By Larry Vaught
(LEXINGTON, Ky.)-Tennessee played Kentucky three times last season and coach Mark Pope’s team beat the Vols in both regular-season games before losing to Tennessee in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said point center Amari Williams made “unique” offensively last season.
“With their zoom action, what they like to run, last year they had a player (Williams) that was unique, that could bring it down the floor, which you don’t see many post players do that,” Barnes said.
“I think Mark has done a great job getting guys to play the way he wants them to play. Is it a different style? There’s a lot of teams that have gone to that spread set like that. Do you have to change a little bit? You do. But that’s with everybody.
“You have to be able to adjust game to game. That’s where I think we have an experienced team, they’re able to do that a little bit quicker. The fact is, everything he does, it’s difficult to guard.”
Barnes believes there are plenty of “terrific coaches” in college basketball and it is imperative for coaches to continue to teach the game.
“We can’t let other countries teach it better than us. I think you go way back in the ’70s, I remember hearing Dave Gavitt talk about how the European coaches came here, wanted to learn the game, went back and started teaching it better than we did,” the Tennessee coach said. “We got caught up in recruiting and trying to get guys and maybe not coaching them at the level we should have.
“I would love to see us somehow improve teaching at a lower level, teaching kids at a very young age the fundamentals of the game. They watch highlights on TV, and it’s always dunking the ball or 3-point shooting. There’s so much of the game that even today on our team right now that we’re coaching.”
Barnes has another highly ranked team but says he’s had to stop practice a few times and told his players that was something he thought they would have learned how to do in junior high but obviously did not.
“I hope we never get away from wanting to be teachers of the game, the fundamentals of the game of basketball. It’s our game. We should be the best at teaching it. I don’t want us ever to get away from that,” Barnes said.
(PHOTO COURTESY-Vicky Graff)
