Tennessee 65 Vanderbilt 61 – Feb. 18, 2020 Thompson-Boling Arena – Knoxville, Tennessee Tennessee Head Coach

On the last 10 minutes: “First of all, I want to say this: I think Jerry Stackhouse has done a phenomenal job. What he’s done and the way he has his guys playing, and the way they stay in it that’s some really good stuff. As far as our things on the defensive end, we got going with our offense, we were moving and we brought pace to it. That last minute was ridiculous, and the guys knew it. I was upset at halftime with the way we started the game with missed layups, and silly turnovers, and just things that, this time of year, you shouldn’t be doing. Then, we were up 12 or 13, and turned it over three straight times. You can’t be doing that, this time of year. It’s about playing , and understanding that every possession matters, and when we move the ball and bring some pace, we can score, but when you start out the game missing those little layups we have—I know they’re difficult, and I know Lee made them look pretty easy, and much smaller, and that’s the frustrating thing. I thought Jalen gave us good minutes other than that last turnover, and I thought ticket did some good things, and I thought JB was really solid. Those two free throws are huge free throws, because they had the ability to go down and hit a 3. I’m not really happy with John and Yves. The play he made there at the end is just something you can’t do. He should’ve picked it up, but we were moving the ball, we had good offense, we had good flow, but at that point, when we got the lead, they missed a couple really wide-open shots, where we were fortunate. I’m just not really happy with the way we started the game, and I wasn’t very happy with the way we finished the game.” On how satisfying it was to see Bowden shoot with confidence: “The one thing that you really can’t take away from him is that he’s worked hard all year defensively, and we think he can make shots. He’s had a tough year, obviously, we know that, but we’ve got some big games left to go, and we hope that he’ll start knocking some more down. I did think he played with confidence, I thought he had a good pace about him on the offensive end.” On what makes Fulky so good at drawing fouls the way he does: “He’s quicker than you think. He’s quick, he’s got a nice first step, but, when he’s locked in, I think he’s a tough guy to defend, because he needs space sometimes, and sometimes he doesn’t. From the beginning tonight, he wasn’t there. We knew that. I took him out early. This time of year, your key guys have got to bring it every night. It can’t be when you’re playing well, it can’t be when you’re behind and you’ve got to make a push. They’re the ones that have to set the tone early and he didn’t do it. Yves had a chance for a little six-seven-foot jumper, and he throws it away. The older guys, this time of year, they should be the ones that are totally locked in and leading the way, and our young guys need it. Santi, at the end, got a little tired. He can’t continue to turn it over 6 times. Some of them were ridiculous turnovers. I tell him it’s not respecting the game the way you need to respect the game.” On what would be best case scenario for the players to finish strong: “One, we should look at it as an opportunity right now where we get to play the top half of the league. The opportunity is there, but it’s going to be difficult, we can’t make the mistakes that we’ve made the last two games. We’ve been through a lot with this team, a lot of different scenarios, but now, forget it, because we’ve proved that we can compete with every team, and now it’s about this group of guys. We’re probably as healthy as we’ve been all year long right now. Josiah’s been back for one game, today he wasn’t very effective, but now it’s go time, and there’s opportunities there to be had. But, you’re going to have to make it work, or it won’t work. I want to see improvement, not just physically, but mentally. I don’t want to see us make the same mistakes we made tonight to close that game out, because you can’t, and if you do, it’s going to go bite you. It’s kind of like what happened against South Carolina. We had those same mistakes, and turnovers, and we did a better job on the line tonight. That’s two games in a row that we’ve gotten 10 turnovers from a guard and post player combined. You can’t do it, you just keep digging yourself a hole to where you almost have to be perfect, and nobody thinks you can play this game perfectly. I am frustrated, because I think we’re better, and I think we should be better than what other people might think, and we’re not going to lower our standard. I had Admiral Schofield and both talk to them after tonight, because I was upset at halftime, I was upset after the game, and I thought those guys hit them with some good things, and it’s important that they understand that they’ve got to do it now. They were in the same situation that Admiral and those guys were when they were sophomores, and they went through it, they found a way to break through, and this team has to find a way to break through.”

On how he got Uros and Yves to buy into taking those shots tonight:

“We believe in it, and we believe those guys can do it. That’s why we were upset at the start of the second half when we missed a couple of those dinky ones. He missed it, but he turned around and threw it back out, but he should have gone up again. Uros missed one or two the same way, and I’m not going to say they’re easy shots, but I’d like to be that tall and see what I can do, because when you watch a guy like Lee go out there and find a way to put the ball in the basket, it’s frustrating to watch in a game like that, but we believe in it. I go back to doing the work early, getting their base ready, and we weren’t. John called for the ball twice and didn’t grab it with 2 hands, and we turned it over. When we look at this group of guys, I don’t ever talk about next year, but these guys are going to be the guys we’ve got to develop over the next couple of years, and they have developed. I say this, and I’m not sure I’m right: I don’t know yet if they truly understand that when you are being game planned for every single night, how hard it is to be a good player every single night. That’s something that both of those guys are learning. Do they have it right now? I don’t think so totally. They do a lot of things that are really good, this time of year, those guys have to be elite for us. I can understand some of the things that Santi and Josiah, and the young guys do, those two guys have played enough, been in enough big games, that were going to put it in there. Everybody knows we are, there’s no secrets. When we get it there, we’re counting on those guys. They’re not going to make them all, but they have to make the easy ones. We started the game with about the easiest shot you can get, and we couldn’t make it. I think when you start missing them right there, I think it can mess with your head when you’re not mentally tough enough to handle it.”

On what John Fulkerson and Santiago Vescovi did well and why Josiah-Jordan James was ineffective: “I think Santiago was searching for shots at the start of the game. I think we settled for threes. We got them in foul trouble. We want to get to the foul line, and we have to get there. I think that’s a big part of this game. The best coaches I’ve coached against, their teams get fouled. They make more shots than their opponents even attempt. We’re trying to teach our guys that. That three is always going to be there—all you have to do is look at our shooting percentage. I do think when we play inside-out we can make those shots. Santiago was searching early for shots. Since he has been here, he has learned how to handle the ball. I probably should have taken him out at the end of the game because of his turnovers. He looked like he was fatigued. I still think he should be tough enough to handle those situations. He can really shoot the ball. He’s a terrific three-point shooter. Because of his three-point shot, it actually makes him quicker. He’s crafty and he can get up in the air. He can get in the lane and he has great vision. Josiah, I think when you miss two weeks it isn’t an overnight fix when you come back. I thought he did some good things against South Carolina, but tonight he never had a chance because he wasn’t doing his work early on the defensive end. We talk about “fix it” plays, and Josiah went over to help there but fouled. On drives, he has to learn to use his length. He can’t get beside people. He has to get in front of them. Fulkerson was playing with more effort. He was working harder to get the ball, and he put more effort in it. Like Admiral [Schofield] said, when we’re playing well, we seem to do that. The best players are going to do it when things aren’t going your way. They’ll fight at the same time. That’s where he has to be more consistent. The first play, I can’t explain it. I think they got tangled up down there. That is a point-blank layup for a 6’9” guy. I think he should be dunking it. There’s no doubt that when he got going, he put more effort into it. You could see that happening. In the second half, when we got going, we brought the pace quicker. In the first half, we weren’t pushing pace and we weren’t getting into our offense as quick. We started playing with more pace [in the second half] which helped us.” On the talk Admiral Schofield and Lamonte Turner had with the team after the game: “They said a couple of good things. They said, ‘We were right where you guys are when we were sophomores. The exact same place, except we had Robert Hubbs,’ who had really been our security blanket that year. He got hurt then he could play his last five or six games. He gave us everything he had, but we haven’t had a security blanket since Lamonte went out. He was our defensive guy. In competitive situations, you knew you had a guy who would make something happen. [Admiral and Lamonte] talked about it, and they said, ‘We had to figure out how to break through [after the security blanket was gone.]’ That’s where this team is right now. How do you break through? You don’t do it by playing well when things are going well. You break through by playing every possession like every possession matters. Again, you don’t have to be perfect, but you can’t be sloppy, and you can’t walk around like it’s not that big of a deal. You can’t turn the ball over the way we turn it over. You can’t do that. We had 10 turnovers against South Carolina, and that’s not to take anything away from them. That had nothing to with anything other than us being careless with the ball. Tonight, at the end, I think we thought the game was over like a bunch of immature guys and got sloppy. The next thing you know, you’re in a battle.” On if tonight’s game was a step back as a whole: “No. You can’t say that. I hope it’s a learning opportunity for us. I think we’ve been through a lot of learning opportunities, and I think we’ll go through a lot more until we break through and understand truly how hard it is to play at this level night-in and night-out. I don’t care who you’re playing. This league has proven that on any night, anyone can beat anyone. The fact of the matter is we won a game. I could sit here and rave about Jerry Stackhouse and how hard his guys continue to play. I think our guys play hard; don’t get me wrong. What they haven’t comprehended yet is the mental is to the physical as four is to one, as Coach Knight said. That’s the part they haven’t gotten yet, and that’s the part we need to get, especially on the offensive end.”

Freshman Guard Santiago Vescovi

On having Lamonte and Admiral address the team and how it helped him and the team: “I think it really helped us, especially having players who have already been through what we are going through right now. They were a special part of Tennessee’s history.”

On how they can embrace what Schofield and Turner said and put it into action:

“They didn’t really tell us just what to do, but also motivated us and told us how they were able to build on what they were doing each year, and I think that’s the way we need to be as a team as well.”

On the breakdown in the final moments of the game:

“I don’t think we thought it was over, but they started doing a really good job with their press. We got tired as well I think. I asked for a sub at the end and then went back in with about twenty or thirty seconds left. So they’re a good team and they started making pretty tough shots at the end.”

On what went right in those final ten minutes to clinch the win:

“I talked to the coaches at halftime and I asked them what they wanted me to do and they told me they thought I could push the ball more on offense and I really took that and tried to push the offense in the second half. I tried to get easy shots and if not then running the offense and I think that really helped us as well.”

Freshman Guard Davonte Gaines

On what he told his team at halftime and if they were receptive to it:

“They took it pretty well, I just let them know that we have to keep each other motivated and just talk on the floor more. We have to communicate offensively and defensively better, because I didn’t think we were talking enough, working together and playing hard the whole game. I feel like everybody at half kind of put their two cents into being a leader on the team, whether it’s in games or at practice I felt like we all come together well.”

On how things changed in the final 10 minutes of the game and the breakdown in the final moments:

“Coach told us we had to defend better. Coming out of half we were focused on just playing harder both on offense and defense. We were hitting shots, getting stops, then down the stretch we just had some mental mistakes. We turned the ball over which helped them get back into it and JB (Jordan Bowden) hit some big free throws at the end to seal it. So, we just have to get rid of those mental mistakes at the end in the future.”

On the message at half from Coach Barnes:

“Just to play harder and have respect for the game. I feel like in the first half we kind of played lackadaisical, not really playing hard enough and the coaches let us know that every game you need to play as hard as you can. Also, just letting us know that we needed to run the offense better and trust it and we were able to make some shots off that.”

Vanderbilt Head Coach Jerry Stackhouse Opening Statement: “It was a tough game tonight. I thought both teams really competed and really played hard, but the really good defense made it hard for us early on. I thought our defense was pretty good but then the second half they were able to get some separation and it was an uphill climb from there. I thought our guys continued to fight and compete and it got a little disruptive there at the end and they were able to close the gap, but we came up a little bit short.” On what got away from the team defensively: “Well I think John (Fulkerson) was a focal point for them and they tried to punch it inside for him and we were allowing him to get too good of a position on us. Coming in to the game we were going to try to get some protection, and do some things to keep it out of the post, but a couple times he caught us not ready to play standing straight up and he just ducked in on us and he was able to get fouled or score it around the basket. Then, they started slicing and curling off of him and got some opportunities there, but the game was still in bounds and we had some opportunities to make some shots, it just didn’t fall for us tonight.” On Jordan Wright and his breakout performance: “Well we needed him obviously. We got in foul trouble early on and all of the guys had a few fouls, so somebody had to step up and Jordan stepped up. A few games back, he was on the outside looking in, so now he came back and it was good for him. We’re excited about who he has been recently and what he’s going to be for us in the future, because he just has a knack for scoring the ball. He has a toughness about him, but he’s learning and now the next progression for him is not only get his own but facilitate to ball for his teammates, because he will start getting more attention. He probably wasn’t a highlight on everyone’s scouting report but he will be. When that happens he has to make plays, but we had really good plays of sharing the ball tonight, I think that last possession at the end of the game probably everybody touched it twice and we got something good out of it. That’s the thing we are trying to build here and the culture we are trying to build here of playing selfless basketball and playing with toughness. We lost this game but I thought our guys really fought and will continue to fight.” On how Saban Lee making the plays that he does and if they talked about Fulkerson coming out and performing in the second half after a quiet first half: “Saban (Lee) is one of the best get downhill players in the country in my mind. In his progression he has gotten so much better in making plays for others and making his teammates better, but he does have a knack for finishing in traffic, and obviously with a night with big highlight plays, he just missed a few by a little bit tonight. I think it’s just one of those things like in the first half we had guys off the bench battling and they did a really good job on Fulkerson and then when we got our starters back we thought they would come in and have a little more energy, and they didn’t really have the energy that was necessary because we knew he had a subpar first half. We knew he was going to come out and be focused in the second half, but we weren’t able to match him. It’s probably growing pains with a younger group knowing that guys that had a poor first half like he had, that are coming back to playing like he has, and I think he is playing at an all-league level.”