Rick Barnes reacts to Tennessee shooting struggles, poor start vs. Houston in Elite Eight

Tennessee‘s offense hasn’t been able to find its footing early against Houston. After the under 8-minute timeout, Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes weighed in on his team’s offensive woes.

“We got to make some shots obviously,” Barnes said. “They’re a good defensive team, but our spacing’s not very good. We know they’re gonna jump the gaps heavy.

“We’re supposed to be sliding to make the next pass. I didn’t think we were aggressive enough coming off of it the way we needed to, in terms of making the next pass but we still got to do a better job defensively too.”

At the halftime break, Tennessee trailed Houston 34-15. Tennessee’s 15 points are the least a 2-seed or higher has ever scored in a first half in the NCAA Tournament.

Tennessee shot 6-28 (21%) from the field and 1-15 (7%) from beyond the arc in the first half. Volunteers leading scorer Chaz Lanier particularly struggled, shooting 0-6 from downtown. For reference, Lanier is shooting 40.5% from 3-point range this season.

Tennessee’s defense wasn’t much better. The Volunteers’ typically pesky defense only caused one Houston turnover in the first half. Worse, Tennessee repeatedly failed to limit the Cougars to one shot per offensive possession.

Houston had nine offensive rebounds in the first half. In turn, the Cougars scored 11 second-chance points. Worse, Houston’s star big man, J’Wan Roberts, only played five minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.

Tennessee will have to look like a different team in the second half if it wants to keep its postseason hopes alive. Of course, Rick Barnes knew it wouldn’t be easy to get past Houston.

“We’re blessed to have this opportunity to continue to play in the tournament and just an incredible amount of respect for Kelvin Sampson and his team,” Barnes said on Saturday. “I’ve known [Houston head coach] Kelvin [Sampson] a lifetime.

“He and I have kind of grown up together, kind of grown old together, too. We know it’s going to be an extremely difficult challenge. We respect their ability and how hard they play and how well they’re coached. So we know what we’re walking into.”

Barnes and Sampson had met 20 times before their matchup on Sunday. Sampson boasts an all-time 12-8 record against Barnes. Unless Rick Barnes and his Volunteers can come alive in the second half, Sampson will add another win to Barnes over his résumé.