One of the best attributes to this season’s Tennessee basketball team is that it can revert back to last season’s team.
That may not seem like a compliment given that the 2022-23 Volunteers suffered from occasional scoring droughts, most notably in the second half of their loss to Florida Atlantic in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. Yet last season’s defense-first, grind-it-out bunch that didn’t have the scoring prowess of Dalton Knecht did produce wins over Kansas, Alabama and Duke, holding each of those foes in the 50s.
Tennessee’s 81-74 triumph at Alabama on Saturday night had similar elements, as the Vols held the Crimson Tide to 17 points below their scoring average and 27 points below what they had averaged in their previous five games.
“The type of basketball we play is not always pretty,” Vols fifth-year senior guard Josiah-Jordan James told reporters afterward, “but it comes down to executing the things that you do every single day. I feel like we’re prepared each and every night because of our coaches and because of the work that we put in.
“We knew this was going to be a championship-level game, and we were able to fight and win and come out on top.”