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Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Friday he thought Kentucky was the most explosive offensive team in the country.
The Wildcats did their best to prove he was right Saturday when they won 85-81 at SEC champion Tennessee to secure a No. 2 seed in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
“You’re playing against a team that’s playing great basketball too. Again the most explosive offensive team in basketball. And with that said, do I think we can play better today? Yes. I don’t think there’s any question that we are a lot better than we played today,” Barnes said after the loss. “Too many wide open shots, broken plays where they made plays early in the game. I thought three loose balls that we should come up with and we didn’t and they scored on them.”
Barnes thought the emotion of Senior Day along with already wrapping up the SEC title might have worked against his team considering how easily the Vols won at UK a month ago.
“You got the seniors that are playing at home and guys that wanted to play their hearts out. And they put too much pressure on themselves, thinking, ‘Hey, you got to get it done early,’” Barnes said. “We had great respect for them (Kentucky) and the program and what they do. But we were just too antsy, especially on the offensive end.”
On the defensive end, Barnes said Kentucky beat the Vols off the ball too much.
“What they did, we thought would come. And they made the right play. They’re good. And I don’t want to take anything away from them. John’s team always gets better this time of year and they’re going to make shots,” Barnes said. “Even when you guard them, they make shots. But early in the game, they scored them off the broken plays, where I thought they were beating us to 50/50 balls.”
It was just the opposite at Rupp Arena when Tennessee seemed to get every loose ball and battered UK on the boards.
5 Responses
I love the smell of burnt orange on Sunday morning. Seeing the bright sun in blue bird skies. That obviously aren’t falling! ! The smell of crow roasting in the firepit for the whinners. What a team we have. Enjoyable to watch. growing up before our eyes. Starting to come together as a group. Nothing but upside. Cal is giving them a couple of well-deserved days off.
Thanks guys for making the end of the year great for us and for ruining senior day for the Vols!!! Nice to see 3 seniors and 2 juniors get whipped by one senior and as bunch of freshmen!!!!!
GO CATS SEE YOU IN NASHVILLE!
UKFMLY, the True Fans knew this was the kind of team that excels at the end of the season. If Ugo had not gotten hurt, we would have been better out of the gate. Two 7 footers on the bench hurt for 35% of the season. Big Z strapped to bench by the NCAA for 50% of the season. The one’s that CRY about Cal are blinded by hate. We are going to relish this late season run, and they are going to be So Miserable! RAH! RAH! RAH! GO Cal’s Cats!!!
Jimmy, the Cal haters are just clueless and are obsessed with their hate for Cal. They call Cal a fraud when in fact they are the frauds. True fans root for their team and coach no matter what. With each game we win, their misery will increase. If UK does not win a Championship they will get on here and crow about what a bad coach Cal is, because the only thing that matters to is to win a ship every other year and to never lose a game or get upset. Their expectations are ridiculous and they will NEVER be happy with the state of our program, no matter who the coach is. Let’s get #9! Go Cats!!!!
Interesting Coach Barnes did not see fit to mention UK was missing 2 players ( Wagner and Big Z) in the earlier matchup.
This 👆
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