KNOXVILLE - For a night, everything came together for the Tennessee men's basketball team.
Actually, it was both Tuesday night and the previous Saturday afternoon.
What the Volunteers' past two games - wins against Kentucky, 81-73 in Lexington, and Florida, 63-58 in Knoxville - will mean for them in the long run remains to be seen. But coach Rick Barnes' fifth Tennessee team, a combination of career role players and inexperienced freshmen, seems to be figuring things out at the right time.
The latest evidence provided by the Vols (17-13, 9-8 Southeastern Conference) came in the upset of sixth-ranked Kentucky at Rupp Arena, where the Wildcats - who had an eight-game overall winning streak snapped - had not lost since early November.
Tennessee's recipe for success in recent games has been simple: Ride redshirt junior John Fulkerson on the interior, get quality production from Yves Pons and hope a couple of the Vols' guards can piece together some quality minutes.
AP photo by James Crisp / Tennessee redshirt junior forward John Fulkerson celebrates after the Vols rallied from 17 points down in the second half to beat No. 6 Kentucky 81-73 on March 3 in Lexington.But there was one player who was always going to be vital to this team's success: freshman guard Josiah-Jordan James, a highly touted recruit coming out of high school in part because of skills that sometimes appeared to make things look easier than they actually were. Injuries, a lack of aggression and some inconsistent play have hampered him in his initial college season, a cause of frustration for everyone in the Vols' camp - though none more than James.
He had shown potential prior to missing four games in early February with a lower body injury, but since returning he has looked every bit like the player everyone expected - one who can do things on the court that no one else on the team can do - and his emergence played a huge role in the wins against Kentucky and Florida, when he averaged 14.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists.
Against Kentucky, the Vols were 19 points better in James' 30 minutes on the court, meaning they were outscored by 27 points in the 10 minutes he didn't play.
"He's getting healthy for the first time," Barnes said Tuesday night. "You know he's fought that all year, you guys know that, but I do think that he feels the best he's felt probably since July. And he's dealt with some serious things where he's tried to play through it, then couldn't and tried to get back in it, so I do think now he's somewhat getting a rhythm. But I think we're getting a rhythm a little bit more as a team."
Barnes mentioned two other guards, redshirt junior Jalen Johnson and freshman Santiago Vescovi, also contributing to the team effort that was needed to rally in Lexington, where the Vols overcame an 11-point halftime deficit and the Wildcats' 17-point lead in the second half. James, though, showed him something in particular.
"Josiah, I mean, he's just, he's got that look," Barnes said of the 6-foot-6, 208-pounder from Charleston, South Carolina. "That he's settled in and he knows what he needs to do, and now he just needs to continue to build on it."
AP photo by James Crisp / Kentucky's Tyrese Maxey drives to the basket as Tennessee freshman guard Josiah-Jordan James defends during the second half of Tuesday night's game in Lexington, Ky. James had 16 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block to help the Vols beat the No. 6 Wildcats 81-73.Fulkerson scored a career-high 27 points at Kentucky, making all seven of his shots in the first half to finish the first 20 minutes with 15 points. He slowed down slightly after the break due in part to the performances by James and Pons, who combined for 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting in the second half.
The script was similar to the one from Saturday's win against the Gators. Fulkerson was the offensive catalyst with 22 points against Florida, but James had 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists, Vescovi scored 12 points and senior Jordan Bowden had 10 that day.
Now it seems Barnes' vision of getting players to buy in by filling certain roles could be coming to fruition. With the big three - Bowden, Vescovi and whatever production the Vols can get from the bench - a team that was in shambles after the sudden loss of Lamonte Turner in December to season-ending surgery appears to be finding its way.
The timing couldn't be better. The Vols host No. 17 Auburn at noon Saturday, their last game before next week's SEC tournament in Nashville.
"You know you can't play one on five," Fulkerson said Tuesday night. "One person can't get it done even though if you score, you know, 40-plus, you know, one person can't get it done. It's got to be a team effort, and so I think that's exactly what it was. I think everybody came to play. We have some big-time players make big-time shots, and so I think it was a great team effort, a great team win."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.