Rick Barnes evaluates team's first-half performance, praises Dalton Knecht

finished the first half on a 9-1 run to secure a 30-25 lead over before the break. Nonetheless, UT head coach Rick Barnes isn’t satisfied.

“We seemed like we waited forever to play,” Barnes said. “I thought we were both a bit slow to get going, but we buckled in. I liked the way our guys stayed with it. We had too many unforced mistakes and missed free throws, but we did close out well.”

Tennessee guard Dalton Knecht led all scorers in the first half, scoring 15 points while shooting 5-9 from the field and 3-4 from beyond the arc. Barnes would like to see Knecht be even more aggressive in the second half.

“I still want to see him be more aggressive,” Barnes said. “He had a couple of chances where he could have backed them down and still do some of the things we’d like him to do and he didn’t. But, he’s played a lot of minutes too, but he’ll he’ll figure it out.”

Tennessee and Syracuse will resume play shortly. Follow along on ESPN2. This story will be updated.