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Rick Barnes on 64-44 shorthanded win over Florida: 'I'm as proud as I've ever been of a team'

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•about 8 hours•

GrantRamey

Tennessee HC Rick Barnes
Ron Johnson | Imagn Images

Rick Barnes had jokes in the postgame locker room Saturday afternoon. After No. 8 Tennessee rallied to hammer No. 5 Florida 64-44 at Food City Center without Zakai Zeigler and Igor Milicic, the head coach wasn’t going to let the two senior starters forget it.

“Who were the two guys that were out today?” Barnes said with a laugh. “I forgot. Oh, Z. And Igor. Oh, yeah. That’s right. We’ll leave you two tickets for the next game, alright?”

Barnes was serious when he also told his Vols that it was one of the best wins during his 10 seasons at Tennessee. 

“I’m as proud as I’ve ever been of a team,” Barnes said. “What you guys did, the way you came out, set the tone. And again, it goes back — we’ll always have enough. We’ll always have enough.”

Tennessee lost 73-43 at Florida on January 7

Florida not only handed Tennessee its first loss of the season on January 7 in Gainesville, the Gators handed Barnes his most lopsided loss as the head coach of the Vols, 73-43. 

Three weeks later, Florida came to Knoxville with Tennessee having lost three of its last four and sitting at 4-4 in SEC play after a 78-73 loss to No. 12 Kentucky Tuesday night. 

Zeigler injured his right knee late in the first half against Kentucky, returned to play all 20 minutes in the second half, but didn’t practice Thursday or Friday. 

He was ruled out Saturday morning, though Barnes said during his postgame press conference that an MRI Friday night revealed no structural damage.

Milicic didn’t practice Friday due to an illness. He was listed as probable on Friday night’s SEC injury report and was removed from the injury report Saturday morning. Milicic was ruled out during pregame warmups, though.

“Shack said it yesterday,” Barnes said, referencing senior guard Jahmai Mashack. “We’ve got enough. And we had more than enough. I’m glad you guys took it personal too, by the way.” 

“It was incredible,” Barnes added in the locker room postgame speech. “Really one of the great wins, I’m telling you.”

Up Next: No. 8 Tennessee vs. No. 20 Missouri, Wednesday

Chaz Lanier led Tennessee with a team-high 19 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the 3-point line. Jordan Gainey started at point guard and finished with 16 points, five assists and four rebounds. 

Felix Okpara had 10 points and eight rebounds, Cade Phillips had seven points, three boards and three blocks and Jahmai Mashack had eight points, eight rebounds and four assists. Darlinstone Dubar finished with four points, five rebounds and three assists while making his first start.

Despite having just seven scholarship players available, Saturday’s win was Tennessee’s largest in program history against a team ranked the top five in the Associated Press Top 25.

The Vols also improved to 6-0 at home against top-five teams during the Barnes era and 7-1 all-time at home in top-10 matchups, including 4-0 under Barnes.

After the game, Barnes was more focused on the context that came with this win.

“I told them it was one of the great wins that we’ve ever had here,” he said. “… From a coaching staff stpndingpoint, this was a special one because of the way we were beaten down there (in Gainesville) and then came back with two starters out and played the way we did.”

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