Rick Barnes details major changes in first, second halves

Eastern Kentucky was able to keep their game at Tennessee close through the first 20 minutes. The Colonels held the Vols to 32 in the first half and were down just 11 despite being immense underdogs. However, Rick Barnes got a much better effort from his team in the second half of the game, where UT ran EKU off the floor by a 52-28 second-half score to win in a rout.

Afterwards, Barnes credited Eastern Kentucky for messing his team up in the early going. Tennessee had trouble calming down and getting into their offense, according to the Vols head coach.

“You know, Eastern Kentucky, you think about the way they play, a style. We haven’t played against anybody that is going at it like that for that that long,” Barnes admitted. “And as much as we tried to work on assimilating it in practice yesterday —and I thought the very first play of the game, we knew what they were going to do and threw a bad pass to start the game. Then Tyreke [Key] got it and he threw it back to Olivier [Nkamhoua]. Just didn’t get off to a good start there.”

Barnes went on to emphasis the difference between running sets and actually playing to score on offense. Then he commented that he saw a much more purposed and balanced attack on offense following the break.

“In a game like this, it’s not so much about running offense as much as as it is playing offense. And guys looking where they’re supposed to be looking. I thought everybody’s putting so much pressure on Zakai [Zeigler] to drive the ball — but yet, you think about it, we’re better when we move it, pass it and cut.

“We had a couple much better plays in the second half. Because that’s what we had talked about trying to get done. The second half, I thought we did a better job. We kept telling them, whether they’re up 20 or down 20, they’re not going to stop playing. And they didn’t.”

Tennessee could be the undefeated No. 1 team in the country if they kept their focus the way they did in the second half in every other game. But, perhaps Rick Barnes is seeing improved consistency in that regard. He was definitely pleased that his team, though already leading by double digits, still came out guns ablaze in the second half to put their foot down on an inferior Colonels club.