Rick Barnes looks back at Florida loss, previews Tennessee at Texas

What Rick Barnes said before practice Thursday afternoon at Pratt Pavilion, looking back at Tennessee’s 73-43 loss at Florida on Tuesday and previewing Saturday’s game at Texas:

What he saw from the Tennessee loss at Florida when he watched the tape

“Basically what I said after the game. You know what, it’ll be good for us if we’re going to learn from it. And understand that I didn’t have a problem with the effort during the game. Didn’t have one after watching the tape with it. I thought that, one, give Florida tons of credit, they did what they wanted to do to get to win a game. And anytime you’re not making shots, it never looks good. And I can say that we had a lot of open shots, maybe some of that by design from their point of view. But the fact is, even with four or five minutes going, the first half, it was a 10-point game. I felt like we lost our poise a little bit. Certainly went through a segment of that game where we didn’t play together at that point in time, where you have to. Didn’t play to the numbers that we needed to play to. But like I told her guys, give Florida a ton of credit, but then we got to look at ourselves. And there’s nothing we did in that game that we can’t fix and we need to fix it.”

If Tennessee losing its poise happened because of missed shots 

“I do. I thought we took some early that really got us off kilter. The ones that Chaz took early were shots that he’s made all year. I I don’t have a problem with any of the shots that he took early. That’s what he’s been doing all year. I just felt as we got down, we started pressing. And maybe not losing your poise, because I think people think of that as being negative. I think it’s probably more pressing to try to get it quick and try to get something going as opposed to just staying with it. Understanding that it’s a long game, long way to go. And just felt like we just never got on track. But you learn from it. It happens. I’m not going to take away from Florida, they won the game. And the fact is, we have to come back after every game, win or lose, and look at it. And we have our rhythms that we do and we’re going to try to stay in them and just look at it and get better from it.”

How tough it might be for Tennessee players to move on from that kind of loss 

“Well, they have to. Every game is a big game now. You’re in conference play. But I always say, you could ask our guys, first game of the year (I told them) they’re all big. Because if you want to be where you want to be at the end of the year, you can’t stub your toe along the way when you’re not ready to play. And I think these guys have done a good job being focused and trying to get ready to play before every game. And like I said, their effort was there, we just didn’t have it. And again, give Florida credit for that. But we’ll flush it out, move from here and get ready. We have to be ready or we’ll lose again. I mean, it’s plain and simple. Even being ready sometimes, you’re going to lose some games. But the fact is you’ve got to do everything, control everything that you can control.”

Jimmy Dykes saying on the ESPN broadcast that Chaz Lanier plays too nonchalant and is soft with the ball, if that’s a problem the coaches have seen

“Yeah. I think it’s moving from one level to the next. I do. I think just coming down the floor where he’s dribbling the ball, he’s got it turned over. He’s drilling the ball and he’s playing at his speed. And maybe in the past he could get by with that. He can’t (here). And then drove down, had a chance to either go to the basket or pull up and he decided to pull up. But he slowed down way too much. And when you’re doing what he’s done and having this kind of success he’s had here, he’s got to understand that it’s not going to get easier. It’s going to get harder. And that means that you get out in the open court, you can be assured that somebody’s coming from somewhere and maybe different guys. And that’s part of his growth process. The same with I would say Igor, Dstone. I do think that after a game that Shack and Zakai were really good with their teammates saying to them, ‘Hey man, this is a different animal we’re dealing with right now. We told you guys about it.’ Sometimes you got to be put in that situation to see it, to feel it, to have it touch you before you can really understand what you have to do and embrace it so you can take those steps forward to get you where you really want to be.”

What he wants Jahmai Mashack to do when opponents are daring him to shoot

“Well, I want him to shoot. But I also think, and he’s done a really pretty good job with selectively with it. I mean, you look at numbers, I mean, I could see them having the same thing with Zakai or Igor. Those guys work at it. I think they all know how we want them to play, how they want to play. But sometimes in the flow of the game and when it’s competitive, you’re fighting just to claw and get back into something. But when Jahmai is open— he knows the time and places in the games where he knows he needs to shoot it. He knows when he needs to do other things. Because he’s so good for us driving the ball and getting in the lane and spraying it and finding his teammates and, but I can tell you everything that we had in that game, we’ve been through it every year that I’ve been here. Talking about Chaz, Dalton went through it a year ago. It’s just part of the growth process.”

What stands out about Rodney Terry’s Texas team

“A lot. His teams have always played hard. They’re going to fight you, they’re gonna guard you. He does a good job getting the guys that he wants shots to get those guys shots and we know, obviously know that even though I think he would consider himself a man (defense) coach, you know, I’ve got great respect for Frank Haith and him being beside me for many years. We felt last year, going into the NCAA Tournament, they would be willing to go zone, which they did but just great respect for his staff. I mean, a lot of love there because we spent many, many hours together through the years and happy at the success they’re having. But I was thinking this morning, how many different tie-ins we all have within the league with each other. It’s almost like the SEC and some ways, it’s just so many people’s lives have touched each other through the years and great blessing from God, but happy with where they are and what they’re doing, but got to compete. And I know full well they’re going be ready to do that.”

If going back to Texas a few years ago makes this feel like any other trip

“I’ve been in the new building last year when I went back to see my daughter. I met a dear friend, Bill Duvall there, just to give him a hug and I saw the Moody Center before the game. I didn’t stay for the game, but I was just there. But this will be the first time I was playing there. So it’ll be different in terms of, I mean, when I think about going back to Texas, I think of the Erwin Center, where we were for 17 years. But I mean, I know where it is, know all that stuff, but, yeah, to me, I’m sure I’m going see a lot of people that are still there that I know, but that’s part of it. But the fact is, and we’ve got to go a day early because of the weather conditions. So that’ll be a little bit different that we’re kind of getting out of rhythm a little bit, but that’s what we have to do.”

How concerned he is when Tennessee’s post players are matched up with an opposing big man that is more physical, has more weight and muscle

“Yeah, well that was something that we knew at the beginning of the year, at the start of this year with J.P. (Estrella_ going out, you know, we felt with J.P. and Felix, we would have two guys that really could bring that physicality. I thought Felix did a good job for us the other night at Florida. I thought he battled hard in there against some really good post players, but yeah, I think if you look at our team, you’d have a little concern there. But, you know, we’ve been able to get through it to this point and all I can say is that, we’ve gotta get better with it. Those guys have to improve in a lot of ways, but we’ve all gotta help them. Our perimeter guys are gonna have to help those guys too throughout the game, to when they do get really good position there, they need to get the ball more than they’re getting it right now.”

The status of sophomore forward Cade Phillips (left shoulder), if he’s good to go

“He was. The other night he wasn’t — I could tell by watching the film after the game — he wasn’t the same in terms of like the one lob he went up for, he didn’t even raise his left arm. He went up and tried to get it one-handed, which that’s one reason he didn’t play more because — Cade’s tough. He’s never gonna complain. He’s just not. But I could tell he wasn’t normally what he is.”

If he felt like Tennessee players were standing around on offense watching Chaz Lanier, similar to the way the Vols did last year with Dalton Knecht

“No, I didn’t. I thought that guys were playing. Zakai is such a competitive player. He was mad when I took him out of the game. He played 36 minutes. That’s just who he is. He said, ‘hey look, I’ve gotten us here, we’re down, I want to fight to the end.’ And that’s who he is. But you know, we started subbing with about eight minutes to go thinking about, you know, gotta make sure we get out of this thing without getting someone hurt, and getting Bishop (Boswell) some minutes there, and D-Stone (Darlinstone Dubar). Different guys like that. But sometimes, you know, Zakai’s just so competitive and when things aren’t going well, he just wants to make it up for everybody. We’ll all learn from what happened the other day. We will. You gotta go through ’em. Been through it before and more than I’d like to talk about. But I’ve been in it for over 40 years, man. I’ve been there, you know?”

If there’s an advantage in the fact that Texas played a 40-minute game Tuesday against Auburn, after Tennessee was able to sub guys out late in the game at Florida

“I don’t know. Everybody’s got their own team and what they’re doing. You do what you’re doing and again, we were looking at it as a way, can we get better right now? We know we need to get some other guys minutes. We were trying to do a little bit of that, but still. we don’t ever think it’s over until it’s over. That’s what my point is about Zakai. If he’s down 20 with four minutes to go, he thinks he can still find a way to bring it back. And it’s not that, it’s just that, some guys were sitting because they just weren’t getting things done and we owe it to the other guys to give ’em a chance to see what they can do.”

How this Texas team is different from what its been the last three seasons, seemingly being more reliant on the 3-point line

“They can shoot the ball. I don’t think there’s any question they can do that, but I think they are different. They’ve got an explosive, one of the very best players in the country. I see oftentimes people are putting his numbers up against (Kevin Durant’s), which is impressive that anybody would even be on the same line with him because of what he did as a freshman, I’m not sure it’s ever been done the way he did it, certainly at the time he did it. But again, I mentioned that Rodney does a good job and getting guy shots, and when he gets a guy that gets it going, he’s going to feed it to him.”