Why wait until March for tournament-type basketball atmospheres?
Tennessee’s regular season is down to seven games, beginning with Saturday night’s visit from Vanderbilt (6 on the SEC Network). After the in-state showdown, the No. 19 Volunteers will have four of their final six contests against the Southeastern Conference’s current upper crust of Auburn, Kentucky and Arkansas.
Auburn leads the SEC with a 10-1 record with Kentucky right behind at 9-2, while Arkansas and Tennessee are each 8-3. The Vols, who are 17-6 overall, and Razorbacks still have to play twice.
“If you go back, I thought we had a tough opening SEC schedule,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Friday on a Zoom call. “We had to go to Alabama and we had to go to LSU, and those were two teams who I think were picked in the top four or five in the league. We went to Kentucky early, so I thought it was tough early. I think it’s just a testament to how good our league is right now.
“Arkansas is playing terrific basketball right now, arguably as good as anybody in the country, and I think everything we do right now is about getting better.”
Tennessee won its sixth straight SEC game Wednesday night with a 72-63 topping of Mississippi State in Starkville, with the Vols breaking free from a 61-61 deadlock. The Vols began this streak with a 68-60 win at Vanderbilt on Jan. 18.
In Nashville, the Vols scored the final eight points to snap a 60-60 tie.
Vanderbilt has won three of its past four games to improve to 13-10 overall and 5-6 in SEC play, and the Vols can’t be looking ahead to Tuesday night’s visit from Kentucky and trying to avenge a 107-79 loss in Lexington on Jan. 15. The matchup with the Commodores will be the second straight in which Tennessee will play without junior forward Olivier Nkamhoua, a 22-game starter who sustained an ankle injury last weekend at South Carolina that required surgery.
“There is a fine line you walk this time of year,” Barnes said. “You’ve got to get guys to get better as individuals and you have guys who are playing 30-something minutes a game, and you have to make sure they stay fresh and that we give them a chance to recover. Anything we do from here on out is preparation for the next game, and I don’t think we can think ahead to anything other than the fact that we have a really good basketball team coming in here Saturday.”
Said freshman forward Jonas Aidoo, who played 12 minutes at Mississippi State after playing 14 minutes all season, “The end goal is the SEC championship, and as long as we’re together, that’s all the matters.”
Remember Rodney?
Vanderbilt sixth-year senior guard Rodney Chatman didn’t play in last month’s loss to the Vols and has played in only nine games this season due to knee and hamstring injuries. The Commodores are 7-2 when he does play and 6-8 when he doesn’t.
In last Saturday’s 75-66 dumping of LSU in Nashville, the 6-foot-1, 215-pounder from Lithonia, Georgia, scored 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, which included a 6-of-10 clip from 3-point range.
“He brings experience and obviously gives them another guard who can do something,” Barnes said. “He has definitely altered what they do and has given them another player who has probably helped Scotty Pippen Jr. more than anybody, because he’s another guy who goes out there and gets a lot of focus.
“They can put a team on the floor with a number of different guys who can hurt you, but I do think he has altered their team.”
Chatman transferred to Vandy from Dayton but began his career at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. During his sophomore season with the Mocs in 2017-18, Chatman made 28 starts and averaged 13.3 points per game.
Second start likely
Barnes expects a second consecutive start for freshman forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, who made his first start Wednesday night. The 6-10, 246-pounder scored Tennessee’s first two baskets within the game’s first 90 seconds and wound up playing 15 minutes.
“You would expect that Brandon getting a chance to start for the first time would get a little jittery, but I thought that he handled himself well,” Barnes said. “He caught a terrific pass from Josiah(-Jordan James) in traffic and scored that first one. He banked a shot in, and he felt very comfortable.
“He has to continue to understand the defensive side of it at a high level.”
Odds and ends
Tennessee leads its series with Vanderbilt 127-75 and has won nine straight meetings. … The Vols rank fifth nationally in home attendance with 17,182 fans per game. … Tennessee’s 16 assists per game in conference contests leads the league. … Vandy’s five SEC wins are its most since the 2017-18 season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.