1. That’s exactly what you hoped for in a game like this, realistically considering the opponent the end result was probably better than what you hoped for, but a wire to wire win that was never in doubt is just what you wanted to see in the final OOC game. Outside of a 4-5 minute stretch halfway through the 1st half Tennessee was really dominant and looked great on both ends, again, just what you hoped for in the final game before SEC play starts.
2. Was great to see Dalton Knecht get back to looking a bit like the player we saw earlier in the year, he looked much more assertive especially in the 1st half than we’ve seen recently from him, he’ll need to continue to bring that. Zeigler again seemingly looked even better and now is starting to resemble the best version of himself that we’ve seen on Rocky Top, he’s seemingly finding his outside shot and is absolutely terrorizing opponents on the defensive end. Some folks may look at his 10 three point attempts and say that’s too many, but I’ve got no problem with it…they’re open shots and we need opponents to respect his shot, not back off of him. He’s also a good enough shooter that hitting them at 35%+ is a great shot, especially considering his struggles around the rim, I would be just fine with 95% of his shots coming from behind the 3pt line.
3. On a night where Jonas Aidoo disappointed, Tobe Awaka sure did not. In 21 minutes he has 10pts 11rbd 3blk 4-6fg and just 1 foul…that is phenomenal production from him and a great job from him avoiding the dumb fouls that usually limit his minutes. I don’t think we can ideally play Aidoo & Awaka together much as it really limits offensive spacing, and both would struggle defensively against 4’s…but it allows you to ride the hot hand, or most effective matchup night to night and that’s a nice luxury to have. There’s a spot for both and you just hope both stay locked in and engaged because their numbers will both be called and having each other is a good thing, not bad.
4. Another guy I thought played well was Jahmai Mashack, he continues to get some of Gainey’s minutes and as Gainey continues to struggle shooting that will likely continue. Obviously Mashack has always brought elite defense, but his offense was a struggle to where it was hard to play both him and JJJ together before, which was where Gainey came into play…but Mashack has shown an improved offensive game and JJJ has as well while Gainey has struggled, so you’re seeing more lineups with Mashack out there now as a result. As long as he continues to play within himself and do what he’s capable and comfortable doing he should continue to have a solid role going forward, he doesn’t have to be great offensively, just stay within his game and then obviously his defense will always be there.
5. You can only take so much from these types of games and seeing as it was the last OOC game of the year it’s a good time to look back on that slate and then look ahead as well. We finish the OOC schedule at 10-3, wins @Wisconsin and H to Illinois are the big highlights, neutral site wins against Syracuse & NCST also look nice. Unlike many teams around the country we avoided any bad losses, in fact our 3 losses are all REALLY good losses…neutral site against Purdue & Kansas and a road game to North Carolina…all 3 currently being Top 13 teams. All that to say that that is a great OOC resume for March, you’ve set yourself up nicely for another high seed as you enter conference play which brings me to my next point.
6. We enter SEC play sitting at 10-3, we have a 18 game SEC slate ahead of us, currently Barttorvik projects us to finish 23-8(13-5), so obviously a 13-5 SEC record to finish out the year is what they’re projecting currently. Obviously it’s a moving target every year and it’s impossible to predict, but that would almost certainly have us firmly in 2 seed territory with an outside shot at a 1 seed/3 seed, so that seems like a solid goal/target point, 13-5 the rest of the way. Per Barttorvik in our first 9 games we are currently favored by 7+ in 6/9…conversely in our final 9 games we are favored by 7+ in 3/9 games, so obviously looking at it through that lens the first half of our schedule is much easier than the back half, we need to take advantage. It would seem like a reasonable expectation to reach that 13-5 would be something like 7-2 in the first half and 6-3 in the back half. We have a good first test with Ole Miss coming to town Saturday, they’re undefeated and ranked, should be a national attraction type game, but analytics aren’t yet sold on the Rebels, being at home this is a game we really need to win and start out the SEC slate with a W.
GBO!!!
