Amid a Tennessee basketball season that has contained a No. 1 ranking, two losses to Kentucky, two drastically different results against Florida and this Saturday afternoon’s anticipated showdown against Alabama, the 65-59 victory at LSU on Tuesday night could easily get lost in any kind of retrospective.
Yet it was easily one of the most representative showings by the No. 5 Volunteers.
On a night when Tennessee did not shoot the ball particularly well, there was still Zakai Zeigler getting stronger as the game progressed, Chaz Lanier connecting on multiple 3-pointers, Felix Okpara becoming more and more formidable at the rim, and Jahmai Mashack playing elite defense. It added up to a ninth triumph this season over a power conference opponent away from Knoxville.
“This has been a fun group to coach,” Rick Barnes admitted in a news conference after his Vols improved to 23-5 overall and to 10-5 in Southeastern Conference play. “They like each other, and we’ve had different guys have to slide into different roles. We won a game without Zakai, and (Jordan) Gainey was sick tonight and tried, but he didn’t have it. These guys are very unselfish.
“They want to be good, and they compete against each other every day in practice. We’ve only got nine scholarship players, so we haven’t been able to do as much 5-on-5. We’ve tried to stay sharp going 4-on-4 in half court, and we’ve got a scout team that has helped out a lot.”