KNOXVILLE – For the 101st game of his Tennessee basketball career, Robert Hubbs III decided to change his hairstyle.
Drastically.
The senior braided his hair into cornrows and then played his best game in more than three weeks.
Hubbs poured in 21 points and freshman Grant Williams scored 16 of his 25 points in the second half as Tennessee cruised to a 90-70 Southeastern Conference victory against lowly Missouri at Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday afternoon.
“I just had to do something with it,” Hubbs explained. “It was getting out of control, so one of my friends was like, ‘Just braid it and wear it.’ I just went with it.
“It’s not that big of a deal – it’s just a hairstyle.”
With the way it worked for Hubbs, who had scored more than 11 points just once in the six games since totaling 25 in the upset of Kentucky, perhaps the rest of the Vols should adopt it.
“He actually sent me a picture yesterday on Snapchat, and it threw me off,” Vols guard Shembari Phillips said after scoring 10 points in a game for the first time since December. “I’m used to seeing wild-hair Hubbs. He cleaned it up with the cornrows, and he played well, so hopefully he keeps it.”
After losing three of its previous four games, Tennessee (15-12, 7-7) was rarely threatened after jumping out to a double-digit lead in the game’s opening minutes. Missouri (7-19, 2-12) endured its 33rd consecutive road loss dating back to January 2014, when Frank Haith was still coaching the Tigers.
Tennessee scored 13 straight points to jump out to a 16-3 lead as Missouri went scoreless for nearly six minutes.
“We talked with our guys preparing for this game about how Tennessee plays,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said, “and the impressive thing about them is how hard they play. It’s not that they’re particularly big, but they play really, really hard. I thought we didn’t match that intensity level at the beginning of the game.
“I just didn’t feel like we answered the bell early.”
The Vols led 33-15 on Jordan Bone’s 3-point basket at the 4:49 mark of the first half, but the Tigers then ripped off an 11-0 run with K.J. Walton’s three-point play making it 33-26 with 2:20 left in the half.
Tennessee regained control with a five-point possession – Lamonte Turner hit a 3 and Williams made two free throws after he was fouled as the shot went in – and led 41-28 at the break.
The second of two Terrence Phillips 3s made it 54-44 early in the second half, but Tennessee responded with a 9-0 run as Admiral Schofield completed a stretch in which he scored 10 straight points and Hubbs made a pair of shots.
Even after the game, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes remained affected by Hubbs’ new hairstyle.
As a reporter was trying to ask a question, Barnes stared at Hubbs after he entered the media room.
“My first question was about your hair, Robert,” Barnes quipped. “You told me you did that because why?”
“It felt better,” Hubbs replied. “I feel faster.”
“You felt faster?” Barnes retorted. “Yeah, that hair was like a windshield holding you back. Why don’t you just cut it short and keep it short?”
“It’s just going to look weird,” Hubbs explained.
“You don’t think that does?” Barnes joked.
Williams gave the Vols their largest lead (76-52) with more than seven minutes left by scoring five straight points after Missouri’s Jordan Geist threw the ball hard off Williams’ face from point-blank range as he was falling out of bounds.
The shot to the face briefly brought Williams to his knees as he covered his face, but he popped right back up.
“If you aim too low,” he said, “it’s even worse. It stunned me. I was probably overdramatic.”
Out of the ensuing timeout he converted a three-point play and then beat everyone down the floor for an easy layup.
“It kind of icked me a little bit,” Williams said. “It kind of had me frustrated. I feel like I’m more aggressive when I’m mad, because I don’t usually get mad that often, but it happened. I probably got over it right afterwards. I don’t hold it against him or nothing like that. He was just playing hard and trying to save the ball.”
After its worst showing of the season in a 25-point loss at league power Kentucky, the Vols responded with greater focus and energy against one of the league’s strugglers.
“I feel like we, including me and the other guys, were just worrying about other little things outside of the game plan, kind of being a little selfish,” Hubbs said. “We can’t have that. It starts with me. I have to keep everybody locked in and on the same page and on the right map to get where we want to go.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.