What Rick Barnes said after No. 20 Tennessee's 99-66 win over North Florida

What head coach Rick Barnes said after No. 20 Tennessee beat North Florida 99-66 Wednesday night at Food City Center:

If he expected this much from Tennessee forward JP Estrella this quickly

“I don’t think we’re surprised because we told him, from the day that we recruited him, what we thought he could be. And we do think, as a staff, the last two weeks, his mindset has changed. I mean, I think missing a year. We knew that would take a little bit of time, but he’s gotten so much better with his focus in practice. And  I don’t think there’s any secret to this game. It’s a game of habit. It’s a major mindset game, and he’s been able to carry over into the games what he’s been able to do in practice the last couple weeks.”

What he liked about Tennessee guard Amaree Abram’s performance

“Well, again, we know what he’s capable of but he still has some— we did take him out a few times tonight because we thought that we needed him to be aggressive like he is on the ball. But he was getting driven up top, I think from being overly aggressive. And we’re going to put teams when they spread the floor like we played a lot of teams have done that, obviously, and it’s going to get down to one on one defense and as a group, we’ve got to get much better at guarding the ball. But MO will help us. There’s no doubt about it. And he’s trying, I think he’s trying harder. And as reality of the season is setting in, and these guys understand how valuable each minute is, you start getting some separation in terms of the guys that say this is what I’m going to have to do to get on the court. I got to do it.”

Tennessee scoring 99 points while shooting just 33% from 3-point range

“Well, our post guys, I mean, our size is a factor obviously in the last two games. I mean, both of those teams, really well coached teams but our size is a difference maker. I think other coaches know it coming in. We haven’t gotten our own team, our guards to understand that yet. We shouldn’t start the game without those guys. I mean, you look at you combine their numbers there, they’re pretty high. You put all those post guys together in terms of what they did, and I thought they really tried to work hard defensively, playing against a team that’s going to— how many did they get off? We thought they could shoot as many as 40 threes. What did they shoot? (35). Some of them with breakdowns, but it’s our post guys are learning to do something that most of them have not done, and that’s guard way out there. And I thought some of our threes, I still thought we took a couple tonight that we shouldn’t have taken. But to answer your question, we feel like we got to be able to get that ball inside. We got to play inside out.”

JP Estrella getting a double-double in the final seconds

“Well, I’d like for him to do it every game, obviously. But he’s done a great job being an offensive rebounder. He’s going to have to take that to the defensive end even more. He’s certainly capable of doing that every night, and now he’s got to get more disciplined. Like he left his feet tonight, where he goes flying out of bounds, where we’ve talked to him about that. Staying down, staying on the ground. More than anything, protecting himself. You start flying up in the air, situations like that, you don’t want to come down on somebody, but he’s capable. There’s no doubt. I mean, do we think he should be a double-double guy. Yeah, we do. We do.”

What Amaree Abram is capable of, what he needs to do to get there

“We need him to be more consistent, just plain and simple, just if he’ll get more consistent. We know that when he’s open, he’s a guy that when he takes the shots that he practiced, he’s proven he can knock those down. He’s definitely gotten better. He still has to, he’s still learning. You wouldn’t think by this time a lot of guys would be there, but truly understanding the details and spacing. That  the two biggest areas that he’s going to have to learn and be better and more consistent with, is spacing and knowing what we’re trying to get done out there.”

Why they went to DeWayne Brown before Jaylen Carey in both the first and second half

“Just what we’ve been watching. It all goes back to practice. Everything we do. And you guys have watched this enough, it’s all going to be based on practice, and that’s how we make all of our decisions.”

The defensive issues, if it’s Tennessee’s one-on-one defense or rotations

“A little bit of all of it. You know, we did a lot of switching. Sometimes we switched it out one through five. Other times we had certain guys switching, certain guys not. It goes back to communication. We have got to communicate better. We got to know what we’re doing. Like, we had a couple, like we were pressing there. I mean, you can’t let somebody throw it out over your head. Just simple things, all this can be corrected. And the biggest thing, I think, is still some of the guys don’t understand the urgency of getting themselves ready before the play happens. I mean, they’re just around, like, almost — I showed them that last game. We had too many guys watching the game while the game was going on, on the court. It’s details, it’s being alert, high-level alert, because where we want to go and what we’re going to face as we continue to go, you’re going to have to fight and claw for every single possession. You look at some of the games — I’ve watched very few of them — but the few ones I have, there’s a lot of good teams out there and if you’re not ready to go, they’re gonna beat you.”

What has led to high turnover numbers for Tennessee point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie

“Trying to do too much. First of all, he’s just dribbling way too much. Both he and Nate have got to cut that back. They’ve got to, again, we came out the second half and showed that what we practice works, we’re willing to do it. Start of the game, the spacing was bad. I didn’t think the mental focus with a couple guys were what it needed to be, because they weren’t where they were supposed to be.

“Ethan (Burg), start of the game, did exactly what we’ve told him he can’t do, is go in there and leave his feet, but he’s learning. But I told him when I took him out. I said, ‘I want you to sit over here and think about it, because if you don’t figure this out, you’re gonna spend a lot of time over here with us.’ And that’s the way I am, you guys watch it. That’s the way it is. We just can’t start the game with our guards turning the ball over, and we’ve done it two games in a row now, especially without the big guys even getting a chance to touch the ball.”

North Florida coach Bobby Kennen discussing how special it was for Chaz Lanier to be part of their program before transferring to Tennessee

“We talked about it the other day. I know how much Chaz respects his time there at North Florida. I know what it meant to him. And I remember obviously seeing the videos that they sent back after he had committed to us, showing his graduation and just in conversation, playing for the program meant a lot to him. The one thing I would say about Chaz is he’s got two homes. Even though he spent one year here, I know he’d feel extremely comfortable walking back there, because I think their coaching staff understands that when — and they do a great job — and I know in the past, their philosophy was, if you’re here past two years, it’s your fault, because they probably adapted what’s going on in college basketball at that level probably as well as anybody. They know how to coach, they get guys ready, and they play a unique style, obviously, but it’s a great style, and they believe in it. And then Chaz coming here, I mean, one year, really had a great year, and he’s starting to play at the highest level. He’s starting to make an impact up there, and I know the (Detroit) Pistons are happy with him, but again, I think he feels like he’s got two homes.”

Facing Rice and former Tennessee associate head coach Rob Lanier on Monday

“Rob has meant as much to me as any one of our coaches. I mean, I got to know Rob back — I knew that when an opening came at Texas years ago, there was no doubt. I mean, I had one guy in mind, and knew that — it was based on just an extremely strong recommendation from Jim Boeheim. He told me what he thought about Rob, and I’d heard a lot about him from one of my former players, Ryan Ford. From the time I spoke to him on the phone and got to know him, there was no doubt, and he made an incredible impact, and was extremely responsible, a lot, for what went on at Texas, came here and was a huge part of what we’ve been able to build here. I have so much respect for he, and Dayo, and the kids. I mean, they’re grown up now, but he’s one of the great guys in this business. He’s a terrific basketball coach. Always has been. And, you know, I coached against Rob my first year at George Mason, when he was at St. Bonaventure. I’ve just always had great respect for him and always will.”