Tennessee dismantles Ole Miss to open SEC play

Ole Miss came into Food City Arena on a 13-0 tear and sought to pull an upset in the conference opener against the Tennessee Vols. Instead, the Vols absolutely bulldozed them, giving them their first loss on the season, in front of 21,932 rowdy fans.

Ole Miss is a good team, but they aren’t a great team, and Tennessee under Rick Barnes is becoming a great team. If the Vols can work on the slow starts, they will become an elite team.

Tennessee has struggled often in the opening minutes against opponents before turning on the jets and just dominating the ball on both sides of the court. Ole Miss was no exception, but thankfully the team pulled it together quickly.

Tennessee took an early 16-6 lead before allowing a run by Ole Miss that put them within striking distance midway thru the first. Much of this can be attributed to Tennessee only hitting one three-pointer, but once they hit their groove, they went 11-30 from deep. “We were missing shots early, but I like that we were still taking them,” Barnes said “You talk about confidence that those shots are going to fall.”

Dalton Knecht has been the big name on the rock this year, but it was big Jonas Aidoo who scored 24 points and came down with 10 rebounds. Aidoo is coming off a strained calf but you couldn't tell with that performance.

Knecht only played 19 minutes but had a good night with 8 points, 1 steal, and 1 rebound. It’s slightly concerning that Knecht hasn’t had high scoring output, but that should change soon. Zakai Zeigler is looking like he is back to his former self, scoring 17 points and dishing out 10 assists. The Vols will need this version of Zeigler if they want to win another conference championship and make a deep March run.

Santiago Vescovi added 11 points and hit 3-of-8 three-pointers. The veteran guard also added 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Jahmai Mashack scored 10 points and added 4 rebounds and 4 assists for a productive night off the bench.

This Tennessee team has some of the traits from seasons past. The defense is just absolutely nasty still, but there’s more shooting now than there was a year ago. The team is relentless on the boards and is unselfish. This team has a high ceiling and can still improve, but even at this level, they will be tough to beat anytime or anywhere. And if they improve just a little bit, they could be looking at an amazing tourney run.

What’s Next?

Tennessee heads to Mississippi State on Wednesday to take on the Bulldogs (11-3) at 6 pm CST. It’s always tough to win on the road, but with how the Vols are currently playing it's easy to understand why they are favored to win.

Mississippi State is playing good basketball, especially on the defensive side. But, the Bulldogs haven’t played a great team yet and have two bad losses to Georgia Tech and Southern University. Unless Tennessee forgets how to shoot a ball, Tennessee should win by double digits.