Rick Barnes previews No. 6 Tennessee's game at Vanderbilt

What head coach Rick Barnes said before practice Friday morning at Food City Center, previewing No. 6 Tennessee’s game at Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon (3:30 Eastern Time, SEC Network) at Memorial Gym in Nashville:

Chaz Lanier being more than just a 3-point shooter and Tennessee coaches wanting him to drive and score at the rim more

“We do (want him to). And we talk about him one, the way he’s being guarded. What’s going to be available to him. And that’s part of our job as coaches to let him know what part of the court he’s going to be able to attack in situations, where he is going to catch the ball most of the time. But obviously everything, his game, is set up with the fact that he’s such a terrific shooter. But I think what he’s learning is that space that he’s getting — and it’s important his teammates screen to get him some space — he’s got to be ready to take advantage of that right away as opposed to maybe stringing it out. And I think he’s getting better there. And with that, when they start, those gaps close up quicker, he’s going to have to be able to use his acceleration to get through those gaps quicker.”

What Tennessee has to do to get off to better starts on offense

“Well, you know what, we go back and look, we started the game with good shots. We talk about, believe me, they want to make every shot they shoot, we want to see every shot go in. But as long as we take the shots that we practice, that’s all we can do. And there are nights every team goes through it. And at the start of the game, you got to understand too that the other team is prepared for a lot. They’re prepared. The emotion, the effort, all that, it’s at a very high level. And so it’s difficult going both ways. But some of it has to do with the other team guarding extremely hard and you don’t get much separation and shots might be contested. But you have to work hard on the offensive end. But we’ve still got to, just can’t let down defensively and got to, again, go back to the fundamentals, take care of all the details that we can and just try to keep ourselves in position to stay in the game. And hopefully we start making some shots.”

Jahmai Mashack putting in extra time working on his jump shot

“He works. He was in the day after a game. If we’re not doing much, he’s always in there. He’s a guy that will come back at night. He knows what he needs to do. He’s matured as a player to where he understands his routine, what he needs to do, what he’s got to do to stay locked into those things. And he’s no different than any other player. Every game is going to be different for him. They got to adjust. Some people like to back off and try to maybe close gaps more with him. 

“But I thought he was great the other night. Thought he played one of his better games in terms of his focus. He was aggressive. He took the slack out. And we love it when he drives the ball. And we like it when people don’t guard him because he’s so unselfish. He’s going to use that as a way to go get his teammates open. He can play-make out of it. But that’s his maturity and where he’s learned to play and adjust whatever comes his way.”

Tennessee’s offensive pace being slower this season than it was a year ago 

“No, we’re not (trying to play slower). We haven’t tried to slow it down. You got to give the opponents credit for that. I mean, that’s not us. We want to play fast and our opponent knows we want to play fast, so they’re not going to let us play fast. So it’s whether they come, run back, send two, three, four guys back (on defense). We played teams this year that didn’t even try to offensive rebound. They just ran everybody back. We’ve played some teams that might rebound two, might rebound one. So we haven’t changed. We’ve had the same system that we’ve always had. We want to run, we want to play fast, we want to score early. And when things aren’t going the way we want to do it, you got to give credit to our opponents. They’re not going to let us do what we practice at the highest level, that we want to. 

“And so we want to play fast. We’re going to always try to play fast. We’re going to try to get easy baskets if we can because we respect our opponent knowing that they’re going to work hard. They want to win too. And they’re going to do everything they can and put themselves in a position to keep us from doing what we do well and not give up easy baskets, all those type things. And so that’s what makes the game what it is. You’re fighting an opponent that wants to win just as much as you want to win.”

On how to combat that, dictate pace instead of your opponent

“It’s not that they dictate the pace. You still have to go. You’re still trying to push the ball, you got to move the defense. But when a team, if someone wants to send back five players, that means they’re saying, ‘hey, we’re gonna concede offensive rebounds and we’re gonna get back.’ And you’d have to slow you down because they’re trying to build a wall back there. And then that’s where you got to get into moving the ball, get it going side to side, execute. You got to screen, you got to keep your gaps. You got to, again, playing, playing good offense is hard. There’s a difference in running offense and playing offense and we want to play offense and whatever the team’s doing, we want to be able to read and react to it. But again, it’s just, we know that our opponents (are) trying to keep us from doing what we want do as we’re trying to do, to do that to them.”

What coach Mark Byington has done in his first year at Vanderbilt

“Mark’s done a great job. A lot of respect from Mark and the fact, I mean, I got a start like he did at George Mason. James Madison, at one time, that was a big rivalry back in the day. When I was at George Mason, that was our biggest rivalry with (James) Madison. And they were really good, obviously a good basketball team then. And he did a great job there. And I think he’s done a great job going into the portal quickly and getting guys the way he wants to play. They’re very aggressive. They create a lot of havoc. A really heavy, heavy gap team that they really go for steals. They really turn you over. And I’m impressed with what he’s done. I really am. And I’m not surprised just the little bit I’ve been around him, you can tell he believes in what he wants to do and how he wants to play and being able to do what he’s done up to this point is really— he deserves a lot of credit for a lot of it.”

Calling Mark Byington when he got the Vanderbilt job, what he told him

“Well it goes back years ago when I first went into the Big East, I  remember to this day, the coaches that as soon as I got there— I was young, I was a lot younger than him obviously, but I’d only been a head coach one year and guys that just said, ‘hey, you’re gonna be okay.’ But that always meant something to me. So when new guys that come to the league, I’ve always tried to call them, again, I’ve got respect for guys that have built where they, where he is, the way he’s come up because it’s the path that I’ve probably been through, and I’m happy for our league. Because you look at our league, I’ve always said, I think there’s been great coaches in this league and I really believe that, but I want this to be the best basketball league in the country. And I think it was a great hire for Vanderbilt. And I just, again, the way he’s gone about doing it, it shows you that they made a great decision.”

How important his coaching staff is to the success of the Tennessee basketball program

“We wouldn’t be where we are without those guys. I mean, I think I’ve got the very best coaching staff in the country, and I think what makes ’em great is that they get up every day with the idea that, you know, what can we do to make this program better today? What can we do to help our guys get better today? I think we’ve got a group of guys, (in) Coach (Justin) Gainey, Coach (Gregg) Polinsky and Coach (Rod) Clark. Those guys obviously (are) on the road some, too, but the connection that they continue to keep even when they’re not here, and mostly they’re here obviously. Our support staff, you guys have been around our program long enough, know what Mary-Carter (Eggert) does for our program. I mean, we’re all in it together, and that is the truth. And it starts really with the everyday consistency of doing things the right way. But this program, it’s not about me, believe me. It’s what those guys do every single day with their players and they prepare them to get ready for every game. And again, I, without question, I think that we have the best coaching staff in the country, or I do with my assistant coaches because of how much they care about what we do here and how we do it. 

Where freshman guard Bishop Boswell is at right now in his development

“Getting better. He is. He’s still got a little problem with his shoulder. As does Cade (Phillips). When you get hit like that, it can take some time. But, you know, Bishop’s tough. He’ll figure it out. We’re gonna need him. I keep saying that to you all (that we) need him. I don’t know when and where. We need him because of where we are and as long as he’ll continue to work — we don’t worry one bit about his competitive spirit or his toughness. It’s just, again, him learning how to do what we need done (from) him at this level and he’ll get there. There’s no question he will.”

Where he would like to see Boswell develop the most this season:

“Understanding our system. He’s coming in where there’s a lot of older guys, and it is always a major jump, but it’s not easy having to go against Zakai Ziegler and Jordan Gainey, guys that have played a lot. It’s a learning curve that takes place really when you’re talking about, he spent most of all summer trying to really learn the point, which is without question, the hardest position on the court. But he’s learning there’s a whole lot more to it like every young player. There’s just so much more to it than they can imagine. But he hasn’t backed away from it. Some of it has to do with young guys breaking habits. Some of it has to do with rewiring your mind in terms of, this is how I did play, but this is how we play. All that comes into it. But his attitude and the way he goes about it, he’s what this program’s about.”

Facing a smaller team in Vanderbilt after facing a Georgia team that had a lot of size

“What it does is, every game we talk about, it takes on its own personality. It takes on its own challenge. They play really hard. They’re quick, they’re fast, aggressive, and they’re gonna battle. I mean, there’s a lot of different ways to play this game. What we were talking about earlier, they know how they wanna play, they know what they need to do. They’ll have a gameplan. We’ll have to have our gameplan. And it gets down to, you have to execute it. Knowing that, I think both teams have a great deal of respect in this league. I think everybody’s got a great deal of respect for this league. And knowing that night in and night out, you’ve gotta be ready to go or it won’t turn out well for you.”