Rick Barnes explains why he did not call timeout down the stretch

The Tennessee Volunteers lost a close one on their home floor on Saturday against their SEC East rival, the Kentucky Wildcats. Tennessee had an opportunity, late in the game, to tie the game at 58 or to take the lead on a three after a steal by guard Santiago Vescovi. Unfortunately, the Volunteers could not convert on the play, and the Wildcats extended their lead and ultimately went on to win the game. Afterward, in the postgame press conference Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes discussed his decision not to call a timeout to rally the troops and get a set play in.

“We gotta play. We don’t have to call a timeout to run a play. We practiced about a hundred practices; we shouldn’t have to call a timeout,” said Barnes. “We were going to use them, if we scored, to stop the clock. Because we thought we could pressure them there, but we didn’t execute the play. We didn’t get the shot that we wanted. It was there, but we didn’t take it.

“Again, we work on situations. We spent a lot of time this morning talking about special situations. And again, we didn’t execute.”

Kentucky outlasted Tennessee picking up the victory 63- 56. The Volunteers’ offense was stagnant at best during long phases in the game. A large chunk of their shooting woes came from beyond the arc, where Tennessee made just three of their 21 attempts in the game.

Along with their difficult shooting night from beyond the arc, the Volunteers uncharacteristically committed a high number of fouls. That allowed the Wildcats 25 trips to the free throw line, where they converted 22 of those attempts.

Barnes discusses rebounding margin, turnovers against Kentucky

When you’re playing against Oscar Tshiebwe, it’s not easy to win the rebounding margin over Kentucky, even the best rebounding teams will have their hands full.

Tennessee – who ranks No. 2 in team rebounding margin nationally – found that out the hard way as UK outrebounded the Vols 43-23 on Saturday as the Wildcats defeated No. 5 Tennessee 63-56.

“We still have too many guys that think offense, as opposed to understanding the role they have on the team. Give (Kentucky) credit. They came in and that was obviously a big part of their game plan,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said postgame. “They look at those numbers just like everybody. They’re going to say we’re not going to get beat on the boards. And they thoroughly beat us on the backboard.”