Rick Barnes says Tennessee can't let up in second half against Texas, despite 12-point halftime lead

Holding a 40-28 halftime lead over visiting Texas in a Top 10 showdown, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes emphasized that his team is not out of the woods yet. With 20 minutes still to play, the Vols could still find themselves on the losing end of things.

Thus, in a brief interview with ESPN’s Kris Budden before halftime, Barnes emphasized making possessions count and shoring up a few defensive lapses. If Tennessee can do that, it should come out with a sterling win to put atop their NCAA Tournament resume — one that could be worth of a No. 1 seed.

“Every possession. Gotta play every one of them. And we know that. And we’ve gotta do a better job — a couple of their guys are getting loose on us. But overall, kind of game you expect. Both teams just playing as hard as they can play,” Barnes said.

Barnes also noted that Tennessee had found some success with a bigger lineup at the end of the half.

“I thought when we kind of mixed the lineups up, I thought our big lineup at the end of the game did a really good job. But it’s hard ball both ways,” Barnes said.

WATCH: Tennessee’s DJ Jefferson performs spectacular dunk in warmups ahead of matchup with Texas

The Tennessee Volunteers basketball team had a story recently air about them on ESPN’s College Gameday, highlighting how much they like dunking in warmups ahead of their games. One of their most electrifying dunkers is freshman DJ Jefferson, who is redshirting this season for the Volunteers. On Saturday night, he gave the Volunteer fans something to cheer about in warmups before the Texas game, when he bounced the ball, caught it, went under his feet, and finished with the slam.

It was a pretty spectacular looking dunk. Check it out below and it looks even better in slow motion.

SHEESH 😱@Vol_Hoops pic.twitter.com/NIiOp62lUg

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) January 28, 2023

It doesn’t matter if it was in warmups, that’s an extremely difficult dunk to complete. Jefferson made that look too easy. It’s also a beautiful piece of video work by the Tennessee basketball social media team to slow the clip down at the right moments.