Rick Barnes reveals message to Tennessee players vs. Vanderbilt: ‘You either wilt or you grow’

Tennessee trailed Vanderbilt 44-31 at halftime during their matchup on Saturday. In jeopardy of being swept in the two-game regular season series, the Volunteers outscored the Commodores 50-32 in the second half to come away with an 81-76 victory.

After the win, head coach Rick Barnes revealed the halftime message that he sent to his players to help encourage the comeback. He challenged them to be the best version of themselves under pressure.

“I normally go in and talk about things and talk about some offensive stuff. I talked about a mindset,” Barnes said. “I said, this time of year you either wilt or you grow. I said, which one are you going to do?”

Volunteers veteran Zakai Zeigler went on to score all 22 of his points after halftime as Tennessee erased a 16-point defecit and move into the driver’s seat down the stretch in the second half.

After falling to Vanderbilt 76-75 on a last-second shot on Jan. 18 in Nashville, the Vols made sure to finish through the final whistle. They never relinquished the lead over the final 2:57 of regulation.

“You’re going to be in games like this the rest of the year,” Barnes continued. “And we’re disappointed where we are, because our goal every year is to try to contend for an SEC Championship. We know that’s gone. A regular-season championship, that’s gone. It’s a mindset.

“There are a lot of teams heading into February that would love to be where we are. There’s a lot of teams that probably are already taking inventory. And then there’s those teams that really want to make a run at a national championship. And if we’re going to be one of those teams, it goes back to what I’ve talked about, a mindset of getting better and being able to look at each other and talk.”

Tennessee will look to take this mindset into their next matchup, which won’t be until Saturday on the road at No. 7 Texas A&M thanks to a scheduled bye game during the week.

Things won’t get much easier for the Volunteers for the rest of their regular season slate as they still have to host No. 4 Alabama and travel to No. 24 Ole Miss. However, they still have matchups against both South Carolina and LSU — the two teams with the least wins in conference play which could help bolster their ranking in the SEC Tournament.