What Rick Barnes said after No. 6 Tennessee's 68-56 win over No. 14 Mississippi State

What head coach Rick Barnes said after No. 6 Tennessee’s 68-56 win over No. 14 Mississippi State Tuesday night at Food City Center:

Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier being more active on defense and if that helps open up things for him on offense

“I do think it helps when he’s locked in defensively. Because I think it takes pressure off, thinking that you’ve got to make shots. And I think anytime you can get lost in the game defensively, it helps. And I really thought he did a better job tonight of trying to set up cuts early. Obviously getting out in transition helps all of us. Any team would say that. But I do think the fact that he was locked in defensively helps him on the offensive end.”

The biggest points of emphasis for Tennessee coming off the Vanderbilt loss

“Details. Paying attention to the scouting report. Too many miscommunications last game. And just details, really. And then offensively, details again. We didn’t rebound, we didn’t run like we need to. A lot of things. I don’t want to take away from any team that beats us. They beat us. And tonight, coming in, just so much respect for Coach (Chris) Jans. Have always had admiration for the way he goes about things. And his teams are so hard to beat because they’re not going to beat themselves. I’m sure they’ll look at it and see they had some shots, that they expect to make, just like anybody when you’re shooting it well, like we did in the first half. It obviously takes care of a lot of things.”

“I thought that Felix was really good tonight and I thought he put together a really good stretch here. He was doing a lot of what we need him to do. I thought our screening was better, our movement was better. I thought Zakai had a really good floor game overall. I thought Jahmai was terrific. He has worked hard more, focused hard more with his shot, trying to get it consistently. And I thought when he drove the ball, he was in control and all that. Jordan, obviously — we started the second half, turnovers let them back in the game. And too man of them were unforced mentally, where we did things that we talked about not doing. And when we did that Jordan’s buckets were big. And I thought their movement underneath the basket get some separation was big, all of it. 

“But physically, we knew we had to try to match them as much. They just manhandled us the last two times we played again. Again, I love their style of basketball. Seen a lot of time myself like that. Just proud of the overall team effort. Really thought it was a terrific team effort. And we needed it. Otherwise we couldn’t have gotten the win tonight.”

How center Felix Okpara’s increased physicality can change Tennessee’s defense 

“I think, one, we, guys have been here, we still talk about there are still guys that are still learning the whole system overall. But what he’s done, he’s again, just what you said, he’s brought physicality. We lack some of that. And that’s obviously something we really felt that he and JP (Estrella) at the beginning of the year, with those guys, that we would be as physical as we’ve been in a long time. With JP going down, we obviously lost part of that. But still impressed with what Cade can do. Cade is stronger than you think. Igor is stronger than you might think. D-Stone and those guys can do it a different way. And even Jahmai, when he goes there, he can guard. What Felix is bringing us in protection, I thought he really, I thought he’s getting better at screens and all that. Just everything in particular. And I spent a lot of time with him the last three days working on a 3-point shot and he made one. You believe that, right? That was a designed play. That was a big play, it really was. Sometimes you get those and Lord knows we needed one at that time.”

If he’s surprised details and a scouting report are a problem for Tennessee at this point in the season 

“No, and we’ll have it some more, probably, just because it’s hard. Winning is hard. Winning is really hard. The mental side of it, getting guys to lock into it. It’s hard. You see things at the highest level, where breakdowns that you wouldn’t think happen, maybe in the NFL that still happen. And it’s hard, because what you’re trying to do sometimes the other team is maybe pop something on you and if you’re not ready for it, you can only give them so much. 

“But then there’s times where when the team, the flow, the way the flow changed. I mean think about when we scored didn’t get back, let them — you try to build momentum. Those are the plays that can’t happen and you wonder why they do happen. That has nothing to do with scouting report. It has to do with playing basketball. You don’t celebrate a shot and let somebody run by you. You go back, you build a wall. That should happen every single time. Some reason it doesn’t. Maybe a bad shot, turnover. You can’t defend, we tell our guys all the time we can’t defend bad shots and turnovers. You can’t. So feel has a lot to do with it. Some guys, they know exactly and they’re great at it. They just can’t absorb so much. And even not only what they need to do, they know what everybody else needs to do and that’s when you can really become lethal on the defensive end.”

Talking to Chaz Lanier after Monday’s practice

“Well he did what we talked about. I just keep telling him, he’s at a different level. This is all new for him. Never been guarded physically, probably never been bumped like he has been. It’s just a whole different level and he can’t get open if he’s not gonna make two, three, something to get guys off of him. If you’re being down, how you going set him up? what’s gonna be your counter to it? And then you got guys waiting to get you up but they can’t screen if you don’t get enough separation (so) they can get a body on. And that was what it was about. Showed him tape. Been showing him tape. But to be honest with you, we’ve done that all year and sometimes it takes him a little bit longer, but I thought tonight he really did do some of the things that we had been talking about that allowed him to get som separation and get a good look at and knowing where to attack on the court, the space he needs to get to, ready to shoot. Sometimes he comes off, he’s not sure. Passer’s not sure what he is going to do. We need him to do what we need him to do and ball to be delivered because the guy guarding is going to catch up if he doesn’t get that quick. I thought he did a pretty good job tonight. Probably a better job (the he has) recently getting himself ready to shoot the ball.”

Taking the scouting report and holding Mississippi State to 16 first half points

“I thought, again, these guys want to be good. They know we’ve gotta get better. They know that. They realize that. They know this league is a brutal league and they know that. But it’s hard. Like I said, winning is hard. You can play hard some games and it’s not enough because a few mistakes here or there. It could be leaving your feet. (Could) Be fouling a three-point shooter. You shouldn’t foul three-point shooters. You shouldn’t. I wish I could do the NBA rule. I think in the NBA if you foul a three-point shooter, you got to buy everybody’s dinner at a high end restaurant. We maybe should implement that now. But the fact is, you know how much we talked about not fouling a three-point shooter after games all year and I think you we’re leading the nation, I don’t know, they keep that stat. We come out and do it again tonight. Can’t do it.”

How big Felix Okpara’s three was to give Tennessee the momentum back

“Well, they definitely took control of momentum. And again, I’m not taking anything away from them, but you turn the ball over the way we did, and the first four minutes, we went totally away from what we talked about at halftime and they took advantage of it. They’re too well coached, too many good players. I call ’em, you throw lifelines to people, they’re gonna grab ’em and it energizes ’em. It gives them a chance. I mean, having a 15, 20-point lead at halftime is not that big a deal. It really isn’t. It’s hard to coach with a lead. It’s hard to catch up with a lead when you’re behind. But the fact is, you’re dealing with — guys forget the scouting report. You wouldn’t think they would, but it’s a natural human tendency when they get up 15, 18, some guys think the game’s over. It’s never over. 

“I don’t think it’s over. I mean, I don’t know how other people feel. It’s funny, I sit at home, I watch games sometimes and I’m like, this game’s over, you know? And most of the time it could be, but I’ve been on games before where I’ve seen teams come back down 30 and win games. So I don’t ever think they’re over from our end.

“But it was a big play. Like I said, it was a lucky play obviously because he hadn’t taken one all year. If he were smart, he wouldn’t take another one and he’ll leave here as the all-time leading three-point shooter. He would be Tennessee’s version of Danny White at Notre Dame. You know, Danny’s the all-time leading field-goal percentage shooter, so they can have that in common.”

How hard it is to accept things as a coach that are out of his control

“Well, it’s hard. It’s hard. You’d like to be able to stop the game and do what I do in practice. You guys see me in practice. I can’t do that and ask. I don’t understand it. There’s so many things that go through a young guy’s head. I can’t tell you why, but I watch NBA games and I’m like, ‘why would he do that?’ It takes all of us to be on the same page, understanding the flow. Like I thought we took a couple three’s tonight — and again, we want our guys to shoot the ball when they’re open. But I think some guys think when we talk about being aggressive and being in attack mode, I think some guys think that means shooting the ball, and that could be the furthest thing from it. It could be, being aggressive, setting the screen, driving the ball. Just taking the shots to take shots is not being aggressive. That’s not what it’s about. But too many players think that. That, okay, if he wants me to be aggressive, that means he wants me to shoot it. That’s not what I mean at all.”