What Rick Barnes, Vols said after beating Kansas, winning Battle 4 Atlantis title

What Rick Barnes, Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler said after No. 22 Tennessee beat No. 3 Kansas 64-50 Friday night to win the Battle 4 Atlantis championship in the Bahamas:

TENNESSEE COACH RICK BARNES

The defensive performance 

“These two guys (Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler), they don’t have to be making shots to impact a game. What Zakai does when he comes in, what he did last night. I told the guys in the locker room I thought Santi was the player of the game with what he did, guarding a guy that was 6-8 last night. He’ll guard anybody on the floor. ‘Z’ is the same way. They’re fearless. A year ago, we started the season, we like to switch (on defense). But we weren’t sure we could do it with Zakai. We played Texas Tech early in the year and right off the bat they went at him. First couple possessions we knew that hey we could still switch. Because they’ve just got a fight in them. We knew we were going to guard. I do think we’re a better offensive team than we’ve played up to this point. But we have started to develop the kind of mentality defensively. What we did tonight, in three days, it’s physically tough. I’m not sure how many minutes these guys (Vescovi and Zeigler) averaged, but they probably averaged close to 30 minutes (per game). The way they go at it, we try to run. It’s not like we’re walking the ball up the floor, playing a tempo game. We’re trying to do it on both ends. Santi is guarded like no other. They basically try to take him out. He’s very unselfish, to the point that I’ve told him many times you have to shoot the ball, man. You have to shoot it. He knows who he is, what he needs to do. Zakai, again, coming off the bench, there’s not a more electrifying guy that can bring what he does when he comes in the game. I mean, he’s great at it. But they’re both just going to bear down and guard you.”

The halftime message

“The real message at halftime was we were here 5 years ago against the future national champion in Villanova. They came out and kicked our butt in the second half. We were in the same spot, up 12 or something like that. They came out and I said we are going to see how far we have grown as a program. These guys came out and sustained it and Dick what you said was so impressive. It has been three days of hard-nosed defensive basketball against some physicality, different matchups. These guys came up here with this in mind. I am really happy for them. They’ve worked hard. They worked hard getting ready for this.”

When Dajuan Harris went out for Kansas

“We felt he was a really key player for them. We felt he is their version of Zakai and can really disrupt things. We were concerned there. We felt like we believe in ball pressure. When we had watched a lot of tape coming into it because of who he is and he what he does, they let him just measure you up. He makes a lot of terrific passes and decisions. They have got players. I think our guys were just really focused and locked in in terms of — again we have great respect for them. I have got great respect for Bill. I told our guys before the game if you don’t think he is going to have them ready to play, you’re crazy. I knew it was going to be a high-level, physical game. It always is every time we have ever played against them. Our guys in terms of a defensive standpoint, we were able to do what we set out to do.”

What this win shows him about this Tennessee team

“I hate to talk about the loss we had because I don’t ever take away from somebody that beat us. But it was a wake-up call. Whether we were the 11th-ranked team in the preseason or 12th, whatever it was. That team, this team, hasn’t done what last year’s did. Last year’s team didn’t do enough. Our players would tell you they want more than what they got a year ago. But we also after that, we have had a great mindset. I will tell you, I have a terrific coaching staff who when we lost that game, they did a good job of keeping me under control because I wanted to kill them. I felt like how could we let that get away from us like that? We really tapered for this tournament. Normally, getting ready — and we haven’t had any rhythm for our season in terms we had a game and a week off. It is really tough to practice in November after you have been practicing for 70-some days going back to the summer. When you play a game, we had a scrimmage. We had a closed scrimmage, a week off. We had an exhibition game, a week off. We never got our rhythm. These guys, they do come to work every day. They do. It is a great credit to our coaching staff. It is a great credit to them because they do want to be good. I like the fact that they coach each other. We talked about that last year. The best teams are player-led. I liked the fact tonight they were getting on each other. Last game before we got here, I decided that because of last year’s team that was a team that really did coach each other. During timeouts in our last home game, I left my chair open and made different guys sit there during the timeouts and said you guys are coaching to coach each other. You guys are going to hold each other accountable. Tonight, when they were getting at each other, I thought it was pretty good. I want them to hold each other accountable. We come out of there with that. That is a good thing.”

The upcoming schedule

“Well we’ll have to play. There’s no doubt about it. Those are good questions because we have always prided ourselves on playing the type of schedule that can get us ready for our conference and as you  know every conference is tough. The fact is we’ve always played that type of schedule and certainly we go to Brooklyn to play Maryland. That will be a neutral site game but then on the road at Arizona. I’m sure they’ll be ready. They came in last year at our place and it was one of those great games where I think they were ranked sixth when they came in and ended up having a great year. That schedule— most of our guys have been through it. Julian Phillips tonight got tired. I think the fact that him being a freshman. He’s exhausted. I’ll promise you it’s the most tired he’s ever been, but yet he grew up in a lot of ways. What he’s dealt with up to this point has been pretty impressive. Tyreke Key is going to continue to get his feet under him. This is all new for him too. He hasn’t played in a year and a half before he started this year but we do have some guys back who have been in some high level games and certainly coming out of here they know what this is— the ones who haven’t.”

Tennessee rebounding

“You can be a good defensive team but you can’t be a great one if you give up second and third shots. You can’t. You said it, at the end of the possession if you can’t finish it out you have to go again. What’s impressive with our guys too is that we’re not a tempo team. We run the ball down the floor and we’re trying to get down there within three seconds and start playing and the fact that we do that and then we come down and if we’re playing defense we’re going to put teams in long possessions for the most part which can really mentally drain on you. We tell them the game starts when the shot goes up. On both ends. That’s when the game starts whether we shoot it or they shoot it. The game is on. We talk about rebounding and I’ve done some crazy things in my life in terms of trying to get that mentality and physicality going but the fact is it is a mentality and you’ve got to establish it. It’s not easy because once you get that mentality every team— you get known as the guy that comes to the glass. Somebody’s going to put a body on you and how much are you willing to go? When we watch it we really grade out rebounding. It’s one of our big things that we grade out and we try to get guys to be physical there and go get the ball but rebounding it’s a mentality. Some guys have it in their DNA. I was really impressed tonight and I told the guys the guys at half that KJ Adams, that guy’s DNA— he went to get the ball. A couple great rebounds where his second effort was terrific. I want to see our posts guys develop that and Olivier has the ability to do it. He really does. Julian I think is learning to fight for it. Olivier is a guy I think can become that if he decides he wants to do it.”

Tennessee’s first-half turnovers and how they got corrected

“You have to give some of that to Kansas. They were physical too. We were coming off screens and they were riding us. Physical. It was a physical game and when you come off like that and they pressure, we mishandle the ball and I thought we were anxious too but that’s okay. I’d rather get at it and go at it than lay back. They’ve got a good team. I’m sure Bill (Self) is disappointed. Everybody is when you lose a game but the fact is they were physical so they had something to do with it and we were trying to get them off of us by getting downhill. You get downhill and you get into some traffic. You’re not under control and you can travel. There’s a lot of different things that can happen where you go. Santi got himself caught in the lane but I thought fatigue was there because we usually cut and move. We didn’t but the one thing I did feel like we were tired in terms of normal cutting that we do. We weren’t great in the first half with it but the one thing that we didn’t let up on was on the defensive end which is what we talked about which is on me because I said to them ‘we’ll find a way to score enough points if we just won’t let up’ and sometimes when you say that the guys get a little loose with the ball but again I think you have to give Kansas some credit for that too.”

Scouting Kansas

“Bill has always played high-percentage basketball. He normally has a typical post player that he can throw it to. He likes to score around the rim. I think older coaches like to do, but where he’s changed is where he’s getting his guards going out wide and high and trying to get you coming down hill. And Zakai just said it, we knew we had to win 1-on-1 matchups. We knew we had to do it. We knew we had to stay in front of the ball because they were going to put their head down and come at it. They did a good job there at the end. We were switching and they were getting Jonas into some switches to were they could get that matchup and that’s when we went back and went small again. Early in the game we actually sized down to them more than they because we really wanted to stay big and really do a job on the glass if we could. We did that tonight. But I thought our 1-on-1 defense overall against a team that is as hard to guard as anybody, we did a good job with it.”

Playing without Josiah-Jordan James

“I don’t know that I would look at Josiah as our quote-on-quote leading-scorer because he’s played (three games). We played all of the exhibitions without him, so he shot the ball well when he played, but we don’t know. He’s day-to-day. It’s funny. I’ve never thought about Josiah as our leading-scorer, but it’s day-to-day with him.”

TENNESSEE SENIOR GUARD SANTIAGO VESCOVI

The significance of Tennessee winning a tournament like this without Josiah-Jordan James

“I think the main takeaway from the whole week was stay together through tough times. That’s what you have to do. If you start spreading out, it’s going to go bad. I think if we stay together, and that’s what we did the whole week, we know we’re missing Josiah, he’s a really big part of this team. I still think he pretty much led the team from the bench. His voice was incredible. He was just like another coach from the bench too. I’ve got to give him a lot of credit, too, for not just staying out, for staying active with all the guys. The main thing is just staying together. We know how championships are, in terms of you get three games straight, the other team does too. We’re all on the same page. I thought the whole team did a good job. People from the bench came with a lot of energy — Zakai (Zeigler), Jahmai (Mashack), Jonas (Aidoo) — a lot of people that took place in this championship.”

Hitting shots early in the game

“To be honest, I really wasn’t that much worried about it. I knew all my teammates were going to have my back. Even if I didn’t take a shot, my teammates were going to do a great job with the ball. I trust them, all of them. I wasn’t really thinking much about it.”

TENNESSEE SOPHOMORE GUARD ZAKAI ZEIGLER

The defensive performance 

“Our mentality coming into every game, we know if we stop our (man) and they don’t score, the game is still going to be 50-50 and still be even. We know we can’t control if we make shots or not. But our mentality was pretty much just to stop the man in front of us, then just stay solid on the defensive end, because offense will come if you play solid defense.”

Playing without Josiah-Jordan James

“It just shows the toughness of our team. That any guy at any moment can step up no matter who is having a good game or a bad game, and that we all have that fight in us and we all have each other’s back. There were moments in tonight’s game where players were getting into it and it was just competitive, telling each other to stop our man and not letting anything happen anymore. But I would say the fight in our team and the mental toughness.”

Playing defense at a high level for a third straight game

“I think we like to play defense. That’s how I would put it. Like I said earlier, if you can’t stop the man in front of you, then you have no shot of winning the game. But if you can, you’ve got a pretty good shot even if you can’t make a shot or not. We just like to play defense and happen to be good at it thanks to (Barnes).”

The message at halftime after committing 17 turnovers

“I would say we knew the turnovers were a big problem and a lot of their points came off of our turnovers. Once we cut that down and when we cut it down, it was a whole different ball game and I believe that showed in the second half.”