The Tennessee Volunteers experienced plenty of teachable moments during the nonconference portion of their basketball schedule, first with their 1-2 showing at the loaded Maui Invitational and then with North Carolina’s first-half ambush in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge.
They experienced more of them during last week’s first two Southeastern Conference road trips, falling 77-72 last Wednesday at Mississippi State before rallying for an 85-79 triumph Saturday at Georgia. In each of those contests, the Vols trailed by double digits in the second half.
“We know we’re going to get every team’s best shot,” Tennessee fifth-year senior guard Josiah-Jordan James said Monday during a Zoom call, “because a win against us is going to look good on any team’s resume when it comes to tournament time. We’ve got to be prepared for every team’s best effort night in and night out, and especially on the road in hostile environments.
“It also showed that we’re resilient, because we battled back in both of those games. We were only able to win one of them, but it shows we have a lot of toughness and a lot of grit. We’ve just got to stop putting ourselves in such big holes.”
Tennessee’s 1-1 split last week has the Vols 12-4 overall and 2-1 in SEC play heading into Tuesday’s 5 p.m. home game (ESPN2) against Florida. The Vols skidded a spot to No. 6 in Monday’s latest Associated Press poll behind a top five of Connecticut, Purdue, Kansas, North Carolina and Houston.