Gameday on Rocky Top

Admiral Schofield looks like a linebacker on the basketball court; in Friday night’s 88-53 season-opening win over Presbyterian, he played like one, barreling with reckless abandon over, around and through Blue Hose.

John Fulkerson’s slam dunks (and even missed tomahawk) were thrown down with a little more anger. Ahead by what seemed like 100 in the first half, coach Rick Barnes blazed a hole through the official in a fiery conversation.

Get ready for the season, Tennessee fans. It may be a fun one.

Though you can’t read too much into a win like this one over a horrible team that went 5-27 a year ago and may actually be worse this season, there are plenty of reasons for excitement. Perhaps the biggest is the fact that UT was picked 13th out of 14 SEC teams in the preseason picks.

That couldn’t have sat well. At all.

“We definitely play hard and with a chip on our shoulder,” Fulkerson said, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel‘s Dan Fleser, “but not because of where we’re picked. We want to set a standard.”

If this Tennessee team is No. 13 out of 14 league institutions, I’ll fit into size 32 blue jeans. If that’s the case, Grant Williams is 6’10”. If UT is that bad, I’ll eat the team’s sneakers. That’s just crazy.

The Vols have everything you could want in what looks like the first year Barnes’ vision of Tennessee’s program is taking shape. This team is big, long, lanky and athletic. Though UT won’t be mistaken for Kentucky out there, they can go 6’11”, 6’10”, 6’9″, 6’7″ if they want. Kyle Alexander has added bulk, and Williams has worked on his athleticism. Fulkerson is healthy and playing hard, fast and relentlessly when he’s on the court. The Vols can go big and physical, and freshmen Derrick Walker and Zach Kent played some important minutes in the post.

They also can go quick and guard-oriented. Jordan Bowden was feeling it Friday night, getting in a nice groove shooting. The Vols have other shooters, too, and that was without Lamonte Turner playing a huge role and taking just two shots. Jordan Bone only had nine, and you know those two kids will play bigger offensive occupations for UT this season. Chris Darrington is a smooth player who will score once he gets his ankle right, and James Daniel — the Howard University transfer who led the nation with more than 27 points per game two years ago — took a single shot.

Finally, the Vols have two dependable big swingmen who look dependable. Everybody knows what to expect from Williams, who is 6’7″, but plays more like 6’9″. The super sophomore is a second-team All-SEC player, and he had a quiet 14 points and seven rebounds against the Blue Hose.

Then there’s Schofield. Early last season, he was noticeably absent. Perhaps he got in Barnes’ doghouse, but he wasn’t the player everybody expected he’d become after an impressive freshman season. As the season progressed, he turned into one of the best sixth men in the SEC and wound up the team’s third-leading scorer in SEC play.

On Friday, he looked like the unequivocal team leader who could become the best scorer. Williams is the best all-around player, but it’s obvious Schofield worked on his shot in the offseason. Given his size and athleticism, he can play on both ends of the court. Against Presbyterian, he poured in 22 points in 20 minutes.

The Vols will have plenty of ups and downs this year; they’ve got too much youth not to. But they are talented and can match up well with whatever lineup they play against this season. If they can find a couple of consistent perimeter scorers (Bowden looked like he’d be one, for one night at least) it could be a big year.

This team may not make the NCAA tournament, but it’s a whole lot closer to that than the 13th-ranked team in the SEC, I’ll guarantee that. Just sit back, support this team and watch them grow.

Where they wind up may surprise us all.

88-53 Presbyterian Blue Hose

The Vols gave up the first two points of the game and then strangled the life out of the Blue Hose the rest of the way. When it was all said and done, Tennessee won with its backups on the floor and protecting a 35-point lead for an 88-53 win.

Admiral Schofield led the way with 22 points, but Jordan Bowden and Grant Williams also hit double figures with 15 and 14 respectively. Williams also pulled down seven rebounds.

But this was an all-around team effort with all but four of the 16 players on the roster getting on the scoreboard. For most of the first half, Tennessee was playing so well that you almost felt sorry for the Blue Hose, who seemed like they couldn’t do a single thing right. After scoring the first two points of the game, they didn’t score again until there was 8:41 left in the half, and the Vols had 28 points by then. Presbyterian took only 14 points with them into the locker room.

If you haven’t seen this Vols team play yet, you’re going to like them. It’s actually kind of amazing to watch the substitutions, as it seems like they just constantly roll in really good, really lanky, and really fresh players, wave after wave of guys you’ve never seen before. They have size, they hit threes, they defend well, and they move well as a unit. And tonight at least, they never lost focus even when the game was clearly out of hand. Oh, and Rick Barnes never seemed happy. Not even once.

When you get a chance, catch these guys in action. On a night when #5 Kentucky struggled to a ten-point win over Utah Valley, the Vols were taking care of business and doing it with little flash but plenty of style. It’s going to be really interesting to see what these guys can do against the meat of their schedule.

Tennessee plays again Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. in Knoxville against High point. It’s on SEC Network+ again, so do yourself a favor and get a Chromecast so you can throw that thing to the big screen and enjoy watching these guys play.

Basketball season tips off tonight: the Vols host Presbyterian at 7 PM ET (available online via SEC Network+). Tennessee beat this team by 40 last year; Presbyterian enters the season 341 out of 351 in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings. It should serve (along with hosting High Point on Tuesday) as a soft opening before the Battle 4 Atlantis over Thanksgiving.

We shouldn’t learn a lot before then, but a few things stand out as opportunities for significant improvement from last year. If the Vols are going to play their way onto the bubble in hopes of finishing on the dance floor, they’ll have to be better in three critical areas:

1. Shoot the ball better. 

Rocket science, I know. But this is more than the Cuonzo Martin school of, “We didn’t make shots.” The best way for Tennessee to shoot it better is to get better shots.

We covered this at the old site late last season:  the Vols were 13-1 when they had 16+ assists, 3-15 when they had 15 or less. Overall the Vols shot 42.2% from the floor last season (289th nationally), and just 40.7% in conference play (12th in the SEC). When the offense was humming the Vols shared the ball and created good looks, often for Robert Hubbs or Grant Williams. But the Vols struggled to create their own shots beyond Hubbs, leading to tough twos for guys like Lamonte Turner (35.5% from the floor) and Jordan Bowden (37.1%).

Tennessee also struggled to win ugly, a quality any bubble team needs. The Vols were 13-2 when shooting 42% or better from the floor, including strong performances in losses at North Carolina and at Florida.  But under 42%, the Vols were only 3-14. Tennessee did face the nation’s third most difficult schedule in opponent defensive rating by KenPom, but an improved SEC and Rick Barnes’ choice to schedule for the tournament shouldn’t make things tremendously easier this time around.

I don’t know if we can count on the newcomers to make a huge difference here. James Daniel did put in 27.1 points per game for Howard, but was more of a volume scorer averaging 38.8% from the floor on 19.4 shots per game. Better shooting is still more likely to come from better offense than guys naturally evolving into better jump shooters. This means point guard play, starting with Jordan Bone, will be critical for the Vols this season.

2. …but maybe trying a few more threes wouldn’t hurt.

Last season the Vols were 290th nationally in three pointers attempted and 13th in SEC play. The percentages made sense:  32.6% from the arc overall and 31.8% in league play weren’t inspiring anyone to jack it up more.

Some of the offense’s best performances came with the fewest three point attempts of the season. Against Kentucky the Vols were 5-of-10 from the arc, the fewest attempts of the year. Tennessee also beat Georgia Tech, Kansas State, and Vanderbilt while attempting 15 threes or less. UT’s best three point shooter last year was…Admiral Schofield at 38.9%. There still may not be a great three-point shooter on this roster.

However, the game is evolving to the arc more and more:  last year only two teams earned an at-large bid while taking less than 600 three pointers (Seton Hall and Miami). The Vols took 579. Here again, the solution is better offense:  creating better opportunities for a guy like Grant Williams inside can lead to more open looks for a number of players on the perimeter. In an exhibition win at Clemson, the Vols were 9-of-24 (37.5%) from the arc. Twenty-four attempts would have been the sixth-most taken in all of last season. Of particular note:  in two exhibition games, Grant Williams is 2-of-4 from the arc and Admiral Schofield is 3-of-7. Williams averaged one three attempt per game last year, Schofield 1.7. If those two put that in their game regularly and effectively, Tennessee’s entire offensive dynamic will change.

3. Keep the other team off the offensive glass

What comes of playing a bunch of guys under 6’8″: the Vols were 13th in the SEC in defensive rebounding. In the close losses that were most costly last season – the ones that could have made the biggest difference in Tennessee’s bubble presence – this was the number one issue:

• North Carolina had a 46.3% offensive rebounding percentage and 19 total offensive rebounds, narrowly escaping the Vols in Chapel Hill.
• Mississippi State grabbed 34% of their misses in a 64-59 victory in Starkville, breaking Tennessee’s four-game winning streak on February 4.
• One week later Georgia got 29 from J.J. Frazier, but also grabbed 34.6% of their misses in beating the Vols by one point in Knoxville. This loss knocked Tennessee out of the Bracket Matrix field.

You can what-if yourself to death, but if the Vols turn those three losses by a combined eight points into wins, Tennessee is 19-13 with a projected RPI of 52 (via RPI Wizard) going to the SEC Tournament, looking to play their way into the NCAA Tournament. Giving up such a high percentage of offensive rebounds was particularly costly.

Again, only so much you can do with so little height. John Fulkerson’s return will help here, as will the arrival of Derrick Walker to join Grant Williams and Kyle Alexander inside. Tennessee is still going to be smaller than the opposition more often than not – we’ll come back to this point in a major way against Purdue in 12 days – but has to avoid annihilation on the offensive glass to turn some of these close losses into close wins.

The Vols don’t have to excel in any of these areas to be a good team; there are plenty of things Tennessee did well last season (getting to the free throw line, blocking shots while defending without fouling, staying in the black in assist-to-turnover ratio). But these are the greatest areas for improvement for Rick Barnes’ squad, and could make the difference between the NIT and the NCAA Tournament.

The fun starts tonight.