The Tennessee Basketball Volunteers defeated Illinois on Saturday afternoon at the Food City Center by a score of 86-79. Early on this game looked like a track meet with a score of 19-13 before the first TV timeout, but the first half ended with both teams settling in defensively. The Vols found themselves down 36-34 at halftime needing a solid second half to pull out a much-needed win. The Vols started the second half sluggish on both ends of the floor by shooting contested shots and getting beat down the floor. Things looked bleak but then Dalton Knecht showed why he is the straw that stirs the drink for the Vols on offense. Rick Barnes decided to iso Knecht and that turned out to be a good decision as it sparked a 10-0 run for the Vols and put them back in front. This run also featured clamp-like defense by Mashack and Ziegler. Ziegler stole the ball in the backcourt from Illinois guard Marcus Domask and then dished it to a streaking Josiah-Jordan James for a thunderous dunk. This gave the Vols a 45-44 lead that they never relinquished and gave the capacity crowd cheering on the Vols a chance to explode. Another hero for the Vols on Saturday was Santiago Vescovi. Vescovi has been dealing with the death of his grandmother which is a tough situation for anyone much less a D-1 basketball player, but on Saturday Vescovi would have made her proud. Vescovi’s performance featured flashy assists and circus level made 3’s, but his rebounding showed up bigtime as he led the Vols with 9 boards. Another encouraging development has been the emergence of Jonas Aidoo as a consistent force on the block. Aidoo finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks as he looks to become a premier big man in the SEC, and performances like that against top-tier competition is what the Vols need from him. A negative thing from the game that I noticed was the drop off on defense whenever Jordan Gainey is in the game. Gainey is still a new student of the Rick Barnes defensive academy, but at this point in the season with 9 games under his belt he has to get better on the defensive end. Gainey has also been struggling with his shooting in recent games, but I don’t see that being an issue throughout the season as he is too good of a shooter to stay cold for much longer. 

The Vols got their best win of the season on Saturday after a few frustrating performances where they came up short against ranked opponents. It’s nice to finally see the Vols get a bigtime win, and hopefully this is the confidence boost they needed before turning their gaze towards conference play. The Vols will take on Georgia Southern on Tuesday night at the Food City Center, and for me this game should be a glimpse into the future. I want to see Freddy Dilione, Cade Phillips, J.P. Estrella, and Cameron Carr play for 15-20 minutes. However, who I really want to see is D.J. Jefferson. Jefferson is the most athletic player in the program according to people close to the situation, and it would be a shame if he decided to transfer out and realize his potential elsewhere. This isn’t me questioning Rick Barnes or anything I’m just curious to see what an athletic freak like D.J. could provide to an already deep team. Either way, anything less than a 30 point win on Tuesday would be underwhelming, and here’s to hoping the future of the program gets some run in a blowout win for the Vols.