KNOXVILLE - Even two days later, the mistake still was bothering Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes.
It probably upset freshman point guard Jordan Bone even more.
Barnes lamented how the Volunteers handled the final minutes of Saturday's loss at Florida, and though he called it "my fault as much as anybody's," it could be a valuable learning tool for Bone as he continues in his role as starting point guard.
"I was telling Jordan to go or yelling 'timeout,' and if they don't hear it, they don't hear it," Barnes said Monday. "When he was standing there dribbling the ball, you can't dribble - he and I watched the film on the way back. He sat beside me on the plane and we watched it and I'm talking to him about it.
"The fact is he doesn't know. The guys didn't help him, either. They just stopped playing, and he was waiting on somebody, but in that situation as a point guard you can't wait. He wants to be perfect. I know the kid so well, and it kills him that he can't. He'll be the first to tell you that he's learning a lot about this."
Nearing the middle of his first season with the Vols, Bone is more of a freshman than any other first-year player - excluding injured John Fulkerson and the redshirting Jalen Johnson - because he missed nine games while recovering from a stress fracture in his left foot.
Tonight's game against South Carolina will be the Nashville resident's seventh game, and each contest is sure to include a new lesson for Bone, who's averaging nearly seven points and three assists a game this season.
Those lessons at times could be tough for Bone to handle.
"Believe me, when you sit there and watch the tape with him, you realize you're dealing with a young person that is learning something that he's never been involved with," Barnes said. "The tough part about it is he truly wants to do the right thing. It breaks his heart that he doesn't understand it the way he wants to, but that's why we love him, because he's tough.
"That's one thing I'll tell you about Jordan: He's tough. I'm hard on him for a reason, and that part of it, he's shown us as a coaching staff that he's tough. But now in terms of learning the game and understanding time, score and situation, he doesn't do that. As a staff we love him. We know he has a great future. Nobody is wanting it any more than he does."
In Bone's absence, sophomore Shembari Phillips and redshirt freshman Lamonte Turner primarily handled the point guard duties, with freshman Kwe Parker chipping in spot minutes.
All of them have shown inexperience and inconsistency, and Bone is the most natural point guard of the group. He's an unselfish player - "sometimes to a fault," Barnes said - who doesn't look for his shot first. His speed has impressed Barnes, and his midrange pull-up jump shot is a growing part of his offensive game.
Barnes said the Vols "don't have a choice" but to get better play from their point guards, and as Bone continues to develop, the problem should fix itself as the season progresses.
"He missed nine games and he's probably really only had about five or six practices before we jumped into this, all told," Barnes said. "He'll learn. We love him as a kid. He's looking for help, and it's my job and our staff's job to help him keep growing, and he will. We've got total confidence in him, and we knew that he's going to make some mistakes."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.