KNOXVILLE - There's a saying that "You're only as good as your options."
If that's the case, the Tennessee men's basketball team will get better and better as the season goes along.
In addition to the return of Lamonte Turner on Saturday against Georgia, the third-ranked Volunteers received a boost from fellow junior guard Jordan Bowden, who scored a season-high 20 points in the resounding 96-50 win at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Bowden missed his first two shots, giving him 12 consecutive misses from the field dating back to the Samford game on Dec. 19, but ultimately made 8 of 13 shots against Georgia's Bulldogs, falling one point short of his career high.
The 6-foot-5 guard got into a rhythm early, knocking down a couple of shots off curl screens.
"Seeing the first one felt good and gave me a little boost," Bowden said. "I didn't feel like I was in a slump, just missing shots. I just got back in the gym and shot the correct shots like I always do."
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes wasn't pleased with Bowden passing on a couple of early open shots and let him know that when he subbed for him in the first half.
"The first time I took him out, I said to him, 'If you're not going to play the way you practiced, we're not going to play you,'" Barnes said Saturday. "He turned down some shots early. It's really a delicate, fine line there. Everyone knows who we're wanting to go for, and he's one of those guys. The turnover that he threw underneath the basket, it wasn't there.
"I thought he came back and let the offense work for him. He did his work early. He came off screens looking to attack areas that he's very effective with, but he has to continue."
The team has relied heavily this season on forward Grant Williams and guard Admiral Schofield, averaging a combined 38.1 points per game and ranking first and third, respectively, in the Southeastern Conference in scoring going into Tuesday night's game at Missouri (9-3) at 7 EST.
Turner's healthy return from lingering issues from offseason shoulder surgery gave the Vols a jolt against Georgia. As he continues to get back into a playing rhythm - he's played in four of the team's 13 games - he'll give the Vols another outside option, along with starting point guard Jordan Bone (14.0 points, 6.4 assists per game) and Bowden, which will be crucial as opponents focus their defensive efforts on Williams and Schofield.
The additional help in the scoring column will only buoy the team already ranking 15th in the country in scoring (85.5) and second in assists (21.2),
"The more options you have, the harder you are to guard," Barnes said Saturday. "I think we had 25 assists today, and we really don't go into games saying we want to go inside out. When we want to isolate a certain player we do that, and we did it today. When they went to a matchup zone, we sent Admiral inside and let him stay in there.
"I think the more options you have when teams get ready to play you and guys step up, they just can't stop you. We are going to play some games where we aren't going to shoot the ball well and we won't play as well as we can, and that is going to happen. Can we stay within ourselves and run our offense that we need to run? We missed some layups early at the rim, and that can snowball on you.
"The more options you have, the better you will be."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.