KNOXVILLE — Tennessee’s 77-69 victory over Auburn on Saturday night inside the Food City Center occurred nearly a year after last season’s resounding rout of Florida in the same building.
The Volunteers hammered the Gators 64-44 last Feb. 1 despite not having the services of senior point guard Zakai Zeigler and senior forward Igor Milicic. They turned back the Tigers without senior forward Felix Okpara and with senior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie sidelined with four fouls for seven minutes of the second half.
Tennessee won six of its next seven games after its short-handed surprise at Florida’s expense. Might this season’s Vols enjoy similar success after displaying similar resolve, and do such victories carry more weight?
“That’s a great question,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said late Saturday night, “because when we play against somebody who all at once makes a game-time decision and someone doesn’t play, the first thing that goes through your mind as the opposing coach is that somebody new is going to step up. It’s an opportunity for somebody, and you hope that your guys don’t let down.
“A year ago against Florida, it did help propel some of our guys.”
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The Vols, who improved to 15-6 overall and to 5-3 in Southeastern Conference play with the win over Auburn, returned to the Associated Press rankings Monday at No. 25 after a two-week absence that followed a program-record 90 consecutive ranked weeks. Tennessee will quickly put its new ranking on the line Tuesday night (7 on the SEC Network), when the Vols host Ole Miss.
Ole Miss is 11-10 this season and 3-5 within the league.
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Tennessee only used seven players last year against Florida and played nine against Auburn, including a brief stretch early in the second half when four freshmen — Nate Ament, DeWayne Brown II, Amari Evans and Troy Henderson — were on the floor at the same time.
“I think you can answer it in two different ways,” Barnes said. “Sometimes you just want to play the team that you’ve prepared for. I’ve seen it throughout my career where somebody goes down on the other team, and that team just gets something extra, but I also hope that we can handle stuff like Ja’Kobi not playing.
“My biggest fear ever in coaching has always been complacency once you start winning games, because it’s never easy. I tell them every night to expect to be in a one-possession game. Complacency is an evil.”
It’s Ament again
Ament was named Monday as the SEC’s freshman of the week after averaging 20.5 points and 7.0 rebounds in recent victories over Georgia and Auburn.
The 6-foot-10, 207-pounder from Manassas, Virginia, becomes the first Tennessee player ever to win the league’s weekly honor for freshmen four times, topping the three by Ramar Smith during the 2006-07 season and Tobias Harris in 2010-11.
A new wrinkle
Vols sophomore guard Bishop Boswell had another solid, all-around performance against Auburn, with the 6-4, 204-pounder from Charlotte amassing seven points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals during his 30 minutes of action.
Some of that was compiled as the point guard when Gillespie was on the bench.
“I think the more that Bishop continues to get more comfortable with that, it can add a whole new dimension to our team,” Tennessee associate head coach Justin Gainey said Monday during a news conference. “As deadly as Ja’Kobi is with the ball in his hands, he can be just as deadly off the ball as well with his ability to catch and shoot and play at a spot-up situation.
“It just adds a different dynamic to our offense.”
Odds and ends
Tennessee holds a 33-game edge over Ole Miss (79-46) in the all-time series and a 33-game advantage in games played in Knoxville (45-12) as well. … Vols junior forward Jaylen Carey on Auburn coach Steven Pearl referring to him and Brown as SEC defensive ends: “Yeah, we probably could go out there and play defensive end, but we love basketball.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.