Rick Barnes explains how the Colorado loss 'was a wake-up call' for Tennessee basketball
Almost two weeks later, Rick Barnes still isn’t trying to take anything away from Colorado.
“I hate to talk about the loss we had,” Barnes said Friday night, “because I don’t ever take away from somebody that beat us. But it was a wake-up call.”
That wake-up call was the 78-66 Colorado win over Tennessee on November 13 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Colorado, coming off a loss at Grambling State two days earlier, shot 54 percent from the field in the second half against the Vols, outscoring them by 14 while running away with the win.
Since then, Tennessee has won four straight. The Vols won three games in three days in the Bahamas to take home the Battle 4 Atlantis championship, running through Butler, Southern Cal and No. 3 Kansas on the way to the title.
“Whether we were the 11th-ranked team in the preseason or 12th, whatever it was,” Barnes said Friday night, after the 64-50 win over the Jayhawks, “that team, this team, hasn’t done what last year’s did.
“Last year’s team didn’t do enough. Our players would tell you they want more than what they got a year ago.”
Last year’s team won three games in three days to win the SEC Tournament championship, beating Mississippi State, Kentucky and Texas A&M to win the program’s first conference title since 1979.
Those Vols, after winning 27 games, were done a week later, losing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to an 11th-seeded Michigan team.
Vols have ‘had a great mindset’ since being upset by Colorado
Since the Colorado loss, Tennessee beat Florida Gulf Coast by 31 points at home, shot past Butler in the second half to start the stay in the Bahamas, then survived USC in overtime. The Vols shut down Kansas Friday night with a defense that’s now No. 1 in KenPom.com‘s adjusted defensive efficiency.
“After that,” Barnes said, referencing the Colorado loss, “we have had a great mindset.”
The mindset is partly due to the Tennessee coaching staff. Barnes said he had to be reeled in by his assistant coaches after falling flat in Nashville.
“When we lost that game,” Barnes said, “they did a good job of keeping me under control because I wanted to kill them. I felt like how could we let that get away from us like that?”
This Tennessee team, according to Barnes, failed to find rhythm before the Atlantis tournament because the schedule didn’t allow it. There was a closed-scrimmage against Michigan State and a neutral-site exhibition against Gonzaga in Texas in October.
There were six days between the season-opener against Tennessee Tech on November 7 and the Colorado game on November 13. The Vols played FGCU three days later in Thompson-Boling Arena, before another week off before the Battle 4 Atlantis.
“It is really tough to practice in November,” Barnes said, “after you have been practicing for 70-some days going back to the summer … we had a closed scrimmage, a week off. We had an exhibition game, a week off. We never got our rhythm.”
Up Next: Tennessee vs. McNeese State, Wednesday, 7:15 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Tennessee started to find its rhythm in the Bahamas. And it happened during timeouts.
“I like the fact that they coach each other,” Barnes said of his players. “We talked about that last year. The best teams are player-led. I liked the fact (against Kansas) they were getting on each other.”
That started against FGCU last week. Barnes, thinking about how the Vols coached each other last season, wanted that to start happening again with this group. So he moved out of the way so they could do just that.
“During timeouts in our last home game,” Barnes said, “I left my chair open and made different guys sit there during the timeouts and said you guys are coaching to coach each other. You guys are going to hold each other accountable.”
The accountability is working.
“(Against Kansas), when they were getting at each other, I thought it was pretty good,” Barnes said. “I want them to hold each other accountable. We come out of there with that. That is a good thing.”
