1. You couldn’t have asked for a better showing from the Vols tonight, not only did the defense once again look elite but the offense looked better than it has all season and absolutely torched what is a projected NCAAT team. The Vols were firing on all cylinders and while that performance will be nearly impossible to duplicate away from Knoxville it gives a glimpse as to what this team of capable of imo.
2. I know the 3pt shooting is the sexy thing and I’ll talk about it, but the 2pt shooting is what really has me giddy. MSST going into this game ranked 13th nationally in 2pt defense holding opponents to 42.3%, Tennessee was among the nations worst at 2pt% offensively shooting just 48.5%, this on paper looked like a bad matchup for the Vols. However they went 24-31 for 77.4% which is an astronomical number that given the number of attempts you would very rarely ever see matched. Our post made strong moves to the basket, Nkamhoua obviously converted on a lot of his jumpers as did Phillips, again you can’t expect that every night but not missing the bunnies close to the room was great to see.
3. The 3pt shooting was great to see, Vescovi continues his hot shooting 12-20 in his last 3 games for 60% from deep. Key has actually shot pretty well from 3 but he looked more assertive and confident tonight and that’s good to see, Zeigler finding his stroke would be nice as he gets some open looks each game and then obviously JJJ being back out there (more on that in a minute) and going 2-2 from 3 was great to see as well. This team has to shoot a lot of 3’s given their makeup and it should be a strength, I mentioned weeks ago the numbers had to improve and they slowly have, tonight was obviously another good step in that direction.
4. Speaking of offense, heading into tonight game per KenPom Tennessee ranked 54th nationally in offensive efficiency at 108.6, after tonight’s result we made a massive jump up to 36th nationally and the efficiency number moving to 110.2, fwiw the #1 defense stayed #1 and actually climbed from 80.7 to 80.5…this combination of things moved us from #3 pre game and 2.97 behind #1 Houston to #2 in KenPom and 1.22 behind #1 Houston. This will obviously be something I continue to monitor as this can’t be a one off for the offense, it has to continue to show up, obviously not necessarily to this level, but better than it has been.
5. Welcome back JJJ, 17m 8pts 4ast, didn’t look hobbled at all out there and was great to see him out there. Maybe his energy gave some extra boost which caused the hot start, idk, but was great to have him out there and really showcased the depth that this team can have going forward if he can manage to stay healthy. We played more small ball tonight than we have much of the season which obviously having him allows us to do, and he was his usual disruptive self playing defense as well. If he can manage to stay healthy and work himself up to being able to give 25mpg and counted on night in and night out that might be just what the doctor ordered for this team to take that next step.
6. I could single out just about everyone tonight and I don’t want to do that so just want to mention our 5 men…I thought Dane made a great comment when he said that other teams may have a better 5 man but there are few who will have better 5 men. Our depth at that position is really impressive and while not 1 of them is a star right now and might disappear from night to night having Plavsic/Aidoo/Awaka/Nkamhoua to throw at people is a luxury. Plavsic had himself a nice bounce back game, Aidoo was the cold one tonight but still rebounded well, Awaka took another step it appeared tonight and his offensive game is light years ahead of what folks expected it to be, and Nkamhoua looked good yet again for us. We need each of those guys to just own their roles and bring it, there likely will be nights they each are called upon and will be needed.
7. Starting league play 2-0 is just what we hoped for, a road trip to South Carolina (likely worst team in the league) as likely double digit favorites awaits us, then home against a bad Vandy team. We talked about needing to take advantage of the early schedule and start out hot and hit the 4-0 mark, that obviously is very much in play as we arguably won the 2 toughest of those 4 already. This schedule really sets up favorable, at least as of today, what is thought to be the 2nd best team in the league Alabama we only play once and it’s at home. 3rd best team per KenPom is Arkansas and we only play them once and it’s at home. Kentucky & Auburn who are 4&5 right now we get home and home with. Texas is our B12 draw and that game is at home and continues to look more and more winnable as well. Protect the home court and beat bottom half of league teams on the road and we will be sitting pretty. Barttorvik has updated and now has us finishing 27-4(16-2), so closing 15-2 down the stretch and beating Texas. I’m not sure I see that, although I’m more bought in to 26-5 than I was a week ago, but if Tennessee does manage to go 27-4 there’s a very real chance they are looking at their first ever 1 seed, but let’s pump the brakes, build on this outing, and go get us a road win in league play on Saturday.
GBO!!!
