KNOXVILLE — Tariq Owens caught the pass from Armani Moore just outside the left block, took a step toward the basket and cocked the basketball in his right arm behind his head.
The Southeastern Conference’s leading shot blocker awaited the Tennessee freshman at the rim, albeit a split-second late after stepping up to stop Moore’s drive.
The 6-foot-10, paper-thin Owens finished the emphatic dunk and drew the foul in what was the highlight play of the Volunteers’ suprisingly impressive 15-point win at LSU on Wednesday night.
“We call him ‘Rudolph’ (because) he’s still trying to walk with his legs,” walk-on Galen Campbell, one of four seniors Tennessee will recognize before today’s regular-season finale against South Carolina, said Friday before practice.
“Tariq’s like my little brother. That dunk alone is a huge confidence booster. To dunk on somebody like Jordan Mickey, it’s a confidence booster, definitely.”
Just a couple of days earlier, Donnie Tyndall, Tennessee’s first-year coach, touted the gangly Owens as one of the players who’s improved over the course of the season.
Against arguably the best big-man duo in the SEC outside of Kentucky, Owens posted a line of six points, three rebounds and one blocked shot in 15 minutes of playing time.
“With young guys, you’re going to see spots or spurts of good play, unless they’re just a unique guy, like some of them cats at Kentucky,” Tyndall said before Friday’s practice. “Those are few and far between, but he’s shown some flashes at times.
“He’s been consistently better about the last six or eight weeks in practice, finishing more balls, playing with a little more grit and toughness. He got that to the game the other night against LSU.”
The thunderous dunk brought Tennessee’s entire bench to its feet, punctuated a 26-9 run that gave the Vols a 17-point lead and provided further evidence that Owens, who showed up at Tennessee at an almost comical weight of 178 pounds, may have a bright future.
“I was on the bench, but I ended up on the floor,” guard Josh Richardson said.
“He has a really, really high ceiling,” he added. “He’s 6-foot-10, he can play the 4, he can step out and make shots. I’ve seen him do a lot of things that a lot of people just don’t know he’s capable of yet. I feel like once he gets some weight on him and kind of starts going into his body, I think he can be a great player.”
A win today would give Tennessee two this week following a five-game losing streak, which would be a nice boost of momentum heading into next week’s SEC tournament.
Tennessee enters the final Saturday of the regular season tied for ninth place in the SEC with Alabama, which won 56-38 in Knoxville in January. That result means the Vols would be the No. 10 seed in the SEC tournament if it started today. A loss today would keep Tennessee in that slot, meaning its opener in Nashville would be Thursday night.
Alabama plays at Texas A&M today, and both of the teams one game ahead of the Vols and Crimson Tide have tough road games, with Florida visiting No. 1 and unbeaten Kentucky and Vanderbilt traveling to Ole Miss.
Due to its losses to Florida and Alabama, Tennessee isn’t favored in many potential tiebreakers, and there’s only one scenario — Florida beating Kentucky, and Vanderbilt and Alabama both losing — in which the Vols land the No. 8 seed.
Thus the most likely scenario for Tennessee if it beats South Carolina is landing the No. 9 seed, which would play the eighth seed Thursday afternoon and face a potential Friday quarterfinal against Kentucky.
“It would allow us to secure a winning season, which I think would be quite an accomplishment for this young bunch,” Tyndall said.
Owens, one of the latest of the Tennessee’s late additions last spring, is one of the more intriguing pieces of that bunch.
If he’s able to add weight and strength to his frame, he could tap into the high upside the coaches believe he has.
“He doesn’t have real wide shoulders, so that’s a little bit of a concern,” Tyndall said. “But I think he’s a guy who, by the time he’s a junior, can be 225. The way he can run and the way he can step out and shoot it, if he gets to 225 and continues to increase his bench and his strength in the weight room, he’ll be fine.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.