Tennessee 80 Kansas 61 Jan. 30, 2021 | Thompson-Boling Arena | Knoxville, Tenn. Tennessee Head Coach Rick Barnes

On the rebounding tonight and Josiah rebounding like he usually does:

“We talked about it the last couple of days. We’re either going to get tough enough and do it or we’re going to struggle and lose games because of it. We’ve just allowed people to play harder and be more aggressive and not go at it the way we need to; we said sooner or later we have to rebound the basketball. I thought early we were able to do that and now we’ll see if we’re tough enough to continue doing that.”

On Yves Pons’ health after he landed awkwardly on his ankle:

“I don’t know. I saw him before the timeout before he turned his ankle on that one drive and he had something on his knee. I think he might’ve gotten hit on his knee, I’m not sure. They told me if we wanted him to play, we better get him out there before he tightens up and he went back in and played well. When he drove baseline, that was an ankle turn. At the end of the game they did tell me I could play him if I wanted to but I thought he played well today. He carried himself well in terms of his body language and was in control of what he wanted to do. I can say the same about (John Fulkerson) because he played the best he did in a long time. The reason people thought we would be good was because of those guys and the reason we were good tonight was because of those guys and they did their jobs.”

On not allowing any second chance points:

“We are proud, the only thing that bothers me on that stat sheet is the turnovers. They had 19 points off turnovers and some of it is because they switched aggressively and we weren’t being as aggressive as we needed to be driving the ball because we knew we were going to have to do that. But the fact that we could take those other buckets away from them was good for us. Overall defensively, we were really solid. I would be shocked if everyone wasn’t on the positive on the defensive end.”

On Keon Johnson and Jaden Springer starting tonight for the first time and Josiah Jordan-James coming off the bench:

“I thought it played out well. A couple of weeks back we thought we were moving in that direction because when Jaden got hurt it slowed him down. This week in practice they got practice together but I thought Josiah, Olivier Nkamhoua and Victor Bailey all played well off the bench. I would say it worked and they combined for 21 points. I’m not sure about how many turnovers they had combined, maybe five or six but that’s what they have to cut down on.”

On the three-point shooting tonight: “We got a situation where we were not looking to shoot the ball a few weeks back and we weren’t taking open shots and forcing ourselves into late clock situations and turnovers. Having 18 turnovers in back-to-back games was because guys didn’t take open shots. Last game we took shots that didn’t go in but tonight we took shots that did go in. The key is now guys know they have to take open shots. I think we have guys that can make shots, but we want them shooting uncontested shots and if we move the ball around like we're capable of we'll make our fair share of shots.”

On preventing Kansas from getting in the paint and what he liked about Victor Bailey Jr:

“Well again, we talked about our defense. We played them last year out there and it was a close game. I think we learned something from that game. We knew that if we guarded the way we would like to guard our sets, that they would get the weave going and get going downhill, hard drives basically right. Depending on where they put players and it gets down to our scouting report. We were really concerned about their ball support and ball screen action because (David) McCormack is a terrific player. They do a lot of neat things to get him the ball with their ball screens or rolling him in there and posting him up. We told VJ all along that he had his best practice of his career here two days ago. He stayed with the second team. I have said to him all along, your goal should be to make the second team the most competitive team here, but you need to understand the change in mentality of playing like a combination guard instead of a guy that wants to be a volume shooter. He was terrific. Defensively, I do think he is getting better and better with that. We need great defensive effort from all over guards. We need our guards to score. More than anything, we need our team to understand roles and understand that to a high degree. If we can continue to build on everybody's role, we have a chance to get better.”

On the SEC winning the challenge against the Big 12:

“I've had more people today that I've seen tell me today that it felt like an NCAA weekend. This is where ESPN wanted to put this Challenge to create what they tried to create with it. The fact that we were able to win it for the second time, everybody thinks that our league is down. I do not know what league is up and what league is down. I really don't. I just know that the Big 12 has some terrific teams. I know that we've got some terrific teams. There's so much balance right now in college basketball. I think there's still so much uncertainty because you have teams that might have time off. Some teams can get better during that time off if they can practice. I am glad we won the Challenge, I really am. If there is enough talk about our league not being very good and people talking arguably the Big 12 or the Big 10 being the best league. The fact is we were able to win 5-4 and yes I think it's great for our league.”

On Tennessee offensive efficiency:

“I think guys are taking shots. I think that's a big key when guys take open shots. I think it's really important. I think we have too many guys that work hard at shooting, that have been turning down shots that lead to turnovers. Tonight, when we weren't playing great basketball and again, you’re playing the clock a little bit. We were stagnant with the ball and just not doing what we needed to do. We will learn from that. We are a very unselfish team, sometimes to a fault to be quite honest with you. We get good looks, we feel good about it. When we're clicking and playing together, we feel like we're an inside-out team. That's not just throwing the ball into the post guys, driving the ball, trying to work hard to get into the high-percentage area, kick out, but the key is that you got to take open shots. If we do that, it takes care of a lot of things. Even if we are missing them because it gives us a chance to keep the four balanced. It keeps us from turning the ball over and letting a team get 19 points because of turnovers and gives us a chance to offensive rebound.”

On what led to Olivier Nkamhoua’s increased confidence on the offensive end:

“I think Olivier is getting better. Moreso, I think it’s the way he seems to be a little bit more relaxed. I talked to him last night about his job is to play defense thorough. We want him to take open shots. Now, the first one he took was not a very good shot, then it came right back to him and he shot it quick and they were backing off, which we knew they would. We talked about that. The reason I took him out I said ‘hey, you’re supposed to be a defensive guy. You’re taking too many shots, but you’ve given up some baskets. (David) McCormack’s scored on you twice.’ He came back in and he can score. Believe me we think he can. We just think he’s got to not put his weight on thinking that’s what he’s got to do for us. We need him to be a defender, a rebounder, and just instinctively like he did tonight, he’ll score buckets.”

On how important it is for John Fulkerson to play physically:

“We’ve been on him all along. We don’t mind if he gets physical. He’s not the kind of guy that’s going to get physical from start to finish. We don’t expect that from him, but we do expect him—if he’s going to drive it hard to drive it with force and know that there’s going to be some bumping going on. You can’t be flopping and flailing around. You’ve got to apply the force, because they are entitled to their position as much as you are yours. I thought tonight he played with more speed, and he got back to doing what he had spent four or five years doing—working on the high release and quick up. Those are the things that have made him good, and we told him ‘When’s the last time you had a turnaround high-release jump shot?’ The second jump shot where he did a step back was – I don’t know if he’s ever done that. He doesn’t need to do that; we don’t need him to do that. Everything else was what he normally worked on since he’s been here.”

On how he coaches Victor Bailey, Jr. to be a combo guard instead of strictly being a shooter:

“We all know that he needs to score. That’s what he does, and we don’t want to take away what he does well. What we want him to do is understand—and really where he has probably lost minutes more than anything was defensively. We expect him to continue to understand open shots and what that’s about. Tonight, I thought he was locked in, and I’m saying that without really seeing the whole thing again, but I thought he was locked in. We knew that they had a couple of backdoor plays, a couple of lob plays, and we actually said to the team ‘Which one’s going to get it? Who are they going to get it on?’ We didn’t give it up all night, and it had to be one of the guards. He, Keon (Johnson), Josiah (Jordan- James), Santi (Vescovi), Jaden (Springer)—those guys need to score, and they need to take open shots when they’re open. We expect them to rebound. We can’t run if we don’t rebound. We were able to do that and we wanted to get out in the open court so that we could make those plays.”

On how often no one on the team receives a poor defensive grade: “Well, it does happen. In the games that we’ve lost most of the time it’s been guard play. It’s been where the guards have not done their jobs. We have a line that we want everybody under. We’ve got a red line and a green line, and right now on the season I think there’s only a couple of guys above the red line and maybe tonight puts everybody under. The biggest stat of all where we have gone backwards in the last three weeks has been rebounding. We realize that the competition has gotten stiffer and will continue to get stiffer, but we proved tonight that when we want to rebound, we can rebound the ball. It takes everybody doing that. Every point that is scored against us, it might not necessarily go against a guy that’s guarding the ball totally. He may get one of them that maybe he did his job and somebody’s supposed to be there to tag or help. We really break it down to the point where every point is accounted for. Fulky (John Fulkerson) has been up there some because of ball screen coverage where he gets—even though it looks like the guard getting downhill scoring—those points will go to him, because he wasn’t up there on the coverage. That’s how we break it down, and when the guard does his job and the big’s not there where he needs to be on the ball screen, they get downhill. We’re very stringent on it to be quite honest with you, because we want those guys to take pride in wanting to be below that red line.”

Tennessee Senior Forward Yves Pons

On what playing Kansas does to bring out the best in him:

“Kansas is a special team for me and I think for Fulky too. This is our third time playing against them. They kicked our butt the first two times, so it’s a great challenge to play them and they’re a great team. I was really excited about getting my revenge and that’s what we did tonight.”

On how he’s feeling physically:

“I feel great. It’s a game, so you’re going to get hit. I just need to get in the training room tomorrow and work on my body and I’ll be ready for our next game.”

On why the talk coach Barnes had with everyone regarding their roles was so effective:

“We needed a big change. We haven’t been the Tennessee team we’ve been from the beginning. Tonight, we got back to our standard. The talk we had yesterday was really effective and efficient. We freed our minds and focused on what we have to do personally and what our jobs our on the team and today I think everyone showed what they have to do.” Tennessee Senior Forward John Fulkerson

On how it feels to come through like he did tonight:

“It feels great. Coach has really been pushing me and pushing the team to play our best.”

On how much this game meant to him personally:

“It was very nice. I was just talking to Bob and Bert and said that Yves and I were 0-2 against Kansas— with us being seniors and knowing where coach Barnes was before this, I know he played Kansas a lot. So, I know that he and Bill Self have went at it a lot. I have the most respect for their coaches and their players, but we knew what a big game it was for Yves and I, coach, our team and just for our program. So, we knew we had to come ready to play and I think we did just that.”

On what coach harped on with him specifically to do differently:

“He challenged everyone to do their jobs, play their roles and do it the best they could do it. For each guy on this team it’s different and I think we went out there and everyone reacted and responded to the meeting and talk coach had with us. Everyone came out there and did their job at a high level.”

On the things he had to do to play his role at a high level:

“Just play my game. Be aggressive on offense and defense. Be a leader on the court. Make plays and being the best player I can be.” Tennessee Sophomore Guard Josiah-Jordan James

On having a better shooting performance as a team tonight:

“It felt pretty good. I had been in a bit of a slump during the last few games and hadn’t been shooting the ball very well, but it felt really good to see some shots go in tonight. I credit that to my daily work with the coaches and everything. We didn’t change anything up, but just stayed persistent. Shooting slumps happen. You’re going to miss shots, but you just have to stay consistent with your work and I credit my coaches and my teammates for keeping me uplifted during that time and hopefully we can keep it rolling.”

On what the defensive standard is for this team:

“We definitely haven’t played our best defensive game yet. We go into film and watch it as a team after games. We see where we mess up. In response, there’s a lot of fix-it plays that we make, but there’s also a lot of mistakes that we make all the time. To be the team we want to be at the end of the year holding the national trophy we need to become that team. I think tonight was a better showing of our defense, but we definitely need to keep taking steps forward.”

On if tonight was a blueprint for what they want to accomplish every night:

“We drew the line as coach likes to say. We really got back to our standard. We played hard and everything took care of itself. Shots were falling and it was definitely a great shooting night for us, which brings us a lot of confidence, but we have to keep moving forward. That’s a really good Kansas team. That team is definitely not a pushover team and for us to go out there and shoot the ball and play as well as we did is definitely a confidence booster moving forward. But, we have to keep being tough enough and smart enough to know that this isn’t the end of our season and we have plenty of games left and they’re all must wins form here on out.” Kansas Head Coach Bill Self

On his biggest takeaway from the game:

“I think the biggest takeaway that I have is that we were bad and Tennessee was great. I don’t think we did anything to make them play poorly and I think they did a lot of things to make us play poorly. I don’t think the score was a true indication of a lot of things because we couldn't make a shot. Sometimes I think it gets a little misleading when you take shots and if they’re good shots they don’t go in. When you look at them, they took good shots, but I think they’re shooting like 31 or 32 percent for the year and to come out and shoot the ball like that, they saw a big basket all night. That’s on us, but give them credit — they played a really good basketball game. Even Rick (Barnes) said that after the game. And we obviously didn’t play very well. But we didn’t rebound, we didn’t do the things that good teams have to do, especially on the road. Getting off to a good start would be one, but making the other team play poorly as well. That was the biggest takeaway I’ll have. I don’t think this was as meaningful a game for either team as probably what a lot of people think it would be, but they had us scouted well. I think they played Tuesday and I think the quick turnaround didn’t help us. That’s not the reason we got beat, but it didn’t help us and certainly our biggest challenge now is we want to win tonight no question, but I told our team before we came down here, ‘let’s just play with freedom and play with a free mind and let it fly.’ I guess when I said ‘let if fly,’ I meant let it fly and make a few of them, but that wasn’t the case.”

On the changes he made to the starting lineup:

“It was just trying something new. I don’t think Jalen (Wilson) has been good as of late. That’s not a knock to him, but he probably needed to put himself in a situation to reevaluate some things and play to his strengths. I think Dajuan (Harris) has done pretty well of late and I thought it may take some pressure off Marcus (Garrett) to have another ball handler out there, but it really didn’t play out that way. He got two quick fouls early and of course we got behind. You get behind, and even if it’s early in the game — there’s plenty of time, don’t get me wrong — but Dajuan is a much better player when you’re playing from ahead rather than behind. That group, unfortunately I thought it would be a better defensive team, but we probably played okay defense tonight considering the shots that they made. It’s not all bad defense when Yves Pons and Josiah Jordan-James jumped up and made shots, but the way that they got the ball and were able to elevate over our guys from an athletic standpoint, that was kind of a telltale sign that we have to do a lot of stuff to keep the ball out of the paint.”

On Kansas’ defensive struggles:

“I don’t think that we have the personnel as much as we’ve had to be there on the catch. We’re not a very quick team and so ‘more inviting’ would probably be the answer. When you allow a guy to catch the ball on the line and you close out short, it’s a relatively in-rhythm type shot and that’s what we did. We need to make them catch it a step further out and then close out, at least with some guys based on scouting report. We don’t do that much. We don’t do much to play our man before he catches it. I’m pretty frustrated, I feel like we’ve had some pretty good defensive teams in the last 18 years and I can’t remember a defensive team that was so giving as far as allowing people to basically execute what they want to do as opposed to us taking them out of what they want to do. We haven’t done that in quite some time. We’re not giving up on that by any stretch, but we’re not near aggressive or near as athletic on the perimeter as what we have been in the past.” Kansas Junior Forward David McCormack

On the overall feeling in the locker room:

“I think there’s definitely frustration, which is to be expected, but the atmosphere is just to get better. We’ll take what we can from this game and use it to get better. There’s a lot of things we can learn from as far as defensively, offensively and what we can do to change our game.” On what Kansas needs to change to improve overall:

“Coach was talking to us and it’s just a lot of the intangible things. Just kind of going into the game with better energy, things like that. Getting off to a better start. All of these things can get the ball rolling early in the game for us.”

On Jalen Wilson’s recent struggles:

“I don’t think anything is going on with Jalen. Everybody gets into their ruts. I know I’ve had mine, so our duty as teammates is to help him out.”

On Tennessee winning the rebounding battle:

“They crashed the glass hard. We knew their guards were going to crash hard. We definitely could have done a better job as far as boxing out and grabbing boards, because it lets us get second-chance shots. It’s lets us know that we need to improve that moving forward.”