Tennessee reaches a number of scoring marks in win at Kentucky. Rick Barnes explains how.

Tennessee men’s basketball put on an offensive clinic Saturday night inside Rupp Arena.

To the tune of an average of 1.41 points per possession, the No. 5-ranked Volunteers led the whole way in a 103-92 win over No. 10 Kentucky.

All five Tennessee starters scored in double figures, led by 26-point outings from both Josiah-Jordan James and Zakai Zeigler.

Tennessee became the first SEC team to score 100 points against UK since Arkansas in February 1993, and the first SEC school to score 100 points on the Cats at Rupp Arena since Arkansas in January 1992.

Saturday was only the fourth time in history that a visiting team scored at least 100 points at Rupp Arena.

Overall, it was the first time John Calipari’s Wildcats had allowed 100-plus points to any opponent since November 2018 (Duke), and the first time UK had allowed 100-plus points at Rupp since the Billy Gillispie era in November 2008.

The Volunteers shot 48.6% from the field and 40% from 3-point range in the win, and that came with star guard Dalton Knecht scoring only 16 points, his lowest scoring output in a month.

Afterward, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes met with media members at Rupp Arena to discuss his team’s impressive offensive performance, and what led to such a big scoring night from the non-Knecht Volunteers.

Here’s everything Barnes said.

Question about Josiah-Jordan James’ scoring output.

Well, I don’t know if you can expect anything other than, he’s been a huge part of this program from the time he walked on campus and what I love about him, I’ve said it before, when Jordan (Gainey) was going through a little bit of a slump. He struggled in practice, but the last two days, he’s had some really good work in practice and Josiah got back and has been impressive.

What we told our guys is, we’re not going to sit around and watch Dalton (Knecht) do it. We’ve got too many good players. I said ‘We’re not going to do that.’ I told those guys, it’s simple, we want you to do what you do.

Great performance with our guys tonight against, you guys know how much respect I have for John (Calipari) and his program and his players, and we knew they were going to be a really difficult team to guard. We knew they could get going.

I thought up until tonight I was the best player to ever come out of Hickory (North Carolina), but that got blown up tonight, (Rob) Dillingham was phenomenal. He was phenomenal.

It was just a great team win for us. I thought Zakai (Zeigler), and everyone... I thought Tobe’s (Awaka) minutes were really important at a time where (Kentucky) really hit us hard on the glass.

But am I surprised with Josiah and Santiago (Vescovi)? We’ve been through so much with those guys. I’m not surprised because our older guys, our experience, I thought was really important tonight.

Question about Tennessee getting off to a strong start.

Again the key is, you know, we play fast too. We told (the players) it’s going to be a totally different game than we’ve been in the last two games. We’ve been in a low-possession game and played two teams (with low possessions), and obviously Kentucky’s an extremely fast team and we (are) too.

So, early we really tried to concentrate on transition defense. We didn’t want them to get out and get going early. We wanted to do what we do: Get down the floor as quickly as we can... We want to shoot it, and again we made shots early.

The great thing about it was coming in with what we spent most of our time doing. It was a mindset with our guys... We’ve had some highly-competitive practices and I was really proud of the effort they gave tonight.

Question about the importance of Tennessee winning a big game without Dalton Knecht carrying the workload.

I don’t even know why we got to that point. We haven’t been that kind of time. Obviously you go through it, there’s some games, and a lot of games this year, where Dalton will do some of that. I also think Kentucky did a nice job guarding him, as the season goes on he’ll have to deal with that. I thought John had a great game plan to make him guard as much as he possibly could. (Kentucky) did a good job getting (Knecht) into some mismatches where they wanted.

All of this is knew to (Knecht), and as he continues to grow, like he already has, he’s got a chance to get so much better. But what I think helps him more than anything is that his teammates, they believe in him, but they also want him to continue to get better. And he will, because he’s a worker.

Question about Tobe Awaka’s intensity after an in-game skirmish.

Oh, I’ve seen that intensity from Tobe. There’s no doubt that he’s got a streak in him that, Tobe’s tough. He’s so young to the game still, and the one thing he’s going to do is rebound, be physical, try to do his job and compete.

That happens, I think, with two teams who are battling. I mean, both teams played hard and a loose ball, you go to get it and it’s just part of it.

Have I seen that? Yeah, I’ve seen him like that a few times.

Question about Jonas Aidoo’s performance.

Well, again Jonas has to deal with a lot around the rim there. He helps, there’s so many little subtle things that he does, I do think our guys feel like they’ve got someone behind them that can come rim protect a little bit and offensively he’s working hard to try to get his space and do things like that.

Jonas, again, is a big part of what we need from him and what he will do. This team needs it. A couple times I thought we could have gotten it to him a little bit more where he actually got some position, but we didn’t.

Question about Zakai Zeigler having a bounce-back performance.

Well, in all honesty, I told him I thought he had to change his demeanor. I told him I thought he was one of the best point guards in the country, but I told the whole team at some point and time I can’t be the only guy getting on guys.

You’ve got to do that. I am relentless in terms of details and those type of things, but I said we can’t be a team (when) we’re down saying to each other ‘We’re good. We’re good.’ When it’s not good. I said we’ve got to be transparent...

He took it on himself and said I’’m the guy that’s supposed to be driving this car and I’m going to make sure that guys are doing what they’re supposed to do, when they’re supposed to do it. And if they’re not, I’m going to let them know about it.

Tonight, he went through a stretch a little bit where he was trying to do a bit too much, but overall I thought he was terrific.

Question about Santiago Vescovi making a big impact while only taking four shots.

What we tell our guys, we want you to do what you do with confidence. Do what you do, don’t do things you’re not comfortable with. Santiago’s very unselfish... We told him (over the years) that he’s got to take shots, because if we do that, we turn down shots, which we have at times, it really messes our spacing up because guys are coming in to rebound, there’s nowhere to go, and it just discombobulates up.

But Santiago impacts the game in so many different ways, whether he’s taking a lot of shots or not. I love it when he’s driving, I love it when he takes his shots, but it’s what he does all around: His defensive game is just tremendous and he’s not afraid to go mix it up rebound-wise. I think demeanor, I think that he and Zakai and Jahmai (Mashack) and Jonas, I think those are the older guys, they have a lot of trust in each other. A lot of conference in each other. And those guys are very real with each other. They really are and they’re willing to, they can talk to a lot of things.

But Santiago and Josiah and Mashack and Zeigler they do an incredible job with picks and plays and when we break down and do some things, they can really cover each other’s back.

Question about going from scoring 59 points against South Carolina to 103 points against Kentucky.

Well, again, it goes back to this is a high-possession game. Kentucky, they’re lethal when they get out and run, and they get down the floor and really attack. I’m really kind of surprised, when I was doing the pregame radio show (they) asked me about (Kentucky’s) speed, and I said, ‘Let’s talk about our speed.’ I said, ‘We play fast.’ That’s what we talked about. We play fast.

So I knew it was going to be a high-possession game, I knew that, There was no question. But it goes back, and I’ve said many times, each game takes on its own personality, and the last two games that we played with Vanderbilt and South Carolina were more of lower-possession games. But we knew coming in here it would be an up-and-down, lot of shots.

Have I seen a big swing like that (points-wise)? Probably, in the time I’ve been in (the game). But, that’s the reason. It really is. It’s not... There’s just so many possessions in this game compared to the last two.

Question about D.J. Wagner’s impact on Kentucky, especially given that he didn’t play for UK.

We knew he’s a terrific player, we know he is. I’ll say it, and I’ve said it many times, there’s not a better coach in the country that’s going to deal with adversity like John does and he will get his guys better... A lot of young guys. When we were going through the scouting report, it was freshman, freshman, freshman.

And when you’ve got a guy that obviously they’ve counted on up to this point, and obviously everybody’s watched him play through the years, he’s a valuable part.

But I can assure you this, that whatever deck that John’s got he’s going to coach that. He’s not going to sit around and say, ‘Well, we don’t have this, we don’t have that.’ He’s going to take what he’s got and try to make the most out of it.

Follow-up question about D.J. Wagner’s impact on Kentucky.

We were very concerned about (Kentucky’s) guard, whether he was going to be playing or not. We knew that he’s a guy that can get to the mid-range, he’s got a terrific left hand, going to the glass. But in terms of how we would have prepared, probably not anything differently.

We maybe would have mixed up some different ball screen coverages, but we do that every game depending on who it is, how it’s going. But in terms of the preparation, we talked about their guards, and trying to keep them out of transition, talked about how important it was to get good shots and not let them get out and go. But in terms of the preparation, it was the same.

Question about how Tennessee handled the loud environment at Rupp Arena, after not handling a road crowd at North Carolina well earlier this season.

Well, again, not to take anything away from North Carolina, but after coming back from Maui, those Maui Blues, it hurts you.

But we fall back in the game, but we played at Wisconsin this year. We had an exhibition game at Michigan State that was sold out. We’ve played a really difficult schedule, at times I wondered ‘Did it help us? Did it not?’ We were playing pretty good, we came out of the week off and we weren’t very good.

But, the fact is our older guys, as I mentioned earlier, they’ve been in this building many times and we’ve been in, this league has some really great home-court advantages in terms of the fans are into it. But I’ve said many times, playing at home too, I think our fans are the best in the country, but those older guys... They’re the ones who have been in big arenas and loud crowds. I thought they handled themselves well.

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