What Rick Barnes said after Tennessee's 74-70 road win at Texas

What Rick Barnes said after Tennessee rallied late for a 74-70 win over Texas at the Moody Center in Austin Saturday night:

How big the minutes Darlinstone Dubar gave Tennessee 

“Oh, it was huge. He came in and he was really locked in and did a lot of great things. It was a hard game. Any time you go on the road, it’s hard. You play at home, it’s hard. Coming off the loss the other night, I really appreciate the way they kept their focus. Went about their preparation the way we tried to do things. 

“And obviously so much respect for this university, this athletic department and the staff at Texas. But it’s hard. We knew it was going to be hard. Rebounding was a big focus for us and I thought after the first time out in the second half, we took care of the ball better. Zakai does what he always does. Created a lot of offense for us doing what he does on the defensive end. But a hard-fought win, but a good win for us.”

What Texas did to force Tennessee’s 15 turnovers, including 10 in the first half 

“Rodney does a terrific job with his staff. And we’ve struggled offensively. We’re trying to get more balance. And they work hard, they play personnel, they play analytics. That means you’re not going to let Chaz Lanier catch it with a lot of room. They chose to really back off Jahmai Mashack, which then distorts your spacing on offense. Early in the game he was doing what we wanted him to do. We love his defense, whoever’s guarding him, sort of a one-man zone and we dealt with it before. So that had a lot to do with it, I thought. And their post guys I thought did a really good job on ball screens. When we were able to start scoring, we opened it up a little bit and just started driving the ball. And Zakai I thought made some great (decisions). D-Stone’s three in the corner was a big one. Jordan (Gainey) was a big one and Chaz had a pretty good look at it for him. And ‘Z’s last layup wasn’t easy. But I think all four guys, we just put them there and said, we’re going to space the floor and let the little guy go. And he did it.”

Coaching a game at the Moody Center in Austin for the first time, coming back again with Tennessee

“Obviously it’s a beautiful building. And much different obviously than (the Erwin Center), but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. And being here, I came in last year at Christmas just to meet Bill Duvall to see it and was impressed then. But playing over the break is always tough when the students aren’t around, I get that. But the fact is, it’s a beautiful building.”

His thoughts on Texas guard Tre Johnson and what Tennessee did defensively to shut him down the final 11 minutes

“Well, one, they got a team of guys that make some really difficult shots. Rodney likes to get those guys in positions and let them kind of play isolation basketball. And they make some tough shots. But they’re good at it. He knows what he wanted to recruit. He’s got those guys that are shot-makers. But the first time we tried to take (Johnson) out, they ran a nice set to back cut us. And then that’s the one thing we don’t wanna give up. But give them credit for quickly taking advantage of it. And then they started using him to screen some, hoping to tie some guys up that way. But we just fought as hard as we could, that’s all I could say. He’s a terrific player and he’s tough guy to guard.” 

Darlinstone Dubar’s confidence on the offensive end and what that gives Tennessee 

“Well, again, the better he plays and the more he gets out there and can do that. And what he did tonight, I was really proud of, was the in-game adjustments we had to make, he did it, which he has struggled a little bit there. But tonight he did it. He just played with a force that we need him to do it. And, again, we tell him all the time, I mean, he can really shoot the ball. He can really shoot it. One of the things that when we looked at him in the portal, anybody that can go into Cameron Indoor Stadium, make five or six threes in a game there, tells you that he’s not afraid to play. But what we want him to do, I thought he defended, I thought he tried to rebound, got in the mix. And I hope this is will be a way that he can say, hey, you know, I can even get it to another level.” 

How much Tennessee needed a win at Texas to rebound from the Florida loss, to maintain confidence

“That’s the thought, obviously, (when) you get beat as badly as we did. And we played hard. We played hard defensively. And then you’re playing a totally different game than that game. And coming in, I wanted us to be aggressive early, but I knew that Texas would guard us, defend us. Obviously they scout, they know what they’re doing. And I knew baskets wouldn’t be easy early, but I wanted to see us be aggressive. And the first couple possessions, trying to see if they were going play us like we thought they would and they did. We knew they’re going take out Chaz, we knew they’d back off Shack. We knew that would happen. But it’s big. Because you know what, where we started, so proud of these guys. If you’d have told me in July, I couldn’t have said we would do what we they’ve done to this point. But we’ve had different guys. We’re down to what, nine scholarship players and two of them aren’t at 100 percent like a lot of teams have right now. But really proud of Cade Phillips tonight. Really proud. He went in the game and he battled. And his shoulder’s not what it needs to be. And Mashack’s still dealing with his hand, which I think has affected him some.

“But just proud of the way that they’ve stuck together. They had a great week of preparation coming in. We got out of rhythm a little bit, you know we had to come in a day early. The airlines brought us in and it feels like we’ve been here a long time, to be honest with you because we’re normally just in and out. But we got in and first time in I bet 25 years that we practiced on the other team’s practice facility and we don’t do that. But we had to do it. And so one good thing about it, our tennis team, women get to travel back with us. That worked out well for them. So we’ll all get back to Knoxville at some point tonight.”

How Texas has improved defensively since its SEC opener

“I thought, well again, I’d have to believe that they played the scout report the way they wanted to play it. Now anytime you look, people are going to look at these numbers and say, you look at the rebounding. Honestly, I can’t read it. I don’t have my bifocals on, but I don’t know what the difference is right there in it. But games are huge right there. And Texas plays hard. They play hard. They’re (a) gap team. Start of the second half they were in the gaps. So we came off, wanted to throw back over it. Zakai hit that three, which I thought was a big play for us at that time because I thought that kind of got us going a little bit because there’s nothing tentative about Zakai as you see. I mean, and when he gets going, I think those other guys feed off of that. 

“But they’re well coached. When they need to be in gaps, they’re there. I thought they did a really good job on ball screen defenses. I mean, people are concerned about our middle ball screen stuff where we will throw lobs up there. I thought they defended that well. At the start of the game, we definitely didn’t screen properly where our angles weren’t like they needed to be. That was a couple clips I showed them at halftime where we had to do it. But a lot of it had to do with Texas’, the physicality. They were working. They were not letting you get to your cuts and things like that. But it’s a long way to go. I mean, to go back to Kurt’s question, I told our guys, ‘Hey, it is about us getting better.’ We’re gonna prepare for every team, but we have to keep our focus on us. And I’m sure Rodney and his staff feel the same way. And we’ll leave here and get ready for, I think Georgia next. I’m not sure what day we plan, but at this time of year, I would say that everybody, every coach in this league knows that every team’s got to continue to get better.”

Tre Johnson being compared to Kevin Durant, what he thinks of the comparison

“Well, I have great, great, great respect for Tre, but you can’t compare players. You can’t, it’s not fair to him. I mean, one guy’s got a 7’6 wingspan. You can’t compare him to you go down the line. I mean, he is a terrific shot maker for a young guy. I mean, I tell you what I do like about him was his mindset. I didn’t think— KD didn’t flinch. I didn’t think he (Johnson) did. That’s the one thing I would say. I was impressed with him. I knew he had the ability to make a lot of difficult shots over top of you, which he does. But he’ll carve his own niche out. But you, I mean, you’re talking to 6’11, 7-foot guys to a guy like that. But just great respect for Tre and great respect for Rodney does to get him in position where he can be effective at what he does.”

Having to coach against his former assistant in Rodney Terry and wanting to beat him; his advice to Terry on how to navigate the SEC schedule

“I love these guys. I mean those guys, I wouldn’t be here, I wouldn’t have been at Texas. I wouldn’t. I’ve had so many great assistant coaches, and you guys watched ’em grow up here with me. I wouldn’t be here. I mean, Frank (Haith), Rodney. I mean, Chris Ogden. We know each other. I bet I could almost go in the locker room and tell you what Rodney said because he’d been with me so many times. I bet I could tell him ’cause he knew what I would be saying. I can assure you he knew what I was telling my team today. I guarantee it.

“Do you enjoy it? Not really, you know, because I mean, they’re part of my fiber. I’ve been with ’em so long and I love ’em. I wanna see ’em do well. It’s tough. People would probably be more surprised about the relationships in this league. I mean, we’re all tied in some way, I’m telling you. I mean, I could go back to, I’ve known John Calipari since 1977. There’s so many guys, when you’re at my age, you’ve been around a lot of people, you know? We’re probably better friends than people think, and I think there’s just a great deal of mutual respect. But we know when that tip goes up, you got a job to do and you gotta do your job.”

What makes Zeigler so good at driving the basketball at his size, knowing when to lay it in or pass it to a Tennessee teammate

“Well, one, he’s fearless. I mean after the game the other night, I took him out with — he wouldn’t come out really. He didn’t wanna come outta the game and he just said, ‘coach, I’m not quitting.’ We were down whatever, 30, whatever it was. He’s so hard on himself. He just wants to get it right all the time. And when things aren’t going well, he’s going to bear down more. Which sometimes works against him. But it’s in his DNA. It’s who he is. It’s how he grew up. I actually talked to a team about it this week. I said, there’s nobody in this room that grew up the way Zakai Ziegler did. Nobody. And that fight in him, that DNA, I wish I could bottle it. I do, I wish I could. First time I saw him, he’s the same. What you see him do here, he does every day in practice. Right now, we realize we gotta try to rest him as much in practice as we can because I love playing point guards a lot of minutes, but the fact is he wants to play and he’s special.”

How significant it is that Tennessee found a way to win on the road despite Chaz Lanier struggling on offense

“Well again, I’ve told Chaz all along, he doesn’t have to score the ball for us to win, but he’s going have to help those guys by learning how to screen. Going to have to learn to cut harder, gonna have to learn to do his work early coming off screens ’cause he kind of gallops a little bit. He is gonna have to keep his feet closer to the ground so when he comes off — because again, Texas did a great job guarding him. I thought his teammates did enough to get him enough separation he could have been effective, but he still has gotta learn to get his hips twisted quicker so he can get downhill quicker. I took him out, the first play of the second half because he didn’t shoot the ball. That play was designed for that shot. And I told him, I said, if you’re not going to do what you’re getting paid to do, you sit over here. Because he is getting paid to do that.”