KNOXVILLE - The question was posed to Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew a few minutes after Grant Williams scored a career-high 37 points for Tennessee in a 92-84 win against Drew's Commodores two weeks ago.
As Williams terrorized Vanderbilt's interior defenders, did Drew ever consider switching from a man-to-man defense to a zone defense?
Drew explained that he had watched Tennessee's game against Kentucky, when the Volunteers shot 55 percent in the second half against a zone and rallied for a 76-65 victory.
"They tore up Kentucky's zone in the second half and were getting layup after layup and getting open shots," Drew said as he explained why the Commodores stayed with man-to-man against the Vols.
Tennessee forward Grant Williams, right, shoots against Vanderbilt forward Clevon Brown (15) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)When No. 22 Tennessee (13-5, 4-3 SEC) and Vanderbilt (7-12, 2-5) face each other again Tuesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena, the question of how to defend Williams looms large again.
Whether he attempts nine shots as he did in Saturday's win at South Carolina or 20 as he did in the first Vanderbilt game, Tennessee's offense runs through the 6-foot-7 sophomore.
"I think they'll continue to double him at times," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "I can see them maybe playing more zone and doing some things like that.
"We expect them to make some adjustments, obviously."
Barnes said it's hard to beat a team twice in a season, and Vanderbilt has won its last three games at Thompson-Boling Arena and is coming off a 77-71 win against LSU.
"I think that you go into this game not thinking it's going to be played like the last game," Barnes said. "You look back, and they had a really nice win on Saturday. We had one, and we did some different things that we hadn't done. So you're going to go back and scout but know that changes are going to take happen."
Tennessee expects Vanderbilt to defend Williams differently, and the Commodores will have to amend their scouting report to include some new players. When the teams played two weeks ago, Vols freshmen Derrick Walker, Jalen Johnson and Yves Pons played a combined two minutes. Their roles have increased in the three games since.
Walker scored 10 points in 25 minutes Saturday, while Pons played 12 minutes in his SEC debut against South Carolina. Johnson has logged time in Tennessee's games against Texas A&M and Missouri.
"We're going to use everybody," Barnes said. "We like to think that everybody is going to be on the top of their game every single night, but you don't see that in athletics very often. So our rotation is that we have a team and we're going to use guys that if they're locked into what we're doing, they're going to play."
Turner on the boards
Lamonte Turner came off the bench to lead Tennessee with 25 points in Saturday's win over South Carolina. The 6-1 guard also led the Vols in a surprising category: rebounds. Despite being relatively short, he ranks fifth on the team in rebounds with 3.4 per game, far surpassing the averages of fellow guards Jordan Bone and James Daniel.
"I think it's a mindset," Barnes said. "It's hard in this league when you have six or seven guys in there jumping around first jump, second jump, sometimes third jump. You need those guards to come in and pick up some of those. Again, it goes back to when Lamonte is playing defense and rebounding, he's a much different basketball player."
Bracket projections
ESPN college basketball analyst Joe Lunardi listed Tennessee as a five seed in his latest mock NCAA tournament bracket released Monday. In Lunardi's projection, the Vols will play Buffalo in a first-round game in Boise, Idaho.
CBS sports analyst Jerry Palm listed the Vols as a four seed in his Monday projection and pegged them to face in-state foe Belmont in the first round.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.