You want your best basketball to emerge at this time of year, and behold: the first half yesterday was without question the Vols’ best 20 minutes of the year. And then the second half highlighted some of the things that have hurt Tennessee the most throughout these 30 games. But as was the case against Arizona and Auburn, the Vols still found a way to get it home. It is, of course, what good opponents do: take away some of your strengths, attack most of your weaknesses, etc. And Tennessee took all of those punches and still had enough to win.
Tennessee is now 20-1 when shooting 29+% from three this season, 19-1 when shooting 39+% from the floor. The one loss came at Rupp Arena, and it seemed like we were going to break even for that in the first half against Arkansas. Tennessee finished 12-of-18 from the arc, tying a school record (from Bruce Pearl’s first SEC game at South Carolina in 2006) for best three-point percentage on 12+ attempts.
This is the most straightforward way to understand this Tennessee team: if they get 30+% from three and 40+% from the floor, they win. And when those things don’t happen, they’re still dangerous because of their defense. Tennessee’s seven losses are all of the Quad 1 variety, all of the road/neutral variety, and three of them are in overtime to Texas Tech, at the buzzer at Texas, and without Kennedy Chandler and John Fulkerson at Alabama.
The Vols moved to 21-1 with 11+ assists on the year. But the Vols also beat Auburn with nine. They beat Arizona right at those shooting numbers: 38.8% from the floor, 29.2% from the arc. Tennessee has been good enough to beat the best teams in college basketball when those best teams take away some of our best strengths.
Arkansas also highlighted some of Tennessee’s greatest weaknesses. Three of the Vols’ worst performances this year came with a heavy dose of turnovers: 20 at Rupp Arena, 18 vs Villanova, 18 in the overtime win at home vs Ole Miss. Turnovers not only cost you a possession, they undercut this team’s greatest strength in having their own defense set.
The Hogs forced 17 turnovers, as did Auburn, many of them late. But Tennessee still won.
Offensive rebounds were a particular sticking point for the Vols in the past, especially when teams went for double digits there. Away from home, Villanova, Alabama, LSU, and Arkansas all went for 10+. In Knoxville, Auburn had 10, and Arkansas 11 yesterday. Oscar Tshiebwe fueled 16 for Kentucky in Knoxville. Even when some of Tennessee’s greatest areas for improvement show up, the Vols have still knocked off elite competition.
The Vols also beat Arizona and Arkansas while shooting just 66.7% at the free throw line; when Tennessee hits above that number, the only teams to beat them are Villanova (on only 13 attempts) and Alabama.
Tennessee is one of just eight teams in the nation with 8+ Quad 1 wins, and one of just eight teams in the nation with zero losses to Quads 2-4. The only teams to show up on both of those lists are Gonzaga and the SEC’s triumvirate of Auburn, Kentucky, and the Vols. The league is as good as it has ever been, and it will be interesting to see how that’s reflected one week from today. But thanks in part to North Carolina’s win at Duke, the Vols are up to the two line in Bart Torvik’s predictive bracketology. And who knows: if Tennessee wins the SEC Tournament by going through Kentucky and Auburn, I think the Vols could still get to a one seed.
Tennessee’s ceiling and floor seem well defined and in good, working order. The defense is great enough to ask for only goodness from the offense. And even when the competition does a great job attacking the Vols’ few weaknesses, Tennessee has still been good enough to win against the best in college basketball, multiple times over.
If you wanted Tennessee’s best basketball at the right time, you’ve got it. We’ve had it for a while now. And I’m excited to see where it takes us.
Go Vols.
