Rick Barnes confident Tennessee will bounce back after second loss to Kentucky
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For the second time this season, Tennessee lost to Kentucky after relinquishing a double-digit lead Saturday, as the Volunteers fell victim to some clutch shooting from Collin Chandler and the magic of Rupp Arena.
Rick Barnes’ team has endured through an up-and-down campaign on its way to a 16-7 overall record, and a second defeat to the rival Wildcats serves as another low point.
But the longtime head coach exhibited little concern after the game, emphasizing that his group responded well following the first loss and that it should again bounce back.
“They’ll respond the same way. This was — I can take this (loss),” Barnes told reporters. “The one in Knoxville, shoot, I wanted to — it took me two days to get over it, and I’ve been doing this a long time,” Barnes said. “I can normally let them go pretty quickly, but that was the way we just gift-wrapped that one. But they did what they had to do. They did exactly what they had to do to win the game.
“This one, this is exactly how we thought the game — even when we were up — you knew it was gonna settle in and (come) down to a last-minute play, we gotta get a better shot than we did there at the end. Got to put a little more pressure on the referees there than we did,” Barnes added. “But, yeah, these guys will bounce back. They’ve got too much pride. They work too hard. Their work ethic is too good. We have not reached the ceiling with this team, and that’s a good thing right now that we can keep growing.”
Barnes & Co. wrap up a two-game roadstand against Mississippi State on Wednesday before they welcome LSU and Oklahoma for a pair of favorable home contests.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
