Rick Barnes: 'Our older guys brought it home' in Tennessee's win over NC State

Everything head coach Rick Barnes said on his postgame radio show on The Vol Network after No. 12 Tennessee beat North Carolina State 79-70 Saturday night in a Hall of Fame Series game at Front Bank Center in San Antonio:

Opening Statement

“Our older guys brought it home for us. Exactly the kind of game we thought we’d be in. Kevin Keats’ team, they get after it. They play you hard. They really work hard defensively. And obviously they played personnel. I told the team our older guys brought it home. They really did. And I thought Tobe (Awaka) stepped in there tonight and did a good job. Jonas (Aidoo), he didn’t practice yesterday. He wasn’t 100%, but early, he did a good job. Late in the game, he’s getting kind of pushed around back in there.

“But Jahmai (Mashack), I mean, what can you say about him? Zakai, he was out there a long time tonight and did a great job controlling the game, really on both ends. And I thought the time when we actually went big when Santi (Vescovi) and Jo were on the bench with foul trouble, we stretched out there a little bit and we let them get back in it. We were up 11 and and they have a 20% shooter who hits a three at the shock clock. And I mean, that’s basketball, but a great win, it really is. They’re gonna win a lot of games in the ACC and I really like the way our guys handled it at the end. But really it’s great win.”

Tennessee’s veterans leading the way after NC State came back to tie the game at 60

“I thought Josiah had a really solid game tonight. Santi, again, he does all the things that he needs to do. Tobe went in and gave us some really great minutes there. And, Jahmai, can’t say enough about him. Again, these are older guys. I mean, they’ve been in these battles … at the end of a game like that, you gotta get it done with your defense. And we did.

Trying to match NC State personnel with different lineups and defensive assignments

“DJ Horne, started out, remember what, he had three threes, I think. I don’t know if he scored much after that. I thought we had different guys on him. Our ball-screen coverage was pretty good for the most part. We knew they were gonna really try to play through DJ Burns. But we also felt like if we could get the tempo we wanted, that maybe he might struggle to end the game. But really good win against an outstanding team and go home and have one more before Christmas and hope we can get that one done.”

A veteran Tennessee team coming together in a win like that

“With these guys in the huddle at the end, they know what they have to do. I mean, they talked about it. They talked about it and (getting) stops, you know. They trust each other down there. They know that they’re going to cover each other’s back defensively. And they’ve been in a lot of these games and we found a way at the end. I thought Josiah made a big three, obviously, Zakai made a big three in the corner. But we were getting the penetration.”

Tennessee going 8-for-22 on layups

“The one thing we’ve got to do a better job of, we’ve got to make layups, the ones that are uncontested. They’re not as easy as you might think, but it’s the uncontested ones. And early in the game, Josiah, I thought had a dunk and he kicked it out for a three. And ‘Z’ had wide open one, same thing. And it goes back, I think those guys are so unselfish and they do trust each other. And they do believe we can shoot the ball. But when you get those point-blank layups like that, you’ve got to take advantage of it.”