What Rick Barnes said after No. 5 Tennessee's 65-59 win at LSU

Everything Rick Barnes said after No. 5 Tennessee beat LSU 65-59 Tuesday night at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge:

Tennessee winning the game with its rebounding effort

“What I really make of our team tonight was the respect that they had for LSU. We talked about it and I obviously have a great deal of respect for Matt and his entire staff, and when you lose players like he did early in the year and continue to find a way and to just keep his guys in games. And we talked a lot about it, his team. And I thought we, mentally, were sloppy on offense, but they had something to do with that. I thought they played hard, they screened hard. But we felt coming in that was our number one emphasis, that we had to get to the offensive board, had to get to the lane as much as we could. 

“But Jahmai Mashack’s four offensive rebounds, Igor’s four and his dunk was a big play in the game, that was a big play. But honestly, the game played the way we thought it would because they have fought all year long LSU. And, again, just the utmost respect for what Matt’s doing and how hard his guys play.”

Chaz Lanier finishing with nine rebounds, being more of a presence on the glass in recent games 

“We like the fact that Chaz is doing that, but he needs to work harder to get about eight more shots a game. And to do that, again, we want to get him more shots, but again, LSU I thought did a great job defending his first actions and what we’re trying to get him into. And again, we were sloppy. We had some chances I think that we could have probably got it to him with cleaner passes, but we didn’t. But again, you always have to give your opponent credit for that when it doesn’t happen. 

“But Chaz is more than a shooter. We know he’s a terrific standstill, spot-up shooter. But when he wants to drive the ball, he’s proven he can do that. And the fact that you mentioned his rebounding, that’s something he didn’t do very much of at the beginning of the year. And he’s trying to impact the game different ways.”

Tennessee’s Jahmai Mashack defending LSU’s Cam Carter, one of the more effective players in the SEC this season

“You’re right about Cam Carter. We talked about him coming in and what he’s been able to do. And we’ve been blessed to have Jahmai with us. I mean, he came in with that attitude. But he would tell you that as hard as he has to work to try to guard the other team’s best player, he can’t do it without the help of his teammates. That’s what he is done the entire time he’s been at Tennessee. He’s taken great pride in him to being able to do that. And when you had to go up against guys like Cam Carter and other guys in this league every night, it’s something special about his DNA that makes him do that and want to do it. And again, I’m just glad that we have him.”

If Tennessee noticed offensive rebounds could be an advantage coming into the game or if that was coincidental

“No, we feel like, you know, skill wise, they’re playing with four guards. And we, obviously, with that said, we’ve been a pretty good rebounding team. Not as consistent as we want to be, but we’ve had nights like the other night we shot the ball well. Tonight, not so much. And some of it was because of sloppy passing of the basketball. But a lot of it had to do with LSU’s aggression defensively. I think, again, defensively, I thought they played hard. As hard as anyone we played, competed at as high of a level as anyone we’ve played against. I thought they did all that. So a lot of it, you have to get that to them. But just with our, I mean, we’re pretty tall. We got a pretty big team and we felt like we had to try to get in there and try to come up with those plays.”

If he thinks this Tennessee team understands how it has to win games 

“This has been a fun group of guys to coach because, one, they like each other. We’ve had different guys have to slide into different roles and like most teams, we won a game without Zakai one night when  he couldn’t play. Whatever, like Gainey was sick tonight. He tried, but he didn’t have it tonight. He just, he and Zakai were roomed together. We had to move him out last night because Jordan just got sick. But these guys, they’re very unselfish. They want to be good. They compete against each other every day in practice. It’s been a different year because we’ve got Jahmai, Zakai and really Jordan Gainey, who’s been a part of it. Cade obviously a year ago was here. We’re a program that normally really compete against each other every day, but we’ve only got nine scholarship players and this year we haven’t been able to do as much five-on-five like that because we can’t do it. 

“So we’ve tried to try to stay sharp going four-on-four in half court some, but we’ve got a scout team that’s helped us a lot. And the fact that we’ve got some interchangeable parts, we can play a lot of different ways with a guy like Jahmai Mashack talking about his defense. We can go small with him because how well he defends any position on the floor. Felix has gotten so much better. Like at the end there, we were starting to just switch all five spots and Felix in the past was a player that played more drop coverage. 

“So it’s been new for him to try to get up on the ball the way we like to try to hit it. But it’s been a group that we’ve been inconsistent offensively and we’re like any team, if we’re making shots and we defend the way we’re capable of and rebound the way we’re capable of, we feel good about it.

But this league has been brutal, you know, it’s been brutal. Even, you can play well and not come out on the high end. Like, I was really, really proud of our focus tonight with LSU, you know, obviously them losing a tough game against Florida where they — and I will tell you, when they were down in the first half, that 20-2 run (vs. Florida) was as impressive a run as I’ve seen this year in the league. And we showed that to our guys. This is what they’re capable of and if we don’t come in with the right (mindset), this can happen.

“So I think the ultimate compliment you can give an opponent is knowing that you’re locked in, you’re on edge knowing that you’re gonna have to play for 40 minutes, and they made us play for 40 minutes.”

Tennessee junior forward Felix Okpara scoring 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting, if it was an emphasis to get him involved

“No, we want to get it to him, but again, that’s — the question about where we are — that’s where we can get better. We can get our post guys involved more. I thought in the first half we took a couple quick shots that were, we should have made the extra pass a few times. We still miss too many layups, you know, and they’re not easy, but we missed some easy ones tonight and we need those. We need those when we’re (6-of-22 from three). You know, I think we’re better than that, but we weren’t tonight. And when you’re not like that, you gotta get on the glass. You need those layups, you need ’em. We were just, our passes weren’t sharp. And again, I’m not taking anything away from LSU because they had a lot to do with that.”

If he believes LSU coach Matt McMahon is building a foundation around the Tigers’ younger players

“First of all, Matt McMahon’s a terrific coach. I mean, he is. Wherever he’s been, he’s done the job. And the fact that he’s playing with younger guys, I think, is very smart on his part ’cause he’s here to build a program, which he will do. He’s not a coach that is going to have winning teams. He’s gonna have a winning program. The fact that he has made the decisions he’s had to make, some of ’em cause of injuries, but his guys have gotten better. I mean, you look at ’em right now, they’re better now than they were three weeks ago. Which I think is a real compliment to Matt and his coaching staff. Because when you’re struggling to win games, the first thing it normally goes is a guy, you know, you can almost tell by players’ body languages Like, they’re out there when things aren’t going well. You feel like they’re just going through the motions. His teams don’t do that. They have not done that. I’ve never seen his teams do that. So I would say what he’s doing here is exactly what needs to be done. I have the utmost respect for the way he goes about doing his job.”