Vols coach says Jayhawks ‘deserved to win’ after losing to KU in Vegas. Here’s why
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Barnes credited Kansas for outcompeting Tennessee late and earning the win.
- Kansas rallied from 12 down by outshooting and outrebounding Tennessee late.
- KU won despite injuries; Peterson awaits tests and Dawson listed day-to-day.
Rick Barnes has coached enough games in his basketball career against Kansas — in his stints at Tennessee and Texas — to realize a 12-point second-half lead against the Jayhawks does not guarantee victory.
“I know Kansas has respect for our program. I know that and they came out and second half I thought they outcompeted us when it counted,” Tennessee coach Barnes said Wednesday after the Jayhawks outscored the Vols 47-35 in the final half after trailing 41-34 at the break.
The result was an 81-76 Kansas victory in the third place game at the 18-team Players Era tournament at MGM Grand Garden Arena,.
“That’s the hardest thing to take when they’re doing things that we could have done,” Barnes said. “But I don’t want to take anything from them. It’s a compliment to them because I thought they deserved to win the game.”
Barnes’ No. 17-ranked Vols, who had defeated No. 3 Houston 76-73 in the second round after a first-round win over Rutgers, suffered their first defeat of the 2025-26 season after seven victories. Unranked KU improved to 6-2.
“I thought when we were up, Kansas kept playing and we didn’t do the things that got us up,” Barnes said. “We didn’t do it on the offensive end or defensive end and they obviously started driving the ball and we fouled too much. They deserved to win the game because at the end they needed to get done and we didn’t.”
The Jayhawks, who hit 42.1% of their shots, held Tennessee to 31.3% shooting in the second half, storming back from a 12-point deficit with 15:49 to play.
Tennessee hit 7 of 25 three-point attempts; KU made 7 of 17. KU outrebounded the taller Vols 37-36.
“I don’t know that a lot changed,” Self said. “I actually thought we guarded them 40 minutes. I actually thought they made shots in the first half or shots we wanted them to take and they were just good players and made them.”
Tennessee hit 16 of 31 shots in the first half for 51.6%.
“What did we go down, 12? Then it was about to get away from us, and then who would have thought we got better when Tre (White, who fouled out with 8:24 left) was out of the game actually,” Self said. “And Elmarko (Jackson, career high 17 points) played great and Jamari (McDowell, two huge 3’s) made some big plays and Melvin (Council Jr., 17 points, six rebounds, four assists) kind of got into a rhythm and roll.
“But we just kept defending and rebounding. It’s a big deal for us to outrebound that team even though it was only by one. I thought we did a great job with the physicality-type plays.”
The bottom line is KU won without freshman guard Darryn Peterson, who has missed six straight games because of a strained hamstring, as well as guard Jayden Dawson, who hurt his hand in warmups before the first game of the tourney and sat out the final two contests in Las Vegas.
Self said Peterson will undergo testing on Friday, with no determination yet on his availability for the UConn game on Tuesday (8 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse). Dawson is listed day-to-day.
“I think we came here doubting how good we could be, so if anything — we didn’t play bad against Duke (in Champions Classic loss),” Self said. “It was a three-point game with four minutes left, but it wasn’t good enough and too many mental mistakes. I even thought yesterday (in win over Syracuse) and the day before against Notre Dame, I thought we had too many mental mistakes.”
“Today,” Self continued, “I thought we actually played sound. I actually thought we followed what we’re trying to do. I actually thought the ball got to the third side quicker. I actually thought we screened somebody. I actually thought the shots we gave up were the shots we were supposed to give up.
“So that’s encouraging. What it should do is give us confidence that when we are whole, if we can learn to play together, that we can defend and rebound well enough to actually be pretty good.”
