Rick Barnes shares offensive changes in second half of win

No. 13 ranked Tennessee extended their five-game winning streak with a dominant 76-40 win over McNeese State Wednesday. The Vols won resoundingly and finished strong, but had some first-half struggles, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Head coach Rick Barnes spoke about the adjustments his team made and what the difference was in the second half.

“The one thing we talked about we wanted to be aggressive, we wanted to run, we wanted to push tempo, we wanted to play quicker,” Barnes said.

The Volunteers scored 30 first-half points, but not as efficiently as they’d like, shooting 34.6% from the field in the first half, which Barnes credited to the Cowboy’s efficient zone defense.

“They did exactly what we’ve talked about for two days, they do a great job of it, their zone, they’re very active. When you play as much zone as they play, they know how to make the adjustments of what you’re doing,” Barnes explained. “Early we were attacking the middle hard and we told our guys that they’re gonna come double from the wings and put it on the short corner, they’re going to double.”

The Volunteers’ adjustments paid dividends for them shooting 50% from the field and 47% from the three-point line in the second half, embarking on 46 point scoring outburst that was their second-highest scoring half of the season so far.

“We worked hard on trying to catch the ball in a ready position to either pass or shoot it. In the first half you make a couple threes, you’re making free throws, you have a different feel to the game, but the one thing that we did, we didn’t let the fact that we weren’t very good on offense in the first half affect our defense,” Barnes said.

Tennessee’s defense definitely deserves attention and was consistent throughout the entirety of the game, as they held McNeese to just 14 points in the first half and a 28.6% field goal percentage on the day.

“I thought our effort defensively was good throughout for the most part, gave up offensive rebounds but some of that had to do with some tough shots that were thrown up and it would come off differently,” Barnes said. “But got to give them credit for running those down, but the second half we started playing at the pace we had talked about wanting to play with from the beginning.”

The Vols secured their 20th straight home victory Wednesday, and will be looking to extend their win streak on Sunday as they take on Alcorn State.