It's safe to say at this point that Jordan Gainey's slump is over.
The Tennessee junior guard and transfer from USC Upstate had a three-game stretch last month against Mississippi State, Georgia and Florida in which he was held scoreless and was a combined 0-of-8 from the floor. Fast-forward to Wednesday night, and the 6-foot-3, 186-pounder was pouring in a season-high 18 points as the No. 6 Volunteers were having their way with LSU 88-68 inside the Food City Center.
Gainey was 6-of-9 from the floor, including a 3-of-6 clip from 3-point range, and he made all three of his free throws.
"The last couple of games, he's had a really good rhythm and a really good feel," coach Rick Barnes said during a news conference after his Vols improved to 17-5 overall and to 7-2 in Southeastern Conference play. "I think he's settling in more. He's working hard moving without the ball, and he's just not thinking about it.
"He's naturally gifted, and he's just shooting the ball."
The son of Tennessee assistant coach Justin Gainey also had an impressive 15-point effort in the 91-71 thumping of Alabama on Jan. 20, and he enters Saturday's contest at Texas A&M (8 p.m. Eastern on ESPN) averaging 19.0 minutes and 7.7 points per game.
Gainey played 25 minutes against LSU, and his stat line also contained three assists and three steals, which matched season highs in those categories. When he came off the bench Wednesday, he had two steals on LSU's first three possessions after that.
Which had him more excited than his point tally.
"I'm just trying to get as many possessions for my team that I can and just have fun with it," Gainey said. "Playing defense is what we do, and when everybody is clicking, it's pretty fun."
Rebounding issue
The big statistical anomaly Wednesday night was that Tennessee won by 20 despite getting outrebounded 40-26.
Until the final minutes, the difference was actually 40-21.
"I just know that we had our hands on a couple of them," Barnes said when asked about the disparity. "I thought we were trying to rebound with one hand, and you can't do that. Give them credit, but we've got to grab it and secure it with two hands, and we're not doing enough of that right now."
The Vols are by no means horrible in rebound margin, ranking seventh in the SEC and 72nd nationally at plus-4.0 per game. Texas A&M, however, leads the league and ranks eighth nationally at plus-9.9.
"You can't be a great defensive team without rebounding the ball," Barnes said. "Our guys are working hard trying to guard people in a league where there are some really good players, but we've got to rebound it better."
Odds and ends
Wednesday's win was friendly to Tennessee from a metrics standpoint, as the Vols moved up a spot to No. 5 in both the KenPom and the NET rankings. ... ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi now projects the Vols as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. ... Tennessee has played before four sold-out audiences at the Food City Center this season, with the four remaining home games against Vanderbilt (Feb. 17), Texas A&M (Feb. 24), Auburn (Feb. 28) and Kentucky (March 9) having already been announced as sellouts. ... Barnes needs just four more wins to reach 800 for his career.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.