Well that was refreshing. Tennessee basketball, picked 13th in the SEC preseason poll, just beat No. 18 Purdue 78-75 in overtime. Grant Williams led the way with 22 points and 8 rebounds.
For most of the first half, Tennessee really struggled with the height of Purdue, which rotates in two guys who are 7’2″ and 7’3″. They found some room to shoot, but it wasn’t enough to get off their regular shot, as most attempts had to be adjusted to avoid the tree limbs. Eventually, though, excellent ball movement, good shot selection, and great offensive rebounding helped them find their groove, and they tied the game with an emphatic dunk just before heading into the locker room for halftime.
The Vols began the second half the same way, extending their lead to 7 before the Boilermakers began to climb back. At the eleven minute mark, the teams began trading the lead as the Vols again began having trouble finding comfortable shots.
With 18 seconds left, Purdue led by 3 and had the ball, but the Vols’ Lamonte Turner, who’d gotten hot earlier in the game but had cooled a bit by this time, dribbled around the arc using Grant Williams as a shield, found some space, and hit a three-pointer to tie the game with 5 seconds left. Purdue missed a three-point attempt of its own, and the game went to overtime.
The Boilermakers raced out to a quick 5-point lead early in the overtime period until Grant Williams decided he’d had enough.
With 2:24 to go, Admiral Schofield missed a three-pointer, but Williams got the board, missed his own put back, got it back again, and put it down. On the next three Vols possessions, Williams hit a jumper, had an impressive assist out of a double team to Kyle Alexander for a dunk, and hit another jumper to take the lead 76-75. When Purdue fouled, James Daniel III hit both free throws, and the Vols held on from there.
Unless you saw the game, you can’t really appreciate how much bigger Purdue’s players were than Tennessee’s, and it’s not like they’re just tall, either. They can play. And yet, Tennessee out-hustled, out-played, and yes, even out-rebounded an incredibly tall and really, really good basketball team.
The jury was still out on the Vols after two dominating wins over lower-level competition to start the season, but no more. Now, Tennessee’s put everyone on notice that they are not the 13th-best team in the SEC. Nowhere near it. They’re good, they’re going to make some real noise this season, and they’re going to be fun to watch.
Next up: Western Kentucky or No. 5 Villanova tomorrow at either 12:30 or 7:00.
Go Vols.