#3 Tennessee 96, Tennessee Tech 53 Dec. 29, 2018 | Knoxville, Tenn. | Thompson-Boling Arena

Tennessee Head Coach Rick Barnes

On the starters’ performance: “Offensively, we wanted to get out in transition. If you look at the numbers, they played well, but we felt like at the start of the game we weren’t defending the way we needed to and some of that had to do with the fact that they’re a really sound team in knowing what they’re looking for with the dribble drive and other different things. But we gave up some stuff on our ball screen defense early in the game, I don’t know what the miscommunication was because we didn’t execute it a couple of times early. We were able to break some balls loose and get out and score. I thought our post guys, who we think can pass the ball, we turned it over 13 times, but eight of them came from our post guys. Really they were too impatient to get the ball in there when we need to make two more passes to get it where we needed to get it, but overall when you look at the numbers offensively, you have to be pleased with that, but for the most part of the game they were shooting 40 percent. We went on that long run in the second half to get that number down, but they were scoring and their numbers were pretty impressive. We kept talking during the timeouts about how they were shooting 40, 42, 43, 44 percent. In the second half, I said that we had to develop more of a defensive mentality and we did. We were much better defensively in the second half than we were in the first half.”

On the disciplined play: “If you go back to the game, we were guarding even with those early breakdowns. In the last five minutes is where we had a couple turnovers. They really ran two really nice fade action plays that tried to guard, but they executed it really well. Then in the second half, Fulky sniffed it out and called it out and was able to get a out of it. Overall, the big thing we’ve talked about a lot is trying to be more disciplined defensively and work hard to try and stay in front of the ball. We wanted to play today without fouling very much because we knew they were going to come downhill hard. That’s what that offense is set up for, they fight drives and if you go over and help, they kick out, if you deny, they back it up really well. That offense created some challenges, and other than the defensive breakdowns on off the ball screen actions, I think we’ll look at it and say we’re okay.”

On John Fulkerson’s performance: “We know he’s capable. Like I told him, we came down in transition and they turned the pressure up a bit and our guys read it the right way, got the ball to the post and he scored it. We came down again and the exact same thing happened, and he wasn’t there, he just didn’t post up. He has to want the ball every time down the floor. We have to have a post guy in there wanting the ball every time. Whether he gets it or not, it’s so important that a guy is posting up hard and putting pressure on the defense where if nothing else, it creates driving lanes. We do think if he gets it, he has a nice jump hook, his turnaround jumper has gotten better, and we need him. I think Derrick Walker’s minutes were good, and he and John both, what I love about those two, they had a couple turnovers between themselves and both times they said it was their fault. I asked whose is really was, and I always say that whoever throws it away, it’s their fault. Even though sometimes that’s not true, but in both situations, the pass wasn’t there but the guy didn’t want the ball bad enough. Because if you want it, you’re going to go get it. But we need everybody. Kyle has to get back going. I didn’t think his defense was very good today to start the game. It got better as it went on, but he’s allowing guys to get too deep with their post-ups and we can’t let the ball come in from the top like we did on those deep duck-ins.”

On if the team has performed up to his expectations through non-conference play: “If you go back, we’re one possession from being undefeated. But the fact is, from here on out, one possession is going to decide a lot of games. We’ve got to understand that. Now you get into conference play. You could’ve ask me when the season started what we were going to be in non-league play. I don’t know what I would’ve said, other than the fact that I think if we play up to our ability, we could win every game.

“I will tell you about our non-league schedule. I think it’s really been good that we’ve played against so many different styles, and we’ve had different people come at us different ways - which has been good too. We started out, you guys remember back when people were literally packing it back inside of 12 feet. We’ve could’ve shot some threes early in the day, but we didn’t. We stayed with it. Where we are [now], I still think we’ve got to get better. Even when you look at our offense, I don’t think we’re as sharp executing as we need to. Starting out defensively, we’ve got to get better defensively. We have to do that. Contest shots, active hands. The last two games, we’ve done a much better job staying in front of the ball for the most part. We still have to get back where we were. Some of it, I get it. Not having Lamonte [Turner], it hurts us. We can’t go as deep. It’s hard to ask Jordan Bone, Jordan Bowden. Yves Pons has done a pretty darn good job trying to put pressure on the back court. I thought in the first half, we created some problems by pressuring the point guard. He was getting tired. I just know that we can get better, and we’re going to have to.”

On Lamonte Turner getting over the mental hurdle of his injury: “I trust him. I know he’s competitive. He wants to play. He keeps telling me he feels close, like he can go. Lamonte’s been here with us from day one. He’s helped build this thing. In my heart, I have to believe that he wants to do this. I’ve been around him too long not for him to think that. But again, I don’t want him to have any doubt when he walks on the floor. I don’t want him concerned about getting hit, any of that. I want him to be able to go out and play harder.”

On scoring 96 points despite only attempting eight 3-pointers: “We want to attack. Some of those today, we scored 25 points in transition. Those mostly being rim shots. I think we maybe hit a three in transition, where the ball was swung around a little bit. We are playing inside-out. I don’t have a problem with guys shooting. I actually told Jordan Bone, when he raised up to shoot a three early in transition, he didn’t need to do that. I actually told him, today’s the kind of day where you should really be wanting to make your teammates better, and be thinking about ‘How can I get these guys’ confidence going?’ We can shoot a three any time we want to in transition. I thought [Bone] came back in the game and did that. I’d like to see him even more, because I don’t think there’s anything more dangerous than a guy that can get the rebound and blow out of there with it, dribble out with it. We’ll shoot threes when they’re there, we just don’t want to force them. I thought [Jordan] Bowden forced one. He had a stepback, and he didn’t need to shoot that at that point in time. With that said, we probably should’ve been 4-for-6. We don’t go into a game saying we’re going to shoot this, we’re going to shoot that. We’re going to try to play inside-out and see where it takes us.”

On where the team is compared to last year entering SEC play: “That’s a good question. I can look at it and tell you that we’ve had some good minutes. I think you guys know that we’re a better offensive team. Sometimes when you’re a better offensive team, you have the tendency of letting go of the rope on the other side. We can’t do that. Again, I go back. A lot of it [is] Lamonte not being out there. It’s changed our rotation a little bit, and the fact that we like to pressure a little bit more. Also, we’ve had to adjust because teams - when you pressure - they get driving downhill on you, and we were fouling too much. We’ve had to continue to break down some of the weaknesses that we had, and we’ll have to continue to do that.

“I just know that it’s an everyday thing, where we try to get better every day. Try to take care of our assignments and try to cover each other’s back. I do think this, our guys know that we’ve got to get better. That’s what last year’s team understood. They understood that we’re not going to be perfect, but we’ve got to make the kind of effort plays. People are going to attack us certain ways. I still think people look to attack us inside. I think that [Tennessee Tech] did a decent job of it tonight, getting deep post-up position. In terms of where we were a year ago, I’d have to go back and probably watch a game this time last year and see. In some ways, I can say we’re ahead, in some ways I’d say we might be the same. But I do think the individual players are better, so I’d like to think our team’s better. What we’ve done up to this point, now you can throw it out, because we’re getting into conference play and we know what kind of grind that is.”

On Jordan Bone and transition offense: “He is understanding more and more what we are looking for from him. It started a few games ago with Jordan Bowden. It was almost like they communicated before that he was going to run and to look for him. When we were watching tape, I said who is going to be the next guy that goes with him because he is looking to pass it. We have had a third guy over the last couple of games. We have had a couple we call a pipe run where he has gone out and made a couple of layups in transition. Yves did it a little bit more today. It goes back to the question about transition. We aren’t running for threes. We are running for layups. We are trying to get to the rim and it’s a mindset because running is a really hard thing to do. It is a commitment by all five guys. Jordan has gotten better to. I think he’s calling some things on the fly maybe not what should be called but, the fact is he’s thinking about it. On his own, he has done a pretty good job the last couple of games recognizing when a team is going from man to zone but, he is so much better when he is attacking his space on the floor.”

On the crowd and fan base: “I can’t thank our fans enough. We had almost 20,000 against Wake Forest and today we had more than 21,000. I really feel good for our players too. With our program, we know we have a chance to have something extremely special here. It’s going to continue to take work every day and to stay there and do it. With that said, I figured it out my first year here to be honest. I knew Tennessee had a great fan base but, you guys have been with us the last four years. Our teams weren’t the best of teams three or four years ago but, they were here. I think they have enjoyed watching these guys grow up sometimes too. I think they have enjoyed watching Kyle grow as well as Grant, Lamonte and all of those guys. I think that they appreciate the way these guys have continued to work and grow as players.”

Tennessee Forward

On the team’s success passing the ball: “We know what everyone’s capabilities are on the team. We know we have a lot of talent even if it doesn’t look like it on paper. We try to make things easier on each guy by putting them in situations to be successful. When Grant is on the , you automatically have to get it in there to him because then he makes things happen for everyone else. We look for John and Kyle too. Our guards know to be waiting on the ball once those guys get double-teamed. Everyone on our team is willing to share the ball. Our common goal is to win no matter who is scoring.”

On John Fulkerson’s game: “It is good for us to get that energy going again from him, especially with running on a break. We haven’t really had that at the beginning of the season, but we have been practicing it and are getting a lot better. We have also been working on more one-on-one guarding the ball. It’s great for Fulky, but is he going to build on this or will it be the highlight of his season? That is the thing. We have conference play coming up. We know what Fulky is capable of..”

Tennessee Guard Jordan Bone

On how he feels where the team is heading into SEC play: “I feel like we’re doing well. There’s a lot of things we can improve on. I think the main thing is defense, on- the-ball defense, and help side defense. Just our entire defensive scheme we can get better. We are a really good offensive team when we do what we are supposed to do, but I think we need to take that next step defensively as a team.”

On how nice it is to be 11-1 and sitting here talking about how they can be even better: “It’s a good feeling, but we don’t focus on that. We’re a group of guys that just want more, and we know we have a lot of areas where we can improve, but it’s a good feeling to be 11-1 going into conference play, to go in with that momentum. We know it will be tougher, teams will plan differently. We just have to continue to grow as a team and get better.”

On how the starters shooting 30-38 from the field: “That’s a great statistic. That’s the confidence we have in each other. Not just the first five guys, but the guys that come off the bench and bring in minutes, too. We have the same confidence in the starting five and the guys who come off the bench. It’s just lifting each other up, and keep putting that confidence in each other, and just continue to execute our game plan.”

Tennessee Forward John Fulkerson

On how it felt to execute on offense today: “It feels good. It feels like all the time we put in is finally paying off and to see us having that much success as a team is great.”

On if he thinks that the team is the same, or better, from last year: “I think we got to keep working. I heard him (Barnes) say that he would have to go back and watch where we were last year, but I think just taking each game at a time and just trying to get better every day in practice is the big thing.”

On what he sees from Jordan Bone from the past two or three weeks: “Bone has been really locked in, especially the game I didn’t play, the Samford game, I was really talking to him. Off the court, he has really found it mentally. Coach always says that the mental side is so much bigger than the physical side. I think he’s just locked in, and really knows his role and knows what Coach wants and knows what will work within the offense.”

Tennessee Tech Head Coach Steve Payne

On his thoughts on the game: “They are a fantastic team and number three in the country for a reason. They have a great coach and great players. I thought that we did some really nice things offensively in the later part of the first half that kind of gave us a chance to make it interesting in the second half, but we didn’t do any of those things in the second half. You cannot be 5-for- 21 from the line if you want be close in this game. That is tough. They had a lot to do with everything but our free throws. If you look at that stretch where we couldn’t make a basket, they had a lot to do with that, and we turned it over too much. They had a lot to do with that but with that being said they had 10 steals, and we had eight. We had 17 turnovers and seven were us just not making good decisions, and we didn’t rebound the ball well in the second half. We had some guys who are good players for us and just had a tough game and they will continue to be good players for us and will be good going on the road. We just played one of the best teams in the country and that is just how it goes on a night when they shot it and make good decisions. We will get back to it and just see how it goes.”

On playing a tough schedule prior to conference play: “These games don’t help us unless we learn from them and get better, and I am hoping that we learn from them. We are such a young team. To be honest, I don’t know that they have helped us. I think they have hurt us and made us unsure of ourselves, and that is a risk you take when you go and play those games. I am hoping that we will be mature enough to understand that these games can help us by putting pressure on us to do everything a little bit better and a little sharper. When you make a mistake in those games, they are magnified. Every missed block will cost you more, every missed cut, missed screen and mistake defensively will cost you more. At it’s best, these games make you realize that, learn that and grow from that, but at worst, they take your confidence and make you unsure of yourself. With our young guys, when things went wrong in the second half today, it compounded itself. We have to get over that and grow up. That is something that we have overcome in the past and keep plugging, and I thought they kept fighting but they were just unsure of every cut, every pass and every play and once we get through that these games will end up helping us. We just have to get to that point.”