1. Regardless of what that Arkansas team is this year going on the road to Bud Walton isn’t ever an easy task, the crowd was in it early and the Hogs started hot but to Tennessee’s credit they stuck to the script which is something they struggled with against A&M, and Arkansas cooled off and Tennessee handled them rather easily. Tennessee has only won 6 times at Arkansas, 5 wins by a total of 38 points, last nights win was by 29, quite the all around showing from Tennessee on the road which will show well in the metrics.
2. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you largely know what you’re going to get from Knecht & Zeigler, outside of those 2 it’s anyone’s guess, but you gotta get something from someone. Aidoo & Gainey were the 2 big ones last night and JJJ gave you exactly what you’d love to be able to count on him giving each night. Vescovi continued his disappointing offensive play of late, and that’s something you hope can be fixed, but to his credit he still played well outside of that. Not sure if there’s an undisclosed injury or what, but he seems hesitant to shoot the 3 and not confident when he does, that’s never been the case…the offensive is getting open/good looks, evidenced by Gainey’s immediate open looks when subbing for Santi, we need him to have the same confident trigger that Gainey currently does.
3. Jonas Aidoo won’t give you 23 & 12 every night, there are some guys he’ll struggle a bit against, but there’s absolutely no reason he should ever be a no show essentially. On his “bad nights” he should still be able to go out there and us count on him giving us 10 & 7 or something similar, he has a rounded offensive game and plays with a good PG, he needs to bring it the way he brought it from the tip last night. Having an inside presence really opens things up for other guys and as Dykes mentioned is a nice pressure release to have on the roster alongside Knecht.
4. I get people get frustrated with players, it was Gainey early in the year, JJJ of late, and now Santi as well. Many times folks have called for Dillione or Carr to play in place of those guys and look ahead to the future, I’ve seen nothing from those guys to suggest that’s what gives us the best chance to reach our ceiling this year. I get nobody wants to rely on JJJ/Santi/Gainey/Mashack/Aidoo as being guys you count on and play each night, but the fact is they give us the best chance to win, and you need at least a couple of them to show up most nights. I have said for months this team still seems to be defining roles and/or figuring them out and adjusting to them, that still very much seems to be the case to me. Again I have no clue if it all gets figured out, but you want to be playing your best ball in March, not January, and imo Tennessee still has a level of play that we’ve not yet seen.
5. As well as playing your best ball in March you also want to put yourself into the best position in March, and that win was imperative in that regard. We hold serve on the 2 seed line currently with an outside shot at the 1 & 3 seed line still, both of those obviously give you a favorable setup to make it out of the first weekend and from there it’s all about matchups/luck. We started this 6 game stretch hoping for 5-1 or 6-0, it started 1-1 with the A&M loss and now sits 2-1 after last nights game. Point blank you gotta win the next 2 if you wanna stay on track, Vanderbilt comes to town and then a trip to Missouri, and then A&M has to make the return trip to Knoxville. Win these next 3 and you have put yourself in a great spot entering the final 4 game gauntlet with a chance at both the SEC regular season title on the line as well as a potential 1 seed.
GBO!!!
