No. 11 Tennessee men’s basketball got past Tennessee State 83-78, on Friday night. Head coach Rick Barnes spent his postgame press conference on what went wrong. The Vols were outrebounded by a slight 45-43 margin, and they gave up 24 offensive rebounds.
Barnes also pointed to 17 turnovers and the fact that these were the same problems Tennessee had after the Duke exhibition. The Vols also committed 24 team fouls with DeWayne Brown and Jalen Haralson fouling out. Brown only played 8:25 and scored no points, with one rebound, one steal and two blocks.
Barnes said his roster of 13 new players still doesn’t understand that playing hard is a talent and not a given. Here’s everything Barnes said…