No. 4 Tennessee basketball hosts No. 15 Kentucky on Saturday afternoon for senior day in the regular-season finale. Here’s everything Rick Barnes said about the rematch when he met with the media on Friday.
The Vols won their sixth outright SEC regular season championship in program history with a 66-59 win at No. 17 South Carolina on Wednesday night. It’s the 11th time in program history that they’ve won at least a share of the SEC regular season championship. In total, Tennessee has now won the league in 1936, 1941, 1943, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 2000, 2008, 2018 and now 2024.
Tennessee entered the game with a one-game lead over South Carolina in the SEC standings in the midst of the final week of the regular season. UT was one game ahead of Alabama in the standings as well after its win in Tuscaloosa over the weekend, but after the Crimson Tide lost at Florida on Tuesday night, it presented UT with the opportunity to win the SEC championship outright with a victory at South Carolina.
The Vols’ win also secured the No. 1 overall seed in next week’s SEC Tournament. They’ll open in Nashville, Tenn. next Friday at 1 p.m. ET against the No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the field.
Rick Barnes met with the media on Friday to preview the rematch between the Vols and Wildcats. Here’s everything Barnes had to say.
On turning the page quickly to Kentucky after winning the SEC regular-season championship:
“We’re proud of what these guys have accomplished up to this point, but we know that there’s another game Saturday. And it’s a big game, last one of the year and certainly Senior Night for some special guys here. But it’s a mindset. We keep talking about that. And we know that we have great respect for Kentucky. I think they’re the most explosive offensive team in the country. And John (Calipari) does what he always does and gets his guys playing great basketball at the end of the year and they just keep building. They been on a little bit of a roll themselves. It doesn’t take much to get our guys’ attention because of the respect that they have for Kentucky and their program. So we know that we’re going to have to be ready to play.”
How different Kentucky is from the team that Tennessee beat in Lexington on February 3:
“Justin Edwards has become more of a part of it. DJ Wagner didn’t play up there, so they’ve got different guys. And I think they’ve all improved. We saw what Rob Dillingham did against us, but Reed Sheppard, those guys are all improved and they’ve got a lot of guys that can make difficult shots and go get their own shots. But again, it’s what John does. His teams always get better. They always do. And he had a lot of young guys work into it and he’s done exactly what all of us that know him would expect him to do.”
What Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi have meant to the program the last five years:
“I can’t put it into words because we’d be here all night, because I could talk about each one of them for hours on hours. Because from the time they got here, we were really in a transition period, and those guys were young and growing up, but they’re the ones that over the last (five years), they’ve been the rock, both of them. Then you throw Zakai coming in and then you add Dalton to this group. But Josiah and Santi, I mean been the rock, they’ve been the foundation, they’ve been the ones that know us. They know the coaches better than anybody. They know our standard. They know everything that we want done here. And so they’re a voice not only to their teammates, but a voice that, from the coaching staff standpoint, that you listen to.”
What it says about the Tennessee basketball program that Grant Williams was at the South Carolina game:
“Everybody in sports talks about the culture and everybody has a culture. I don’t care if they use that term or not. Everybody has something and whatever word they want to put on it. But the fact that Grant, it’s neat having him back in Charlotte. I got to spend some really good time with him after the game in Columbia. But I do think it speaks volumes about his love for this university and obviously the basketball program here. And that’s the things that you would expect years going on forward that Santi and Josiah will do, because they both could have left any way they wanted to leave. But they didn’t. They decided last year, both of them, because they went through the process they needed to, but they told us from the beginning that where their heart laid and they wanted to go explore, but we felt they were coming back. And we’re thankful that they did because they’re, again, for five years, I mean, I’m going to miss them in ways that I could talk about hours about it. But what Grant did I think speaks volumes for what’s happening in our time here. And I’m thankful and blessed that we’ve been able to coach a group of guys over these nine years that care a lot about this university.”
The impression that Knecht has left on him this season:
“His humility. You know, when he came in he never once talked about coming in thinking he was gonna be the leading score, wanted to do this or do that. He simply said from the beginning, I want to be in a winning program. I’d like to have a chance to play in the NCAA tournament, and I wanna be part of a good program and I want to be coached hard. And I think the fact that you talk about he— I think you talk about Santi, Jo and Dalton, the word that comes to mind is humility. I don’t think those guys have a false sense of security in terms of who they are, how they got to act. I think they go about the way they go about their business every day. I did an interview this morning, a radio interview and I made a comment that I guarantee you when I walk in today before practice, Josiah will be out on floor and he’s out there and you just get to know these guys and the way they go about their business. And I said before, I’ve walked out of here many nights late and Dalton in there shooting, and I’m like, make sure you’re taking care of your body. He said, ‘I’ll be in the ice bath tonight. I promise.’ And Santi the same way. It’s just that you spend so much time with these guys, you get to know them. And if anybody deserves to have two senior days, I would say it’s probably Josiah and Santi.”
On Vescovi embracing a smaller role on the offensive end in his fifth season:
“Well, he’s all about winning. I mean, nobody leads the country in more winning plays that go unnoticed than Santi. But Santi’s a very unselfish player. I mean, he understands who he is, what he needs to do. But again, from the time we started recruiting really Justin (Gainey) first and then Dalton, we knew we needed to add some offense to us. And those guys (Josiah and Santi) knew it too. And they’re really part of the reason those guys are here because as Santi and Joe have, they’ve gone out of the way to make sure that everybody comes in here, that that’s the guys that we want. They make sure that they want them to be a part of the team and the way they do their deal with them. I think people leave being impressed with Jo and Santi and the way they handle everything in the recruiting process, but it’s just humility and those guys— Santi is an example of that.”
His favorite story about Knecht to this point in the season:
“Well, again, today someone asked me about him and, you know, we go through preseason and you guys watch a lot of it and see it and I don’t think any of you guys thought he was going to do what he did either. And I think the biggest moment was, I set it after the exhibition game against Michigan State. One, he played harder than he’d ever played and practiced defensively. And then when he made that dunk, I’m like, whoa. Because I hadn’t seen that either. I’d seen him do some things, and then certainly hearing about the guys in the summer, he and Jahmai going at it but I mean, there’s a lot of things he’s done, but I hope he’s got a lot more left in the bag as we head down the stretch here.”
On senior walk-on Colin Coyne playing in the post, his value preparing his teammates for games:
“It is amazing. We take great pride in trying to put together our walk-ons. Our coaching staff, people would probably be shocked at how hard and how much intel we do on that. I got a call from Bob McKillop. He told me about Colin. He said I promise you that you will love having him in your program. He said if I were going to coach another year, I would love for him to be here. He said you are going to love him. From the time that he has arrived, and he has significantly improved. However, he now plays a significant role in this program. the knowledge that he has gained his comrades’ esteem. He will be missed by us. You observe his actions. We’re set to play Auburn, and we’re getting ready—a tale about him.It is a left-handed stroke. Hey, we need to move some stuff to your left, we stated. He went outside and practiced shooting with his left hand for days. He plays the part quite seriously. That’s the kind of person you love. He has contributed greatly to our program. Because he genuinely cares about his teammates and the work we are attempting to accomplish, we will also miss him.
On the legacy that James and Vescovi are leaving:
“Well, again, I would say, I think maybe the best thing is talk about (the) transition they went through. I think that Grant (Williams) and his group laid the — was the beginning of the foundation that we wanted to lay here, but those guys (James and Vescovi) have certainly come in and they’ve been pillars to keep it going. I mean, both of them. And they’ve had their ups and downs. You think about it, we recruited Josiah extremely hard. I mean as hard as maybe anybody we’ve recruited over a two-year period. Mike Schwartz did an incredible job licking in early when he was a sophomore. We recruited Santi — Ken McDonald, knew some people at the NBA Academy, all for about a month. And he decided he was gonna leave early and come, but Joe came in with high expectations. Santi, nobody knew who he was, but they both got here different ways. They’re gonna leave the same way in the fact that, again, almost like cornerstones in their time here, that they’ve been a rock that we’ve been able to rely on and build on.”
If the way Vescovi’s career started told him everything he needed to know about him, with how he was thrown into the fire:
“Yeah, again, Santi, I remember (as) if it were yesterday, he got here and I said, ‘Hey, give me some sets you’re familiar with and we’ll put ’em in. We got one day here to get it going ’cause we need you.’ And we were doing a little bit of some things, what he talked about, but I think he hit what, five threes in that game? But he was in terrible shape. We laugh about that, you know, he was really in terrible shape. But the way he went from a guy that everybody was saying offense, offense, offense, where he became such a complete player. He’s played every spot other than what the post position, he’ll guard anybody. Santi’s, defensively, I mean he’s become one of the elite defenders in the country and the fact that his work ethic, he’s a high-level competitor. If Santi were playing checkers, he’d want to win, but he’s totally changed and you know, last summer was the first summer he really spent with us because of obligations and doing other things. But he’s totally changed what — he was known as a guy that was like just a spot-up shooter and he’s become so much more than that.”
The hardest part of playing Kentucky for 40 minutes:
“Well, they’re great in transition. Gotta keep the floor balanced because they got some guys that will leave early because I think they got confidence in their rebounders to get the ball and we gotta take away those rapid-fire plays, sequences in which they can score a lot of points in a short amount of time. They are capable of producing some quite prolific scores. When I think back to our game against Rob Dillingham, I believe we covered him as well as we could have, but he still hit some amazing shots, and they now have other players who have, I believe, gained confidence and a game plan. Therefore, we must truly appreciate the value of each possession and be prepared to take every necessary action to try to halt those runs and prevent them from hitting us frequently.
