Rick Barnes looked down at the stat sheet in front of him on Tuesday night, tapping his finger down the page as he searched for the numbers to help him explain his Tennessee team’s not-good-enough 74-68 win over visiting Tennessee Tech.

“One stat that we should start putting on here is when players say ‘my bad,’” the second-year Tennessee coach said, deadpanning another one of his usual one-liners.



“Like, no kidding (it’s your bad),” Barnes added. “‘My bads’ get you beat. Just fundamental things you can’t do.”



The Vols led by as many as 22 points early in the second half. The lead slipped down to as little as four, aided by a drought of six minutes, 27 seconds between made field goals.



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“I thought after we dunked the ball once or twice, the guys acted like a bunch of high school guys where they thought the game was over with,” Barnes said. “Then we just started jacking some threes up there, and it doesn’t take long when you play against a team that’s well coached and plays hard. They got comfortable and made us have to make plays at the end to win.



“We’ve shown that we can play well. What we haven’t shown is that we can play a really solid 40 minutes. That what we haven’t shown. Just really bad decisions.”



And it starts at point guard, the position Barnes watches more closely than any other on the floor, the one he’s more openly critical of than any other on the floor.



“Our point guard play, too many bad decisions,” Barnes said. “You go back and look at point guard play again tonight, Shembari (Phillips) had two turnovers, I think Lamonte (Turner) had three.”



They combined to score 25 points, but the negatives outweighed the positives.



Barnes said guard play was responsible for 50 percent of the points allowed during Tennessee’s 73-71 loss on Sunday at No. 7 North Carolina, when Phillips and Turner combined to commit eight turnovers. It wasn’t any better Tuesday against Tennessee Tech.



Phillips wasn’t good enough on the defensive end, which Barnes said should be “his calling card.” Sure, Turner started the game by going 4-for-4 from the 3-point line, but he didn’t get the ball in the post enough in between made treys.



And don’t expect a magic wand to be waved when injured freshman Jordan Bone, Tennessee’s starter at point guard in the season’s first two games, returns from the stress fracture in his left foot that has sidelined him for the last six games.



“Everyone is talking about Bone coming back,” Barnes said, “but he won’t just come back and everything is going to be like poof and everything is going to be better.



“He’s going to have to work his way back in.”



Tennessee built a 21-point lead in the first half, thanks in large part to 11 assists on 16 field goals and just one turnover.



“I’m not thinking about that part right now,” Barnes said with a grin when asked about the first half. “I think it shows what we’re capable of.”



So did the second half, when 13 turnovers were committed against just six assists.

“We just have to stay on edge, play the game, not the score,” senior guard Robert Hubbs said after scoring a team-high 25 points. “It starts with me. I have to do a better job of communicating with our guys and just trying to pass it on. They follow my lead.”



Barnes said didn't mention Hubbs when talking about the "my bad" moments.

He did call out his point guards at length, though, during his postgame press conference, while Turner and Phillips stood just a few feet away awaiting media obligations of their own.



They took the words in stride. Getting called out is nothing new.



“If the point guard doesn’t operate, then the team doesn’t,” Phillips said. “The point guard is what gets the team going. It’s your quarterback.”



And right now there are too many interceptions.



“The point guard is the central position on the floor, so of course he’s going to be harder on that position,” Phillips said. “That’s the guy that starts the offense, that picks it up at the front court.



“Everything starts with the point in most cases. It’s only right for (Barnes) to be hard on that guy, for him to be on his P’s and Q’s every time he’s on the floor.”

Barnes jokingly called over to his players as his press conference wrapped up, asking who led the team in the “my bad” stat column.

Hubbs quickly reached around Phillips’ back, pointing to his sophomore teammate. Phillips later declined to dispute the accusation.



“No comment,” he said with a laugh, acknowledging that the point had already been made.

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