Rick Barnes credits team for focus so close to break

The week of Christmas is a hard week for college basketball teams. Players are preparing for trips home to see family while their programs are likely wrapping up their non-conference schedules. With all those hectic things going on, it can cause teams to trip up heading into break but, after an 86-44 win over Austin Peay on Wednesday, Rick Barnes’ Volunteers showed they’re above a slip like that.

Barnes applauded Tennessee’s focus during his postgame press conference earlier this week. He said their reminder to the team that every opponent deserves respect was all it took to keep the Vols engaged and continuing to grow through this final game before the break.

“We tell them constantly that everybody can play. We had the utmost respect for Austin Peay and they certainly showed they were a good basketball team,” said Barnes. “The fact is we talked about the approach that we’ve had all year and can we get better? We need to get better. We worked hard.”

Tennessee led by as many as 47 points in the win over the Governors. In the end, it what was a very classic performance for the Vols under Barnes. Their Top-5 defense held Austin Peay to 25.5% shooting from the field and 19.2% shooting from deep. They also picked up 11 steals as part of 15 Governor turnovers on top of outrebounding them by 21 boards.

Again, the holiday break plus an inferior opponent by the numbers could easily make this a trap game for top teams across the country. Still, Barnes was proud of the maturity his team showed by handling it in that fashion and finishing their non-conference season on a high note.

“Overall, just the maturity of our team this time of year? This is a tough game,” Barnes said. “From that standpoint, we’re really proud of the maturity that our guys showed.”

Eighth-ranked Tennessee will enter Christmas weekend at 10-2 and look primed for another successful SEC run upon their return. That stretch starts in Oxford against Ole Miss on the 28th before returning to Knoxville to face the second half of the Mississippi double-header with a Top-25 Mississippi State team coming into Thompson-Boling Arena to begin 2023.