Tennessee Basketball tips off season with huge win: Analysis
The Tennessee Basketball Vols got their season under way last night at Food City Center with an 80-42 win over Tennessee Tech. The Vols were able to secure a win over an out-matched team as expected, and that allowed Coach Barnes to empty his bench down the stretch. It’s always a good sign to see the future of the team get some run in these types of games, and even more heartwarming is watching the current contributors on the bench begging for a walk-on to get a basket.
While the Vols did score 80 points in this game, it wasn’t devoid of a couple of patented scoring droughts we’ve become accustomed to under Rick Barnes. The Vols were ice-cold during the first 10 minutes of the game, but Jordan Gainey ended that drought with a few impressive buckets and the Vols woke up offensively. The Vols scored over 30 points in the final 10 minutes of the first half. The start to the second half was similar for the Vols as another nearly 5-minute scoring drought occurred, but Dalton Knecht finally ended it with a tough and-one. Dalton Knecht and Jordan Gainey might make a habit this season of ending scoring droughts, but hopefully with one of them on the floor at all times these droughts become less frequent. Dalton Knecht ended the game 6-11 from the floor with 17 points while Jordan Gainey ended 5-9 from the floor with 14 points. Seasoned Veteran Josiah-Jordan James also had an impressive night getting all of his work done from beyond-the-arc. James ended the game with 12 points while going 4-5 from three with his only miss coming off a heat-check in transition.
Zakai Ziegler made his return to the court with 5 assists and 3 points in limited minutes, but Ziegler will be getting more and more minutes as the season progresses. It’s incredible that Zakai is even on the floor being only 8 months removed from his season-ending ACL tear, and it goes to show how hard he’s worked to get back in the fold. Santiago Vescovi and Tobe Awaka both had underwhelming performances, but Santiago Vescovi was away from the team for family related reasons, and Tobe Awaka was battling sickness for the better part of a week. Expect both of these players to have bounce-back performances the next time the Vols take the floor. Two concerns I had from this game was rebounding and turnovers. The Vols only outrebounded the Golden Eagles by 10 boards and the Vols kept turning the ball over in the early stages of the game. For now, I’ll chalk up the rebounding issues to the youth the Vols have when it comes to post depth and the fact that Tech had a 7’4 lummox on the court. The turnovers were likely due to jitters for the first game. I won’t get too concerned about either issue until they become a habit for this team, and I doubt either issue does become a habit.
The Vols will travel up to Wisconsin Friday night to take on the Badgers. This game will be the first true test for the Vols in what will surely be a tough road environment. This game will reveal much more than a Monday evening bout with an OVC team, and the Vols will need to play well to come away with a big early-season victory.