Rick Barnes is challenging his bench players.
The Tennessee basketball coach called out the second unit following the Vols' 73-64 win at Mississippi State on Feb. 11. He felt like the team "went backwards" during those minutes and dissected their performance on film.
"We showed that yesterday," Barnes said on Feb. 13. "The energy should go up. But it's coming in and guys staying in their roles. That's the most important thing because there's things going into a game that, you can't script all of it. There's just plays that are going to happen. The one thing that they have to bring is that high level of energy on both ends. We talked about it and I think they did see it from watching the film."
All season, Barnes has encouraged his players to remain uncomfortable. The message stayed consistent in the film session.
"If you ask them right after the game, most players would probably tell you they played hard," he said. "Then I think when they see the film, I think they're shocked. I don't think they don't want to play hard, but it's a hard game to get out of your comfort zone. It really is. You've got to want to really push beyond and fight through fatigue."
Junior forward Jaylen Carey took the message to heart. He went on the Food City Center court after the Lady Vols' win over Missouri on Feb. 12 for some extra late night work.
Carey had four points and six rebounds in 14 minutes as the Vols (17-7, 7-4 SEC) rebounded from the loss to Kentucky.
"I think Jaylen's trying to figure out how to do that," Barnes said about Carey finding consistency. "The only way he's going to do that is by work ethic. It's not in games, it's every day in practice. You're going to always come back to your habits. I've seen very few guys that can flip the switch when it comes to game time, and even if they can do that, at some points during the game, they're going to plateau. If they haven't put the work in to fight through that, they're not going to be able to fight through it."
Carey, a Vanderbilt transfer, is used to the rigors of the SEC. Freshmen Amari Evans, DeWayne Brown II and Troy Henderson are still learning how to deal with the intensity. The young players will get their next lesson against LSU (14-10, 2-9) at Food City Center on Feb. 14 (6 p.m. ET, SEC Network).
"This is the most physical place I've ever been," Henderson said. "You just got to get used to the speed of it. Then once you get used to the speed, the contact of it takes a lot to get used to."
Wynton Jackson covers high school sports for Knox News. Email: [email protected]
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes is demanding more from bench