Rick Barnes ribs Ja’Kobi Gillespie for ill-advised dunk attempt: ‘He can’t dunk in traffic’
By Mark Kern
Published:
Rick Barnes relies on Ja’Kobi Gillespie to do a lot for the Tennessee Volunteers. On the season, Gillespie is averaging 18.3 points, 5.6 assists and 2.1 steals, all of which lead Tennessee basketball.
In the tournament opening win against Miami (OH), Gillespie had 29 points and nine assists while making 6 3-pointers. While he helped carry the team to a win, there was an instance where he tried to make the highlight play on a dunk to get to 30 points.
While Barnes will praise his guards in many instances, he had to make sure to give him a little grief for the attempt on Friday.
“He thought he was going to dunk it,” Barnes told reporters on Saturday. “He can’t dunk it in traffic.”
While he may not be able to quite dunk the ball on people in traffic, one thing that is for sure is that he is going to play a huge role in how far the Volunteers ultimately go this season.
Up next in the Round of 32 is a game against the Virginia Cavaliers for the right to advance to next week’s Sweet Sixteen. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. ET and the game will be in Philadelphia with the game being aired on TNT.
Here’s a look at the latest odds for Tennessee vs. Virginia, via Kalshi:
