No. 5 Tennessee's 86-51 win over Texas A&M came after a warning from Rick Barnes

No. 5 Tennessee’s 86-51 railroading of Texas A&M Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena looked like payback. The Vols had lost to the Aggies 85-69 two weeks earlier in College Station and got their vengeance by outscoring A&M by 62-27 over the final 24 minutes in Knoxville.

Rick Barnes said it wasn’t the first meeting with Texas A&M — arguably the 40 worst minutes of basketball this Tennessee team has played this season — that set the tone for Saturday night’s game. 

Instead, it was what happened Tuesday night in the first half at Missouri. 

The Vols went to Mizzou Arena in Columbia and trailed 29-26 after an ice-cold first half, losing to a team that had lost 12 straight games and 15 of its last 16.

“They knew that I wasn’t very happy after the game at Missouri,” Barnes said after the win over Texas A&M, “and not to take anything away from Missouri because Missouri played really, really hard. (Missouri) made the game the way it (was).”

Tennessee recovered in the second half, with Dalton Knecht scoring 15 of his 17 points after halftime while Tobe Awaka finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds off the bench as the Vols rallied for a 72-67 win.

But the win wasn’t the point. The emphasis from Barnes was how his team approached the game.

“Did I think we were sharp mentally at Missouri? No,” Barnes said. “We weren’t. We were not detail-oriented and just doing things.”

It was a cautionary tale for the weeks ahead.

“I said, ‘Hey, (if) this is who we are right now, we don’t have but seven games left.”

‘Everybody you play can beat you if you’re not totally locked in and ready to play’

Barnes was referencing the five games left on the regular season schedule, one game in the SEC Tournament and one game in the NCAA Tournament. If the Vols couldn’t find the right mental approach, the 2023-24 season could be over that quickly.

“We’re either going to have seven,” Barnes said, “or how far can you go into the tournament? And we’ve got decide like every team right now, go back to mindset or consistency, knowing that everybody you play can beat you if you’re not totally locked in and ready to play for 40 minutes.”

Tennessee (21-6, 11-3 SEC) couldn’t have played any better in the final 24 minutes against Texas A&M. Knecht finished with 24 points and seven rebounds, Jonas Aidoo had 18 points and 14 rebounds and Zakai Zeigler came within one point and one rebound of only the second triple-double in program history, finishing with nine points, nine rebounds, 14 assists, four steals and zero turnovers. 

This was the Vols at their best, just a few days from the Vols at their worst. Clearly the message from Barnes had been received.

“We’re not supposed to take any game for granted or anything for granted,” Zeigler said, “but you know, him saying that, it just made us all realize we don’t have too many of these left. If we do what we are supposed to do, we can really do something special. 

“For the seniors, they can’t get any of those games back or anything. It’s out of their hands at that point. We have to take care of business. So once he said that it was good. We need to do what we need do.”

Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee vs. No. 14 Auburn, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2

The final two weeks of the season will have a postseason feel. Tennessee has four ranked teams, all Quad 1 games, left on the regular-season schedule. 

They host No. 14 Auburn on Wednesday, a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN2, and go to No. 13 Alabama on Saturday. They go to No. 20 South Carolina next Wednesday, then host No. 17 Kentucky on March 9 for Senior Day in Knoxville. 

“Every team we’re going to play from here on out is going to be in the NCAA Tournament,” Barnes said. “So it’s about building and trying to improve. And obviously if you think you’ve arrived just right now, every team we play, our guys understand if we’re not locked in, we can get beat and get beat badly. So it’s about mindset.”