Tennessee Basketball HC Rick Barnes Talks Following 95-56 Win Over Northern Kentucky

The Tennessee Volunteers moved to 2-0 on the season after a 95-56 win over Northern Kentucky.

The Vols edged out Mercer 76-61 for the first win of the season.

Following Saturday night's win inside Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center, head coach Rick Barnes would speak to the media.

Rick Barnes on Nate Ament's Second-Half Performance

“Well, again, with Nate, I thought he was assertive. I thought not just what he was doing, driving the ball, his passes over the top of the zone were big. Thought he was really starting to see the court better. And you’re playing against a team that, one, I have a great deal of respect for Darrin Horn and who he is and the way he runs (Northern Kentucky). We told our team coming in, his team’s going to play as hard as anybody can play you. They’re never going to stop playing. We’re going to play against the team that we probably won’t see a defense the way they play it, with their match-up zone. But I thought our size was a huge factor in the game. Obviously, we were able to play over top of them. But we did a much better job as a team doing some things that we practice. Nate (Ament) was assertive, which is important, but without watching the film, I thought the mental focus was much better than it’s been. Where the focus was more towards what we have to do as a team to get better, as opposed to when the season starts, everybody’s wanting to think they’ve got to go do something. And all they have to do is what we practice. And I thought that was showed up today," Barnes explained.

Rick Barnes Discussing Turnover Progress

“We did. I mean, some, you look at Nate’s (Ament), he stepped out of bounds. Ja’Kobi (Gillespie), his first turn over, I said what are you doing? I said we’ve never tried to make that pass in our transition game, ever. So, things like that. Obviously, sometimes you don’t understand it. I thought for the most part when we went to the numbers and getting guys in, they stayed within the flow. And second half, we turned it over. Guys didn’t finish cuts, like with the DeWayne (Brown) turnovers, that was not DeWayne’s turnover. Even when it kept going, it was the right play. So, some of that, again, we’ve got a chance to get a lot better, but we took care of the ball a lot better tonight than we did the other night, obviously," Barnes said.

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