What Rick Barnes said before Tennessee Basketball's final summer practice

Everything Rick Barnes said during his press conference Thursday afternoon before Tennessee Basketball held its final practice of the summer:

Opening Statement

“I think first, we haven’t had our whole team together, so that’s going to be exciting when we get back in the fall, or we get back (and) get ready to get started. But what I’ve liked about this group, I think this time of year when you have guys that get banged up a little bit, you’re not in any hurry to get them back. And the reason we like that, because it gives other guys a chance to get a lot more reps. And with that said, I think that we’ve got a lot of guys that right now that we think we’re going to be able to get on the court and play because of them getting a lot of reps (in the summer) and knowing what some other guys have shown us. But overall, the versatility up to this point, we like that because we do feel we can move a number of guys around, give us a chance to play with different lineups. 

If Tennessee freshman Nate Ament has been one of those players that has been banged up

“Yeah. And again, if we were playing games, Nate would play. But the same with JP (Estrella), we’re holding him back. We had a plan on him from the very beginning. And there’s not a guy when you practice (hard), and we do practice (hard), that is not banged up a little bit. But every guy — Cade re-injured his shoulder. But again, we’re just cautionary. And we want him to come back when we get back here in the fall in a couple weeks. We want to make sure everybody is100% ready to go.”

If Nate Ament has been practicing recently

“He could practice. We’ve chosen not to because we’ve done a lot with him. My idea with that is how do we play when Nate is not on the floor? How do we play when Ja’Kobi is not on the floor. How do we play if Felix is not on the floor? Again, I just said it, they all could have practiced but we’ve chosen not to do that. We’re not alarmed by any of that. It’s just given us a chance to have some fun and play with different lineups.”

If he has changed the way Tennessee approaches the summer given the amount of roster turnover in this era

“No, we haven’t changed any of that in terms of, we know we have our base packages that we want to get in. And we always want to experiment a little bit, do some different things, see what we do. And probably the biggest thing that we do, again, we don’t put anyone in the box to start with. We try to let them come in and show us everything they can do, because we don’t want to have something that we don’t know about. And the only way to find out what we got is to put guys in positions and see what they can do. We’ve been able to do that with this group.”

How Tennessee redshirt sophomore JP Estrella (foot) is looking

“He’s doing exactly (what he needs to). He’s right where we need him to be. And he’s coming back, he’s playing. So again, he’s the one guy that we knew from the beginning some of what we were going to bring him along, how fast we would do it. He’s right where he needs to be. And we still have him on as Alex would say, a pitch count. And we’ll continue that until we get back in in the fall.”

Tennessee’s exhibition schedule and tough non-conference games early in the season

“Well, the Michigan (exhibition) game, they backed out of that. Decided they felt like they needed to stay closer, or just whatever reason we’re not going to play that game. But we haven’t thought (about games), again, we’re just getting ourselves ready, just putting it all together. We always know we’re going to play big games, but again we haven’t talked about Duke or any one we’re playing right now. We’re just worrying about what we need to do to get our system intact.”

His satisfaction level with Tennessee’s growth this summer

“I would say I’m at a 10 personally because you know what? We’ve had some guys that have really (been) surprises, and I think probably the biggest thing is the team chemistry. I mean it’s right there. The best of the best. And this group spent a lot of time together. You can tell they like each other, they’ve bonded well. That’s always something that you want to see (when guys) come in. We’ve got a group of guys that have worked hard, they’ve done everything that we’ve asked and they’ve gone above and beyond on their own. They know that there’s a lot of competition. They do know that they’ll determine how much time they get on the court by how quickly they can figure out what role they need to play, but it’s been a fun group and I’m excited.And if I weren’t excited, I wouldn’t be doing it.”

What’s impressed  him about freshman point guard Troy Henderson

“Well, what most impressed (me), once he made the commitment to come here, we told him what we needed him to do before he got here. He came in 10 pounds heavier, stronger, and you can tell he’s a competitor. A shooter. Like all these guys, you get banged up along the way. He’s fought through all that, and he didn’t go the last practice we had, and we’re just not gonna push anything. We want him to go. And would he go? Absolutely. But I just love his toughness and the fact that he really wanted to be here and he came in and, like I said, with everything we asked him to do, and I expect him to do that when he goes home this next couple weeks.”

If anyone’s skillset or versatility has surprised or impressed him

“All of them, you know, that’s what I was talking about with the versatility. Each one of them has shown us some different things, and where that ends up at the end, I don’t know. But that’s as a coaching staff, that’s what’s fun for us to find out how to put different teams together, different groups. But each guy that we have had has shown something this year (summer) to this point that we can count on. We know what we can play them.”

When Tennessee expects Clarence Massamba to join the team

“Well, we expect him to be here with school, and he might come over early. He could get here early. He’s still doing some things with his national team, and we’re expecting to be here when we get back.”

When Tennessee expects Ethan Burg to arrive

“Same thing. He’s still with his national team going through tryouts And we expect him to— we’ll see how far he can go with that. I think he’s got one more cut here in a week or so, and if he makes it past that, we’ll wait and see what happens.”

What led them to go add him to the roster late

“Where we are in the game today, we’re going back to 15 scholarships, and why not utilize them? And that’s what we’ve tried to do because we put so much emphasis on our practices being competitive. And again, we would never bring someone in that we didn’t think in some way, somehow could help us, impact us. He was there, we knew about him and it just worked out for us.”

Bringing in Maryland transfer Ja’Kobi Gillespie, the importance of filling the point guard position with a high-character guy

“Ja’Kobi is such a great kid and you know, being from East Tennessee, really wanting to come back home, have a chance to play in front of his family. He made a comment one day about always dreaming of walking on the court at Food City Center. 

“He’s been everything that we could ask for and more. Probably he and Felix (Okpara), and who would I say, DeWayne (Brown). They probably have put in more reps than anybody this summer. They just, they’re those marathon guys that just keep going. That’s great when you have a point guard that does that. And again, I know he’s going to continue to get better because he really has the mindset to do that. We’re excited about him.”

Tennessee’s frontcourt having the ability to shoot the basketball from three, if he knows how much Cade Phillips, Jaylen Carey and J.P. Estrella will have a green light during the season

“I don’t know yet until they earn that license to be a green-light shooter. There’s things that we count on with what we do in practice and to be a green-light shooter, is just that. We don’t have many of those. But it depends on if they earn that license. That’s what it gets down to.”

What it takes to earn the green light

“Consistency and showing us that they do it with confidence, and they know the right time based on where we are and what we’re trying to get done.”

What excites him about Tennessee guard signee Ethan Burg’s skillset and how he fits in with the roster

“I just like everything about him. I just think that the versatility, again, can play multiple positions and that’s what we look at him as because of what we have, we like interchangeable parts, and he brings that.”

What excites him most about this team coming out of summer practice

“I mean, a lot, there’s a lot to be excited about, but from a coaching standpoint, I love the way they have embraced what we do. They practiced hard and they competed against each other in a really good, healthy way. And it goes back, I think they really want to be a good team. I think they know that we’ve got a lot to prove and I know that they realize that each guy has got to continue to get better, but most of all, probably the fact that they know that we’ve got competition at every spot and we’re going to have to be able to show up with consistency every day to earn that.”

Cade Phillips benefiting from Tennessee’s Vols leadership program

“Well, we’ve always embraced that program because again, leadership — and we’ve always said, the best teams are player led. But that’s part of their growth outside of what we do basketball wise. We want them to embrace the full impact of what it’s like to be a college athlete. Leadership is so important. What goes on in that locker room and the way they talk with each other and care about each other. Our motto is it’s not about me. We need guys that understand that, which Cade certainly does and he is one of those guys when you lose a group like we just lost, we expect him to grab that torch and run with it, and he’s done that.”