What North Florida coach Bobby Kennen said after 99-66 loss at Tennessee

What North Florida coach Bobby Kennen said after the 99-66 loss at No. 20 Tennessee Wednesday night at Food City Center in Knoxville:

Opening Statement

“Well, first of all, I just want to thank Coach Barnes for giving us this opportunity to come in here and compete tonight. You have a young team. Have seven new guys. We have six freshmen on the roster, between  two redshirt freshmen and four true freshmen. And we had our opportunity to play the defending national champions and an Elite Eight team. Two of the elite teams in the country. So it’s given our guys a great test and a great, great baseline and a lot of learning opportunities for us as we begin the year.”

The thought process entering tough games to begin the year with a young team

“We’ve had a consistent tradition of playing one of the top schedules in the country. That’s part of our program. It’s part of the fabric of our program. We recruit guys who look forward to the challenge, who look forward to the fight. And we just got to continue to fight through that thing and grow and get better. We got better. We’ve gotten better a lot of times, media to media (timeout). Half to half as we’ve played these games. Guys came out tonight. I mean, we’re down 32-30 with about six minutes to go. We had to lead three times in the first half, and we were prepared to come in here. What happens in these games, a lot of times, is the length and athleticism and the strength tends to wear us down. That gets difficult, and as we grow and as we mature as a team, we’ll do a better job of taking care of the ball, and we’ll get better shots, and allow us to hang in these games and give us a chance when the time comes.”

What JP Estrella gives Tennessee, preparing for him

“It’s just amazing. I mean, they’re obviously one of the elite offensive rebounding teams in the country. I think when you look at that, I think you talk about Tennessee, Houston and Florida when it comes to that. And he’s a guy, he’s super efficient. I mean, it’s amazing. One of our assistants kind of shared, he’s like, Hey, you really don’t even notice him out there on the court. And then he’s 24 and 13, or whatever he was tonight. I mean, he’s a guy— he’s a low maintenance, high production guy. And those are the best guys to coach.”

What makes Tennessee so difficult to handle on the glass

“Well, they have a tremendous amount of length and athleticism, and they also have a lot of depth. They just keep bringing bodies. They keep bringing bodies at you. And I think not only is it a problem for the North Florida’s of the world. I think it’s going to be a problem for the SEC.”

What helped North Florida keep the game close for the first 13 minutes

“I thought we were able to play with a lot of poise and patience. I thought we were able to get our shots. Kam did a great job of kind of controlling the game for us. Again, for him. I mean, I’m asking him to do a lot. I’m putting a lot on his shoulders. He isn’t a true point guard. Hasn’t played that a lot in his career, but he, just like many of his teammates, are willing to step up and give us anything that we us anything that we need him to do. And he’s done a tremendous job and shown a lot of growth in the first couple games. I think we were able to get the ball in the paint and then kind of spray it out. And I think against Tennessee, that’s what you have to do. They do such a great job of helping. They do such a great job of on ball pressure. Anytime you get an edge, you’ve got to be able to get rid of that ball. So if you see a white jersey, get rid of it. And then make sure you’re ready to shoot it. When you play Tennessee and you have an open look, you can’t pass them up again. I think when we got in trouble a little bit later in the half, as we kind of started passing some of those things up.”

What worked well for the North Florida offense early in the game

“I thought our spacing was really good. I thought we shared the ball. And again, we were able to kind of get in the paint and put some pressure on the paint. Obviously, Coach Barnes has won 838 games for a reason. He kind of turned that pressure up and picked us up a little bit and took us a little bit out of that comfort zone. And we were able to operate, we were able to kind of get downhill. “But I think the biggest change in the game for us is, they played off live-ball turnovers, like I think we had that stretch coming in (to halftime) and I think we had four turnovers in a row. And, you know, they’re so good in transition and so big, you can defend a missed shot. It’s tough to defend a missed shot, but a turnover is almost impossible. And I think that’s where the game changed.”

What stood out about Tennessee freshman forward Nate Ament

“Well, I think what stood out is he’s another one that kind of lets the game come to him. He’s getting to the foul line at a very, very high rate. And obviously, you know, layups and dunks and free throws are things that make you an efficient player. And I think he’s extremely efficient. He’s really, really versatile. He’s just a mismatch. He’s a mismatch nightmare, really.”

Former North Florida guard Chaz Lanier who transferred to Tennessee for his college final season

“He’s obviously a proud graduate of the University of North Florida, and we’re certainly proud of him. And the thing about Chaz, which I think makes him special, as good of a player as he is, and obviously, you know, he’s the 38th pick in the draft, and he’s in the NBA, and he’s very successful. He’s a better person than he is a player. And as an athletic department, two summers ago, we have these monthly meetings, and our athletic director asked us to read a book. So he assigned the whole athletic department a book, and we’re walking out of the meeting — and I’m a reader — and Nick (Morrow) asked me, he says, ‘Bobby, have you read this book?’ And I just kind of laughed. I said, ‘Yeah, I have, as a matter of fact.’ You know, two summers ago, Chaz came back to start summer school, walked in my office, sat down, we’re visiting, and he handed me the book (How Full is Your Bucket), and he’s like, ‘Coach, my mom had me read this this summer. I thought of you. I thought you’d enjoy it.’ So, you know, for a young man to have that type of feel, and to be able to communicate at that level, and he’s just a wonderful human being. I shared that story with any NBA team that asked me about him. I mean, he’s certainly a rare breed. I know you guys are proud to call him one of your own, but we certainly are as well.

“Basically, the message in the book is, are you pouring into people? Are you lifting them up? Are you taking away from them? And it’s just a great message and a great thing. And I think Chaz is one of those guys in life that he’s going to add to people’s life, rather than take it away. He certainly did to me, and certainly did for our program.”