Gameday on Rocky Top

Scoreboard.

Tennessee and Memphis haven’t met on the basketball court since 2013, but it didn’t take long for the rivalry to re-heat. The Vols seized control early, didn’t falter when the Tigers threatened to rally or when the refs got whistle happy, and ultimately cruised to a high-scoring 102-92 victory over the cross-state rivals Saturday afternoon. The game even featured some late drama in the form of offsetting technicals just to make sure the stage is set for next year’s meeting at Thompson-Boling.

The Vols exploded out of the gate, with Kyle Alexander winning the tip and immediately racing to the basket for a dunk on a quick assist from Grant Williams. From there, the Vols piled up the points with the Tigers stuck on 5, and by the time the clock read 15:29, Tennessee had a 19-5 lead. They kept what was essentially a 10-point cushion the rest of the way.

That’s not to say that things didn’t get interesting, as UT had to both weather a whistle storm and fend off the increasingly pesky Tigers. The first sign of trouble was Jordan Bone getting two fouls in the first two-and-a-half minutes, and the foul situation just worsened for both teams from there. It was like the officials just got new whistles for Christmas or something. In all, there were 57 fouls in the game, plus three technicals. At one point, you got the feeling that the players were as focused on selling fouls to the officials as they were executing their plays. I’ve never seen so many flops in such a short time span. Remarkably, only one player — Memphis’ Tyler Harris — actually fouled out of the game, as the refs did at least seem content to share the misery equally.

To complicate matters, Memphis really turned up the pressure as the game went on, and they were marginally successful at transforming the game into one of havoc and chaos. Tennessee committed 18 turnovers to the Tigers’ 9. And with the trigger happy officials watching for any opportunity to use their new toys, the usually-stifling Vols’ defense had real trouble keeping Memphis’ Kyvon Davenport off the scoreboard. At one point in the game, Davenport had 18 points in a row for the Tigers.

But none of that was sufficient to derail a focused Tennessee team. Once again, they rode the broad shoulders of Admiral Schofield, who netted another double-double with 29 points and 11 rebounds. He was 8-12 from the field, 4-8 from three, and a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line.

Williams and Bone played the supporting roles this afternoon, adding 19 and 17 points, respectively. Bone was 11-12 at the free throw line.

Jordan Bowden and Kyle Alexander also hit double digits in points, and at one point Alexander had an amazing stretch during which he blocked a three-point attempt, hit a three-pointer himself, and drew a charge on three consecutive possessions. He may not have ever cooled off if it weren’t for a Bone-to-Bowden alley-oop on the following possession.

In all, this was a terrific game for the Vols. They could have been complacent or otherwise lackadaisical after the big win over No. 1 Gonzaga last week, but they came out, seized control early, and never let go.

The cherry on top was that the game had that good old-fashioned rivalry feel to it when tempers flared as destiny settled in on the Tigers. This team is always fun to watch, but especially so against teams you love to beat.

In a year when the Vols weren’t ranked third and didn’t just beat number one, this would still be a weekend for celebration. In this year, reflecting on the return of the Tennessee-Memphis rivalry is a joy on multiple levels.

The Vols and Tigers met annually from 1988-89 through 2001-02. Only six of those games featured a ranked Tennessee or Memphis squad: three for each side, and never in the same year. One of those came in December 1992, when #8 Memphis led by Penny Hardaway came to Knoxville and lost 70-59 to Allan Houston’s Vols. 

Memphis won the next three, then Kevin O’Neill and Jerry Green put together a five-game winning streak. Buzz Peterson’s first team lost by two to John Calipari’s first team, and then Calipari helped keep the rivalry paused.

It made me smile to read The Athletic’s oral history of the 2008 1 vs 2 Vols/Tigers clash:

“We went to their practice and Calipari expressed how much he did not like Tennessee in so many words. He was like, This is not a game. This is a war.”

Doc Evans, brother of Tyreke Evans

When it stopped, Buzz Peterson was trying to reload from Jerry Green’s four straight NCAA Tournament runs. Calipari was trying to rebuild his own image after sanctions at UMass and a failed three-year stint with the New Jersey Nets. Memphis hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in six years.

One part recruiting, one part football, one part Calipari – who would later champion playing anyone, anywhere, anytime, but clearly never wanted Tennessee home-and-home. By the time it returned in January 2006, Bruce Pearl was at Tennessee and Memphis was ranked fourth under Calipari. Pearl was a couple weeks away from the win over Florida that truly sparked that first-year run, and Memphis won at home 88-79 with Pearl raising Dane Bradshaw’s hand at the scorer’s table late in the game. But by the time it rolled back around the following year, the Vols were ready, and Chris Lofton put on what remains the single best individual performance from a Tennessee player in my post-Ernie/Bernie lifetime.

From there we got 1 vs 2, the first of three straight road wins in the series. Calipari went to Kentucky, then the Tigers went 3-0 against Cuonzo Martin the first two years, including a double overtime classic in Maui.

And then it was gone again. But now it’s back, for at least the next three years.

Calipari’s argument was, in part, that Tennessee benefited from playing Memphis far more than Memphis from playing Tennessee. If that was ever true while the two teams were playing, it was only in Pearl’s first year. The Vols were the Tigers’ equal on the floor afterward, and when Calipari left and Memphis bounced from a depleted Conference USA to the American? Now the opportunity has shifted hard to the Tigers.

Under Rick Barnes the Vols recruit nationally and successfully. Under Penny Hardaway, the spark is back on the banks of the Mississippi in ways Josh Pastner could never duplicate and Tubby Smith threatened to extinguish entirely. The Tigers haven’t made the NCAA or NIT since 2014. But Hardaway is doing work on the recruiting trail, including 7’0″ Memphis East five-star James Wiseman. 

Maybe my favorite part: while Pearl’s Tennessee teams quickly became the equal to Calipari’s Memphis teams, Barnes’ Tennessee teams have done the same with Calipari’s at Kentucky. Rick Barnes is 4-3 against the Cats at UT: his Vols are undefeated against Kentucky in Knoxville, beat the Cats in Rupp last season, won the SEC title and are currently ranked #3 to Kentucky’s #19. 

I’m grateful for Calipari the way Memphis fans should be grateful for Pearl: those two personalities gave that rivalry that little extra something. But this new chapter is exciting as well, with Barnes proving the Vols can be a stable force on the national scene, and Hardaway putting the Tigers back on the path to joining them. Fighting and blaming aside (on both sides), Tennessee and Memphis should play each other every year, no matter who thinks who gets the greater benefit. Both programs should be good enough to sustain it, and the rivalry deserves it.

This time around? Memphis is 5-4 and 118th in KenPom, but properly tested against the tier above them. Their best win is your choice of Yale in 2OT (99th KenPom) or South Dakota State (77th). But they also have a nine-point losses to LSU and an 11-point loss to #11 Texas Tech, who they led by nine at halftime before getting blown out in the second half.

The Tigers live by forcing turnovers (25th in turnover percentage) and getting offensive rebounds (33rd). 5’9″ freshman Tyler Harris is getting some early hype, knocking down 39.5% from three. But Hardaway is also getting the most out of his upperclassmen: 6’8″ senior Kyvon Davenport and 6’6″ senior Raynere Thornton are the forces on the glass, and Memphis can go small and aggressive on defense in a hurry.

The ascension in Knoxville, the hope in Memphis, and the rivalry itself should make for all kinds of fun tomorrow. High noon, ESPN. Welcome back, Memphis. I’m sure we’ll both keep pretending the other side missed it more than we did.

Go Vols.

Let’s rank yesterday even though it’s way too early to do so without the context of the entire season!

There are two clear-cut games at the top of my list. The Sweet 16 win over Ohio State will stand until the Vols make it to the Final Four; bonus points there from the 2007 Sweet 16 loss to the Buckeyes, properly avenged. And 1 vs 2 with Memphis in 2008 is fairly unassailable for the rest of all of our lives: the rivalry, Calipari, an undefeated Memphis and the Vols ascending to number one is once-in-a-lifetime stuff.

But after those two, it kind of depends on what you prefer. There’s a separate list of best Kentucky wins – last year at Rupp, Lofton at Rupp, beating them on the last day of the regular season to win the SEC East in Knoxville in 1999 (my personal favorite). There are wins on the way up, like 2006 vs Florida, that carry a “I can’t believe we’re doing this” quality. And that’s really how to best describe the last win over number one, when the Vols beat Kansas in 2010 after four players were suspended or dismissed just ten days earlier. 

Yesterday was not, “I can’t believe we’re doing this.” That felt like an Elite Eight game (or maybe a Final Four game, who knows!). It was two legitimate title contenders trading blows for 40 minutes; the 2008 Memphis game is the only comparison there. If that’s more your style – and hopefully it becomes more our style going forward – then I think you can make a case for that game as high as #3 on your list.

For me personally, I’m going 2010 Ohio State, 2008 Memphis, 1999 Kentucky, then yesterday, followed by 2010 Kansas and 2006 Florida. The rest of the season will determine how high or low it ultimately lands. Either way, it’s in pretty good company.

Perhaps even more impressive: let’s rank Admiral Schofield’s performance

The best individual performance I’ve seen from a Tennessee player is Chris Lofton vs Memphis in December 2006. People forget it because that shot over Durant was 17 days later, but in that game Lofton had 35 on only 8-of-24 shooting (plus 12-of-13 at the line). Against #17 Memphis, Lofton was 12-of-18, 6-of-11 from three, and scored 21 of his 34 points in the first half. It’s the best offensive performance – not just best three-point shooting – against a good team I’ve ever seen at Tennessee.

Yesterday, Schofield had 30 on #1 Gonzaga. He had 25 in the second half, and 11 in the last 3:18, including the game-winner.  

There have been some epic performances in school history. The iconic Ernie and Bernie games are both legion and before my time; the media guide highlights Ernie putting 43 on Kentucky in 1976, while Bernie had 40+ five different times. In my lifetime, Allan Houston had 43 in a 119-113 loss to LSU in Shaq’s freshman year. Ron Slay had 38, but the quality of opponent (New Mexico) will keep him a little further down the list. More recently we’ve seen Grant Williams with 37 at Vanderbilt and Kevin Punter with 36 vs #24 South Carolina.  

I think it’s at least safe to say that Schofield’s performance yesterday was the best we’ve seen since Lofton. In the aforementioned Lofton-at-Rupp game in 2006, he had 31 on 7-of-10 from the arc, Tennessee’s first win in Lexington in seven years. I’d still put the Lofton-vs-Memphis performance at number one, and probably Lofton-at-Rupp number two. But Schofield yesterday might be number three in the post-Allan Houston era. He was a volume shooter all day, but the late flurry helped him finish at 12-of-22 and 6-of-10 from the arc. Gonzaga wasn’t known for their defense, but that was still the number one team in the nation. Again, pretty good list to be on. 

Tennessee took 72 shots to Gonzaga’s 59, pulled down 16 offensive rebounds and only turned it over seven times. The Zags countered by getting to the free throw line: 19 attempts to Tennessee’s 10, though either team shooting it better could’ve won today with the Vols at 60% and Gonzaga at 63%. If you were a casual fan just watching two Top 10 teams, you got your money’s worth: Hachimura and Clarke each had 21 for Gonzaga, while Schofield – we’ll get to him in a minute – had 30 and Grant Williams added 16-12-7.

The box score at ESPN lists only six blocked shots in this game – four for the Vols, two for Gonzaga – but it felt like thrice as many. We knew going in these were two of the best shot-blocking teams in the nation, and boy did it live up to it. Brandon Clarke had one of the best blocks I’ve ever seen in my life on Yves Pons; Tennessee has a player like Pons who will try to dunk with no regard for his own life for the first time in forever. But the Vols answered with blocks that would have seemed spectacular had they taken place in any other game, but were just as critical. Two of them belonged to John Fulkerson, who played a bunch as the Vol bigs were saddled with foul trouble in the first half.

The threat of those blocks definitely affected Tennessee, especially after offensive rebounds. Jordan Bone was 2-for-13, Kyle Alexander had only two points, and Schofield took 22 shots.

But he made them count.

Gonzaga led by nine with 6:15 to play. The Vols stayed alive behind Jordan Bowden and Jordan Bone: a Bowden three, a Bone fast break layup, and another Bowden three cut it to three less than 90 seconds later. Grant Williams scored to get it back to three with 3:38 to play. 

Schofield would bury a three to tie it on the next possession, but the story shifted back to Grant Williams, who fouled out with 2:49 to play. Williams missed the overtime against #2 Kansas in Brooklyn, and the Vols failed to get a stop in the extra session without him, ultimately falling to the Jayhawks. 

Not this time.

After Williams fouled out, the Zags sank three free throws. But they went 0-for-4 from the floor. Meanwhile, the Vols went to Schofield:

• Three to tie it at 68 at 3:18
• Jumper to pull within one at 2:19
• Banked three for the lead at 1:20
• NBA three for the lead for good with 24 seconds left

With Gonzaga looking for answers, Jordan Bowden did a fantastic job covering Zach Norvell and denying him the ball. Norvell and Schofield had been jawing for most of the second half (what kind of crazy person talks to Schofield, I have no idea). The Admiral got the last laugh.

Gonzaga had not scored less than 81 points this year. They left with 73 and a loss today. Tennessee beat the number one team in the nation for the first time since 2010, and you’d be hard pressed to find a win like this in the eight years since. 

A game like this in December is really about March, where last year the Vols won the SEC. But a win like this in December allows us to take a look at the ceiling and nod. Yep, it’ll hold.

Go Vols.

Gonzaga will be the third KenPom Top 50 opponent the Vols have faced in their first eight games. But we’re only scheduled to face three others between mid-December and mid-February. Tennessee’s SEC schedule is back-loaded this year: both dates with Kentucky fall in the last seven games, and the regular season ends with Mississippi State and Auburn. Other than those three conference foes, the only current KenPom Top 50 teams left on the schedule are Florida (January 12 & February 9) and West Virginia (January 26).

If Tennessee is thinking about a one seed and wants to get there via something other than a run at an undefeated season in SEC play, this would be a good win to get. When it’s the team with #1 next to their name on the other side, you typically don’t need additional motivation. But the Vols, having already flirted with #2 Kansas, have earned the right to think about more than just beating the top team for a day.

To do that? Defense better travel.

Gonzaga is number one in KenPom’s offensive ratings. They hung 91 on Arizona, 89 on Duke, and 103 on Creighton. The Bulldogs shoot 38.8% from three and 61.2% from two. The latter is second-best in the country, and the two combine to give Gonzaga the nation’s fourth best effective field goal percentage. They’re also 13th in turnover percentage, giving the ball away on just 14.7% of possessions.

The Vols have experience facing such a great offense: last year KenPom’s top two offenses belonged to Villanova and Purdue. For Gonzaga, Rui Hachimura gets top billing here – leading scorer, hit the game-winner against Washington on Wednesday – but KenPom loves what Brandon Clarke, Zach Norvell, and Josh Perkins are doing behind him.

Hachimura is more of a volume scorer and gets to the line. If you want raw efficiency, Brandon Clarke is 62-of-86 (72.1%) on the year, 14th nationally in effective field goal percentage and 25th in offensive rebounding percentage. Throw in 6’11” Filip Petrusev off the bench, and the Vols will have their hands full on the defensive interior. It’s easy to spend too much time on Hachimura and simply get beat by Clarke instead.

Luckily, the Vols will bring Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield, and Kyle Alexander to the party. These match-ups when Gonzaga has the ball should be so much fun to watch. Unlike going against Kansas or North Carolina the last two years, the Vols and Gonzaga are built much more in each other’s image: lineups full of upperclassmen, guys who play well together, and multiple ways to beat you.

If the Vols can work Gonzaga to a draw inside, you still have to defend Norvell and Perkins in the back court. Norvell is the designated three-point shooter, launching 8.7 per game and hitting 38.5%. Perkins is the senior point guard, 33rd nationally in assist rate and also plenty capable from three (38.9% on four attempts per game) and a 90% free throw shooter. There are no weak spots, and those four guys all run 26-32 minutes per game.

The good news: Tennessee is 12th nationally in defensive efficiency. The Vols are capable of defending well enough to win this thing.

Is Gonzaga? They beat Duke in part because R.J. Barrett went 9-of-25 and the Blue Devils didn’t defend well against Gonzaga’s ball screens. They bested Creighton by getting to the line 17 more times than their opponent. And their last-second win over Washington included Gonzaga shooting 19-of-19 at the line.

I expect Tennessee to offer a greater challenge on the defensive end than Washington, Creighton, and Duke-in-Maui (as opposed to Duke-in-March). And the Vols should also be just as capable, if not more so, of attacking on the offensive end. Gonzaga does not force turnovers, 295th nationally. Opportunities should be there for Tennessee to run its offense and take advantage, even if Lamonte Turner is still limited.

Perhaps the biggest question for this game: who wins the shot-blocking/foul-calling battle? Gonzaga is 48th in shot-blocking percentage and 41st in fewest shots blocked. The Vols are 23rd in shot-blocking percentage and fourth in the nation in fewest shots blocked, getting rejected on just 3.8% of attempts. Tennessee is slightly better at shot-blocking, Gonzaga slightly better at getting to the line. But the single best player at getting to the line in this game is still Grant Williams.

This one should be all kinds of fun. Kansas proved we’re at the point where we can take Tennessee quite seriously in beating the number one team in the nation. Let’s go do it.

Sunday, 3:00 PM in Phoenix, where great things involving number one teams have happened to this university before. Put some orange in your Advent wardrobe on Sunday morning.

Go Vols.