Mercer’s Brady Shoulders ripped the ball free from Tennessee basketball’s Jaylen Carey early in the first half. That set the tone early for what was to be a turnover-heavy night for the Vols.
Despite a 76-61 win to open the season, Tennessee turned the ball over 19 times — compared to five turnovers that it forced from the Bears.
“Sloppy,” head coach Rick Barnes said. “We’ve been sloppy in practice. I’ve told them that again. We want to play quick, fast, but again, I think some guys are playing not, seeing the court the way they need to.”
Primary ball handler Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the distasteful struggles with four turnovers of his own. Then, it was the majority of Barnes’ frontcourt that followed.
Carey and Nate Ament posted three turnovers apiece, followed by Felix Okpara and J.P. Estrella, who each had two. Their size leaves a larger pocket to pick for defenders, but Barnes says his big men mishandled the rock.
“I mean, you’re seven feet tall, you don’t put the ball down by your knees at any point in time,” Barnes said. “Those types of things are really — it’s just unacceptable.”
Part of the credit Barnes left up to the type of team that Mercer is. The Bears, under the direction of head coach Ryan Ridder, forced 12.2 turnovers per game in 2024-25. Barnes credited Mercer as a ‘well-coached team’ and ‘knew they were going to be scrappy,’ but the results from his team leave more to be desired as the season continues.
“The decisions on the passes weren’t very good,” Barnes said. “… We proved the first half that we can end up being a good defensive team. The second half, I thought we let down because of the fact too many guys turned the ball over, and I thought their whole mindset shifted to trying to think ‘I got to score, do something’ and we lost our mindset there defensively.”
Tennessee closed the first half with a 33-21 margin, boasting 11 turnovers. The Vols’ defense made Mercer uncomfortable, forcing the Bears to shoot 21.2% from the field and 5.9% from deep.
And that’s when Barnes noticed the mindset change. Mercer used the second half to make it a competitive affair. If not for a 13-3 jolt in the early stages, Tennessee would not have built a 22-point lead that served to be the difference when the Bears tried to hang around.
Tennessee turned the ball over five times between the 12:34 mark and the 4:34 mark of the second half, and during that span, Mercer mounted a run that pulled within 13 points.
“I think we just got to be more smart,” Estrella said. “I think we got to slow down a little bit. I feel like there was times where um they sped us up, and that’s what got us into turnovers. I mean, yeah, I just feel like we just got sped up. So, I feel like we just got to slow down a little bit, take our time, and just really think about it.”
Though Barnes’ defensive-minded team only forced five turnovers, he was not disappointed in the result. He chalked it up to the fact that Mercer kept the ball in the hands of who it wanted the ball to be in, but also was a factor of the defensive switches that the Vols gameplanned for. Tennessee knew it would face a drive-happy team, so the post guys had to contain the ball — and that’s where Barnes was pleased.
He was not pleased, however, with his effort from the bigs on the offensive end.
“We got the ball inside, and I think our post guys have got to do a better job,” Barnes said. “But we had too many point blank shots and we didn’t, we weren’t even close, andwe’ve got to do that. We need those guys to get fouled to get us to the free throw line more.
“We need our post guys on those to get fouled or give us a better result,” Barnes said.
After Ament garnered seven fouls against Duke in an exhibition, he reeled in another seven on Monday to get the regular season underway. That production is what Barnes wants to see out of his frontcourt.
