got to go inside out.”

What he liked about Tennessee freshman forward Nate Ament’s performance

“I thought he stayed with it. Again, I think Nate is just — this is all new to him. I mean, you know, two games in a row, he’s been a perimeter player the whole time, and he’s going to adjust to playing against scrappy guards because he’s never had to do that. But you look at his line, other than the fact that he turned it over three times, I mean, that’s a pretty good night. And he’s really trying hard defensively. He really is. You can tell he’s trying to really become a good perimeter defensive player. He never has. Nate’s smart, hard working. Believe me, after the last game at Duke, he showed his maturity because he came out, he took it to heart what he didn’t do, and he’s got to get somewhere in between, because I thought tonight he had a chance to shoot a couple more threes and he didn’t. Last game he tried to do too much and that’s where you’ll see his improvement. He’ll know more where his shots are coming from and when he needs to shoot. But I thought he really was into the game mentally.”

If he noticed Ament playing with more physicality

“I think last game he came in with the wrong mindset. As opposed to, Nate’s a good player and that’s what we’ve talked to him about. Just be the player you are. You don’t have to force anything.  You’re smart, you know where your opportunities will come (from). I thought he was focused and again, I really believe that from the game tape, the way he processed it and did what he did tonight tells you that he’ll do the same all year long because all this is new to him. It is. But as the game goes on, he’s going to get more and more comfortable being on the premierter, running as hard as he’s got to run, defending as hard as he’s got to defend and rebounding. I mean think about it, he almost had another double-double. It’s pretty impressive.”