KNOXVILLE - LSU appeared to have the best player on the floor Wednesday night.
Tennessee clearly had the deepest roster.
With scoring contributions from 11 players, the No. 18 Volunteers survived another standout performance from LSU forward Duop Reath and beat the short-handed Tigers 84-61 at Thompson-Boling Arena on Wednesday night.
Tennessee guard James Daniel III (3) shoots over LSU guard Randy Onwuasor during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Crystal LoGiudice)Eight players contributed assists and no one played more than 30 minutes for the Volunteers (16-5, 6-3 Southeastern Conference), who have won seven of their past eight games.
"They've just got a lot of different guys, a lot of different pieces" said LSU coach Will Wade, a former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach.
To earn a victory over LSU (12-9, 3-6), Tennessee had no choice but to employ its depth. Grant Williams, the Vols' leading scorer this season entering the game, went down with a tweaked back less than two minutes into the matchup and did not return for more than 10 minutes. Second-leading scorer Admiral Schofield played just 18 minutes and fouled out after scoring six points.
Tennessee extended its lead from one point to nine between when Williams left the game and when he returned with 7:25 left in the first half. By the time he re-entered, there were more Tennessee players in the scoring column (eight) than LSU scholarship players on the trip.
Due to a series of suspensions announced Monday, LSU had just seven scholarship players and only two of them were post players. One of those - the 6-foot-11 Reath - scored a game-high 21 points for the Tigers. Reath, who has averaged 22.8 points over his past four games, had 11 of LSU's 25 points when he was forced to check out after picking up his second foul with 4:06 remaining in the first half.
That came just as Williams was finding a rhythm.
Williams closed the first half with an eight-point scoring flurry as the Vols took a 42-31 halftime lead, though after the game he was quick to credit his teammates for the way they handled his first-half absence.
"These guys can play," Williams said. "They can play without me. They don't need me. They have proven that."
When Tennessee ended last January at 13-9 with a 5-4 record in SEC play, they were on the NCAA tournament bubble. The young squad ultimately buckled and missed the postseason beyond the SEC tournament as leading scorer and senior leader Robert Hubbs dealt with a knee injury.
With a victory Saturday against Ole Miss, Tennessee would match last season's win total with eight games remaining in the regular season.
This year's team has only one senior compared to the two on last year's roster, and no player on this Tennessee team has postseason experience beyond a conference tournament. Yet, unlike with last year's squad, coach Rick Barnes has options. He doesn't have to start freshmen, and he doesn't have to leave players on the court after mistakes that frustrate him.
"We could play 13 guys if we had to," Williams said. "Last year's team - I respect those guys - but the depth of this team is tremendous."
While youth still abounds, it is not as prominently placed. James Daniel is the newcomer playing the largest role for Tennessee, and he is a fifth-year senior who led the nation in scoring at Howard University in 2015-16.
Daniel led Tennessee with 17 points on 5-for-7 shooting from 3-point range Wednesday. He hit four of his triples during a five-minute span late in the second half as LSU tried to claw back in the game. The last two sparked a 19-8 run to end the game.
As the calendar flips to February, the Vols hold their highest ranking in seven years and are making a mockery of the media that projected them to finish 13th in the SEC.
Instead of the next-to-last worst team in the SEC, the Vols look more like what Daniel envisioned when he chose to use his final year of eligibility at Tennessee instead of programs with more recent NCAA tournament appearances, such as Michigan and Ohio State.
"I wanted to come in and have an opportunity to play for a great team under a great coach," Daniel said. "I wanted to try and win an SEC championship and also a national championship, and I felt as though we had the pieces here with how many great players were here."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.