Tennessee Basketball: Rick Barnes looks back at Gonzaga win, previews season-opener

Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes said before practice Thursday afternoon at Pratt Pavilion, looking back at the exhibition win over Gonzaga and ahead to No. 11 Tennessee’s season-opener on Monday at Thompson-Boling Arena:

HIS IMPRESSIONS OF THE GONZAGA EXHIBITION AFTER WATCHING FILM

“Obviously we shot the ball well. I thought we moved the ball well. Passing was good. But, honestly, Mark (Few) and I talked yesterday about where we were this time of year. You can never, I think, read too much into what happens. Other than you go back, look at where you have to improve. We’ve got to get a lot better defensively. Details with getting our hands up, being active. Still too many blow-by’s, where we’re not containing the ball the way we need to. Overall, I thought we had a good effort. I thought both teams played hard. I think it benefitted both teams. It was certainly a different environment. Something I would like to see us do more of going forward. But there were some good things in it. Just have to build on what we did the other night.”

WHY THEY’RE STARTING ZAKAI ZEIGLER OVER BRINGING HIM OFF THE BENCH, WHICH HE SAID PREVIOUSLY HE PREFERS

“One, where we were with Josiah (Jordan James) being out. We’re just trying to work with a rotation through these scrimmages and we weren’t sure exactly how we wanted to do it. We just felt like it would be better to get the more experienced guys out there as much as we could to start with. Then we can start trying to build, see what happens. When you go back and look, too, in the first scrimmage against Michigan State, Tyreke (Key) hadn’t played in a year and a half. We just felt maybe too, because of the way he would’ve gone at the time, just giving him a chance to get a feel for it, which I’m glad we did it that way because he didn’t do much in the first half of that scrimmage because he hadn’t played in a year and a half. I think just getting through it, the fact that he hadn’t played, took him a little while. He did come back and play well in the second half of that scrimmage. That’s the reason we went with it and we just decided to stay with it.”

Josiah-Jordan James ‘likely’ to play in season-opener

IF JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES WILL BE AVAILABLE MONDAY IN THE SEASON-OPENER AGAINST TENNESSEE TECH

“Yeah, he will. We think so. He’s going to do a little more today. Likely that he’ll play. Now we’ll just have to keep building him back up to get him ready.”

HOW MUCH HAVING JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES BACK WILL HELP THE DEFENSE

“Josiah has elite hands. He gets his hands on so many deflections. He’s terrific. His experience, there’s no doubt he helps us with that. He’s a fix-it kind of guy when things break down. He and Santi (Vescovi) and Zakai (Zeigler) are really good fix-it guys, when things don’t go exactly the way you want it. They’re able to talk-through things. They certainly do a great job coaching their teammates. They’ll fix the plays that need fixing.”

IF HE FEELS GOOD ABOUT DEPTH AT THE POINT GUARD POSITION BEHIND ZAKAI ZEIGLER

“I think we’re fine, in terms of what we do. All year, all summer, all fall, we worked with different guys handling the ball. Again, idealistically, we just want to get it down the floor as quick as we can, get into our offense. We think we have three or four guys that can facilitate that.”

IF JULIAN PHILLIPS CAN PROVIDE SIMILAR DEFENSIVE VERSATILITY LIKE JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES

“I think if Josiah would’ve been out there (during the preseason) it would’ve helped Julian a lot up to this point. And I think going forward, that will be maybe one of the biggest improvements we see from Julian, that he will get better, learn to continue to get better. I said it the other day, think about it, his first two outings in college basketball has been against Michigan State and Gonzaga, which is not an easy thing. But there’s not way you wade into that. He was thrown right into it. What you have to love about Julian, and we do as a staff, is the fact that he takes everything we tell him and he tries to fix it and work on it. He’ll be fine. I do think Josiah getting back will help him some defensively.”

WHO TYREKE KEY REMINDS HIM OF IN HIS MOVEMENT ON THE FLOOR, THE WAY HE PLAYS THE GAME

“Well, I’d have to think about it, but I’m sure we’ve had guys that can do things like that. But Tyreke, from the time that he got here, he’s impressed us. First of all with his character, who he is. But then he’s an incredible worker. I mean, his work ethic is second to none. So he blended right in with what we do here. We watched him throughout the summer and fall. He can really get going shooting the ball. And he has deep, deep range. Then we just decided to tell him you need to play a little bit of point here and see if you can do it. He embraced it, but it’s tough when you’re going out there against Santi and Zakai at that position. But he embraced it. We’re not surprised because we’ve seen him do some of the things that he did the other night, we’ve seen him get going in practice where he can really get it going.”

HOW MUCH OF AN ADJUSTMENT IT WAS FOR TYREKE KEY TO BE VOCAL ENOUGH AT THE POINT GUARD POSITION

“He’s not there yet, in terms of being as vocal as he needs to be. I thought he was really good, the best he’s been, defensively against Gonzaga, doing some things we hadn’t seen. But he was flying around, doing some of those fix-it type plays. And more vocal than normal. That’s something he’ll continue to get better with. He’s going to have to continue to get better with, the more comfortable he gets, understanding exactly what that position calls for. It’s the hardest position on the court to play for us offensively. But he’ll get there. Because, again, he’s one of those guys that is all about trying to figure out how can I get better? He dreams of playing at the highest level. For him to do that, he knows what he has to do daily to improve on his skills.”

WHERE OLIVIER NKAMHOUA IMPROVED THE MOST OVER THE SUMMER

“I go back to January when he was playing great basketball for us a year ago before his injury and then he missed a lot. The fact that he got to go this summer and just play, helped him. But it’s totally different there and what we do here. Each day, he comes back and continues to get better. No one cares more than O (Nkamhoua). He wants to please. He wants to do things the right way, but he’ll work at it and continue to work at it, but I would say that not just him, but we all need to get better defensively containing the ball. I think it’s really important. Again, it’s not just O, it’s everybody to help us get where we want to go defensively. We have to improve on that end from a year ago. If we can learn to contain the ball, it’s going to help our defensively rebounding, but O works and is going to give you the effort you need everyday to get where he needs to go.”

IF THERE ARE CHALLENGES WITH HAVING TOO MUCH DEPTH

“There is on challenge to having depth. We’re going to play the guys that need to play. Consistency will determine how much depth we use. We’ve had bodies in the past — you can go back a year ago where it seemed like we had depth, but the depth never showed any consistency. How many players we use will simply be based on who is going to show up and be consistent day in and day out. And when we put them in a game, can they do what we expect them to do day in and day out?”

Tennessee opens season Monday at Thompson-Boling Arena

WHAT HE WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH MONDAY VS. TENNESSEE TECH

“As much as we practice and play — execution. Staying in the moment, right now, understanding how valuable those two minutes and then I would say cardio toughness. When guys get tired, some guys just go off the cliff and fall. I want to see guys where it’s a gradual decline before we can get them out. That’s important. And I do know we’re a conditioned team. At the pace that we play I think every one can handle it. But the fact is when you do get in those situations where you’re moving up and down the court, maybe the stoppage isn’t what it would normally be, it can go for two and a half to three minutes, how many guys can do that without getting tired and fatigued or drop off the cliff. Cardio toughness is a big part of it. To see how long we can play and sustain what we want to do, and once we go to the bench, if we can maintain that or take it to another level. That’s the one thing Zakai (Zeigler) did for us a year ago. You all witnessed that when he came into the game, it was just a different level. If he’s a starter, we’re going to need that from Tyreke (Key) and Jahmai Mashack. We’re going to need that from those guys coming off the bench, that they can not just hold the energy, but they can take it to a whole new level.”

HOW MUCH CONSISTENCY HAS TO BE SEEN IN GAMES, MORE THAN JUST IN PRACTICE

“When I talk about consistency, it’s not about making shots. It’s about doing the right thing, making the right play. It’s staying in the role that we’ve talked about and sometimes it’s difficult for players because when a guy is used to being with a group of guys where he might be looked at as the third, fourth, fifth option. All of a sudden, if we’re not careful with out substation, he may feel he has to do too much. That’s on us to stay away from that. What we want to see with out substations and with our depth, can they do exactly what they talked about with staying in the moment and do the job we need them to do.”

HOW BJ EDWARDS IS PROGRESSING

“Getting better, he is getting better. Like any young freshman, understanding ball security and defense, not giving up position for a skill. BJ is one of those guys that does have good cardio toughness to where he can fight through fatigue. It’s just a matter of him learning the entire system and what he needs to do when he goes out there. He’s competitive and it’s really helped him playing against Zakai and Santi, especially Zakai all summer. But I would say he’s on pace with where we need him to be. He’s going to have to keep grinding.”

HOW UROS PLAVSIC HANDLED THE BALL AGAINST GONZAGA

“Uros is a facilitator. He’s good out there when he’s not too casual with it. We’re using those post guys once we get into our flow-game to help facilitate and let our guards start cutting and moving. But he’s good at it and as long as he doesn’t get too careless, we like him to have the ball out there.”