In our four-factors preview of the Tennessee-Texas A&M game yesterday, this was the to-do list we came up with:
Balance. The Vols’ shooting defense is so good and A&M’s shooting offense is so bad that the Vols could probably play safe enough to minimize A&M’s trips to the charity stripe and still pretty much shut them down from the field. Find the right balance.
Turnovers and rebounds seem to be fairly even, so win those battles.
Don’t forget that the magic phrase is “inside-out.”
The Aggies were, in fact, terrible shooting the ball, even when they were right at the rim. By the end of it all, Tennessee had held them to 30.4% from the field and 26.9% from three. The Vols weren’t much better from three, but they were quite a bit better from the field, hitting 46.7% of their shots.
One of the chief problems last night, though, was that the Vols never really found a good balance of defense and fouling. A&M shot 29 free throws to Tennessee’s 15, and the Aggies hit nearly 76% of them for 22 points. Tennessee had only 10 points at the free-throw line.
The Vols also gave up a huge number of offensive rebounds and second-chance shots. While the Vols had only 4 offensive boards, the Aggies had an astounding 23.
Turnovers and defensive rebounds were basically a wash, but those offensive rebounds and extra trips to the free-throw line ended up costing the Vols. Perhaps they could have eased up defensively, boxed out a little more, and let the Aggies shoot themselves into a loss.
But that’s not how it played out, as the Vols lost to the Aggies 63-58 at home. It’s a disappointing outcome on the heels of the positivity emanating from keeping it close on the home court of the No. 3 team in the country just three days prior.
We should expect some ups and downs from a team with so many young players playing so many key roles, so I wouldn’t count these guys out just yet. But they did just dig the hole a little deeper Tuesday night.