What Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on this week's Mike Keith Show

What Tennessee Basketball coach Rick Barnes said during his appearance this week on The Mike Keith Show, updating the progress of the Vols and what’s next after three straight losses:

“Other than a couple tough losses here, life’s good. Always is good, obviously. But we’ve just got a basketball team that we love to death. And everything we’re doing wrong is all teachable. And we just got to keep teaching and give these guys a chance to keep maturing and we have confidence they will.”

How he learned to stay even keeled in the college basketball coaching business 

“Well, I didn’t, for a long time. I didn’t. And thank goodness to the grace of my Lord and Savior is what it’s about. I mean, this is what I do, it’s not who I am. You’ve heard that term before, but it’s true. And I do feel like we’re teachers and we’ve got a group of a bunch of new guys. We’re excited about them. And I could say we do, like anyone, we get frustrated because I know we’re better than what we’ve played the last three games. And I know players are better than what they’ve played the last three games. But I do know that we have, I think, the most experienced coaching staff in the country and we’ve all been through it and we’re going to weather this one. And in the end, our goals won’t change. We still want to win championships this year and we still got a chance to do that.”

The announcement this week that Tennessee forward Cade Phillips will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery

 “Well, it’s not going to get any better (without surgery). And we respect and admire Cade for working as hard as he could to try to fight through it. And with JP (Estrella) being out, he did everything he could to try to hold the line (last season). Hopefully JP is back now and will stay healthy, because without he and JP, we really got lean on the front line. But it’s tough. In the long run, it’s the right thing to do because we’ve watched how hard and painful it’s been for him in practice some days when he would get. But again, he gave us everything he could. And just to a point where psychologically, probably as much as physically, because Cade is a tough kid. I mean, he’s tough. He’s competitive. And the fact that we watched him just couldn’t be who he wanted to be. It’s the right thing to do.”

The options for Tennessee to replace Cade Phillips in the starting lineup and the rotation

 “It takes us down to four post players, but DeWayne Brown, obviously these minutes he’s getting have been very valuable. We’ve already started trying to teach Amari Evans, so if we ever need to go small, and because of his strength, his physicality, we think he can give us some of that. And we’ll continue to do that probably. And depending on with Nate (Ament), offensively Nate could go anywhere on the court. So we’ll play around with it, which is part of making coaching fun.” 

The surgery news being tougher because of who Cade Phillips is as a person and who he is for the Tennessee Basketball program 

“He comes from a wonderful family, a very competitive family, and an athletic family. They understand it more than anybody. And believe me, he tried. I mean,  he did not want do this. And in the long run, it’s going to be one the best thing for his career because we brought him in with the idea that we were going redshirt him as a freshman. And we didn’t really, because Zakai (Zeigler) and Jahmai (Mashack), those guys said coach, we need him, we need him because of his versatility and more importantly his competitiveness. And at the time, we weren’t sure of some things. But looking back, hindsight, yeah, we should have redshirted him then because as the season went on he didn’t play as much. But it’s going to help him. It’s going to help not just him to help our team a year from now, but also it’s going to help his future.” 

What he saw on the tape from Tennessee’s loss to Illinois 

“When you’re watching the game you notice maybe a really busted ball-screen coverage, that as much time as you spend on it, you’re like, how’s this happening? And with guys that you know are capable of handling that. But when you sit down and look at it, you can’t miss 12 layups, 10 free throws. It’s just too deflating. It just takes it out of you. And you’re always fighting uphill. And we had so many opportunities to really put ourselves in a position to make them feel a little bit of (pressure), that deflating type situation. But you just can’t miss those shots at that, the ones that we missed. And to be honest with you, (Illinois) didn’t have a lot to do with it. I mean, they have good size, but going to 8-for-18 at the free-throw line, you’re always just digging yourself out of a hole. And we can talk about the defensive breakdowns, but at some point in time you got to make shots.”

Tennessee freshman Amari Evans getting minutes against Illinois, how the other freshmen performed

“Yeah, we’re happy. We love our freshman class. I wish we could get them all out there at some point in time. It’s just not the way the game plays. And Amari I think has done well. One thing he does, he come off the bench every game and he has rebounded. He plays with energy. He’s not afraid to compete. He had a, I thought, a big-time block at Syracuse. And he’s very competitive. And the more he can get out there, get a feel for it, the more he’ll settle in to it. 

“But what we want see, too, those guys that aren’t playing, they’ve got to be more engaged during the game on the bench. They have to be. Because they all want to play, there’s no question about that. But they’re going to have to earn that by being consistent in practice every day and showing us. And I would say that everyone’s had a chance to play to prove something. Probably with the exception of Clarence (Massamba), he didn’t get out there. And I do believe this, if Clarence would’ve been here all summer, he’d be a big part of this rotation right now. I really believe that. He’s so mature in his approach. He doesn’t know yet what he doesn’t know, but he’s getting there. And it’s a long time now between now and end of the year, and somewhere along the way all those guys are going to factor in helping us win games.”

What he falls back on when things aren’t going well for Tennessee, when he’s trying to rest and get back on track

“I think the answer to that is that what we believe is every day you’ve got to get better. You got to be honest with yourself. You got to take a hard look at the fil. And you go back up and look at a couple of the games, you’ve got guys like Nate Ament who’s learning an entire new position for the first time in his life. He’s never been a constant perimeter player. And you look at him, our opponents have definitely put a bullseye on him. They’ve gone after him both ways. They’ve done the same thing with Ja’Kobi Gillespie. Those guys are getting game planned for in a way that, even though we tried to prepare them, we talked about it all summer and we tried to in practice. Like Amari Evans I thought all (summer) did a great job being very physical with Nate, trying to get it to it and but is here now. 

“And people have asked me the difference between like Nate and Chaz (Lanier) and Dalton (Knecht). Well, Dalton and Chaz had been in college. Nate’s never been. He’s a true freshman. I could relate to what he’s going through more to what a guy like, say Kevin Durant went through. Because Kevin struggled this time of year. But then it clicked for him and it really clicked, once he figured it out. And I have con confidence that will happen with Nate. Because he’s such a good person. He works really hard. He’s going to do everything that we ask him to do. But he got put in the fire and he’s realized, one, it is harder even than he could imagine. And we told him that. We said we’re going to tell you about it and we’re going to try to simulate it as much as possible. But it’s hard and he’s realizing that he’s going to have to continue to adjust his game. He’s going to have to play quicker, he’s going to have to play with more force. 

“You (Mike Keith) mentioned it after a game the other night at Illinois, you mentioned about you thought the last couple minutes he showed the kind of force. And you’re right. When you see that, it’s there. He’s just got to get it. He’s got to bring it out. And it’s an everyday process. And once he gets to a that level, he’s going to take it to another level because you can’t stop growing. But we’ll always focus on our details. 

“We know what we do works. It’s just a matter that we’ve got to get the players to. And again, I wish we could coach making shots. We can’t. But I know we’ve got guys that can make shots. And I’ve seen teams go through it. I’ve seen great players go through it. But yet, I’d rather go through that right now, and really keep focus on that, so before we get into conference play we hopefully can get that cleared up.”

Not being able to “baby” a team through those kind of struggles 

“No, no, no, no, no. Not at all. I don’t think you can baby anybody. And I can only speak for us. You can’t coach other people’s teams unless you’re there with them every day. You never know what goes on. But with our team, as a coaching staff, we don’t have any regrets with where we are right now in terms of how we’ve approached this year with so many young guys. We knew that we had 11 players that have really not been through this. And we hoped that we could — I go back to each game, it’s such a final line. Even when you look at a final score of 12 or 13 points, or two or three points, it’s really with three minutes, two minutes to go in the game, it’s a possession game, basically, if you do what you’re supposed to do. And we’re going to be in those all year long. 

“And I was watching the Kansas City Chiefs play. It’s amazing up until this year, they’ve won all those one-possession games. This year they can’t. So I’ve seen cycles, I’ve seen those things happen. But you absolutely have to be transparent. And I think kids — I maybe shouldn’t (say it), well they are, I mean, I don’t mind saying it — they need honesty. They need you to look them in the eye and say, and show it to them. And that’s where I really give our players (credit). They come from really good families where they want the truth. I think they do. And they know coming here, they’re not going to be babied. They know that. And I don’t think they want to be babied because where they ultimately want to go, there’s no boys allowed up there. If you want to have a chance to play professional basketball at the highest level, you’ve got to be tough. You’ve got to be able to do a lot of things, from how you react after wins, losses, film room, whatever it may be.” 

His comment that Ja’Kobi Gillespie needs to think more as a point guard for Tennessee 

“Yeah, and I’m going to going to have a long talk with him about it. He’s playing basketball, which I tell our guys, like at Syracuse, I kept saying to our guys, man, we got to play, we’ve got to play, got to play. Every game has its own personality, and it does. But you can’t play the game like it’s a YMCA game. You’ve got to work the game. And the one guy that’s got to work the game is the point guard. For instance, we get an offensive rebound and maybe if Ja’Kobi hasn’t scored, he goes off in a way that we’re not sure, no one knows what’s happening. It could be true of Jaylen (Carey) inside when he gets the ball and he’s double-teamed. We have concepts set up for that. But they’ve got to read the game. They can’t just play. It’s not a YMCA game. You’ve got to work the game. But Ja’Kobi in a new system. He’s learning to be a point guard really for the first time, I think really to learn how to do it. And we know he can score, but most of his entire life has been predicated around score, score, score. And so now we’re asking him to learn something after four years of college that maybe he hasn’t done a lot of. And he’ll figure it out because he’s competitive. But he’s going to have to learn he’s the quarterback and he’s the play-caller. He’s the guy that’s got to control the huddles. He’s got to talk more. There’s no doubt he’s got to do all that. He’s got to be more vocal.”

Tennessee forward Jaylen Carey continuing to be an assertive force

“He is. And again, I told him he’s too good a player not to finish those shots. But he’s got to, and I’ve said this to him, it’s hard to score. It’s hard. You’ve got to put effort in putting the ball in the basket. You can fight to get your space. That’s part of it. But then you’ve got to finish it, knowing that there’s one or two guys flying at you. And he’s a guy when he starts playing with the ball, he gives the defense a chance to get there to where he’s got no room to operate. So it’s a matter of him, like you mentioned Nate playing with force, he’s got to play with speed. When he gets the ball, he’s got to be ready to catch it and score. And we’ve often used the term ‘do your work early.’ And that’s when that ball hits his hand, he needs to be ready to put the ball in the basket as opposed to thinking he’s going to spin or do this or do that. And we can move him around. We used him in some pick and rolls where he was rolling, getting a little speed that way, all that. We can do that. And he has worked really hard at conditioning, but he has to play at a much quicker pace. But that’s what’s exciting. We know these guys have the ability to do it and we just got to keep working with him, teach them and they’ll get there.”

Carey’s conditioning making him able to play at the speed Tennessee wants him to play at 

“Yeah, I think so. And I think he’s learning that it’s harder too. I think he would tell you, I ask him and talk to him about that all the time. I say this game’s a lot harder than you thought. And he would agree. He’s worked hard, he’s put time in and we just got to get him to another level.”

Tennessee facing Louisville Tuesday at Food City Center 

“Think about a year ago, they turned it around. Pat Kelsey went in, they went and finished way up there in the ACC. And he’s continued to build the program. We all know it’s a program with a great tradition to it. And he’s done a really nice job. He’s gotten I think the kind of guys that he wants and they’ve proved they can be very explosive and, but we’ve got some time here. And honestly, you’d rather be playing. This time of year you’d rather keep playing games. But with exams coming through right now, we’ve got some time. And we’ll take advantage of it and know we have to be ready because they’ve proven they can play with anybody in the country, obviously.”

When the Louisville prep starts with Tennessee having some extra practice time this week, with no games on schedule 

“Well, we won’t change our (routine). We won’t. The coaches are already working on it, obviously. They get it in. But these next couple of days will be about us.”

If they’re trying to instill more confidence in Tennessee players this week

“Well, I think confidence comes through work. I think you put your work in, then you trust your work, you believe in it, and then you got to go perform. I mean, you do all that work when the lights are off. But when the lights come on, now you’ve got to play like you practice. And we haven’t done that consistently. And the players would own up to that. And people ask me why. Some of that is because in practice I’m able to control it, during the game I can’t. And that’s why we keep talking about leadership, about players, we try to control what we can control, but we can’t stop it like we can in practice and go up and down the floor. I wish we could go up down the floor with them. If there were no coaches boxes, we’d surround the court with our coaches and we’d be a lot better, I promise you, if we could go up down with them. But that’s where we’ve got to grow as a team. But anytime you’ve got good character guys, you always believe you’ve got a way to figure it out and get better.”

Him saying Saturday night that Tennessee players know what to do, they’re just not doing it … kind of like dealing with your own children 

“Yeah, when your kids come home, you can take care of them. When (the players) come back, we’ll take care of them. But you know what, when you feel good as a coach is when we sit there and we watch them do what they practice. And you’re like, man, that’s when it’s fun as a coach, when you see the execution, when you feel like you can let go and let them have it. And very, very few times you get teams like that. And sometimes it takes one guy to be able to do it. The best teams that you’ve coached are the ones that are player led. And I could go back to Zakai. He and I were connected in a way, when things weren’t going well and he knew I was upset, he would walk off the floor and he knew I was getting ready to say something. And before I could say anything, he’d say, ‘I got you coach, I got you. I got it, I got it.’ And he would take care of it. And I’ve been spoiled with that last couple years. Now we got to re recreate that and got to get Ja’Kobi talking. But not just him. We’re not putting it on one guy. It’s a bunch of guys that can do that for us.”