Tennessee opened its 2024-25 campaign to mixed results on Monday.

The No. 12 Vols beat Gardner-Webb, 80-64 at Food City Center, starting slow before leading by as much as 27 during the second half before the Runnin' Bulldogs used an 18-4 run to close the gap in the last five minutes.

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There were some highlight performances from Tennessee (1-0), most notably from transfer guard Chaz Lanier, who led the team in scoring with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and four 3-pointers.

Jordan Gainey was another bright spot off the bench, scoring 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting in 28 minutes of playing time.

Barnes was overall pleased with the outing, outside of Gardner-Webb's scoring stretch that put the Runnin' Bulldogs back in it after it looked like Tennessee was on its way to a convincing win.

Barnes talked about that and more following the game. Here is everything he said.

"(This) is a really good opener for us. I mean, an extremely well-coached team. And we knew that coming in. They were going to do what we thought, and they do it well. They adjusted at the end where they were just driving it, putting their bodies on us, taking us down low. Defensively, I thought we were OK for the most part other than, you know, what we gave them with turnovers and second chance points.

"But I say gave them credit. They went and took it and made made good with it. But, the fact that they showed different defenses was, again, great for us. And I thought for the most part, our guys handled that OK. The last five minutes, I didn't think we were very good when too many guys that weren't aware of the clock and the situation. I don't I don't care what the score is. Just playing the game the right way. We didn't do that very well in the last five minutes the way we needed to.

"But, Chaz (Lanier) has the ability to to do that. I thought Jordan (Gainey) was terrific coming off the bench, and he gives us such a spark. And we got these minutes down where we'd we'd like to have him because Jordan is a guy that can play multiple positions out there."

"Chaz, I thought he really tried to work hard defensively. For the most part, he had a couple breakdowns where when the post guys started going in there and he kind of stood and watched and let some guys sneak inside of him to actually, offensive rebound. But he'll get better. We all have to get better, obviously. But (Gardner-Webb) is a really, extremely well coached team, and they play hard, and their point guard (Darryl Simmons II) was terrific. I mean, he just played outstanding basketball."

"I think he's gotten better in a lot of different areas. I mean, he has really become one of our best players in a ball-screen situation. I think he's a guy that can score at all three levels. And defensively, he's working at it, to get better like all players have to. He's very unselfish. He's always a team-first guy. And he should be confident in everything that he does because of the time and attention he puts into the details that we want. He has improved so much in ball screens and attacking the rim, those type areas."

"Honestly, since I've known Felix, it's probably the toughest day he's had. But to not make excuses, to tell the truth, he's got a really pretty serious hip pointer. But he absolutely refuses to come out of practice and play in the game. I mean, he's going to play play, and I thought he was slow getting off the ball, which he's not normally slow at doing that. But I'm really proud of the fact that--I don't know if you've ever dealt with a hip pointer, you know what it's like. And I can show you the film and facts where he's almost trying to protect it with his hip.

"But from a production standpoint, since I've known him, this might be the worst day he's had. But he'll he'll work at it, and he'll get better. I'm talking about more offensively. Defensively, I thought he tried to do the things that we asked him to do."

"It changes a lot because the fact that he can be someone that could actually get to see off the ball a little bit. He's been around four years and he just does so many things. He understands how we want play, for one. I don't think he forces things. He's starting to understand exactly where he needs to get to on the floor with his spots in space. I've always mentioned that the game is about space and knowing where to attack for yourself to be effective, and there's no doubt he's figuring that out more and more. He's just working hard, and he's working hard on both ends, and he cares a lot. And the fact is, I think he can get better."

"We're a different team. I mean, we're a whole different team than we were a year ago. I mean, we're we're a young team in some ways. And we're young in the fact we haven't played that much together. I mean, you think about it. Certainly, you know, you got two, three guys. Jordan (Gainey), Zakai (Zeigler) and Jahmai (Mashack) have been in high level games, Elite Eight games. They understand what it's like. Those other guys have no clue. Now we've got guys that sit on the bench and watched it, until they get enough time out there to run and play. Like, I thought Cade (Phillips) really settled down more in the second half, and Cade can be a a very effective player for us. But then you bring in the transfers. It's new to them. It's all new to them. The level, what we expect on the defensive end and, again, on the offensive end, put it all together. So, we realize this is a old, new team. It's got a chance to start a race on their own, and we talked about that before the game.

"And and we're going to road (vs. Louisville) purposely to play a team that we know that's going to be an outstanding team and see what we can do and continue to build to get better. We've got to get better, and everybody knows that this time of year. But other than the last five minutes, there were there were a lot more positives than negatives. But I want to play 40 minutes, mentally, the game the right way. Again, making shots, that might not happen. But in terms of making wise decisions and understanding the value of the ball, those type things. We ought to be able to do that for 40 minutes defensively. You got to respect the other team for some of the things that they did. Like tonight, their point guard did a terrific job. I mean, they really did. And and they battled. They played hard. They never stopped playing.

"I was so impressed. I thought their bench stayed with them throughout the game. And, there's no doubt they came in here with the attitude that they knew they could beat us. And the way we worked the game early, I thought was really good from our point of view. And then when we had a big lead, we showed that we're not ready to be where we need to be because they kept playing in a smart way, and and we didn't. So, again, give them great credit. And it's my fault, at the end of the game when we don't play the way that we do. That's on me, and it's up to me to fix it."

“Better decisions and understand you can’t come out of timeouts and just throw the ball away and bounce the ball in there. And knowing when you go for the big play, the explosive play, and when you don’t. Players can’t break out, go one-on-one, spin dribble, lose the ball. Just not understanding the clock situation, all that, but we’ll fix it.”

“I mean, you got to play these games. And, again, I think our guys I mean, if you think about it— those guys came from this level, basically, if that’s what you want to talk about. The levels don’t matter anymore. I mean, those guys, I could talk about them all night. Their schemes, what they were doing, and how hard they were trying to get done what they practice. And, again, you always love watching the teams when you watch film of them going in and you see them coming up really trying to continue to execute what they’re trying to do. That team is gonna win a lot of games. And they adjusted. Coach did a good job. We were really trying to work hard and trying to run them off the line. I thought they did a really good job when we were jumping heavy gap, going back over top, getting downhill that way. Just a little subtle things that, from a coaching standpoint, you really appreciate. And then they were putting their head down some. Just trying to kinda bully us. Not bully, but just playing with a lot of aggression going downhill. And then late in the game, we adjusted a little bit. We don’t want to give up threes and we want them obviously, to have to fight for tough twos. But it was a really, this time of year, again, we work hard in trying to schedule the right way.

“It doesn’t do us any good to schedule someone on paper that we’re supposed to beat by 40, 50. It doesn’t do it. Games like this help us. Regardless of — even when we were up 27, 28, whatever it was; our guys learned tonight that other teams have a lot of pride, a lot of heart. They’re not gonna stop playing.

“If they had made that push more around the eight or nine-minute mark like that, who knows. And if you think about it, (we) ended up winning by 16. It’s 5 possessions. That’s all that is. Five possessions. So I give them a lot of credit for how hard they fought when they were down. I didn’t think at any point in time they teetered. I thought they kept doing all the things that well-coached teams do. We got the lead and we didn’t play like a well-coached team, and again, that’s my fault.”

“I thought we had some (rebounds). And, again, obviously, when you get in there and start backing down, pushing, all that. There’s a lot of balls that break loose like that, but we thought they would be a good rebounding team because we knew they were going to drive it hard, and we were going to have to rotate and have that rotation, get back to try to block out, those types of things. But it’s not up to the standard that we have to have to go where we want to go.”

“(The) timetable (for his return) is with him right now. We’re leaving it up to him. He’s around, and he’s still here with us every day, and we just wanna make sure he knows that we’re there for him and everyone around has been. Tough time for him, just personally, that I think he’s dealt with it for a while. But we love him to death and we miss him, but it’s up to him.”

“First of all, I’m really proud of him because after shoot around today, he didn’t go through shoot around with us. And so that was, you talk about a game time decision, because I told Bob Kesling during the pregame radio thing that we do that he’s not gonna play. And then I come out of there, we’re actually in the film room, we get a text that JP thinks he wants to go, which I think is a major step for him because is he 100%? No.

"But I thought his minutes were valuable for us tonight. And to get to the shape that he needs to be in, he’s gonna have to do things like he did tonight because it’s not just gonna happen. It won’t just happen. And the longer the train starts rolling and he’s not a part of it, the harder it is for him to catch up. And he can be a real force for us if he can just get healthy, stay healthy. But I’m proud of him because he, again, was not a 100% and he fought through it.”

“He’s an elite defender, and he doesn’t get credit for that. I think if more people kept up with deflections--at the end of the year, everybody wants to probably vote a defensive player of the year based on steals and things like that. But his deflections--we play small ball with him because we think he can guard anybody on the court. He’s got really active hands. We’ve talked about fix-it guys, being one of those great fix-it guys, but that’s just what he’s great at, and he takes great pride in it. He wants to get his hands up, be active. We’ve got to get more people doing it. But that’ll be another great thing from the film that we can show his teammates where we can impact the game by just doing that.”

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