What Tennessee Basketball coach Rick Barnes said after the 91-67 loss to Florida Saturday at Exactech Arena in Gainesville:

Florida center Rueben Chinyelu

“Terrific. As good a performance that I’ve seen a long time. If he didn’t catch it where he wanted, he caught it and he got where he wanted it. And just did a great job. Totally dominated the game from an inside perspective and did a great job for them. And they got a national championship front line, we know that. I thought today, if nothing else, we’re going to find out if we’re willing to realize that we got to get out of the comfort zone that our guys are in to compete against a team like that, especially on the front line. But he was terrific. I mean, he was terrific.”

How much tougher Florida is when Boogie Fland plays the way he did against Tennessee 

“I thought their guards, I’m sure, you go back (and look) at their team, I’m sure, as a staff they’re waiting for their guards to catch up, be where they want to be. And they were good there, but we look at all that. I mean, 30 points off turnovers, you don’t have a chance. It was a good game, a close game, the kind of game you would expect and then the last four minutes of first half, just really poor basketball. And I’ll take the blame for it, because I don’t know if I’ve had a team to play that bad and do the things and make the decisions they made from out of bounds, those type things. It was just really poor basketball. And that’s on me.”

What led to Tennessee playing “really poor basketball,” what has to change

“Turnovers. Decisions. You look at 30 points off turnovers to our eight. They shot the ball 15 more times. And they don’t need any help. I mean, give them credit. They were there. I thought they challenged everything at the rim. I didn’t think we did. They kicked our butt. That’s all I can tell you. And that’s disappointing, because for 16 minutes in the first half we were there, the kind of game you thought it would be. And then turnovers.

“And then we’re not tough enough yet as a team when things aren’t going our way to know how to fight through it. Then we got again, we’re talking about turnovers. I could probably count another 10 shots that were really ill advised shots with guys taking shots when you when you need high-percentage basketball, shots that they don’t practice and are just hoping. You can’t win this game on hope. You can’t. And give them all the credit they after that, the last four minutes on, they controlled the game and did what they wanted to do. And you know what? They got relaxed, they started playing. And we didn’t guard, we didn’t put up the resistance. Just way too many defensive breakdown coverages.”

How he can get this Tennessee team tough enough

“I asked them that. I’m going to kind of wait and see what they tell me, because I know that we’ve talked about it. It’s a mindset. We’ve asked all guys in some shape or form, when we talk about it just straight up — and we don’t say anything that we can’t validate by watching film and habits every day in practice — but when guys always their answer is ‘I don’t know,’ that’s a problem. Because we all know the situation. At some point in time, you got to take a deep look within yourself as coaches, as players, and say, okay, something’s got to change here. Our whole deal was we wanted a frontline that we thought could help us. We’re not there yet. Can we get there? There’s a long way to go. And I hope this game is a game we’ll look back on and think, ‘Ok, these guys showed us what it takes to win at the highest level with a frontline.’ We’ll see. They were in it. They saw it.

“And our whole deal was we wanted to front line that we thought that could help us. And we’re not there yet. Can we get there? It’s a long way to go. And I hope this game is a game we’ll look back on and think, ‘hey, okay, these guys showed us what it takes to win at the highest level with the front line,’ and we’ll see. Because they they were in it. They saw it. DeWayne Brown, I can see a little bit, he’s a freshman, never going and I thought he competed. But our older— three other guys on the front line, they’ve been in it enough. And you look at the rebound total, it’s not where it needs to be, and all of it. But it wasn’t just that. It was all around guard play. I mean, I mean 18 turnovers, and 10 of it with your starting back court. And that’s an issue.”

What went on with Tennessee guard Bishop Boswell, his six turnovers

“I can’t answer that. You’ll have to ask him that. I can’t. I wish I could, but I can’t. Again, I thought, I don’t know if he was putting more pressure on himself. I don’t know what was going on there. I mean, in the past, we’ve relied on him to handle the ball some. I wish I could answer because I would, I’d certainly try to help him fix it.”

If Tennessee’s effort was good enough in the second half

“Well, I think they’re fighting. I mean, again, I think when you give somebody— I thought Nate was really I thought Nate started. I mean, I was, for some reason, I just felt Nate would come out and do some things he did today. And I thought that, again, our freshmen (that) went in the game, I thought, yeah, I thought they played hard. Again, I’m not happy with the front line. I can only tell you that. I’m not happy there. I didn’t think that we fought the way we needed to fight there. A lot, obviously, is placed on Ja’Kobi when other guys aren’t doing what they need to do. But I thought, looking at it Nate, again, I’m not seeing anybody I think played hard. I think it goes back to understanding, I mean, Felix, I’ve said it before. I think he’s one of the best, if not the best, perimeter post guy defenders in the country. (He) should be inside. He had one rebound today. He’s too good for that. Too good. He’s too good for that. We need more from— DeWayne had what four? JP had two and can’t— we need more. We need more out of JP. We really do. We need more there. And we need Jaylen to want to be better on the other end, not just get excited about offense. We need him to want to‚ I mean, plays that just drive you nuts as a coach— when you get out ran down to court. Not going back, playing with a purpose, fouling 94 feet from the basket. On a free throw, guard not being back. That’s where I think players, I don’t think it has to do with about not playing hard. I think sometimes they get in shock, because like what’s happened here? And that’s where you got to continue to play the game because I’ve said it many, many times, if you stay in the game long enough, sometimes the other team will help you. We didn’t put Florida in the position that they could because we let them get out and go and well, coached team, and I don’t think, I don’t think really and truly they were really at any point in time very uncomfortable today. I don’t, and that’s on us.”

What changed after the first 15 minutes

“Well, just what you said, the opposite is a lot of turnovers. Not getting rebounds. Not getting second shots. I don’t know if some missed free throws played in there right now, but turnovers, I mean, they kill you. I mean, and again, you look at. I mean, right there, 30-8 in turnovers. That’s, again, what was it? A 23 point game, whatever. That’s right there. I mean, think about it’s a 22-point difference right there. That’s a huge, huge stat.”

If there’s a benefit to being able to see Tennessee’s flaws in a game like this and challenge his team

“Oh, absolutely. Again, I think it’s great to see how we’re going to respond. I mean, no doubt about it. I mean, again, that front line, they’ve won a national championship, and again, they got good guard play today, but you look at it, again, I still think, you know, I felt it coming in, (the) front line would be the differences in the game. Now I didn’t think we would give them 30 points off turnovers. I didn’t think that. But again, give them credit. You got to give them credit. Got to give them all the credit.

“If we’ve got the kind of players that we think that we have, we’ll learn from this, and it can be a turning point. And on the other end, if we don’t change it, I think it speaks volumes about who we are, too, and maybe we’ve miscalculated.”

Tennessee freshman forward Nate Ament playing well, being more intentional

“He played with a really good purpose today. I thought, kept it simple. Actually, when he turned it over, he reverted back to some of the things he did. But overall, I thought he had a really — Nate’s gonna be fine. I’ve said it all along. I don’t know, I’m sure people have gotten on (him), but I wouldn’t trade Nate for anybody. He’s a lot tougher than everybody knows. I don’t think he’s ever gotten a great whistle, and because every time he gets hit, everybody thinks because he’s thin, it’s not a foul. That’s not necessarily true, and I’m not talking today, I’m talking about in general over the whole year. I was proud of Nate and his mindset today.”

If he’s surprised by the inconsistencies of Tennessee’s post players so far this season

“Yeah. Well, somewhat. Somewhat, I guess, because you think you’re about to turn the corner and then, again, there’s a lot of guys who can do it in practice. It’s the guys that can do it when the lights come on. That’s where you find out against that outside competition. And again, I told our team coming in, it’s baffled me all year where I don’t put anything in rankings. Florida has, I think five losses, and I think four of them are to top-five teams. When you are defending national champions and you’re willing to, like Todd (Golden) did, open up in The Garden against Connecticut, which everyone knows is a road game. I think they played Arizona in (Las Vegas), basically a road game, you admire him for doing that. That’s where people who get votes don’t really have an idea of who the best teams are. If you’re just basing it on a team getting out, winning a bunch of games somewhere — and I think it’s helped them. Because early, and I don’t know if it affected their big guys as much, but with pretty much a different backcourt, I’m sure right now, they’re seeing the benefits of those games.”

Postgame on The Vol Network

What happened to Tennessee late in the first half when Florida took the game over

“Turnovers. Turnovers. Bad decisions. Not executing an out-of-bounds play underneath. I mean, we were watching it at halftime with them. Just absolutely no execution, guys not finishing their cuts. But (it was) turnovers. You go back to it, you can’t turn the ball over and allow a team to have 15 more shots than you. And then do the things that we did. But even with all that, their frontline just manhandled ours. Just they did what they wanted to do. And again, (Florida is) terrific. Defending national championship frontline. 

“So I’m going to take it from this game (and) we’re going to see if we learn what it takes. And it might be the best thing for us at the third game in the conference play, to find out if our we’re going to be tough enough to fight. Because your guards can’t, I mean, I think our guards had 10 turnovers, (the) starting back court. I think (Florida’s) had five. But the ones that we turned over that led to those run-outs, you can’t defend them. Just not good basketball.”

If Florida defended Ja’Kobi Gillespie any differently 

“Exactly like we knew he’d be. And again, we keep telling him what he has to do and. But he needs more help. If the other guy are not on the ball, he’s going to have to run the offense. I mean, we made so many bad passes. I mean, I’m sitting there, as much as we’ve harped on taking care of the ball, I’m baffled by it. And again, I don’t think we’re anywhere where we need to be with physicality. I don’t think we’re where we need to be with guys totally understanding what they need to do. Now we’ve had (good) games, but everybody can have a game, you know? It’s consistently, it’s dependability.” 

The play of Tennessee freshman Nate Ament

“I was really pleased. I thought Nate came out with a great mindset today and did a lot of good things against a really good player. Got in foul trouble. That maybe hurt us as much as anything, him not being there at the end because the game broke at the end of the first half where you can’t allow that, especially on the road. And then you don’t come out of halftime and respond the way we did. And then from there, it’s just an uphill battle.”

Tennessee’s front court 

“Just disappointed with our rebounding. And Felix (Okpara) had one rebound. Our front line, that’s what we talked about, the front line, you and I talked about before the game. And we didn’t do (it). And, a couple times on those loose-ball rebounds, they took the ball away from us. And again, it could be a good thing if guys were willing to look at themselves and say, ‘You know what, we talked about all this.’ We talked about it, we talked about it, we talked about it. But you got to go through it. I understand Dwayne Brown and some of the freshman out there, but the older guys, no way. I mean, it can’t happen. And we got too many guys that they feel good if they’re scoring. And if they’re not scoring, they’re not willing to do all the dirty work yet.”

Tennessee trying to fix its mistakes before hosting Texas A&M on Tuesday

“There’s a lot of things we didn’t do today. I didn’t think we were great defensively to start with. We knew that, what, the shot 30% from three, which was fine. But it was all the other stuff. I mean, you can’t win a basketball game when you let a team have 15 more shots and you have the 30 points off turnovers. You can’t win. And that’s the hardest part. And you say, how do you fix it? We’ve been trying to fix it all year. And until our team understands the value of the ball, and that doesn’t even count some of the shots that guys threw up that there is absolutely no way they’re going to make because they don’t practice them. And that’s the disappointing part.”