Rick Barnes hopes Tennessee learns from loss vs. Kentucky

Rick Barnes isn’t allowing one punch to be a knockout blow. After Tennessee’s 85-81 loss to Kentucky on Saturday, the UT head coach pulled back the curtain on his mindset.

“I’m really hoping this one we learn from,” Barnes said. “If we do what we hope to do, we’re going to be in games just like this and when the game’s open, we can’t look back and say, ‘Well, we didn’t execute the way we’re capable of.’

“We know our team. We way too emotional to start the game. And I said, ‘You don’t want to end it on that emotion. You just got to do what we’ve done, believe in what we’ve done.’ Am I surprised? Not really. I mean we’ve had a brutal three weeks here.”

Kentucky was Tennessee’s fourth-straight opponent ranked in the AP Top 25. Before falling to the Wildcats, Tennessee defeated Auburn, Alabama and South Carolina in consecutive order. Despite losing to UK, Tennessee standout Dalton Knecht still tallied a whopping 40 points.

Unlike Tennessee, Kentucky’s scoring was widespread. The ‘Cats had four players score double figures, highlighted by Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard, who dropped 27 points apiece. Kentucky averages 89.5 points per game, the second-most in the country.

Barnes isn’t taking the team’s explosive offensive performance to heart.

“You’re playing against a team that’s playing great basketball too,” Barnes said. “Do I think we can play better today? Yes. I don’t think there’s any question that we are a lot better than we played today.”

Tennessee certainly didn’t meet its expected level of play. The Volunteers shot 37.8% from the field and 33.3% from beyond the arc, both below their averages this season. Additionally, the team only connected on 68.4% of their attempts from the charity stripe.

Nothing new for Rick Barnes

Barnes believes Tennessee can’t run away from the defeat, but instead must reflect on it.

“Living it. That’s how you learn from it,” Barnes said. “I’d much rather learn something with a win, but sometimes it’s a loss and our guys, I think know it. I was concerned when we won the regular-season championship my first year at Texas. We clinched it just like this, came home and lost to Missouri.

“Our team tonight played a lot harder than that team. This group, they came out wanting to win the game, playing an opponent like Kentucky who was better than that Missouri team at the time. But I did see the emotion. It was in my mind. It was, but didn’t mention it other than the fact that I just wanted us to stay focused and defend and they’re as difficult a team to defend as you’re gonna guard.”

Rick Barnes and Co. will look to rebound this weekend as the SEC Tournament kicks off in Nashville, Tenn.