What Rick Barnes said about No. 6 Tennessee's game at No. 7 Texas A&M on Saturday

Everything head coach Rick Barnes said before practice Friday morning at Food City Center, as No. 6 Tennessee (21-6, 8-5 SEC) prepares to go back on the road to face No. 7 Texas A&M (20-6, 9-4) on Saturday (Noon Eastern Time, ESPN) at Reed Arena in College Station:

If he looks at the SEC standings this year in regards to Tennessee trying to get a top-four seed in the SEC Tournament

“Well, it’s there because people talk about it, obviously. But we don’t. We keep a running standings, we show the standings every week, where we are in a lot of different areas too. But it is what it is. And we know that going into a conference tournament, I’ve seen it work a lot of different ways. You get that (double bye), you lose the first day. Teams play before, all that. But the bottom line, it’s today, it’s about doing what you do. And at the end, if you’ve done the body of work, if that’s where you get seeded, that’s where you get seeded. The fact of the matter is, I don’t know if that’s foremost on our mind right now. We talked you yesterday again about where we’ve got to improve and what we need to get better with. But I think the most important thing is just winning the next game. And where it plays out, falls out, that’s what we’ll deal with.”

The ares where Tennessee needs to improve at this point

“Same thing we’ve talked about all your — consistency, details, really the focus. We’ve talked a lot about that. Trying not to go through those sequences in a game where we’ve put too many of them back to back. We won’t perfection. We’re not going to get it even though we try to strive for it. But we just got to get everybody, each game knowing exactly what we’re going to get. And it goes back to consistency. And I think that starts every day in practice. And by now you can look at numbers and say this, say that, but you’re looking for consistency and that’s what I hope we can get to.”

If Tennessee used the midweek bye to take time to self scout

“No, the biggest (focus of the) week for us was trying to get guys healthy. We had to change our schedule the way we originally put it in, because we just had guys that, some injuries that, to be quite honest, I’m not sure they’ll get 100% better because of where they are. So we’ve tried to manage that more this week than anything else. And we’ve got a lot of different things that we do, but core things that we always talk about is our defense, our rebounding, taking care of the ball, that that won’t change. And you know, game to game, we talk about how every game’s different and whatever we think, go into that game with a game plan. That’s what we do. And have to be able to adjust within the game.” 

Tennessee being more productive in the paint in recent games

“I’m not sure, other than the fact that we haven’t talked about anything different than we’ve always talked about. Some of it is our opponents. Your opponent is trying to keep you from doing what they know you want to do and do a good job with that. But again, I think it always goes back to focus, to really understanding every game. Whether it’s on the offensive end or the defensive end. I think our last couple games we’ve broken down early defensively, and then we started the last game with two turnovers. We’ve talked about that all year. But some of that, again, you got to give credit to your opponent.” 

What stands out about Texas A&M

“Well, again, rebounding (is) the first thing and the fact that they play extremely hard and well coached. They know their system. They know what they want to play. And you know, I’ve known Buzz for a long time and his teams always compete at the highest level. They (are) best in the country rebounding wise. You look at that. Drive the ball hard. They want to pick the mismatches they want to go after and that’s what they’re going to do. But just great effort from start to finish.”

What makes them a great rebounding team

“One, they’re big and they recruit guys that can do it. So that’s one thing that’s one of his, I would just guess is his philosophies in recruiting. Because you go back and look at his teams and teams have always done that and he’s got guys that have a real knack for it. And guys that, again, you give he and his staff great credit in getting those guys to buy into that role and that’s what they do.”

The physicality of the game, them being built similarly

“Oh yeah. Oh yeah. No doubt about it. I mean, you go back and look at the league, I mean, it’s become a really, really, really good defensive league. Really good rebounding league because coaches understand it. When teams are trying to keep you from scoring that you got to try to get to the glass. And so when coaches know you’re trying to get to the glass, you put an emphasis on we gotta block them out. We got to get them to take a tough shot. So you look at our league this year, then a lot of teams started driving the ball hard and say, okay, we got to get to the free throw line. We got to find a way to score. So you need to get back, get your defense set. That’s important. So yea, I think regardless of who you’re playing, I think we go into to games expecting a really physical game some way somehow.”

Zakai Zeigler vs. Wade Taylor IV matchup

“Well two guys that have impacted their programs in just an enormous way. When you think about what Zakai has done here. There’s no doubt that Texas A&M feels the same way about Wade Taylor IV and what he’s done in his career. And two guys that have made just tremendous impacts in their programs and they’ve done it for a long time. Which I think is really more impressive, the fact that they made those kind of impacts from the time they really walked on campus.”

If Zakai Zeigler has the case to be an All-American

“Yeah, I mean, why not? I mean, you talk about a guy that’s being a key guy. The guy that if he got one of his teammates to follow him over the cliff, they would follow him because he’s got that kind of respect because of what he does every single day. And then when you talk about a leading the team that’s been pretty much ranked in the top 10, five all year long, a guy that everybody game plans for. A guy that affects both the offensive side of the ball, the defensive side of the ball. And when you think about him doing that at the level that he is, knowing that he’s being game playing for, I can’t imagine there’s not a coach in the country that would (not) want Zakai Zeigler. When you think about what he does to impact winning basketball games, it’s truly, it’s phenomenal. And I don’t know of anyone that does it better.”

If he believes Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier is also in the conversation to be an All-American

“Yeah, I think when you look at Chaz, I mean, you think about it. He came in from North Florida averaging what, 17, 18 points a game. And again, a guy that gets game-planned for every night, a guy that gets grabbed, pulled, shoved, any way you wanna call it. And for him to make the adjustment in one year, it’s really pretty remarkable when you think about what he’s been able to do in the most physical league in the country, and when people are really working hard to keep him from getting the ball all kinds of ways. But he’s learned to adjust to it. And again, a guy that’s being game-planned for every single night and to put up the numbers he has is pretty impressive.”

If it was helpful for Tennessee to not have a midweek game this week

“Yeah, you know, you think about it, because of where we had guys that were hurt a little bit, and that’s what I think all coaches when that midweek comes, you hope that it’s at a time when — you’d like to give them rest obviously, but for us, with the injuries that we had, the ones that, whether it’s a calf strain, a big toe, those things that are hard to get right. A week won’t do it, but it helps and I think, hopefully it’s helped us as we get back into it now.”

Zakai Zeigler scoring 22 points in the second half vs. Vanderbilt after Barnes challenged him at halftime

“He and I do a great deal of talking with our eyes. He knows me and he knows the look I give him. I understand him. I mean, I know his body language so well and I think he knows my body (language) because his comment to me, ‘I got you, I got you.’Sometimes I don’t say anything. I don’t. I just look at him and he says, ‘I got you.’

“I have the utmost respect for him because again, I say it all the time, his DNA, it’s what he does every day in practice. I mean, very few guys do it. I mean, I wish they all did. I wish — if I could bottle what he does and his approach every single day, it would be, I mean, I love going to practice, but I don’t know if I’d ever have to raise my voice very much because I don’t have to with him very much because he’s a guy that is self-motivated, got a tremendous drive to get better. And like I said, what he’s done in his career, I mean, I think he’ll leave here as one of the all-time great Tennessee Volunteers. Really a guy that has impacted college basketball the last four years. I know he has been an inspiration for a lot of small guards. There’s a lot of guards out there, small guys that contact us because they see what he’s done and they know that we believe in guys like that. And so he’s made impacts not only on the court, but what he’s done outside the program as well.”

Zakai Zeigler shooting the basketball better since his knee tweak

“Well, I think some of it, his teammates, the more consistent they can be with it, doesn’t put as much on him. I mean, as we all know, he is very unselfish. You know, he wants to pass the ball. He loves the assist. And when those guys are consistent, he doesn’t have to do as much and he can kind of get away from the ball a little bit, play away from the ball which he likes to do, too. But it all goes back to our team and everyone doing their job.”