Rick Barnes stresses consistency on defense moving forward

Some coaches may be satisfied with a defense ranked No. 1 in the country according to KenPom, and is also No. 1 in three-point defense, holding opponents to 21.6% from deep. How about No. 2 in the country in effective field goal percentage defense? And third in the nation in forcing turnovers? Pretty elite numbers across the board, all things considered.

Those figures belong to the Tennessee Volunteers’ defense, which clears all as the best in the nation through the first week and half in December. Lately, Rick Barnes’ club has only turned up the heat. Over their last four games, no UT opponent scored more than 50, while two mustered just 40. Tennessee’s defensive numbers over that span would set historic records if upheld over the course of a season.

Yet, Barnes was sour over the team’s defensive effort after their latest game, an 84-49 stomping of Eastern Kentucky. In the postgame press conference, he stressed the need for every single player on the court to stay engaged on defense, noting that some guys need to step it up.

Rick Barnes stresses need for improved defense

“You know, I keep talking about how we can’t have any weak links in the chain. And we’ve still got some guys that we’ve talked to about that,” said Barnes. “That’s why we’re taking guys in and out of the game tonight. We said: ‘Hey, we’ve talked about it enough. You guys can’t keep making the same mistakes.’ And it’s some players not doing their job there. But other guys doing things that we don’t practice. You know, just lack of discipline. But we’re getting closer. We’re not where we are and where we can be, but we still need some guys to get a little bit more serious about it.”

Barnes spoke after that EKU game like his team was on the other side of the 84-49 final score, when in fact, his team is playing superb basketball over the last few weeks. But we all know college coaches. Never satisfied no matter how well the team played.

Barnes isn’t allowing any pats on the back. The real season gets started in just a couple weeks with a loaded SEC slate facing the Vols. No time to let up and get complacent.

Guess this means we’ll start seeing Tennessee hold opponents in the 30s going forward.