KNOXVILLE – After Saturday, the third-ranked Tennessee men’s basketball team will turn its focus to Southeastern Conference play.
But not until then.
The Volunteers (10-1) will finish the 2018 portion of their schedule by hosting Tennessee Tech (4-8) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena. The next time the Vols step on the court for a game will be Jan. 5 – a week from Saturday – when they host Georgia.
Tennessee is coming off an 83-64 win over Wake Forest this past Saturday, which was followed by three days off for Christmas. The Vols got back to work Wednesday and had three practices leading into this matchup with the Golden Eagles, who have only two wins against Division I programs this season and had a pair of lopsided losses in mid-November to North Carolina, 108-58, and Michigan State, 101-33.
As for the Vols, as the season has progressed, so have they.
Tennessee has had to adjust to the absence, return and subsequent loss of redshirt junior guard Lamonte Turner, who hasn’t fully recovered from offseason shoulder surgery.
Vols coach Rick Barnes hasn’t been afraid to make unexpected changes, including sliding athletic sophomore Yves Pons into the starting lineup in place of junior Jordan Bowden. The move has helped by giving the starters a more defensive-minded player in the lineup, but even more importantly, it has provided a scoring presence off the bench. Bowden, a 6-foot-5 guard, has averaged 9.7 points in six games off the bench after averaging 6.8 as a starter this season.
Such tweaks and the experience the Vols boasted entering the season have led to very few glaring weaknesses going into SEC play. Their coach is looking deeper, though.
“I think there are a lot of things in terms of consistency,” Barnes told reporters Friday morning. “Our offensive execution, the details, understanding the difference in going to screen three feet further down, knowing what it does to help the offense. Screening at the elbow. All those things are really important.
“What I don’t want to see us do is continue to build toward those things and we let go of the rope in other areas. I don’t want to get away from pushing, pushing, pushing, or just settling for secondary offense. I’m not sure I’d put any of them as little things. There are big things, the details we need taken care of.”
Tennessee’s passing ability has been a plus. The Vols rank second in the country in assists with an average of 20.8 per game, and they have assisted on 69 percent of the team’s made baskets. Junior point guard Jordan Bone has averaged 6.2 assists per game, while 2017-18 SEC player of the year Grant Williams, a junior forward, is second on the team at 4.2 after averaging fewer than two per game last season.
The Vols’ unselfish nature has helped them average 84.5 points per game this season, compared to 73.8 in 2017-18.
“It has a lot to do with our offense,” Barnes said. “We’re not built on ball-screen defense, where one guy is going to have the ball in his hand the entire time. We’ve got post guys that can pass the ball and like to pass the ball.
“When you talk about a team that has the highest assist-to-field goal ratio, it goes back to guys wanting to pass the ball. It has to do with movement and spacing, but it goes back to guys who want to pass it.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.