Tennessee Starter Sends Clear Message on Rick Barnes After March Madness Elimination
The Tennessee Volunteers fell short of the Final Four for the 10th time in head coach Rick Barnes’ tenure, and once again, the Volunteers couldn’t get past the Elite Eight.
Tennessee fell behind early against the No. 1 seed Houston Cougars in the Midwest region final, trailing 34-15 at the halftime break, and it ultimately spelled the end of another promising season for the Volunteers.
Barnes and the Volunteers fell short in the Elite Eight for the second season in a row, dropping a 69-50 game against Houston at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
An emotional Jahmai Mashack, who is a starting guard for Tennessee, voiced a clear message of support for Barnes following the loss.
“It’s really not about me,” Mashack said after the loss. “I don’t care about getting any of the glory. I don’t care about getting any accolades, nothing like that. I just care about really shining a light on this guy right here, shining a light on these two right here, because I see them putting in so much work. I’ve seen coach Barnes be the most consistent person every time, even though we fight, we get into it, you know, it just seems like we don’t want to talk to each other anymore, but we go right back to practice. We get right back to coaching like he loves to coach me, he knows how much I put into this game, but I wanted to get that for him.
“I really wanted to get that for him. I really wanted people to realize how good of a coach he is. Communication can be off sometimes between him and the players, and that happens, but man, I wanted to get there for him. I wanted to get there for Vol fans, I wanted them to have something they could be proud of.”
Mashack started every game for Tennessee this season, averaging 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. He shot 45.5% from the field and 36.4% from 3-point range.
In the loss to Tennessee, Mashack scored four points and grabbed five rebounds (three of which were on the offensive glass).
Mashack has spent four seasons at Tennessee, playing in 137 games (59 starts).
