Rick Barnes talks Kennedy Chandler injury, decision to put him back in game

When Tennessee guard Kennedy Chandler went down with an injury in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament, head coach Rick Barnes gave him a choice,

“It was up to (Chandler). I said to him, ‘How do you feel?'” Barnes said, after Tennessee ran away with a 72-59 win over Mississippi State. “He said, I’m fine. We have to trust him on that.

“In Kennedy’s situation, I said to him, ‘If I see you limping, you’re coming out of the game.’ (Chandler) said, ‘I’m not limping,'” Barnes added.

Tennessee, the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament, hardly needed its star guard in a 13-point win against the No. 10-seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs, but Barnes still exercised caution. After suffering the injury in the first half, Chandler didn’t quite look like himself. He left twice more due to the lingering injury, once in the first half and once in the second half, and he finished with 11 points, six assists and two steals, slightly below his average of 13.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists per contest.

Barnes consulted with the training staff, which ultimately decided the injury was minor; minor enough that Barnes could give Chandler the option to return to play, if he felt up to the task. He did, and despite leaving two more times, Barnes is confident that Chandler will be back to his normal self on Saturday — frankly, Tennessee will need it, as the Volunteers face off against the No. 3-seeded Kentucky Wildcats.

“Well, I listen to him and our trainers. One concern we had coming in — we hadn’t played, and we really took a long time off after our game Saturday,” Barnes said, explaining Chandler’s injury. “When you take that much time off trying to get guys healthy — I thought Zakai got better because he literally has not practiced ten minutes since we played Arkansas. The game got better, he got better.”

Chandler, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, is an integral piece of Tennessee’s offense under Barnes. A true freshman, the 6-foot, 171-pound guard was a five-star recruit coming out of Sunrise Christian Academy, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Barnes will lead Chandler and the Tennessee Volunteers into the biggest game of the season on Saturday against Kentucky in Amalie Arena, with tip-off for the SEC Tournament semifinal game scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. The winner of Tennessee-Kentucky will face off in the finals against the winner of Texas A&M-Arkansas.