What Rick Barnes thinks Tennessee basketball is lacking

Freshman Davonte Gaines made a play at South Carolina on Saturday that lingered with Rick Barnes two days later.

As the Tennessee coach recalled, the Vols guard was “playing really hard” when he was tripped. Gaines got up and made another play. 

“(Gaines) turned around talking to his teammates with a way like we have to get a stop here,” Barnes said. “That’s what we’re lacking. And we have to get that.”

Tennessee (14-11, 6-6 SEC) has six regular-season games remaining, starting with its second meeting against Vanderbilt (9-16, 1-11) on Tuesday (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) at Thompson-Boling Arena. UT won the first meeting 66-45 on Jan. 18.

Barnes is viewing the stretch as “a lot of opportunities” for the Vols. He has told his team that there is not a game remaining Tennessee can’t win, but he also issued a challenge to his upperclassmen Sunday.

“Where is it going to come from coming down the stretch?” Barnes said of the challenge.

That question stems, in part, from senior guard Lamonte Turner ending his Tennessee career Dec. 21 because of injury. Turner was the understood leader both in drive and voice, and his absence left a void.

Barnes acknowledged Monday that the “older guys” on his roster aren’t the most vocal. He described them as “on the side of being quiet.” 

“I don’t care if the sophomores have to step up and do it or the freshmen,” Barnes said. “They have to do it. That’s where, as we continue this year out, that’s the one thing that we can get some momentum somewhere, building for the future with this team.”

Gaines provided Barnes the perfect example Saturday in pushing his teammates on the floor. That is the leadership that Barnes sees Tennessee lacking.

He doesn’t see his players calling out switches on screens late in the shot clock enough or getting into one another when someone’s body language isn’t right. 

“It is just little subtle things where players should be thinking about their teammates more,” Barnes said. “That is getting out of their comfort zones a little bit. I don’t think there’s one guy on our team that would bark back at a guy if someone told them, ‘Hey man, you need to play harder. You need to do this. You need to do that.’

“That is the beginning of the kind of leadership (we need). It’s not the rah, rah stuff. It is just the things and the comments that need to be said when players are talking.”

The fifth-year Vols coach still thinks he can get that from this team. Gaines could be an answer to that, as he has strung together a string of impressive games. Barnes also thinks junior forward John Fulkerson is doing better at leading.

But with March approaching, Barnes issued a challenge anyway to Fulkerson, senior guard Jordan Bowden and junior forward Yves Pons.

“We want to be in the postseason. We do. Right now we’ve got to worry about Vanderbilt and get ready for that, then the next one after that,” Barnes said. “We always think about the postseason, don’t get me wrong. We always think about it. We know what goes into it, and it’s winning games. You have to win games.”

Injury updates

Pons is battling “a little tendinitis” in his right knee, Barnes said Monday. The Tennessee forward played 29 minutes at South Carolina – his second-fewest in an SEC game – after not practicing in the days leading to Saturday.

“He’s such a tough kid,” Barnes said. “He’ll keep fighting it.”

Tennessee got Josiah-Jordan James back after he missed four games with a groin injury. The freshman scored nine points and had five assists in 30 minutes.

“I thought Josiah for the most part, without being able to do much the last couple weeks, went out and was OK,” Barnes said. “He was. Some of the things he didn’t do, really it’s probably from not playing, that he needs to clean up, and he will.”