Rick Barnes tries to explain loss at Ole Miss: 'We just gave it to 'em'

The Tennessee Volunteers have been frustratingly inconsistent during SEC play. At times, they look like a Final Four team. At others, they look like one of the worst teams in the SEC.

On Tuesday night, the Vols went down to Oxford and suffered an ugly 52-50 loss to the Ole Miss Rebels.

After the game, coach Rick Barnes was at a loss for words. During his postgame press conference, here’s what he said about the unexpected loss:

#Vols coach Rick Barnes: Disappointing. Really disappointing. We just didn’t get good guard play tonight. It’s disappointing. We’re just not consistent. We’re not.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) February 3, 2021

On the Vols’ 16 turnovers:

#Vols coach Rick Barnes: Some of these turnovers, honestly it’s just laziness. It baffles me to think about some of the ways we turned the ball over tonight.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) February 3, 2021

#Vols coach Rick Barnes: We just gave it to ‘em. And we kept giving it to ‘em.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) February 3, 2021

On Ole Miss changing its defensive looks throughout the game:

#Vols coach Rick Barnes: We knew they were gonna change defenses. We knew that. We prepared for it. We just didn’t attack them. And we had so many careless turnovers.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) February 3, 2021

On how everyone on the team struggled:

#Vols coach Rick Barnes: It’s frustrating. So frustrating. I’m not sure anyone had a good game. Maybe Yves, at times.

— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) February 3, 2021

On John Fulkerson’s 8-point, 4-rebound effort:

Rick Barnes: John has played enough by now that he should be consistent.

On Fulkerson’s 5 FG attempts tonight

— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) February 3, 2021

The Vols are now 12-4 overall and 5-4 in SEC play. They’ll travel to Kentucky on Saturday in a game that suddenly looks a bit more difficult than it did entering Tuesday night’s action.