What Rick Barnes said after No. 6 Tennessee's 77-69 win at No. 7 Texas A&M

Everything head coach Rick Barnes, Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler said after No. 6 Tennessee’s 77-69 win at No. 7 Texas A&M Saturday afternoon at Reed Arena in College Station:

How much of Tennessee’s game plan was to restrict Texas A&M’s ability to dribble and drive to the rim

“It is our game plan. To be quite honest with you, we try to do that every night. They’re hard downhill drivers, get you into rotations. As you know, they’re one of the best rebounding teams in the country, both ways. They pull you out of position. We were concerned about those rotations like that. But early we really wanted to keep it as tight as we could. Didn’t want foul them, fouled a little bit too much obviously. But they create that. Really hard team to guard because of what they do and their second, third, and fourth efforts to get there. Lot of respect for Buzz and the Texas A&M family here. He’s done a great job. He really has. And they’re hard, they’re really hard to play against. Really proud of our guys today where, again, I thought they were very resilient. We didn’t get off to the start we wanted, but again, that happens. But we kept our poise.”

If Tennessee did anything special to take advantage of A&M’s defense or if it was just Chaz Lanier getting hot 

“We wanted to spread them out to start with. We wanted to spread them out and all we wanted to do with Chaz is get him a little bit of separation. He’s gotten so much better he’s seen all kinds of defenses. Again, I don’t think anybody’s being fouled more than he’s being fouled. I told Fran Fraschilla last night, I said, watch how much his shirt tail is out. He gets grabbed and pulled. And we’re just trying to screen him to get him a little separation. As you know, he has got a quick release. But I love the fact he started, the last couple weeks, driving the ball downhill to make people not able to always just sit on his jump shot. But he’s worked hard, his teammates believe in him and, again, we’ve seen him do it. He’s done it before, early in the year. He had 25 points in the first half against Baylor and so we’ve seen him do that. And he’s had other games like that but just really proud of the fact that he is continuing to try to get that better every day.”

Tennessee’s play out of the timeout with 21 seconds left, with Zakai Zeigler taking the quick three 

“Well, the play was also drawn up for a lob. He was going to lob it up there and let Felix go up there. But he didn’t get quite as deep under it. We wanted him to get there early and try to get position underneath, but the option wasn’t (there). Right then I told Shack watch this. And ‘Z’ made a great cut to get open and he obviously had to shoot it.”

What it says about Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler to close the game and play as well as he did in the second half 

“Well, we’ve seen him do it. It seems like the bigger the moment, he thrives on that. But you know, he’s such a special player, the things that he does for his teammates. And Chaz would probably tell you the biggest thing is how he does it every day in practice. What you see and the way you see him play, it’s hard to get guys to do that, but it’s just in his DNA. But he’s never going to quit. And at the end we really wanted to start driving really, really hard. We wanted to do that, try to play behind, because they do an incredible job of collapsing, going after the ball, breaking it loose. And I thought those drives were really key for him.”

 Saturday’s game being a satisfying road win

“Well, again, this time of year we all know what we’re playing for and trying to continue to get seeding in your league and obviously you can do enough to get a great postseason seed, but right now it’s just about what’s at hand. And I always tell our guys, we’ll just worry about today and all that will take care of itself. We’ll get what we deserve. But really coming in here, again, I don’t know if they’ve lost here this year (just once). This, again, and we know obviously happy for Zakai and Jahmai. They had never won in here and the fact that they came in and were able to get a win and they’ve always thought this is a really special place, tough place to play. But we, again, (are) fortunate today things turned out our way.”

Tennessee’s defensive effort on Wade Taylor IV and Texas A&M as a whole

“Well again, we still foul a little bit too much. We wanted to take the free throw line away from them as much as we could. We knew it was going to be a hard day on the glass trying to rebound against them because they do a great job of running down their misses, but, you know, we had our segments too where we got some offensive rebounds and I thought Jahmai Mashack’s two tips (in) were huge. They were huge and which a lot of people wouldn’t notice that, but maybe the two biggest plays of the game.”

Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier

What happened for him in the first half to get going

“Yeah, I mean it’s always good to ball going the hole. But I just saw that A&M was really sinking into the paint and my guys were just finding me at the 3-point line. And they were just making great passes and I just knocked them in.”

If he was surprised to see Texas A&M switching on him

“I mean, that’s just how they play. The coaches did a great job with the personnel and the scouting, so we came out and we knew exactly what look we were going to get and that’s what we were practicing all week for.”

The significance of getting this road win

“Yeah, I mean, every game is going to be a huge game in this league. The SEC is the best league in the country. So the coaches just did a great job preparing us on what it means to get a win on the road. And A&M is a super physical team, a great team, well coached, and I’m very proud of my guys. We came out and handled business for 40 minutes.”

If he was especially locked in during film, what it feels like to capitalize on it

“Yeah, I mean, it’s always big to have a good performance on the road and I just try to take what the defense gives me and do my job for my team because I know that’s what they need from me night in and night out. So I was just super locked in for this game and I’m just appreciative of my team for getting the job done.”

The drive and left-handed dunk in the first half

“Yeah, I mean, I felt like the coaches do a great job preparing us on what we’re going to see, but I didn’t plan anything. I never plan anything for the games. I just take what the defense gives me. So I saw him close out hard and the lane was open, so I just took what the defense gave me and that’s how it turned out.”

Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler

His dagger three with 21 seconds remaining, if he thought about passing

“Oh, I knew. I knew the play we was running and I told Jordan (Gainey), I said, ‘yo, if you got to pass it to me, it’s going up and it’s going in. Simple as that. I knew it was going in from the jump.”

What he was thinking in the second half

“Yeah, I really knew the way the Texas A&M defense played and I knew I just had to take better care of the ball, but I knew if I would get in the paint, something good was gonna happen. So I told my guys, just keep on moving and somehow, some way, I’m gonna find you. And you know, the guys did a great job of moving around, finding open spots, and I found them and things worked out. 

Being in one of the best conferences in college basketball in a long time

“No, the best. The best.”

Winning five out of the last six, if he feels Tennessee has found its groove again

“Yeah, well, I feel like we’re playing good basketball, great basketball right now. I feel like guys are getting more and more confident, but I still feel like we haven’t played our best basketball in both halves, you know, playing our best on both ends of the floor. So I feel like once we put a game together like that, it’s gonna be even scarier.”

Rick Barnes’ commitment to playing defense and what it has meant to him over the last four years

“Yeah, well you know, Coach Barnes, he’s gonna put guys out there on the floor that plays as hard as they can and you know, that’s his number one thing. You know, we might not be making shots one night. We might not be making free throws one night, but you know, if we’re playing as hard as we can on defense, we’ll be in a lot of basketball games. He preaches that a lot and it starts in the summertime. The guys, we’re all doing a great job and you know, I feel like me, Jahmai (Mashack) and Jordan, we’re doing a great job as a leader, emphasizing that on the guys, you know, that we gotta keep that same fight and toughness day in and day out.”