KNOXVILLE — Seven wins in nine games, with two victories over ranked teams from the perennially powerful Big East Conference.
Still no back-to-back losses in nearly two calendar years, thanks to Tuesday’s 80-68 victory over No. 23 Marquette.
One could look at statistics and argue that this University of Tennessee men’s basketball team is close to finding the form that brought the program back from mediocrity.
But Tyler Smith doesn’t believe that.
“Oh, no,” Smith said. “No, no, no. We’ve got a long, long way to go.
“We’re not even really playing Tennessee basketball yet.”
The 16th-ranked Volunteers still look lost against zone defenses. They still give up too many clean looks at their basket. They still make head-scratching decisions in the open floor.
And the Vols’ vaunted press has hardly even pestered teams with solid guard play.
But UT found enough Tuesday to overcome a solid Marquette team despite another injury-induced absence from junior wing J.P. Prince — the Vols’ second-best player, according to Coach Bruce Pearl.
“We don’t like losing any games,” sophomore center Brian Williams said. “So, in our minds, there was no way we were losing two in a row.”
And they didn’t, thanks largely to junior forward Wayne Chism, who dominated the smaller Golden Eagles with 26 points and 11 rebounds. The Vols needed such an effort from Chism with Prince out of the lineup and a clearly-frustrated Smith fighting early foul trouble that rendered him uncharacteristically unfocused.
“I just wasn’t taking the shots, and I don’t know why,” said Smith, who scored 14 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field in 29 minutes. “But my teammates picked me up and really helped me.”
Prince’s absence has slowed the Vols’ transition offense, and Smith found few holes as a “point forward” against Marquette’s zone.
“It’s just all about penetrating and hitting the open shots,” Smith said. “If we penetrate, our guys can knock down open shots.
“We’ve got to work on that. There’s a lot of things we’ve got to work on. But at the same time, we just beat a good team.”
That wasn’t lost on Pearl, either.
“You can’t beat a program like Marquette and be too critical,” Pearl said. “We fought hard and did enough to beat a good basketball team.”
Pearl has tried a multitude of motivational tactics and rotations in efforts to find this team’s identity. Before opening Wednesday’s game with another different starting lineup, Pearl tweaked the pregame routine by showing the Vols a highlight film full of bloopers.
Their own bloopers.
“We just needed our guys to relax a little bit,” he said. “When the winds are calm and seas are favorable, everything is easy. But when you’re not playing great — and we didn’t play well against Gonzaga, didn’t play well against (UNC) Asheville and didn’t play well against Temple — you lose confidence. You lose confidence in yourself, and you lose confidence in your teammates, and you lose confidence in what we do.
“And so, I just needed them to try to keep it lighter and lively. I’ve backed it off a little bit. I’ve tried to be more patient with them.”
Pearl stayed as positive as possible when Marquette took a 15-6 lead in the first seven minutes. He held his emotions in check after each of UT’s four ill-advised lob passes, all but one causing a turnover. He accepted Chism’s pregame proposal to stay calm at halftime — his anger “jinxes” the team, Chism argued — despite the Vols’ penchant for poor late-game defense this season.
Those factors helped UT take a positive step Tuesday night.
But it’s still mid-December, and Pearl still thinks last season’s Vols would convincingly defeat his current team.
Several veterans agree.
“Every win is nice, especially a big one like this,” UT junior guard Josh Tabb said. “But the biggest thing is we’ve got to learn from every game and every practice, and get better every day. That’s the only way we’re going to be champions.
“We’re definitely not there yet, but we can get there if we keep working hard.”
