What Rick Barnes said after No. 11 Tennessee's 78-66 loss to Colorado

NASHVILLE — Everything head coach Rick Barnes said after No. 11 Tennessee lost 78-66 to Colorado on Sunday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena, where the Vols shot just 16-for-63 from the floor, went 10-for-37 from the 3-point line and got outscored by 14 points in the second half: 

OPENING STATEMENT

“First of all, let’s really give Colorado a lot of credit. They lost to a really tough team at Grambling the other night, in a tough situation to be in early in the year like this on the road. Came here, obviously didn’t have but one day to get prepared, and they went out and I thought they played terrific. We had no answer for them defensively in the second half. We didn’t guard. But the way we started the game, our guard play wasn’t what it needs to be. We’re 2-for-11 around the rim, shots that you have to make around the rim. You’ve got to make them. Some nights you’re going to have bad nights, but it was our defense that wasn’t very good. Turnovers are a problem. Again, I don’t want to take anything away from Tad (Boyle) and his team, because they did a great job and they deserve to win.

“Obviously I didn’t like our mindset coming in. If we think we’re just good enough to go out there and play, today proved the fact that we’re not. And whether we’re making threes or not, you should be able to play better basketball than we played today. I mean, our defense, (Colorado) got whatever they wanted in the second half. Especially in the last 10 minutes. We had chances. Even with three minutes to go, we had a chance to cut the lead to nine with over three minutes and missed the front end of a one-and-one. Go down and have as bad of a breakdown on defense as you can have to give up a three. Then we got wild. I’m looking out there like I don’t have a clue what we’re doing. I thought our guard play set the tone in a negative way for us.

“I thought Josiah (Jordan James) probably played more minutes than he should. I understand him maybe being tired a little more. The other guys, I can’t say much about it. You look at the shooting numbers, with our guards and their turnovers, it’s just a bad day for us. But again, I don’t want to take anything away from Colorado. They deserved to win. I thought they controlled the game pretty much from start to finish.”

TENNESSSEE’S BAD GUARD PLAY

“You’ll have to ask those (guys). Yeah, I think complacency. I think if we’re just going to show up and play — I know this. We know our team and when guys start thinking they’re going to do things they can’t do, we know what our guys can do, more so than they do. When they get out of what we need them to do, I mean, you look at the numbers. Julian (Phillips), at the perimeter, 1-for-6. Olivier (Nkamhoua) is 1-for-8. Zakai (Zeigler) is 4-for-12. Santi (Vescovi) 2-for-13. Tyreke (Key) 2-for-9. And Jo, 5-for-11, he’s had less time out there than anybody. Then you look at rebounding, Olivier did have 10 rebounds, but he had four turnovers. Again, guys doing things that we don’t need them to do. But our guard play, too, I think between them, Zakai and Santi, had I think six turnovers between them. So that’s a problem.”

Tennessee hosts Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network+)

A VETERAN TENNESSEE TEAM CAN BE COMPLACENT LIKE THIS

“Ask Jo. Because I know one thing, I’m not complacent. I realize who we are. I have a lot of respect for a PAC 12 team. Tad Boyle is a heck of a basketball coach. You’d have to ask (James) if he thought we were complacent. Because we played like we were complacent, whether we were or we weren’t. I know this, we did not play with a sense of urgency that we have in the three games prior to this. We didn’t.”

TENNESSEE GETTING OUTREBOUNDED WHILE SHOOTING SO POORLY

“Guys still not understanding roles they need to play. Again, the fact is we do think we can shoot the ball. We’ve had two games in a row where we haven’t shot it well because we’re rushing shots. I thought his (Josiah-Jordan James’) shots looked better than anybody. I thought Josiah took shots at the speed (he needs to). And some guys are like OK, now it’s my turn, I’m going to shoot it. There’s a difference in the way, again, we want game shots, game speed. But we were just rushing. The guards did not make the game easy for anybody. Then when doubt starts creeping in, we looked like we were frozen on the defensive end. I mean, we did things with an older group that should never happen. Should never happen. That’s disappointing because we had a pretty experienced team out there at the end, that you would think we could guard what they were doing. But they were taking the ball where they wanted to do it, where they wanted to go with it. Rebounding wise, it goes back to guys being able to accept their role they need to accept.”

UROS PLAVSIC INJURY UPDATE

“He turned his ankle. It swelled up pretty good. It happens, obviously, in a game. You can twist it. But he couldn’t come back.”

SANTIAGO VESCOVI’S STRUGGLES SO FAR

“I think he tries to do too much. I think he needs to play the role we need him to play. When he’s not making shots and he’s still open he has to shoot the ball because I think guys are expecting him to shoot it and when he starts driving, he and (Zakai) both are out of control. We don’t know what’s going on. Guys don’t know. It goes back, there’s going to be games where if they take shots within our offense they’re going to make shots. It’s when shots are rushed but when we come off screens knowing the shots that we have worked on for years but when he loses his confidence now he thinks that every time I get it I have to go create things for my teammates. He gets himself in trouble. That’s where the turnovers come from as opposed to letting the guys around him create some more for him.

“He’s had two games where he hasn’t made shots early and he’s let it affect him, definitely defensively, and Zakai was wild. Tonight, he was out of control. He was totally out of control to the point where I’ve already told him ‘you’re not starting’ because him starting the game hasn’t worked very well in terms of the way we want to get started. So we’ll have to make a decision on how we want to go that way. Obviously as (Josiah) continues to get back he’ll be there at the start of the game. We have to get better execution at the start of the game. We can’t start the game by throwing it out of bounds on the very first possession of the game. When things aren’t going well one guy can’t think I’m going to go make this happen and throwing up shots that really I say we’re 2-for-11 we threw a couple up that I don’t think anybody is going to make and I told our team this too, our guards, good guards — and we have good guards — they have to make the game easier for everybody including themselves. They can do that by playing together and believing in what we’re doing and not thinking I’ve got to score. I’ve got to score. We have to get back to really, truly having a defensive mindset and I’m telling you their instincts will take over on the offensive end.”

COLORADO MAKING CHANGES AFTER THE LOSS AT GRAMBLING STATE

“I don’t think that had anything to do with it. I mean, I’m going to have to do the same thing because I’m not happy with where we are. That’s just — again, complacency or what. Tad obviously wasn’t happy with what happened at Grambling and his experience — we told our team, ‘hey, believe us. They’re going to come in here like a wounded dog ready to bite somebody and they did. Like Josiah said, not to take anything away from them, we allowed them to get real comfortable and real confident. They’re a good team. When you’re at this level, a Pac-12 team, believe me, they can win basketball games. You hate to lose, I hate it, I love Tad. He’s one of the guys that does it right, but when you lose to a guy like him, it’s tough. They deserve to win. He did a better job with his team getting them ready than obviously I did. That’s disappointing to me. 

“Maybe I’ve given our guys too much leeway in terms of thinking they’re mature enough to get ready. I’ve already told the guys that this week I felt there was just something missing. Like Josiah said, maybe it’s the best thing that is going to happen to us because if we think we’re going to show up and win, when it counts most, we won’t. If this were an NCAA Tournament game, and it’s kind of what it could be if you’re not making shots, can you find a way to win a game when you’re not making shots? Today, you can’t miss point-blank layups when people are guarding you. You can’t. Especially when they were concerned by the three-point shot early because they fouled us two or three times out there. We didn’t go finish anything around the rim to really make them go guard that, and then we tried to spread it out some trying to get to the foul line to get back in the game, but again, too many bad decisions. Even in the open-court with some of the guards setting up passes. But I respect Tad for what he did. That’s a tough loss at Grambling. First off, he shouldn’t have been put in that situation, but it was what it was and they came in here. We’re a good team, but they beat us. Make no bones about it. They beat us.”

Josiah-Jordan James

WHEN AND WHERE THE GAME BROKE DOWN

“I would just say coming out of halftime we talked about having a sense of urgency. In the first half we didn’t play our brand of basketball. Shots weren’t falling but we also weren’t getting on the offensive glass like we’re supposed to and then defensively we weren’t guarding them well. I think just coming out of half we knew the first four minutes we gave them a lot of confidence and when you give team confidence it’s hard to beat good players with confidence. I think midway through the second half when they’re hitting shots and we’re not hitting shots and then we’re not getting stops— probably somewhere there in the second half. I can’t really pinpoint it.”

THE CHALLENGE OF TRYING TO GENERATE ENERGY IN A TEAM’S LIFELESS PERFORMANCE

“It’s tough. We definitely didn’t come into this game with the right mindset. I feel like personally since we got big wins in the preseason over two pretty good teams that we were thinking we could go out there and get it done like coach said. This is a good lesson for us. This is a long basketball season. Of course I’m disappointed and mad that we lost but I’m also excited just to see how this team will respond because there’s a lot of great things that’s come before this team but it’s not just going to be handed to us and I’m excited to see how we’ll respond throughout the rest of the season. I think this loss will be very good for us.”