Rick Barnes calls out Tennessee post play after Montana win

No. 11 Tennessee improved to 3-0 on Wednesday night with a 92-57 win over Montana, but coach Rick Barnes came away a little disappointed with his team’s play in the post.

The Volunteers outrebounded the Grizzlies 38-18 but still Barnes saw some troubling signs.

“We’ve got to get consistent there, that’s the biggest key,” he said after the game. “We’ve put the ball in there some and we’re losing it, and it’s going to happen because there’s just not a lot of room in there when people know you’re trying to do that.”

While it didn’t prove costly against Montana, Tennessee will play better teams later in the year. Making sure the post play is up to snuff is a huge key.

Barnes pointed out some little things that he saw go awry on Wednesday, despite coaching the players up on it throughout the preseason.

“We’ve worked hard with our players trying to give them angles to catch it and get quick ups as opposed to always having to spin through on the floor, whatever they feel they need to do to gather themselves,” Barnes said. “They’ve got to do that work early.”

He broke down a few performances in the frontcourt and what he saw out of the team’s post presence.

“We need more from JP (Estrella), he’s capable of doing it, we need him to do it,” Barnes said. “Felix (Okpara), I thought he and (Zakai Zeigler) got back to where the lob was there for us some and maybe got that done. Igor (Milicic), as opposed to like standing in the corner made a great back cut, those kind of plays, we need those. Those four guys up front, we’re counting on them. Two of them haven’t played a lot.”

Barnes even called one player out by name for needing to do a better job.

“I told Cade (Phillips) I was disappointed in him tonight because I thought he made great strides against Louisville, but I didn’t think he was nearly the factor tonight that I thought he would be,” Barnes said. “And we have high expectations for him. So we need him to do it, and those four guys, we feel as though they’ll continue to improve and we’ve got something there.”

Against Louisville, Phillips turned in six points, six rebounds and a block in 21 minutes of action. Against Montana, he logged four points, three rebounds, an assist and a block in just 12 minutes.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell how post play was just based on the box score. But Barnes made it clear: He’s looking for more out of the Vols.