Rick Barnes' Monday press conference (video and notes)

[Freak]

-Agrees with the questionable charge call on Fulkerson, but there were a lot of other calls he didn't agree with.

-Pons is struggling with a little tendonitis in his left knee.

-Thought James was "okay" in his return. We felt like he started coming around. He's dealt with that injury all year. It's not the exact same injury, but it's in that area. Now it's a matter of getting his conditioning back and getting in the flow with everybody.

-Bowden has continued to defend at a high level. It's hard to do when you aren't playing as well as you want on the offensive end. We all keep thinking sooner or later it's got to happen. He's having his worst shooting year since he's been here. We just ask him to take good shots and he needs to see a couple of them go in.

-The most frustrating thing on Saturday was we turned it over too many times when the defense had nothing to do with it. 20 turnovers, a lot of them were just us.

-We're lacking leadership. The older players just aren't vocal guys. There was a play where Gaines was playing really hard, got tripped, got up, made another play and turned around talking to his teammates telling them "we gotta get a stop here." That's what we're lacking and we've got to get that. I don't care if it's a sophomore or a freshman, we've got to do it.

-We've got a lot of opportunities right here in front of us. We've told them, there's not a game on our schedule we can't win. But we can't turn the ball over 20 times, we you do that, you almost have to play near perfectly.

-Gaines has put together six games where he's been pretty darn consistent.

-We've got two guys on our roster that weren't even on the opening day roster. When the season started we were expecting Turner, Bowden and James to play a lot. One is no longer with us, one is having a tough of a year as he's ever had and one has been hurt from the start. For us to be where we are, I'm proud of these guys. I don't know where we'd be with Santiago right now. I really don't.


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[sport3500]

Barnes speaks the truth.

 

[njvols]

Sounds like Barnes is a VN poster...think he's covered most all the points made about the game. Guess that's a good thing that he's not delusional.

 

[VolGee4]

Barnes speaks the truth.

Fans love the truth from a coach...until they don't.

 

[walkenvol]

Sounds like Barnes is a VN poster...think he's covered most all the points made about the game. Guess that's a good thing that he's not delusional.

Not a VN poster / no mention of $5 mil

 

[chuckb1448]

I'm hoping Gaines learns to shoot and gain 15 pounds of muscle because I think he is going to hold his own

 

[TennesseeFan07]

I'm hoping Gaines learns to shoot and gain 15 pounds of muscle because I think he is going to hold his own

Tennessee has a great strength and conditioning program. I hope he sticks it out. By his senior year, he could reasonably put on 40 pounds.

 

[Vol_in_NC_1999]

That's a lot to add on. Maybe they need to send him to Big Ed's Pizza a couple times a week.

 

[alaVOL]

Bottom line is your record is who you are and we aren't even going to the NIT. Next year should be much improved. Tonight though, we beat up on Vandy!