NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - LONGWOOD VS TENNESSEE

March 16, 2022

Rick Barnes

Kennedy Chandler

John Fulkerson

Santiago Vescovi

Josiah-Jordan James

Uros Plavsic

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Tennessee Volunteers

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the student-athletes from the University of Tennessee, Kennedy Chandler, Josiah-Jordan James, John Fulkerson and Santiago Vescovi. Questions?

Q. For the guys that were here last year, at what point did you notice on Sunday that you were going to be playing in the same gym where you were last year when this thing was held in Indy?

JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES: Yeah, when we got the report and the news, probably a little while after the Selection Show. I'm happy to be back. I was excited that they put us back here. I think everything is coming full circle, and I'm glad we have a chance to redeem ourselves.

THE MODERATOR: Uros Plavsic joins us as well.

Q. For Josiah and Santi, what would it mean for you guys to see Mike Schwartz get a head coaching opportunity?

SANTIAGO VESCOVI: He had a talk with us before it came out to the media. First of all, we were happy and proud for him. I think it's a deserving job for him. He's been working for it, and I think we're all happy that opportunity came up to him.

But right now I think our main focus is right here and the games that we've got to play right now. Once the season is over, we're going to spend time with him before he leaves and everything. Most of all I think we are really happy for him that he has this opportunity. It is well deserved.

JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES: I would say this. There is nobody who is more deserving of being a head coach than Coach Schwartz. Me and his relationship started when I was in middle school. And so just to see the work that he has put in to finally pay off. He's been working his whole life to get that goal as a head coach. And I'm just excited and happy for him.

I remember when he told me. I was elated with energy and happy for him and his family. But he reassured us, like Santi said, that this is his main focus, winning games here, and our next game is his main focus, and he's not worried about anything to come in the future. But I'm excited for him and his family.

Q. For Josiah and Kennedy. When you look back at the first game against Kentucky this season, it seemed to be a turning point with how poorly that game went. What changed for you guys after that? I know Coach Barnes said afterwards about the vibe of the team and we need people to say enough is enough. Do you feel like that's what happened to get the season turned?

JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES: I would say getting embarrassed on national TV is a very eye-opening experience. You learn a lot in wins, but I feel like you learn even more in losses. I feel like that was a chance for us, an opportunity for us to come closer as a group and to really look at ourselves in the mirror both individually and as a team.

I feel like we learned the most from that loss. I felt like we came together. Losing that way on ESPN, it really lit a fire under us. And we knew that we wouldn't want to be in that situation, that position again, and I felt like we just tried to do everything in our ability to not put ourselves in that situation.

But, yeah, that was a really good lesson for us early this year.

KENNEDY CHANDLER: For me, after we lost that game, we was all disappointed in ourselves, in the way we played. We knew we were better than we played that game. And after that game, we pushed ourselves every single day, from film and practice.

And we knew that's not the team we were, and he ever since that we have been getting better and better each and every single day from that point on.

Q. John, Santiago, Josiah, over the last couple of days, as a group, coming back from Tampa, you are back on the road, what's it like in the off days and getting prepared for the tournament?

JOHN FULKERSON: I think the biggest thing is we have to enjoy what we accomplished in Tampa, but we've got to realize that -- that was one of our goals all season, but we have another goal in mind that we have set for ourselves.

So enjoying that and then immediately turning our focus to Longwood and preparing for them. Like I say, enjoying it and shifting our focus and mindset to start preparing for the next game.

SANTIAGO VESCOVI: Going off what John said, totally agree with that. I think that we had our time to enjoy what we did. We were totally focused on Tampa, and now that's over. Just a quick turnaround, and now we've got to shift ourselves to what we got now.

And this is the NCAA Tournament, so we've got to focus on that. And once everything is over, we will have time to go back and celebrate everything that we have done and what we're going to do.

JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES: Yeah, basically what they said in a nutshell. It was good to see us set a goal to win the SEC Tournament and achieve that goal, but we also had a goal at the beginning of the year to win games in March and to get to the Final Four and win a National Championship. So that's where our goals are at now, and it starts with Longwood.

Q. Kennedy, all these other guys have been here before, it may be different because of COVID, but your first time here. How big of a fan were you of March Madness, and what's it like to be here?

KENNEDY CHANDLER: I was a big fan, making brackets, every single time, coming to March Madness, it's a dream come true, and I'm excited to be able to play my first game tomorrow. And I'm looking forward to, you know, getting experience and to be able to play in March Madness.

Q. Kennedy, just wondering how important Josiah has been for you this year, especially as a guy who knows what it's like to come in as a 5-star McDonald's guy and the hype that comes with that, and what kind of leader you have seen him become this year as well?

KENNEDY CHANDLER: Ever since I took my official visit, me and Josiah have had that relationship, that bond. Ever since then, he's been a great leader -- all these guys at this table, they're great leaders. They've been great leaders.

And ever since I've gotten here, they have taught me so much, from Coach Barnes and what he expects and the style of offense and what he expects on defense.

All these guys have taught me so much, and all of them are great leaders to this team. And they've been doing it since the summer. They're great leaders and show the example for all of us and the young guys.

Q. For all the guys that were on the team last year, I know you guys haven't been here that long yet, but how different is it, day-to-day life, this year compared to last, and how fun do you feel like it will be to play in front of a crowd again?

UROS PLAVSIC: I would say it's so much fun to be around people, and I think the chemistry on the team is so much better because we get to spend a lot of time together. And just being around your teammates more, it makes you feel more comfortable around them on the court as well.

So I think that is biggest difference compared to COVID year when we played. I remember in this gym right here we were honestly like just warming up and waiting to get on the court, wear masks and all this stuff; and now, you know, it's just so much difference, all the people are in front of you and stuff like this. So I think that would be the biggest difference.

JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES: I would say it's a lot more exciting this year, just being able to be around your teammates. Last year we were really -- had to be in the hotel room, your individual hotel room for the majority of the day, besides team meetings and practices and stuff like that.

It's just been exciting to be around your teammates. Like we went on a walk yesterday after we ate at a steakhouse. Just guys being able to hang out with each other and being in each other's rooms in the presence of others has really made this a lot more exciting.

I feel like last year, coming from last year, it made us not take this moment or this opportunity for granted. So I think we're just trying to get the most out of it as a team.

Q. For any of you guys, Longwood is making its first NCAA Tournament experience. When it popped up on the bracket, did any of you know where Longwood was? And when your coaches started talking to you about this team, how quickly did it snap you back to this is an NCAA opponent, we've got to be ready?

SANTIAGO VESCOVI: At this point I don't think it matters who we are playing, even if you have heard of them before or not. I think the NCAA Tournament, that's the fun part about it, and any team can beat any team at any point. Everybody is a champion in their own way. I don't think you can take any team for granted.

We are focused on them right now, and I think they have a great team. That's why they're here, too. So pretty much focus on them and take one step at a time.

Q. Josiah, when this team was 2-3 in SEC play, did you have any doubts that you guys would be able to turn it around like you have?

JOSIAH-JORDAN JAMES: I had absolutely no doubt. We got off definitely to a start that we didn't envision, but I think this team is resilient, and I knew from the summer and the workouts and the pieces that we had, I knew we had a special team, and we never really held our heads down. We knew we had to make adjustments, and we had to get better, and thankfully we were able to do that.

Q. You guys won the SEC Tournament, yet two of the teams in the league have better seeds than you all. I wondered what if anything you made of that?

JOHN FULKERSON: I mean, it doesn't really matter, our seed. Right now we're just focused on playing Longwood. Like we said, trying to accomplish our goals.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you very much. Best of luck through the Tournament.

We are joined by Tennessee head coach, Rick Barnes.

Q. Rick, do you think it's good for your team to be back in this same building and have memories of what happened a year ago?

COACH BARNES: Well, yeah, I think that they -- it was so different just driving up to the building, and Indianapolis is a totally different feel than a year ago.

I don't think there is any question that our guys are excited to be here and get ready to play.

Q. Rick, Longwood came in earlier and talked about their efficiency as an offense and how they try and break down opposing defenses. How confident are you in your team's defensive ability to slow them down?

COACH BARNES: We're going to be challenged at a high level. They shoot the ball extremely well. They assist each other on their shots. They have good player movement. They do a really good job of offensive rebounding. Even though people would say they're smaller, but they play much bigger with their speed and quickness.

Defensively they do a really good job with their gap defense and blocking out there. For us, we will have to have really good offense. And on the other end, we've got to get back and get our defense set.

Q. Coach, I think you're 17-2 since you started 2-3. Do you feel like you are coming into this Tournament playing your best basketball right now?

COACH BARNES: I think any coach would tell you that we have played good basketball or we wouldn't be where we are right now. We always talk about we can be better. And there are certain areas of the game that even on the defensive end and offensive end that we think we can get better and we need to get better, because every team in this tournament has played good basketball, or they wouldn't be here, and they're playing at a high level this time of year.

We have got to be, more so than ever, focused on our game plan, and we have to be, more so than ever, focused on executing the fundamentals of the game and know that we have to be playing at a high level, but maybe realizing that there is another level that we can get to, and we gotta try to get there.

Q. After the game in Tampa that you guys won the championship, Santi said nobody watches more film than you. How much film have you watched in the past few days?

COACH BARNES: I do watch a lot of film. Obviously, I watch -- I never, ever miss watching our practice tape, I think that's one of the most important things I can do to help our team. But with the film that I watched for the opponent, so much of that is dictated by what our assistant coaches do because they really dive into opponents. And we go way back, back maybe sometimes to the very first game of the season to figure it out.

I believe in watching tape, and I think it's important that you teach players how they need to learn to watch tape, because we obviously can send them things throughout the year that they can look to.

Q. Rick, wondering is this the best, healthiest, most confident Josiah has been in his career at Tennessee? If so, what does that mean for you guys?

COACH BARNES: Well, obviously, when we know when Josiah is playing at an extremely high level, as a team we play at a high level. He's such a versatile part of our team.

As I said before, he has guarded every position on the court, and he's willing to do that. He has played every position on the floor from an offensive standpoint.

When he's confident and locked in, I think he and Santi are two guys that have great chemistry on the court together. And what has happened there is I think Kennedy and Zakai have gotten that with him, and I think the other guys listen to him, which is really important for our team. When Josiah is healthy and doing what he's doing, that's when we are at our best.

Q. Rick, so Josiah-Jordan James was talking about goals that were set, goals to make the tournament and goals to make the Final Four. And he said one has already been knocked off with winning the SEC Tournament. Did you notice something over the season with your group of leaders kind of setting -- I know they had their own goals, but stepping up and laying the narrative for the season?

COACH BARNES: We talked about it after the SEC Tournament at the end of last year when we put last year to a closure, we talked about leadership and how we felt like it had to improve from within the team itself.

And I mentioned last week about how we got a clip of an article that Michael Jordan was talking about leadership and how hard it is to be a leader and what goes into that.

After I read that to them, I asked the simple question: Who is going to buy into this role or how many people will buy into this role, where you guys hold yourselves accountable, not only on the court but off the court with the preparation that we need?

Then we broke, and when we came back at the start of summer workouts, we went through that again. Actually I thought through the preseason we had great, great leadership. And then the season started. We were hit, like everyone, with a little bit of COVID early.

And we were in that position where I felt like it had waned a little bit, and we had another meeting and talked about it, and since that time I think these guys have done a great job of leading the team, the older guys, and are not afraid to say: Hey, that's not a good job. You've got to take care of the basketball. You've got to help me on this situation. You've got to talk more.

When you start getting that kind of leadership, that's the kind of leadership that they want. And when players see it and they respect each other for it, that's when teams become special teams.

Q. Rick, you talked about how different it is this year just coming into the building. You're going to have a practice in front of fans. They will be in the building tomorrow. How much can that energize your people and help them? And John Fulkerson wasn't available to you last year. How much does having him back help you?

COACH BARNES: We need everybody, there is no doubt about it. One of our players last year, Keon Johnson, said to me one of his highlights was getting to the NCAA Tournament, but one of the biggest disappointments was how it turned out. And not just losing the game, because it was just so different for everybody last year, but now that we're here, and we drove up to the same hotel a year ago, and there was a chain fence around it, and now it's not. And the hotel is being renovated. All that.

It's just different. With him being back, it's different, because we came off where we were playing good basketball in the SEC Tournament, and obviously he took the blow where he couldn't finish and come back and was in concussion protocol.

But right now I think our team is in a good place in having him back. And he was very important to us Sunday. He played maybe as many minutes as he's played in quite some time.

As a group, it's just important that we all just stay focused in on what we've got right now.

Q. Rick, you've had Mike Schwartz around you for a long time. When was the first time you thought he could become a head coach, and how excited are you for him?

COACH BARNES: Mike, probably the first time I met him when he was a college player. When I went to Texas, we had seven players on scholarship, and we literally were going to have to find seven walk-ons. And Mike was one of those guys that stood out because of his energy.

The way you guys see him coach on the sideline, that's how he played. He grew up loving the game of basketball. And he became our -- made the team, obviously, and every day he took practice seriously, every day was always around, wanting to continue to learn the game.

And he became our first-ever GA at Texas. And from that point he moved some different places, and obviously having a chance to work for Frank Haith, who is from our family, and then Rodney Terry. And I always knew when it was the right time I would love to have Mike back.

If you ask me when I thought he would be a head coach, I don't think I ever thought he wouldn't be a head coach. He has got it in all areas, facets of the game, and his commitment to the game and what the game is about is special.

Q. Rick, you said your team is in a good place. How much credit should go to having played in the SEC Tournament last week as maybe propelling you forward? Or is it just another game?

COACH BARNES: No, I think you look, I think we had one of the best records in the SEC coming down the stretch in February and March. I think our guys were focused going into the tournament. And it was something, yeah, they wanted to win a regular season championship, which we didn't, and we also knew we would have a chance to win a conference championship, something that hadn't done in a long time at Tennessee.

So they went in and had a great approach there, one game at a time and understanding how important that was.

What we have tried to do, and we talked about it today, today, we've got to get better today. With the time we had over at Butler this morning, we've got to go in focused and doing what we need to do, and then come here today and do some shooting.

With that said, still making sure we don't overdo it so we're at our very best tomorrow. And we leave some of this up to our guys. I trust them so much, I can ask them, How do you feel? How do you want to do this right here?

And the guys, as you know, that put in the minutes, they have a pretty good feel for where they are physically and what they need to do.

It a group that I think they understand we can keep getting better. Even within games, we can continue to get better.

Q. Rick, after the SEC Championship, all those emotions that came out, a lot of those were featured on SEC Insider, this week. Have you been able to go back and watch that and reflect on the relationship you have with your guys?

COACH BARNES: I haven't watched a lot of that. I can show you my phone. I've got 500 some texts on it, and I just can't -- because we've got stuff we have to do, but I really appreciate everyone. And I know it's a special time, and when you win a championship it's special.

I'm with these guys every day, our staff is, and I love the chemistry and the camaraderie that we have within our basketball family from the very top with our commitment from the university and our athletic department all the way down to our managers and our GAs. They do a tremendous job.

I think there is a great deal of respect for everybody but yeah, I love watching our guys with that smile on their face, I did, because I know how hard they have worked to want to do something really special.

I know that they want to continue, but they also realize this is hard. What we're about getting ready to do is very hard, because every team here has won a championship someway, somehow, and you've got to go out and in those games change a little bit in terms of the longer timeouts, and it's a situation where we have embraced it, and we've got to see what we can do with it.

Q. Rick, when Tennessee was 2-3 in SEC play, did you have doubts about what this team might be able to accomplish?

COACH BARNES: I really didn't, Jimmy. We opened up, I thought at the time -- you think about the schedule that we opened up with, we had to go to Alabama, we had to go to LSU, Kentucky. I'm not sure anybody had to open up the league anymore difficult and we were -- again, we felt like we were coming off the Arizona game we felt like we were in a really good spot at home.

We go break for Christmas and COVID hit where Kennedy and John weren't able to get ready for the Alabama game and now we're trying to work it back together and that schedule, when those teams were playing great basketball.

But, no, we never wavered on what we believed this team could do.

Q. Kind of following up on that a little bit, when you lost to Kentucky, the comments at the time, you talked about a vibe with your team. When you look at it now the vibe seems awfully good. What changed?

COACH BARNES: It goes back to what I was saying. Kennedy had some really good games but he also had tough games where -- defensively and I think that was a big turning point for him. Because, you know, Kennedy does a lot with his instincts, but sometimes it would get him in trouble, and I think he learned that as he got into conference play that you can play 25 seconds of really good defense, and in that last 2 seconds you are guarding a guy you go for steal, he's got the ability to spin off you and get to the rim and score. A lot of that happened in the Kentucky game.

But, like I said, when we go back and watch tape, somewhere, if I can remember right, around 2 minutes left in the first half, it was a 4-point game against Kentucky, and we had not played very well. And we gave up a lot of easy baskets and all at once they hit us with pressure at half court ask they scored 6, 7 points real quick. Then it opened up and they played great.

They put together just a great second half of basketball. So we went back and we showed them why. Why did this happen? And certainly a lot of it had to do with Kentucky doing what they did, but how did we open that can for them and I think we learned -- I think he learned a lot from it, I do.

Then from that point on, he kept getting better defensively. I think Olivier had started playing really good basketball. It goes back -- we talk about getting better every day. I thought and those guys locked into doing that, not only Santi, Zakai was learning, and we were playing a number of different freshmen and we hadn't settled quite on who was going to be the guys that would come off the bench night in and night out, and we kept talking about if we have to decide that the day before a game in practice, that's what we'll do, and that's kinda what we did.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. Good luck.