KNOXVILLE — A reduction in bodies resulted in an increase of minutes for Tennessee basketball players Saturday afternoon against Florida.
They were more than up for the added workload.
The seven scholarship players who suited up for the No. 8 Volunteers for their surprise 64-44 dismantling of the No. 5 Gators surpassed their season averages for minutes played. The difference was profound when it came to the two Tennessee players who came off the bench, with sophomore forward Cade Phillips logging more than 28 minutes to up his season average to 15.5 minutes per contest, and with freshman guard Bishop Boswell playing nearly 11 minutes to increase his average to 4.0.
“We prepare in practice a lot for moments like this,” Vols senior guard Chaz Lanier said. “We’re all very well-conditioned, and we knew the task at hand. It was whatever needed to be done, even if that meant playing 40 minutes.
“We knew what we needed to do.”
The Vols had the challenge of avenging last month’s 73-43 loss to Florida in Gainesville with only 60% of their starting lineup available. Senior point guard Zakai Zeigler was out after injuring his right knee in Tuesday night’s 78-73 loss to Kentucky, while senior forward Igor Milicic Jr. was a late scratch due to flu-like symptoms.
It was the first time that Tennessee, which improved to 18-4 overall and 5-4 in Southeastern Conference play, was forced to alter its starting lineup all season. The Vols trailed 19-16 with less than three minutes before halftime before outscoring the Gators 48-25 the rest of the way.
“Give them credit,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “They broke us down late.”
Vols senior guard Jordan Gainey played a season-high 36 minutes and 42 seconds, while Lanier (36:15) and fellow senior guard Jahmai Mashack (36:14) experienced their most action since SEC play began last month. It was an eight-minute jump in time for Mashack compared to his season average and a nearly 10-minute jump for Gainey, who assumed Zeigler’s responsibilities at the point.
“It was really just keeping everything simple and not trying to do too much,” Gainey said. “I just had to get everyone going and keep a good flow to the game.”
Tennessee 10th-year coach Rick Barnes described Saturday’s triumph, which was the first by the Vols this season over a top-five opponent, as “one of the great wins that we’ve ever had here.” He was then asked how much time he and his staff spent before the game on how the minutes might be doled out given the limited bodies.
Junior forward Felix Okpara picked up two fouls within the game’s first four minutes, resulting in a sooner than desired trip to the bench, but he was back three minutes later and wound up playing 26 minutes, two above his average.
“I’m probably the worst about that,” Barnes said, “because I want all our players to play 40 minutes. I wanted to play 40 minutes, but I wasn’t very good, so I did well to get two. I always look at it as having my timeouts and the TV timeouts, and we know our guys so well. We did talk about going to a zone if we got into foul trouble. Whether people know it or not, we do have a zone. We just haven’t used it but once or twice.
“Going into the game, we just didn’t know. We knew we were going to have to use everybody, and we were just hoping we wouldn’t get into foul trouble.”
Tennessee’s “super seven” on Saturday wound up making history, as the Vols became the first SEC program to win six consecutive home games against Associated Press top-five teams. It was also Tennessee’s largest victory ever over an AP top-five foe, topping the 71-52 thumping of No. 4 Kentucky on March 2, 2019.
There was also the historical aspect from Florida’s standpoint, with the Gators failing to score 45 points for the first time in 1,167 games.
“Going into the game, I think a lot of people counted us out because of the people who were down,” Mashack said. “We all banded together, and we knew how tough we had to play.”
Tennessee resumes play by hosting Missouri (17-4, 6-2) on Wednesday night (7 on the SEC Network).
Odds and ends
Tennessee has played before 31 sellouts at the Food City Center under Barnes, and the Vols are 24-7 in those games. … After holding Florida to 13-of-53 from the floor (24.5%) and 4-of-27 from 3-point range (14.8%), the Vols lead the nation defensively in field-goal percentage (36.1%) and 3-point percentage (26.0%). … The Vols enter this week No. 4 in the NET rankings and KenPom.com rankings, with Auburn, Duke and Houston the top three teams in both metrics, and with Florida and Alabama right behind Tennessee.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.